Hotkeys / Binds

SeantheMan

Anyone use them or have some useful tips ?

I just watched the first final replay , seein Funky just pick up all those Hydralisks in a second and wipe them out, quality, obviously using the Hotkeys provided ingame no ?

Does anyone have any specific ones bound or tips on what to use ?

Jonny7

Lets start off with an easy example - you are a Protoss player with about 5 zealots..

Now lets say you bind that little group of zealots to, say, the number 1 key.
Then you send them out toward your opponent. Then you bind your Nexus to 5 and you bind your 2 gateways to number 6 (double click them and hit ctrl-6)

Suddenly your zealots run into opponents units and you have to run them around a bit, while you are fighting you can still manage your base..

You hit '5' (nexus), then 'e' to build a probe, then you hit '6' and 'z' (for zealot) twice.. without having to go back to your base.

Your fingers will get faster at this, so you can literally 'think' it and your fingers follow. Of course you can make it more complex, added perhaps your melee army (zealots) to '1', then your ranged units (stalkers) to '2', then your casters (high templar) to '3' and so on.. even adding observers to '8' and '9' - however you want..

Playing with Zerg I can place 3 spine crawlers( select drone, B + C), make an overlord (5, S + V), 3 more drones (S + D 3 times), vomit the hatchery all in about 3 seconds... doesn't mean I am any good, but it really helps in the game.

DirkVoodoo

I would find it quite hard to micro high templars without using hotkeys for feedback and psi storm.

It's like anything: force yourself to use them at first, it will be awkward and much looking at the keyboard and hovering over selections to learn the shortcut will follow, but a few games against the AI and you will have it down.

I'm assuming you already use command groups to link units and the shift key to queue orders? Very handy, high templar feedback against battlecruisers: 1, F, shift + click, shift +click, etc.

(I may be doing that wrong, I'm not playing at the moment and it's hard to visualize something I don't normally think too much about).

Funky

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I'm assuming you already use command groups to link units and the shift key to queue orders? Very handy, high templar feedback against battlecruisers: 1, F, shift + click, shift +click, etc.

Yea that should work, you can just hold shift and spam the clicks after pressing F. Sometimes I'm not sure how queuing works and I find it easier to go F-click, F-click, F-click etc cause I think if you queue it they might walk to where you last commanded them to go before using feedback, not positive on that though.

Using hotkeys makes everything so much easier, would definitely recommend learning em. Only things I'd click would be some upgrades.

zoom!

I doubt you'll get to gold standard if you don't use them to be honest. Essential for good micro/macro management.

silvine

what about the inbuilt hotkeys for buildings etc? what's the diff between hitting 5 for the factory and using them?

SeantheMan

Are there inbuilt keys for Buildings ?

titan18

SeantheMan wrote: »

Are there inbuilt keys for Buildings ?

For building them,ya.As Terran, if you have hotkeyed a SCV to 1, pressing 1,B,B builds a barracks or 1,V,F for a Factory.

If you don't know the hotkey when you need it,like for a Fusion Core or something, look at it on the panel and then press the letter rather than mouse click.

BlitzKrieg

my only complaint about hotkeys in SC2 is they vary from race to race.

I'd like the worker unit to be one letter for all 3 races rather then D for drone s for scv and so on.

Same with abilities and the build tree.

Its nowhere near as good but red alert 3 had the right idea putting the special abilities for all units to E first and foremost, it made it much more natural to micro with any unit on the move.

But I guess if you have a mob of different type of units then it would cause them all to go spare...

at least consistency in the buildings/tech tree be nice.

Funky

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

my only complaint about hotkeys in SC2 is they vary from race to race.

I'd like the worker unit to be one letter for all 3 races rather then D for drone s for scv and so on.

Haven't used it myself but there's a grid hotkey profile in options that I think does something along the lines of what you're looking for.

BlitzKrieg

hot diggity!

BlitzKrieg

going grid helps alot if you have trouble remembering hotkeys or if you come from a more FPS background as your hand goes in the same general set up as wasd and its less about remembering specific keys then simply their location in the keyboard in comparison to the build/ability grid

with zerg its also a piece of piss cause drones are simply Q,Q which means with the waypoint set to the minerals and all my hatcheries hotkeyed to 1 all I need to do while focusing on the fight is 1, qqqqqqqq. back to the fight and my economy stays strong throughout the game.

Only issue is attack move is moved to T which is a small bit out of the way and I did absent mindly tapped A a few times.

