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[Spawn Larvae] Right Side Shift + Backspace Method

Forum Index > SC2 General
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roark
Profile Joined April 2010
United States187 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-16 22:27:00
May 16 2010 21:10 GMT
#1
Couldn't find a truly relevant thread to add this too. I discussed it in another thread when people were upset about the wire-frame casting be taken out. Yet without a video I don't think people understood how fast\good this was. So I made a video to demonstrate.

I think this is faster than Mini-Map casting and far more accurate. With practice it is super fast.

Check out the video demonstration here.

Basic Guide \ Idea

1. Put all queens on 1 hotkey.
2. Select queens.
3. Press Spawn Larvae hotkey.
4. Press Backspace once to center on a hatch.
5. Hold Right Side Shift. (With left hand thumb, do not release at all)
6. Click Left Mouse Button + Backspace (Hit backspace with left hand index\middle finger) <- Repeat this series of actions rapidly. Hitting LMB and Backspace over and over in succession.
7. All hatches are injected.

I numbered the hatcheries 1 through 6 in the video with supply depots, this helps show how fast you hop around and inject larvae.

Hopefully this is a technique other are using, or can find useful.


yomi
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
United States773 Posts
May 16 2010 21:13 GMT
#2
great technique, seems reminiscent of Brood War in a great way. I hope techniques like this aren't killed by custom hotkeys.
Madkipz
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Norway1643 Posts
May 16 2010 21:14 GMT
#3
Interesting, seems just as effective as clicking the minimap except looks alot more pro. Tnx M8 :;D
"Mudkip"
Zelniq
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
United States7166 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-17 03:54:16
May 16 2010 21:16 GMT
#4
edit:

This is ridiculously fast multiple spawn larvaes, all zergs should immediately start doing this, can be off microing a battle and spend less than 1 second to inject 5 hatches. Takes some practice/mental preparation before you get used to it though, which I like. (unlike the old wireframe which was too simple/easy/straightforward)

I've found one concern zerg players should be careful of though: if you make a hatchery and it doesnt have a queen by it yet, with this method one of your queens will likely go charging off to go inject it. i say likely because the way Backspace (or Q if you changed the hotkey like i did) works is this: + Show Spoiler [pretty useless? info] +
First time you press it'll be on your main hatch. then the next closest hatch until it goes through all hatches and back to main hatch. it doesnt matter what you do in between, it remembers the previous hatch and goes to the next one. if you make a new hatch in between it'll finish going through the cycle then add it on to the end before returning to the main hatch, and subsequent rounds it will put it in the proper position of the cycle based on closeness to main hatch.

anyway the solution i recommend is to stop yourself from spamming Q (or Backspace)+click+Q+click+Q+click through all the hatches, and instead slow it down and dont click on the one that has no queen on the screen (just press Q/Backspace again rather than clicking hatch).. OR if you screw it up, then just manually tell any queens running off to go back and Inject their nearby hatch until you can get a queen there.

the other concern is if one or more queens has insufficient energy to spawn larvae, a different queen that HAS energy would walk all the way over to a farther hatch to spawn it. not sure about a great solution to this problem except to manually correct it after, or use the slower method of injection (use Backspace/Q to cycle hatches, but select each queen individually)



If you change the Backspace (TownCamera) hotkey to Q like i did, and then change Queen from Q to E, it becomes much easier (you can keep left hand on left side, and use left shift).

how to change hotkeys : http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=117649


other hotkey recommendations:

i also reverted Spawn Larvae hotkey recently changed by Blizzard from V back to R (all because of some stupid Warpgate hotkey that zergs would never use)

here's a full list of hotkey changes I've made for zerg that I recommend zergs do. there's 2 lines per each hotkey change, the top line is the new hotkey, the bottom is the Blizzard default:


<! UI/Hotkey/TownCamera=Q                    ;cycles through hatcheries
!> UI/Hotkey/TownCamera=Backspace

