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Hello TL,
I am curious about the usability of the Fkeys.
I know that Day[9] recommended the use of these keys to screenhop around to the more important areas of the map, but I've never used them.
I've been seeing and hearing more and more people telling me to use them, and I would like to hear the opinion of the TL Community.
I watched Day[9]'s video (secrets to apm etc), and I feel that these are the points that he made:
1] Screen hopping around your different bases allows you to drone transfer quickly when in a crisis.
2] Screen hopping allows you to quickly move your view to a crucial area on the map.
However, I have the basekey bound to the Space Bar, and I've always double tapped space (because sometimes it'll just hop me to the base I'm already looking at) to do the worker transfer. Additionally, I usually have one or more units in the important areas of the map, so it is a simple matter for me to double tap the corresponding hotkey.
For me, binding the Fkeys was more important like this:
~: Idle Drone
F1: Control group 0
F2: Control group 9
F3: Control group 8
F4: Control group 7
This way, I don't have to reach across my keyboard to hit my other control groups.
Is there any reason that I shouldn't use this set up? I'm just confused because I simply cannot see why screenhotkeying is so important. (Sometimes I feel like people just do it because Day[9] says to.)
In addition, is there anyone else who doesnt use the screenhotkeys? If anyone doesn't use them (like me) I would like to know how they navigate around the map.
Thank you for the read, and I look forward to reading the responses.
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I don't use screen hotkeys and navigate through my hatcheries by using backspace (rebound to W), but I feel it's not optimal and should probably start using screen hotkeys to be able to go to a specific place instead of having to "backspace" several times to get to the correct hatchery.
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Screen keys are really useful IMO, way easier to deal with harass if you key your bases.
I personally make my locations alt+ a/s/d/f, partially because I played wow and because my fkeys are pretty far on my keyboard. Anyway point is you can keep your hotkey setup as is and also add screenkeys to something other than f1-f4 etc.
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I play in multiple styles. I normally hotkey my eggs so i dont have to spend time rallying and then moving to that location and then hotkeying them. But when i go mutas i dont hotkey eggs since mutas following your main flock can be costly unless the path wont fly-by their defences and in general sometimes i might mis-click and not capture the hotkeyed eggs so i use an F key screen capture for the main rally points.
I keep another F key for my third just because i know sometime in the game that will face some harassment but for Queen injects i switch base camera, grab the queen, inject and when i have mutiple macro hatches i use the minimap to get to locations, i could use more F keys but its just faster grabbing the minimap box and dragging to a part of the map.
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I am in the process of transitioning to using F keys to inject. It is a lot more efficient because you don't have to hit backspace multiple times to get to the base you wanted. Also, if you put your macro hatches near one of your bases, then you can hit that F key once, inject both hatches, and then move on instead of hitting backspace, injecting both hatches, hitting backspace again and possibly jumping 6 inches to the macro hatch, and then having to hit backspace again to get to the hatch you actually want next.
I think of it as a matter of control. Unless you memorize the backspace pattern you won't necessarily know what hatch is going to be next. Then, when you hit backspace, you have to recognize what base you are at, find the queen, and inject. It also makes finding tech easier. You hit the correct F key for the base where the tech structure is located and make the necessary upgrades instead of having to cycle through up to all of your hatches to find it. And then if you miss it you have to cycle through them all again. I think there is a definite benefit to F keys and that it will become the next most efficient method for injecting.
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As a Terran, F1 is my main, F2 my ramp and then my rally point, F3 my nat and F4 my third.
Very useful for fast maynards, dealing with harass, seeing reinforcements, upgrading (in the main base).
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the answer is pretty easy: it's faster than clicking on the minimap. day9 summaized the positive aspects of it pretty well. the only thing that may be in favour of clicking on the minimap is that you force yourself to look at the minimap but thats another topic i guess.
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In the default setting, is screen binding ctrl f2-f5?
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On April 20 2012 03:25 papapanda wrote:
In the default setting, is screen binding ctrl f2-f5?
No, those are hero hotkeys I think (which are useless).
I have F1 on townhall camera and the rest on camera.