Also not all but most of the special abilities get moved to Z which is a godsend for me as it makes it alot easier to use blink or cloaks. Though some wont be Z they tend to be all on the bottom line for every unit so its z,x or c for most, unless they have *alot* of abilities*

SeantheMan

ill have a look at this later, I was nearly at the point of making a chart and posting it on the wall over my compuer :P

When I reference hotkeys for building earlier, I didnt mean building them, I thought that like in some other games B = Base or whatever, instead of assigning it to a number is all

I always tended to put Base as 7 , higher up the numbers, and use 1-4 for my fighting groups, but I think I'll go like Blitz and have 1 as main base.

Funky

Think the only buildings with their own hotkey are warp gates for protoss which is W by default. I use 5 as my nexus, 4 as my first non-gate production buildings and 1-3 for fighting units. You can also hotkey map locations I think by using ctrl-F9->F12, they feel out of the way to me so I don't use them.

Dacian

I am not too happy with the new hotkeys. For instance the banshee/ghost uses C to cloak and D to decloak. I preferred the older system where C was used for both actions. Similar feelings on the Viking transforming and the Tank siege mode.

My setup is along the lines of Orbital Command are 0 and 9. Barracks/factorys/starports are 6, 7, 8.
This leaves 1-5 for my troops. Usually 1 marines/marauders, 2 tanks/thors, 3-4 varies,usually stealth or casters, 5 banshees/BCs,

Dcully

Tbh im not bothering with hotkeys for now, im too busy swapping between races to even think about learning hotkeys.

VenomIreland

Can anyone tell me how to change my hotkeys to "grid"?

It'd make it so much easier, but I can't for the life of me even figure out how to change the hotkeys.

VenomIreland

Nevermind, I'm a total gobsh/te, I got it now.

Grimebox

Dcully wrote: »

Tbh im not bothering with hotkeys for now, im too busy swapping between races to even think about learning hotkeys.

Big mistake. Bear with them and learn!

Dcully

Im using hotkeys for my main buildings and then for units but im not using hotkeys to actually select units to build them.
For example i group up infantry, air etc and bind a key for fast select but when i want to build a zealot/marine for example i will hit the gateway/barracks hotkey but then ill navigate the mouse to the unit to create.
I guess im sort of using keybinds

Shiminay

I've got one of the original Logitech G15 keyboards - 18 customisable keys that I can bind Macros to I think. Time to sit down and make a plan...

NeoSlicerZ

Careful, Blizz has banned accounts for utilising keyboard macros. You can rebind keys to your custom keys but multiple key presses.

Shiminay

Really? I would honestly never have considered it a rule breach given it's one of the main reasons for owning a keyboard like that with customisable options.

I'll have a look around before putting it into operation to see if there's any specific mention of it. I won't entertain the notion any further if it's out of bounds.

BlitzKrieg

quick google came back that keyboard macros are banned for world of warcraft as it can be a form or botting.

But apart from many people asking the same confused question as here, there seems to be no official *banned from starcraft 2* post from blizzard

official terms of service for battle.net specifies software:

(v) use any third-party software to modify Battle.net to change game play, including, but not limited to cheats and/or hacks;

but thats argued to include keyboard macros by a few on forums.

NeoSlicerZ

Eh, I remember reading a post about it on TL but /shrug.

BlitzKrieg

found this

cardio,shoot me

what does "map out" mean

BlitzKrieg

cardio,shoot me wrote: »

what does "map out" mean

it means having one button carry a series of actions in a specified order/pace


so for example I could map that a macro button did the following

control group 1 (my hatchery). Q for units, Q for drones

all to one key and thats a simple one. with a bit of thought you could map out much more complicated processess.

cardio,shoot me

cool,

is there anyway to select workers that are not idle, without going back to your base.

so just select one random worker mining minerals , or do i have to set them to a control group

BlitzKrieg

havnt seen anything

this is a slightly out of date thread on little known shortcuts, some of which are bound to help i hope.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128050

Dacian

cardio,shoot me wrote: »

.....is there anyway to select workers that are not idle, without going back to your base.

so just select one random worker mining minerals , or do i have to set them to a control group

Its handy to have 3-4 workers set to a control group. It helps when you need to build or repair buildings back at base.

Spacedog

I use logitec Gkeys with my key binds...