<! UI/Hotkey/WarpIn=Shift+W                   ;selects all warp gates. changed to avoid hotkey conflict
!> UI/Hotkey/WarpIn=W

<! Button/Hotkey/BurrowDown=W                    ;Burrows a unit
!> Button/Hotkey/BurrowDown=R

<! Button/Hotkey/BurrowUp=W                    ; Unburrows a unit
!> Button/Hotkey/BurrowUp=R

<! Button/Hotkey/EvolveVentralSacks=K              ;Evolve the Overlord drop upgrade, changed to avoid hotkey conflict
!> Button/Hotkey/EvolveVentralSacks=E

<! Button/Hotkey/MorphMorphalisk=R              ; queen's Spawn Larvae ability
!> Button/Hotkey/MorphMorphalisk=V

<! Button/Hotkey/NeuralParasite=R                   ; Neural Parasite, honestly i forget why i changed this, probably because neural used to be R not E?
!> Button/Hotkey/NeuralParasite=E

<! Button/Hotkey/Queen=E                   ; Birth Queen (hotkey conflict with cycling hatch hotkey)
!> Button/Hotkey/Queen=Q

<! Button/Hotkey/RallyEgg=O                   ; Set Worker Rally Point, I often accidentally reset the rally point with old hotkey
!> Button/Hotkey/RallyEgg=R


note the first 2 hotkey changes are all from 1 gamehotkeys.txt, the rest are all in the other gamehotkeys.txt, both are within the same patch-enUS.sc2archive file within latest patch folder in \versions\
if you just use the guide above you may not have to know/deal with that, dunno i changed manually


also note: when new patches come, I didn't have to restore the original blizzard sc2archive MPQ file beforehand. the patcher automatically imports my changes into the new patch mpq, how nice of it!


Another feature really helpful for zergs is you can now hold down a hotkey to morph new units. there's a very short delay and then it near instantly morphs all the larvae (or say zergling--> banelings). veeeeeeery helpful. I also hold S down when waiting for new larvae to spawn as well
ModeratorBlame yourself or God
roark
Profile Joined April 2010
United States187 Posts
May 16 2010 21:17 GMT
#5
On May 17 2010 06:14 Madkipz wrote:
Interesting, seems just as effective as clicking the minimap except looks alot more pro. Tnx M8 :;D


Yeah could be. I just don't like having to put so much focus and effort on looking at the mini map and identify the hatchery.

This is less tedious for me.
roark
Profile Joined April 2010
United States187 Posts
May 16 2010 21:18 GMT
#6
On May 17 2010 06:16 Zelniq wrote:
what does the Right side shift button do for it? im going to test now


The right side shift is held with the thumb. It lets you use your left hand to hit the backspace and right hand stays on the mouse to click on each hatchery.

Without using your left hand on the right side shift, you cannot hit backspace and have a hand on the mouse.
Zelniq
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
United States7166 Posts
May 16 2010 21:18 GMT
#7
ya but why do you need shift?
ModeratorBlame yourself or God
roark
Profile Joined April 2010
United States187 Posts
May 16 2010 21:20 GMT
#8
So you can continue casting spawn larvae. Unless you cast that without holding shift. Which I was unaware of.
Eiii
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States2566 Posts
May 16 2010 21:20 GMT
#9
Here's a crazy thought: what if you moved your hand near the right side shift and then-- instead of pressing it-- didn't press it and instead just pressed backspace?!

Zelniq is asking what purpose holding shift serves, not why your hand is there in the first place
:3
Zelniq
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
United States7166 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-16 21:51:21
May 16 2010 21:22 GMT
#10
edit: nvm Shift totally makes a huge difference!
ModeratorBlame yourself or God
roark
Profile Joined April 2010
United States187 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-16 21:28:07
May 16 2010 21:24 GMT
#11
No. You are telling all queens to cast spawn larvae many many times. You are not selecting a queen and then clicking on 1 hatch. You are selecting all queens and then clicking on all hatcheries one after the other. In succession, very very rapidly.

