As a followup to the hotkey event I wanted to share a hotkey setup with you all. Even if you decide not to switch to the layout alltogether I would advice you to still take a look at the concepts and ideas behind it. There are definitely some neat tricks to incorporate into your own hotkeys and/or playstyle.
It's based around the idea that the standart hotkeys are all over the place and that you don't have acces to every controlgroup or even more that 2 or 3 camera hotkeys easyly without having to move your hand quite a bit.
For starters it's just not that easy to memorize the hotkeys that way and it causes a lot of hand movement which puts quite a lot of strain on your muscles and tendons.
Especially if you are lazy like me and don't do stretches all the time :)
"The Core" hotkey setup is created with those thoughts in mind. It shifts all the hotkeys to one side of the keyboard and rearanges them so that you have every control group and every camera hotkey right underneath your fingers.
Spells and abilities are grouped into main and secondary abilities and share consitent hotkeys across the board.
That results in a hotkey layout that enables you to perform every relevant keyboard action in the game without having to move your fingers more than two or three keys away from the default resting position of your hand.
After I switched to "The Core" I started to not think about the hotkey for infested terrans but rather about whether it was on the primary or the secondary ability hotkey. And that makes it much more intuitive for me.
A few things are awkward at first though, like having to use the thumb for every modifier, but once you get the hang of it it is pretty sweet, since the thumb is normally not used anyways (execpt for hitting space bar).
Another thing is, that "The Core" relies heavily on the idea of layering certain things together. Like having a control group on P, a camera location hotkey on shift-P and the creating of the group and the camera location on P aswell but with different modifiers. Basically every easy to reach key is bound to any modifier. It feels a bit weird at first but since the thumb is controlling all the modifier keys it becomes second nature quite quickly.
For the different versions of "The Core" it depends on your keyboard layout and your mouse hand. The "sizing" is totally up to you. I would start with medium though and test out the small or large one if you feel uncomfortable.
Finally as with every major change in your hotkeys it will feel slower and much more uncomfortable at first, since in SC2 it's all about muscle memory. I'd would suggest trying it out and getting comfortable with it. I'm sure you won't regret it ;)
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=341878
GL HF,
cheers Lyu
Great write-up, Lyu! I love the idea: that the buttons we use most (hotkeys) should be the most accessible and we only really need a few keys for abilities. I am curious to try it, since I never use the camera hotkeys partially due to their location and I do mis my hotkeys frequently, however, I don't think I have the dedication to learn this setup. This setup is so radically different from the one that most people use. How long did it take you to get back to the level you were before once you started The Core?
I think that the best configuration is the one that seems easiest for you and most efficient, for example i should be able to reach every key i need without lifting my palm from the keyboard. Other then that you can think of keys combos, for example when i played protoss i had my nexus on "4" and produced probes on "e" which is so freaking fast and easy. So i belive that everyone should have their own natural control keys that are very easy to access. Another example is that i can`t always reach "6" or hit it precisely, so for that reason "6","7" and "8" are now bind to "`", "q" and "w". Oh, i also add key structures to my most used controls, for example i add the ebays to the command centers(to spot them every few seconds), i add all my production(barracks/factories/starpods) on the same key just to have a quick look at it(factories and starpods) when i`m building marines/marauders and for rally purposes. I also have factories and starpods on individual keys. So best is to keep it very simple and easy.
@daemon: That is the exact reason I made the switch. You have everything right beneath your fingers, especially macro control groups.
I at first hesitated to switch, but I do not regret it. Tbh I made the switch pretty early after I started playing starcraft so I hadn't remembered every standart hotkey yet. That made my transition very smooth. But I think if you want to switch it might take you quite a few games to get used to it.But there's always the possibility to use hotkey trainers and BOTs to make the transition easier. Also if you start to think of the keys in groups it gets even faster. I knew pretty fast that if there is only one ability that this ability is always on "i" for my version and my bases are always on "P" and production on "O". But to give you an estimate I think you might get used to it in a week or so and if you keep practicing with it you can definitely be at the same level a week later (if you play a LOT on a daily basis this will go a lot faster though).
@Majoris: I totally agree with you. That's why I said even if you don't decide to use it there might still be some things that make your setup feel a bit better. And in your case your reason for changing your hotkeys around was propably the same one the guys making "The Core" had.
And for me being a little lazy it was easier to take a complete set of "optimized" hotkeys and changing things I don't like rather then doing it all by myself ^^
Regarding your control groups that's exactly what I am doing too, and the funny thing is, a few versions ago they added suggested control groups doing exactly the same.And imho the setup used for "The Core" is extremely simple and easy once you get your head around it. As far as I can tell they tried to make every action as simple as doing 4-e for building probes in your setup.
For example if I want to do the following:
Blink my stalkers, go to my natural, use nexus cannon, warp in a round of stalkers, build probesit would come down to this key sequence:
0-0-i-click shift-O, ß (the key right from 0 on my keyboard) -k-click O-j-shift-click a lot P-i-i (on two bases)
For me this feels a lot easier then jumping all over the keyboard and is actually pretty simple to do.
Just a heads up for everyone.
The Core is nearing it's 1.0 release (Beta 0,8.1.3 is basically gonna be the 1.0 release by now) and there are new instructional videos.
And for everyone thinking this custom hotkey stuff is just a complete waste of time, let me tell you that by now "The Core" is recomended by the likes of LOWKO and LiquidTLO !
To quote them:
"If you want to become a pro one day, learning TheCore early on can help you" - LiquidTLO
"I've advised people that i coach to do just that. (use TheCore)" - Lowko
There are also new versions coming: one for laptop users, and one especially designed to suit LiquidTLO's playstyle and ideas that he will be using during the new season.
I hope that this may change some people's opinion on custom hotkey setups, because I think they are very beneficial to everyone's game!
I found this thread yesterday and decided to start learning this system. I'm finding it tricky at the moment but even now I can see that it's a much more efficient system.I'm glad I've started down this road :)