I bind orbital commands to 0,9,8 and 7 then use gkeys with macros like:

0 - C - click

this allows me to quick scan under my mouse on the screen or minimap in one key

I also bound 10 clicks to a key, so that if i need to send 1000 minerals to an ally I don't waste time clicking up the value

I'm still looking for other marcos to speed things up and gain advantage

Grimebox

Spacedog wrote: »

I use logitec Gkeys with my key binds...

I bind orbital commands to 0,9,8 and 7 then use gkeys with macros like:

0 - C - click

this allows me to quick scan under my mouse on the screen or minimap in one key

I also bound 10 clicks to a key, so that if i need to send 1000 minerals to an ally I don't waste time clicking up the value

I'm still looking for other marcos to speed things up and gain advantage

According to some other post on here that quoted blizzard: macros are considered cheating!

silvine

Is this true? I've a Logitech keyboard but have yet to use these macros.

EDIT: My logitech keyboard can't do this.

Spacedog

any g series logitec device should support macros.

i don't think it's cheating any more than having a joystick with autofire or including MBS

the money sending macro is great fun though, check out the replay...

http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/3505

KilOit

Spacedog wrote: »

any g series logitec device should support macros.

i don't think it's cheating any more than having a joystick with autofire or including MBS

the money sending macro is great fun though, check out the replay...

http://sc2.replayers.com/replays/view/3505

Pretty nifty tactic, yer man was a bit slow on the up take though, would be risky though if you went up against 2 rushers

Paleface

I have a question regarding binding buildings to hotkeys.

So I have 5 Rax that I want to bind to a hotkey on 5 for example. But due to building placement I can't select them all at once without selecting other units or buildings or they are simply out of screenshot whilst I am trying to do this so double clicking on one does not select them all.

How do I bind them all to the one hotkey?

Shzm

Double click on one 'set' and bind them to your group, then double click on the other 'set' and bind them to the same group.

Paleface

Shzm wrote: »

Double click on one 'set' and bind them to your group, then double click on the other 'set' and bind them to the same group.

Would that not just overwrite the original "set" effectively replacing what you originally binded with your latest selection?

Grimebox

click the one you want to add to the group and press shift + 5

Shzm

Paleface wrote: »

Would that not just overwrite the original "set" effectively replacing what you originally binded with your latest selection?

Nah I think it adds to it.

Paleface

Shzm wrote: »

Nah I think it adds to it.

I think your wrong because if you do that repeatedly you'll end up with everything assigned to the one hot key eventually.

You have to be able to replace as well as add.

I think Grimebox has it right. I will try tonight.

BlitzKrieg

Paleface wrote: »

Would that not just overwrite the original "set" effectively replacing what you originally binded with your latest selection?

No in starcraft 2 you can add to a group by simply selecting new units and adding them. Its a pain if you add something you were not meant to cause I keep forgetting the shortcut to remove units from a group (and have done it where i have 3 drones plus all my hatchs to one group and I cant build units cause the build list doesnt come up when I press the group key until those 3 drones are dead or turned into extractors.)

But yeah starcraft is different to most other RTS in that groups can have new units added to it really easily.

Paleface

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

No in starcraft 2 you can add to a group by simply selecting new units and adding them. Its a pain if you add something you were not meant to cause I keep forgetting the shortcut to remove units from a group (and have done it where i have 3 drones plus all my hatchs to one group and I cant build units cause the build list doesnt come up when I press the group key until those 3 drones are dead or turned into extractors.)

But yeah starcraft is different to most other RTS in that groups can have new units added to it really easily.

So is there no way to just drop the hotkey entirely and start again in your case?

Shzm

Paleface wrote: »

I think your wrong because if you do that repeatedly you'll end up with everything assigned to the one hot key eventually.

You have to be able to replace as well as add.

I think Grimebox has it right. I will try tonight.

So.. did you try it? Was I wrong?

Paleface

Shzm wrote: »

So.. did you try it? Was I wrong?

Control + Key to create a new hotkey with whatever is currently selected. This will also replace whatever is currently assigned to that key.

Shift + Key will add whatever is selected to the hotkey along with what is already assigned to the hotkey previously.

Grimebox

Paleface wrote: »

Control + Key to create a new hotkey with whatever is currently selected. This will also replace whatever is currently assigned to that key.

Shift + Key will add whatever is selected to the hotkey along with what is already assigned to the hotkey previously.

Also if you have a group selected and you want to remove just one unit from it (say a hatchery assigned to the group) you hold shift and click on the undesired unit then press ctrl + 1 to reassign the group without that unit.