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On April 20 2012 03:25 papapanda wrote:
In the default setting, is screen binding ctrl f2-f5?
default is f5-8 iirc
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i use my F-keys pretty much as day9 does it.
F1 - unidle worker
F2 - Main
F3 - Natural
F4 - Third
F5 - Depends, sometimes it's my fourth and oft times it's my warp-in Pylon when harrassing
i'm feeling pretty comfortable with this setting and i wouldn't know why not to use it. you see several pro gamers use these settings as well (f.e. grubby as you can see on his streams, tlo (as far as i know; not sure about this)
edit:
oh an binding these locations is always Shift + FX
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On April 20 2012 04:05 EUClumsy wrote:
i use my F-keys pretty much as day9 does it.
F1 - unidle worker
F2 - Main
F3 - Natural
F4 - Third
F5 - Depends, sometimes it's my fourth and oft times it's my warp-in Pylon when harrassing
i'm feeling pretty comfortable with this setting and i wouldn't know why not to use it. you see several pro gamers use these settings as well (f.e. grubby as you can see on his streams, tlo (as far as i know; not sure about this)
edit:
oh an binding these locations is always Shift + FX
it's not ctrl+ Fkey?
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On April 20 2012 04:09 Turo wrote:Show nested quote +On April 20 2012 04:05 EUClumsy wrote:
i use my F-keys pretty much as day9 does it.
F1 - unidle worker
F2 - Main
F3 - Natural
F4 - Third
F5 - Depends, sometimes it's my fourth and oft times it's my warp-in Pylon when harrassing
i'm feeling pretty comfortable with this setting and i wouldn't know why not to use it. you see several pro gamers use these settings as well (f.e. grubby as you can see on his streams, tlo (as far as i know; not sure about this)
edit:
oh an binding these locations is always Shift + FX it's not ctrl+ Fkey?
same as Clumsy, except I moved my Idle worker to F5 and the rest down.
Also I use Shift for setting locations because its much easier - I use my pinky for shift and not the palm like some other people may do (the reason why they use ctrl over shift). At first I thought I'll never get used to get the fingers of my pretty small hands all the way up to the F-keys but after putting 1-2 days practice into it my play got quite a bit better (especially checking saturation)
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i use f keys for all my bases, f1 is idle workers and f2 - ... are my bases. And nobody uses them cause day9 says so, they are really good if ure used to them, cause you dont have to deselect anything to jump somewhere, which you would have to do by double tapping control groups for example.
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i may only be gold league but even i use the f keys granted i rebound them because who the hell wants to hit atleast f5.
rebound screen jump 1-8 to f1-f8 binding whatever was changed to a more realistic place
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It is one of the nicest things using fkeys IMO. When you see that drop/mutaw about the hit your main all you do is f1 select all workers, f2 and click on your naturals min patch. 4 actions to save you from tons of damage, well worth it to learn.
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On April 20 2012 04:05 EUClumsy wrote:
i use my F-keys pretty much as day9 does it.
F1 - unidle worker
F2 - Main
F3 - Natural
F4 - Third
F5 - Depends, sometimes it's my fourth and oft times it's my warp-in Pylon when harrassing
i'm feeling pretty comfortable with this setting and i wouldn't know why not to use it. you see several pro gamers use these settings as well (f.e. grubby as you can see on his streams, tlo (as far as i know; not sure about this)
edit:
oh an binding these locations is always Shift + FX
Same for me except I dont use F5 on imba forward pylon xD jkjkjk F5 for me will most generally be xelnaga watchtower until I get my fourth up
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i use f5-f8 (no ctrl) to set location, and i use f1-f4 to go to location. No holding ctrl and stretching your hand all the way across the keyboard.
But admitedly i don't ever use them. If i want to go to my base I just hit my nexus key 2x. Probably bad habit on my part.
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In trying to switch from f5 to f1 how do you change the set first position from cntr 5 to cntrl 1? Because I can't seem to input more than 1 key.
To answer your question? I like it more than the backspace method because of macro hates.
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There's 2 bindings: go to camera location and set camera location, the set camera location will allow you to use ctrl+keys
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EPT
