This thread is going to mainly be about tweaking and perfecting your keyboard for Starcraft and more importantly in my opinion, Starcraft 2. Also I will discuss some of the things I do in SC currently, to better prepare for SC2.
I realize some of you are 'above' doing everything you can do be the best SC/SC2 player you can be, but please if you are one of those just steer clear of this thread because myself and many others are interested in playing competitively.
Now, why is this thread name "The Switch"?
While Jerry and George's switch isn't relevant to the switch I'm going to talk about here, they do show that sometimes when there is a better way out there, you sometimes have to go for it even though it may end in disaster.
Four days ago, I switched from using my mouse with my right hand, to my left hand.
Many of you may dismiss the merits of this immediately but I ask that you hear me out.
A few major truths were taken into consideration as this decision was made.
The first and most important is that SC2 will have customizable hotkeys. The reason for this is that some hotkeys are a nightmare to push for the right handed keyboarder. The build button is probably the worst of it. Without customizable hotkeys, the pinky finger does way too much and stronger fingers like the index are restricted to the far left of the keyboard which from a design perspective is just terrible. This all changes with custom keys, yes the index is still restricted but it no longer need to move out of position to have a hugely active role.
The second truth which is not definite but very likely, and also relevant to the activity of the index finger is that TAB is going to have a huge role in SC2, it will cycle through your selected units as it did in WC3. For example if you have 3 zealots and 1 high templar in control group one, you push [1] [TAB] [-STORMHOTKEY-] and then you can use storm without having to have only the high templar selected. Also the ` key was very strong in WC3 as well, if you have an idle worker pushing ` will select and screen center on that worker. If you have multiple idles you will be able to cycle through them with the ` key. Using these keys a lot in SC2 is going to be very awkward for 99% of gamers. Just try pushing CTRL, SHIFT, TAB and ` in succession very quickly with the standard left handed position.
Also, because your thumb is shorter that the rest of your fingers, using it for CTRL and SHIFT(though it does other things) leaves your other fingers with a high 'home position', this is better for using control groups AND F-keys if that feature is in SC2. Contrary to what some of you might think this higher position does not take away from your ability to push enough hotkeys. And yes it is now a matter of enough hotkeys being easy to push and not the correct hotkeys because of SC2. However just having them all splattered in the top left without thinking of button combos is far from optimal.
Now I personally have been using custom hotkeys for months now, just to be ahead of the curve on customkeys for SC2. I setup all my hotkeys to be theoretically optimal for SC2. Yes, I went to blizzcon and played it but I wouldn't have had to to figure out what is optimal. It's highly intuitive if you spend time thinking about it... and I have spent a lot.
I won't go as far as telling you all my hotkeys because I would inevitably start also rationalizing all of them and this article would get far too long and tedious.
I don't expect anyone to switch hands because of this thread, it's actually a fairly large and difficult commitment, but before this I spent a ton of time optimizing my keyboard for my left hand, if anyone wants to discuss that or anything else then feel free to post or pm me.
Lol I thought I'd include this image also, this is the back of my keyboard. Last Valentines day I got my GF flowers etc, and on the back of the card I wrote "This is the back!"
She now periodically labels things in my house with this observation.
I'm posting here for people who didn't bother reading the article to tell you to put your right hand on the picture of that keyboard with the intention of easily pushing only the following keys.
CTRL SHIFT TAB and `12345 and qwert asdfg zx
Now do it with your left hand.. and yes TAB and ` are important
Again if anyone is interested in discussing this further AND is seriously interested in playing Starcraft 2 competitively send me a pm and we can share ideas and play together! This is kind of the tip of the iceberg of all the things I'm doing to prepare for sc2...
You say that the hotkeys will be customisable. Possibly not CTRL and SHIFT though. But why change hand when you can just use the CTRL and SHIFT on the right side of the keyboard with your thumb, and move all hotkey (including TAB, '12345,F-keys) to the right side? So you can continue to use the mouse with your main hand...
On December 07 2008 00:18 Cascade wrote: Sorry, just an observation:
You say that the hotkeys will be customisable. Possibly not CTRL and SHIFT though. But why change hand when you can just use the CTRL and SHIFT on the right side of the keyboard with your thumb, and move all hotkey (including TAB, '12345,F-keys) to the right side? So you can continue to use the mouse with your main hand...
All of this is based on the assumption that CTRL SHIFT TAB ` and the numbers will not be customizable.. I would be very surprised if this was possible in SC2. Interesting thought though.