I could be wrong. But if I try to do this without shift, then after 1 cast on a hatchery the spawn larvae is canceled.

Holding shift allows me to cast it over and over on each new hatchery.

Am I missing something?

EDIT: To further clarify, I am not jumping to one hatch to cast spawn larvae once. I am selecting my queens, shift + spawn larvae. And simultaneously casting it on ALL hatcheries in one go.

If you watch the video I am not casting Spawn Larvae on one hatchery. I am casting it on six, in about 5 seconds.
In1t4themoney
Profile Joined April 2010
Germany77 Posts
May 16 2010 21:28 GMT
#12
Holding shift is for NOT pressing the Spawn Larva Hotkey R 6 but 1 time only.

discussion end.



lets see if we can move the backspace thing in the key editor..

asdfghjkl
roark
Profile Joined April 2010
United States187 Posts
May 16 2010 21:30 GMT
#13
On May 17 2010 06:28 In1t4themoney wrote:
Holding shift is for NOT pressing the Spawn Larva Hotkey R 6 but 1 time only.

discussion end.



lets see if we can move the backspace thing in the key editor..



Yes, in other words. Holding shift is what allows you to spam backspace + mouse 1 to cast inject larvae in < 5 seconds on all your hatcheries. In the video I do it on 6 hatches in about 3 seconds.
520
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States2822 Posts
May 16 2010 21:31 GMT
#14
If you didn't hold shift, you would have to do r click backspace r click backspace r click backspace instead of r *holdshift* backspace click backspace click backspace click.
Writer
Zelniq
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
United States7166 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-16 21:35:25
May 16 2010 21:34 GMT
#15
o wow the shift really helps holy jeezes
WOW this is amazing..spawn larvae is even faster/easier than before now that i changed it from Backspace to Q (and Birth Queen to E)
ModeratorBlame yourself or God
Orome
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
Switzerland11984 Posts
May 16 2010 21:37 GMT
#16
wow this is going to help a lot, nice find.
On a purely personal note, I'd like to show Yellow the beauty of infinitely repeating Starcraft 2 bunkers. -Boxer
Vexx
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States462 Posts
May 16 2010 21:48 GMT
#17
I thought this technique could make it so that you could queue more than one spawn larva per hatchery and have your queens moving around injecting different hatcheries and stuff. Not the case.

Watched the video and while it does look fast, my hand is NEVER on the right side of the keyboard. Then again, I use a g15 keyboard so my g1-g6 keys are bound to 55v, 66v and so on to select my queen, center on her, spawn larva then click.
I am not nice.
DrivE
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States2554 Posts
May 16 2010 21:49 GMT
#18
this is gonna take a bit of practice but its well worth it :D
nice find, its gonna be really useful
LUCK IS NO EXCUSE
roark
Profile Joined April 2010
United States187 Posts
May 16 2010 21:59 GMT
#19
On May 17 2010 06:48 Vexx wrote:
I thought this technique could make it so that you could queue more than one spawn larva per hatchery and have your queens moving around injecting different hatcheries and stuff. Not the case.

Watched the video and while it does look fast, my hand is NEVER on the right side of the keyboard. Then again, I use a g15 keyboard so my g1-g6 keys are bound to 55v, 66v and so on to select my queen, center on her, spawn larva then click.


I still think this is a good option for people without macro capable keyboards. I have a Razer Lycosa and I prefer this over setting up and scripting macros. It feels more reliable and fast. I have nothing against anyone finding what is comfortable for them. I'm just trying to offer up a suggestion to the TL community.

Sorry if the title was misleading.

But your method sounds interesting too.
spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
May 16 2010 22:02 GMT
#20
You generally should stay away from keyboard macros - they won't be allowed for competitive play.
If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
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