Grid Versus Standard Hotkeys

I just saw a demonstration of grid hotkeys. My life will be changed forever. Now I just have to unlearn everything I learned the last 12 years.

How many of you use the grid set up?

I have an old keyboard that will work great for a SC keyboard, and I'm thinking of removing the unnecessary keys. I am also thinking of putting some electrical tape in diferent shapes on the 3, E, D, and C keys, so I know where to put my middle finger without looking (kind of like the tabs on F and J on most keyboards).

Has anyone done this? Was it helpful? Any advice you'd like to give me before I mutilate my keyboard? (I have another, wireless keyboard that I will try to keep connected in case I need to send messages during the game.)

 

Is this some kind of custom made keyboard?

 

No, it's something that you change in the game options. It makes all of your hotkeys Q, W, E, R, T, A, S, D, F, G, Z, X, C, V, or B, based on the grid that appears when you click on the unit. So, when you click on a gateway, instead of Z for zealot, E for sentry, and S for stalker, it is Q for zealot, W for sentry, and E for stalker. It keeps all of your hotkeys in a cluster, and you can do it with any keyboard.

The keyboard I want to mutilate is an old standard keyboard I probably bought for $30 5 years ago. If I switch to grid hotkeys, there will be a ton of keys I won't need (apart from in-game chat, which I rarely use). I am thinking of popping all of those keys out so I don't accidentally hit them. Obviously I have another keyboard for every day use. I am just wondering if someone has done this and regretted it.

Any suggestions like, "Make sure you don't pop out that <alt> key, you need it for such-and-such" would be helpful. I am thinking of keeping all of the grid keys, <tab>, <shift>, <ctrl>, <space>, <esc> and <enter>. I guess mostly I want to get rid of the unused letter keys, tild, the windows key, alt, and Caps Lock.

I will probably keep another key board plugged in at the same time in case I need to type something.

 

Link to video? Also remove windows key

 

sorry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBHBsBS__1M

 

Oh, people are hating on the guy in the comments for only being silver league, but if you look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbpCLqryN-Q
It looks like Nada is playing with grid hot keys.

 

Eh, Idk...

Seems like that extra couple of seconds saved by doing this aren't worth it to me

 

Played some starcraft broodwar and was a complete noob. Now I'm using the grid setup and my game runs so much faster and smoothly. you dont have to remember any letter assigned to a unit. just know the grid order which you probably know allready! It really improves everyones game who doesnt allready use hotkeys. have fun trying.

 

Agreed. But the only problem is that I'm kinda used to the ordinary hotkeys, and you'd need time to adjust. But I'm still switching over to the grid because I haven't memorized all the hotkeys, especially for the upgrades, and so it's probably worth it in the long run.

And LOL that's interesting what you're doing. If you have success with chopping off the keys and all the tape, let us know!

 

This is wicked. And since I don't know all the hotkeys yet it'd be easy for me to switch to this solution. Hmm...

 

I like it, but I really am used to having move+attack on a. Basically every rts uses it, not really comfty with switching to t. :/

 

Just tell yourself that T is for Tackle.

Your order is to Tackle anything encountered on the way.



Today's post has been brought to you by the letter T.

 

Yeah, that is the single command that is costing me so bad. I mean...T? DAMMIT!

:laugh:

I'll remember that. I actually remember all my hotkeys by saying the word in my head and emphasizing the hotkey letter e.g. for stimpack I think 'sTimpack'. This could work for me.

 

Tormenting hotkeys.

 

so what's the hotkey for warpgates when you use grid mode?

 

I switched to grid after this post. I popped the tild key, Caps Lock, alt, and windows key off of the left side of my keyboard. I used electrical tape to put markings on the 3, e, d, and c keys, so I know where my middle finger is supposed to be (one thin verticle strip on 3, 1 thin horizontal strip on e, 2 vertical on d, 2 horizontal on c).

I have been playing SC since 1998, so switching freaked me out. My APM dropped to the 30s for my first game. I played a few games against the AI, then I did some placement matches with an ally who didn't know how to play (essentially a series of 2v1s against bronze players). Then, I started playing 2v2s with a Platinum friend. After 1 week, my APM is back in the 90s, and I am beating diamond players, even in high APM games.

I will never go back. It is much better than the standard set up!

 

i think i'll try it. i'm relearning hotkeys anyways, and sometimes i still hit P when trying to build a probe or pylon. lol.

 

It's only been 3 days since you said you might try it, but meh.

 

Hmmm interesting. I'll give it a try for sure. It's perfect for me cause I just finish the single player and I did not try protos and zerg as much so I don't know all the new hotkey.

It will be easyer to learn since I'm not used to the E for probe and pylon and those new key.

Anyway if I hate it, I can go back and learn the hotkey.

 

if only there was a matrix where we could just connect ourselves to....

the grid sounds like a great idea but learning an entire new way of hotkeying sounds like a lot of work :*(