[Aean(:]

Recently ive been questioning myself, if im developing a bad habit with the current control groups im using.

I use:
1 - Total Army
2 - Support units
3 - Orbital Commands
4 - Barracks
5 - Factories
6 - Starports
7 - Engineering bays

I want to improve in SC2 and im wondering if my current control group hotkey setup is going to hinder my progress. (I feel that i need 3 total hotkeys to manage my army efficiently).

Q: Should i take the time to learn and push my current 3-7 keys to 4-8 (1-2-3 for army)?

I mean im trying it atm on my NA account, have played about 10 games, and i cant cycle through my buildings as fast as i use to. (eg 3s 4adad 5s 6d 7ea) would be a complete cycle (not necessarily always doing that). With the new setup (5 barracks, 6 factories, 7 starports) i find that doing 6s 7d with my left hand is really hard and it slows me down a lot. Is that why i see koreans macro with 2 hands on the keyboard sometimes? Is it worth it in the long run to learn my new setup so i can micro more efficiently when i get better?

[Satu]

No. You dont need to push yourself to use that many hotkeys.

I use maybe five control groups, instead of up to eight. Eventually it gets to the point where your hand is moving so far across the keyboard that it becomes less effective than the closer keys could be. But its also preference and what you are most used to.

[Cosmos]

1 to 7 is pretty much it. Anything more than that you're gonna slow down and strain your hands.

You can choose to use save camera positions too.

I bind f1, f2, f3, f4 to camera positions.

f1, f2, f3 to my bases

f4 to upgrade buildings

Those keys are at the left side of the keyboard so make good use of them.

[Aean(:]

Originally Posted by Zergtastic

No. You dont need to push yourself to use that many hotkeys.

I use maybe five control groups, instead of up to eight. Eventually it gets to the point where your hand is moving so far across the keyboard that it becomes less effective than the closer keys could be. But its also preference and what you are most used to.

But you play zerg. I use 1-2-3 for army, 4 hatcheries, 5 queens, 6 injecting queen and i keep up a stable 140apm over 30minute games. Im switching back to terran now, ive seen how i lose to terrans in zvt (i couldnt win a single tvz before).

@Cosmos
I use F2-F5 for my bases and key locations such as ramps. F1 for idle workers though.

[eXcLusiVe]

mine is pretty much
1. Army
2. Range/Special
3.anything else to do with army or Overseer
4.Queens
5.Hatch
that is it with my nooby 60ish - 110ish apm :P

[inFeZa]

As terran u should have 1 as mmm and just press a and t and you win

[MKP]

i dont hotkey at all and i am in diamond.

kidding! i put
1-3.army
4. command centers
5. barracks
6.factory or starport
7. starport if i got a factory. ^^

[jason]

1 - marine / marauder / medivac
2 - hellions / tanks / ghosts
3 - scouting unit / tanks / drops / vikings
4 - drops / vikings
5 - cc
6- rax
7- fact
8- port

i put my middle finger on 4. index on 5

120 apm

[jason]

Originally Posted by PoisoN

As terran u should have 1 as mmm and just press a and t and you win

hell i wish that's true!

[HaNdFisH]

1-3 units

Use of these varies depending on army composition and amount of dropping etc going on, most of the time 3 isnt used

4- unit production, for terran this is barracks/factories/starports
use tab to go between them
5- CC's/orbitals/planatarys for SCV production/mule/scan

I'm used to heavy tab use from wc3 (had similar control group setup there), so these are fairly natural for me. Use similar groups for the other races too, ie 4 = hatches, 5 = queens.

[Aean(:]

Originally Posted by HaNdFisH

1-3 units

Use of these varies depending on army composition and amount of dropping etc going on, most of the time 3 isnt used

4- unit production, for terran this is barracks/factories/starports
use tab to go between them
5- CC's/orbitals/planatarys for SCV production/mule/scan

I'm used to heavy tab use from wc3 (had similar control group setup there), so these are fairly natural for me. Use similar groups for the other races too, ie 4 = hatches, 5 = queens.

Interesting setup, but i feel that if i need a unit from the last tab, it will take some time. Im going to try 4 as orbitals / barracks, so i can use the rest of my keys normally.

[HaNdFisH]

Originally Posted by Aean(:

Interesting setup, but i feel that if i need a unit from the last tab, it will take some time. Im going to try 4 as orbitals / barracks, so i can use the rest of my keys normally.

I tend to produce units in cycles, ie make rax units tab make fact units tab make starport units

I'm also pretty used to fast tabbing, did a lot of tri hero +bears in wc3 with triple staff and used tab to go between heros.

*edit* for those not familiar with wc3 this would involve being able to say hit 1tabtab in well under half a second without even thinking about it

[MrSandman]

1 is build probe(this changes when expos are made and probes attached)
2 is main army (Zealot, immo, stalker)
3 is special army (Sentry, collo, voids, phoenix, drops, ht's/dt's, early obs)
4 is nexus (all)
5 is robo
6 is sgate/double forge (mainly to fast move to the forges for chronos) or special attacks at the same time as main attack (drops, dt's)

[MrSandman]

Note I'm using a mac with no access to any F1-9 buttons so I'm fairly click heavy with idle workers and base locations

[WagonWheel]

I have:
1-Army
2-Army
3-Army
4-Nexus(all)
5-Observer in enemy base
6-Gateways
7-Robo Facilities/stargates
8-The other one, depending on how long the game is.

Then f2-f5 are camera positions: Main, natural, warp-in pylon, etc.
Mind you, I'm only silver so...