[G] TheCore - Advanced Keyboard Layout

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x5PiG

"TheCore makes use of the entire hand for maximum efficiency and pays large focus on the strongest fingers being utilised most."
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"I first met Jak after being impressed with his tutorial videos on how to be more efficient in-game. After speaking to him in length about different mechanical methods he's discovered including TheCore I've come to realise that his creations are invaluable. A lot of people in our community, pros and personalities included, have a tendency to look for the easy mechanical solutions to problems and will try to justify it as the best simply because it fits with their own habits. I know I've been guilty of this myself as I try to find ways to navigate this exceptionally complex game. Jak on the other hand embodies the approach of a scientist. He posits solutions with an open mind and then tests them down to every last excruciating detail, all the while seeking feedback from progamers. I've never seen Jak dismiss an alternative as being "too tricky" or say this way is "just better" like I hear so many pros say. Instead he finds the absolute best method through painstaking investigation.
TheCore is the culmination of his efforts towards hotkey layout. At the time of writing I'm awaiting a sizable gap in my tournament schedule to swap over to this far better setup than my own. TheCore makes use of the entire hand for maximum efficiency and pays large focus on the strongest fingers being utilised most. On top of this it is entirely customisable based on personal preference to round out the most effective hotkey setup."

Fenn3r
Neuro
Sanddbox

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On December 22 2012 09:08 sanddbox_sc2 wrote:
I think I've been using TheCore long enough to finally put my two cents in. I didn't want to post until I could put my full endorsement behind TheCore, and now that I'm fully updated it's that magical time. Up until a few days ago I was on a sort of bastardized core (because I made the switch right before several changes were made that I didn't want to learn after going through the process once). Now that I'm playing HOTS, I've updated to the most recent version and been really surprised what an improvement it was over the version I was previously using.

Switching to TheCore:
If you play the game anywhere near a high level switching is going to be very painful for awhile - the first day you'll have trouble with very basic macro, but within a few days you'll find yourself learning the system and finding the hotkeys more natural. Completely learning the hotkey setup takes a lot longer than getting to a level of proficiency; like learning any skill, you'll run into the law of diminishing returns relatively quickly. My experience switching was made pretty painful because of some clan wars/showmatches I had to play in, so make sure you're not playing anything important within 3-4 weeks of switching (a month is really the time it takes to be able to tangibly feel the benefits, even though you'll be playing pretty well within a week).

The best way to switch is to dive right in, and now that TheCore is a lot more fleshed out you don't have to worry about huge, sweeping updates to the system. The hotkey trainers help, although no matter what you'll have to just play a lot of games. Once you're reasonably proficient with the setup, you'll be able to guess what the hotkey is for an upgrade without having ever seen it before; the hotkey setup is just that well-designed. Obviously it'll be a complete shift in terms of hotkeys, however, so don't expect it to be easy, but it's certainly worth it in the end.

Pros/Cons:
TheCore is, to the best of my knowledge, the best and most intelligently designed hotkey setup out there, and although the learning curve is steep it's worth it in the end if you value your mechanics. I actually finally made the switch because of wrist pain (presumably some form of early RSI), and since then pain in my keyboard hand is basically gone; the setup itself is ridiculously more ergonomic than the standard setup.

The only real con besides the learning curve is that playing campaign, custom games, other games, etc obviously don't use TheCore, and it can feel weird having to go back to standard hotkeys at times (although, like anything, once you've learned a hotkey setup you'll never forget it). If you're debating switching and plan to be playing Starcraft for more than a month into the future, make the switch - you won't regret it, although your cortisol levels will rise for about the first week or so.

I'm now basically using the Standard version of the core, minus a few very minute adjustments (the biggest of which being that I don't use the layered inject method; I just hotkey each queen individually still).

TL;DR: gud hotkeys

NXZ
Armi
Echoic
Pokebunny
ELVIS
SCA.Tieria
StarNaN

LiquidTLO
"If you want to become a pro one day, learning TheCore early on can help you"

LiquidRet
"For any aspiring progamer check out this hotkey layout (TheCore)"

Lowko
"I've advised people that I coach to do just that. (use TheCore)"

TheCore is a community project. It would be next to impossible to list every person who has contributed to the ideas and changes that have resulted in what TheCore is today. These are the people who have put the most time and effort into the project.

JaKaTaK makes educational content for Starcraft 2 on his stream, YouTube Channel, and other community sites like TL and Reddit. With FoxyMayhem, JaK created the first version of TheCore and is responsible for the final decisions regarding changes to TheCore. He also creates and maintains the seed file, documents, and answers questions and comments in the thread.

I co-created TheCore, wielding the experience from my first 3 layout designs to push the limits with JaK. It is the culmination of all the ideas and criteria, it's great to see it's growing adoption. I'm really happy to see how many people pitched in to refine and support it, now that I'm spending all my SC2 time on the OneGoal Project!

Jonny "JDub" Weiss is a full-time software developer at Epic in Madison, WI, where he is captain of Epic's undefeated AHGL Team. JDub created the script that generates 44 of the 48 hotkey layouts based upon the initial 4 seed layouts that are maintained by hand. This script greatly sped up the development for TheCore, and has made it possible for the development team to support and maintain specific versions of TheCore for different races, hand-sizes, and languages. JDub's motivation for helping out was mainly personal, as he really wanted an up-to-date version of RRM 0.5 to use in season 3 of the AHGL, and maintaining 16+ versions of TheCore without a script had slowed TheCore update process to a crawl.

RaynorSnipe is on RaynorCommando, not Jim Raynor (Commando) but Jim Raynor (Sniper). Jim Rayor (Commando) is Raynor not RaynorCommando and does not snipe.

This is just one of the many lessons Sixtus learned when he began contributing to TheCore by adding campaign keys. Another lesson was "Do not put yourself through this again" but he must have lost that piece of paper because he came back for more with the release of HotS.

Sixtus also dabbled with writing motivational material, thankfully that was just a phase.

Jeremy is a computer science and philosophy student. He initially became involved with TheCore because he saw an opportunity to further enhance the Zerg layouts. Specifically, he aided with the design of the 3 ability / 1 Control group split of the home keys. He also facilitated the development of a layered control group for queens in order to make the layered inject method more efficient.

Graylin Kim is a full time software developer for the New York State Senate where he works on open data projects and open source software. Graylin maintains sc2reader, a python library that gives developers and researchers open access to the detailed game play data that they need to build better tools and do better research. Graylin built sc2reader for fun over winter break in college continues to develop it thanks to fantastic projects like the TheCore and GGTracker that remind him why open data is really that awesome. sc2reader was used in conjunction with a program developed by Voltaire to analyze professional games in order to find which actions were most often executed during TheCore beta.

Beedebdoo started major contributions to TheCore about 2 months before the release of 1.0. Since then he has pointed out a great number of inconsistencies, bugs, and small improvements to TheCore. He also designed the 1.0 reference spreadsheets, TheCore 2.0 OP and is responsible for the majority of the analysis, debate, and legwork required to produce TheCore 2.0.

Beedebdoo is also responsible for the majority of delays on TheCore 1.0's release date due to a flurry of excellent ideas and improvements for TheCore just before its release. This trend has continued with TheCore 2.0

YoTcA began his work at TheCore project during the planning of 2.0. He contributed by answering questions of users and assisting in planning and production of the hotkey layouts. He also worked on enhancing the functionality and presentation of TheCore spreadsheets.
This led to the creation of the export sheet, capable of automatically creating a multiplayer compatible hotkey file based on the contents of the development sheets, thus automatizing and speeding up layout production further.