Did I say something that made you think I thought CTRL and SHIFT etc would be customizable?
no you didnt say anything that made me think that. I was thinking all on my own... And before spending too much time on learning sc with the left hand, maye you should think over if your assumption is plausible: I don't know how the things actually works deep in the computer, but ctrl and shift (and alt) are special keys in the sence that you press other keys while they are pressed down. Not so for all the others. Because of that i think that if you can remap "a" in SC2, I dont see the reason why you couldnt remap tab, ' and F-keys as well. While I can understand that they keep ctrl, shift and alt, since they are in some sence different on a deeper level for the computer. And since ctrl and shift both are on right side of keyboard as well, and alt isnt used a lot in SC1, you can still get the handposition you describe for the left hand.
But yeah, that is my reaction... I don't really care about this issue a lot, so I guess I shouldnt even post in this thread as you requested. gl with the SC2 preparations.
On December 07 2008 02:41 Cascade wrote: no you didnt say anything that made me think that. I was thinking all on my own... And before spending too much time on learning sc with the left hand, maye you should think over if your assumption is plausible: I don't know how the things actually works deep in the computer, but ctrl and shift (and alt) are special keys in the sence that you press other keys while they are pressed down. Not so for all the others. Because of that i think that if you can remap "a" in SC2, I dont see the reason why you couldnt remap tab, ' and F-keys as well. While I can understand that they keep ctrl, shift and alt, since they are in some sence different on a deeper level for the computer. And since ctrl and shift both are on right side of keyboard as well, and alt isnt used a lot in SC1, you can still get the handposition you describe for the left hand.
But yeah, that is my reaction... I don't really care about this issue a lot, so I guess I shouldnt even post in this thread as you requested. gl with the SC2 preparations.
I think you have some trouble understand the difference between a hotkey and keys such as TAB. CTRL etc... They are not hotkeys.
There has never been a wc3 key editor that allowed you to change those keys.. you could do it on an OS level but that would screw up a lot of other things..
As far as I know blizzard will be including hotkey remapping functionality in the game itself.. I doubt any tournaments will allow you to use 3rd party progs to edit these non-hotkeys and i certainly don't think blizzard is going to go that far with customization.
On December 07 2008 02:41 Cascade wrote: no you didnt say anything that made me think that. I was thinking all on my own... And before spending too much time on learning sc with the left hand, maye you should think over if your assumption is plausible: I don't know how the things actually works deep in the computer, but ctrl and shift (and alt) are special keys in the sence that you press other keys while they are pressed down. Not so for all the others. Because of that i think that if you can remap "a" in SC2, I dont see the reason why you couldnt remap tab, ' and F-keys as well. While I can understand that they keep ctrl, shift and alt, since they are in some sence different on a deeper level for the computer. And since ctrl and shift both are on right side of keyboard as well, and alt isnt used a lot in SC1, you can still get the handposition you describe for the left hand.
But yeah, that is my reaction... I don't really care about this issue a lot, so I guess I shouldnt even post in this thread as you requested. gl with the SC2 preparations.
I think you have some trouble understand the difference between a hotkey and keys such as TAB. CTRL etc... They are not hotkeys.
There has never been a wc3 key editor that allowed you to change those keys.. you could do it on an OS level but that would screw up a lot of other things..
As far as I know blizzard will be including hotkey remapping functionality in the game itself.. I doubt any tournaments will allow you to use 3rd party progs to edit these non-hotkeys and i certainly don't think blizzard is going to go that far with customization.
Anyways.. thanks for posting.
Did you even read what he said? It was the exact same thing you just replied with...
IMO it seems stupid to completely change the way you use the mouse and keyboard on the off-chance that this setup might benefit you in SC2 which is still god knows how far off.
On December 07 2008 02:41 Cascade wrote: no you didnt say anything that made me think that. I was thinking all on my own... And before spending too much time on learning sc with the left hand, maye you should think over if your assumption is plausible: I don't know how the things actually works deep in the computer, but ctrl and shift (and alt) are special keys in the sence that you press other keys while they are pressed down. Not so for all the others. Because of that i think that if you can remap "a" in SC2, I dont see the reason why you couldnt remap tab, ' and F-keys as well. While I can understand that they keep ctrl, shift and alt, since they are in some sence different on a deeper level for the computer. And since ctrl and shift both are on right side of keyboard as well, and alt isnt used a lot in SC1, you can still get the handposition you describe for the left hand.
But yeah, that is my reaction... I don't really care about this issue a lot, so I guess I shouldnt even post in this thread as you requested. gl with the SC2 preparations.
I think you have some trouble understand the difference between a hotkey and keys such as TAB. CTRL etc... They are not hotkeys.
There has never been a wc3 key editor that allowed you to change those keys.. you could do it on an OS level but that would screw up a lot of other things..
As far as I know blizzard will be including hotkey remapping functionality in the game itself.. I doubt any tournaments will allow you to use 3rd party progs to edit these non-hotkeys and i certainly don't think blizzard is going to go that far with customization.
Anyways.. thanks for posting.
Did you even read what he said? It was the exact same thing you just replied with...
IMO it seems stupid to completely change the way you use the mouse and keyboard on the off-chance that this setup might benefit you in SC2 which is still god knows how far off.
Man are you kidding me? His entire posts discusses the possibility of using your left hand on keyboard on the right side of the alphabet area and remapping TAB and ` and the numbers and F-keys over to the right side as well.
My post was informing that there is no indication there will be a way to legitimately remap those necessary keys on to the right side of the keyboard.
Also it's not an "off-chance", for rhetorical purposes I'm kind of curious if you are a creationist or if you believe in evolution.
The way blizzard designs it's games to be played is not going to change from game to game(if its same genre) rather than change, we have witnessed, and will continue to witness an evolution, not a complete change.
If something worked well in wc3 you can bet they will keep it. Having played SC2 and followed it quite closely, there is absolutely no indication that blizzard will be making any kind of dramatic change from the conclusions they made in WC3.
You also said it "might benefit", as though whether or not it will help is some abstract reality that cannot be theorized about today. Basically that's what my thread is, a theory... Maybe I'm missing something really important but you have brought absolutely nothing to the table. If you have a counter argument then state it, but don't use stupid words like "might" and "off-chance" as though there is not enough in front of us for us to be able to draw reasonable and reliable conclusions.
On December 07 2008 04:18 Xeris wrote: have you played SC2? as far as I know hotkeys were not customizable and I played about 50-60 games of it O_O;
Yeah I mentioned that I've played it in my post.. I won't even ask you if you thought the builds we played were fully functional because that's so rediculous I would sound rude, I really just don't understand your post at all.
On December 07 2008 02:41 Cascade wrote: no you didnt say anything that made me think that. I was thinking all on my own... And before spending too much time on learning sc with the left hand, maye you should think over if your assumption is plausible: I don't know how the things actually works deep in the computer, but ctrl and shift (and alt) are special keys in the sence that you press other keys while they are pressed down. Not so for all the others. Because of that i think that if you can remap "a" in SC2, I dont see the reason why you couldnt remap tab, ' and F-keys as well. While I can understand that they keep ctrl, shift and alt, since they are in some sence different on a deeper level for the computer. And since ctrl and shift both are on right side of keyboard as well, and alt isnt used a lot in SC1, you can still get the handposition you describe for the left hand.
But yeah, that is my reaction... I don't really care about this issue a lot, so I guess I shouldnt even post in this thread as you requested. gl with the SC2 preparations.
I think you have some trouble understand the difference between a hotkey and keys such as TAB. CTRL etc... They are not hotkeys.
There has never been a wc3 key editor that allowed you to change those keys.. you could do it on an OS level but that would screw up a lot of other things..
As far as I know blizzard will be including hotkey remapping functionality in the game itself.. I doubt any tournaments will allow you to use 3rd party progs to edit these non-hotkeys and i certainly don't think blizzard is going to go that far with customization.
Anyways.. thanks for posting.
Did you even read what he said? It was the exact same thing you just replied with...
IMO it seems stupid to completely change the way you use the mouse and keyboard on the off-chance that this setup might benefit you in SC2 which is still god knows how far off.
Man are you kidding me? His entire posts discusses the possibility of using your left hand on keyboard on the right side of the alphabet area and remapping TAB and ` and the numbers and F-keys over to the right side as well.
My post was informing that there is no indication there will be a way to legitimately remap those necessary keys on to the right side of the keyboard.
Also it's not an "off-chance", for rhetorical purposes I'm kind of curious if you are a creationist or if you believe in evolution.
The way blizzard designs it's games to be played is not going to change from game to game(if its same genre) rather than change, we have witnessed, and will continue to witness an evolution, not a complete change.
If something worked well in wc3 you can bet they will keep it. Having played SC2 and followed it quite closely, there is absolutely no indication that blizzard will be making any kind of dramatic change from the conclusions they made in WC3.
You also said it "might benefit", as though whether or not it will help is some abstract reality that cannot be theorized about today. Basically that's what my thread is, a theory... Maybe I'm missing something really important but you have brought absolutely nothing to the table. If you have a counter argument then state it, but don't use stupid words like "might" and "off-chance" as though there is not enough in front of us for us to be able to draw reasonable and reliable conclusions.
lol what? Why are you so sure this will actually help? For starters you're giving up an entire lifetime of experience using the mouse in your dominant hand, for better positioning on the keyboard. That alone is going to be enough to turn off 99.99% of the people who will read this. You keep mentioning how these systems are in wc3, does anyone use this setup in warcraft 3? If it was that much better I'm sure at least a small % of the players would use it.
And I use phrases like 'might benefit' and 'off chance' because you have no idea if months down the line this will even benefit you. Until SC2 comes out and you try this, its all theory, so in the mean time stop being so defensive when not everyone agrees with some theory out of left field to change the hand you use your mouse with.
Also it's not an "off-chance", for rhetorical purposes I'm kind of curious if you are a creationist or if you believe in evolution.
I really dont understand how using the keyboard with the right hand is better than the left hand. I think it's really tedious to press alt+tab+shift+ctrl with your right hand thumb and all the other keys feel alot harder to press too.
I think people should just try to practice more instead of using their time on these pointless theories, that's the best way to gain an edge over your opponent.
On December 07 2008 06:04 rkarhu wrote: I really dont understand how using the keyboard with the right hand is better than the left hand. I think it's really tedious to press alt+tab+shift+ctrl with your right hand thumb and all the other keys feel alot harder to press too.
I think people should just try to practice more instead of using their time on these pointless theories, that's the best way to gain an edge over your opponent.
Exactly what I was thinking the whole time i read this. If you have the time to completely retrain yourself how to control a mouse/keyboard with the opposite hands, why not just spend the time to get your BOs down and shit. Unless you're already at your absolute peak and the only thing holding you back is your left hand being clumsy on the keyboard, then maybe...
On December 07 2008 06:04 rkarhu wrote: I really dont understand how using the keyboard with the right hand is better than the left hand. I think it's really tedious to press alt+tab+shift+ctrl with your right hand thumb and all the other keys feel alot harder to press too.
I think people should just try to practice more instead of using their time on these pointless theories, that's the best way to gain an edge over your opponent.
Do you even realize you already use your thumb for B and V in starcraft.. that's the main reason why lefties were handicapped in SC.
Using your thumb for CTRL and SHIFT is no different so you cant say its tedious. When you say something "feels harder" on something you've never done it's a given and of no consequence because a person will get used to it.
And I do play a lot, I was #1 on WC3 ladder last season for most of it up until the invitational ladder phase ended, I like many others had to play 30+ games a day to make the invitational ladder and I played almost as much last iccup season. Obviously any theories like this aren't worth anything if you don't play enough to be competitive.
On December 07 2008 06:04 rkarhu wrote: I really dont understand how using the keyboard with the right hand is better than the left hand. I think it's really tedious to press alt+tab+shift+ctrl with your right hand thumb and all the other keys feel alot harder to press too.
I think people should just try to practice more instead of using their time on these pointless theories, that's the best way to gain an edge over your opponent.
Exactly what I was thinking the whole time i read this. If you have the time to completely retrain yourself how to control a mouse/keyboard with the opposite hands, why not just spend the time to get your BOs down and shit. Unless you're already at your absolute peak and the only thing holding you back is your left hand being clumsy on the keyboard, then maybe...
Assuming I want to be competitive which I already mentioned.. mass gaming and traditional practice is a given.. I do those things already and am going to do them infinitely harder when sc2 beta starts. We are in a unique position were we know so much about this game that isn't out yet and have the opportunity to prepare.
You said if someone is at their peak then it might be helpful, so given that we have this time to prepare why not do it now? If you are already a very strong competitive player then you cannot switch because you will lose all this time relearning things. But being that the game hasn't come out yet now is the only time to re-optimize things that take any significant amount of time to learn.
EPT![[image loading]](http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/559/dsc00210ie0.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/6097/dsc00205oi6.jpg)
gl with the SC2 preparations. 
