If I learn to actually use camera hotkeys it’ll be a step closer to LilArrin macro on Raynor, one day I’ll nail it down, one day…
People say it’s bad to use F2, but I see pros use it to find units, and I’ve seen cases where pros would benefit from using a little F2. I frequently use it, and have had no problems. If I want to split off units, I use control groups and avoid using F2. There’s a lot of taboo in using it, but it still has its uses from the beginner to pro level.
I use 5 for army and 1 for main structure. I do this because it feels comfier to have my pinky on A so 5A feels less awkward than 1A. I also separate my production buildings to diff numbers. It’s unorthodox but I do what works for me. There is no right way to play, just increase efficiency and control.
All the top Pros use F2. It’s bad sometimes but really hard not to use i guess.
Honestly, just get in the habit of using control groups. Don’t eliminate F2 entirely. It’s a QoL button. For instance, what if you forgot to group that one zealot and don’t remember where you left him, so he’s hanging out with your probes and slacking off after you defended an attack while you search for him, distracted for the rest of the game because he’s SLOUCHING ON THE JOB and this simply will not do. Also, it’s kind of a game to play with yourself, seeing how often you catch yourself using F2. Tug of war!
F2 isn’t bad. You can use it to catch if your ally left, but you missed the message. Helps bring to your attention straggling units that got tucked away somewhere. Etc.
That said, I do use control groups. It actually varies from one CO to another (esp. with Tychus whom I only use #1, and even the Mission, but in general…
1- melee units
2- ranged units
3- detection
4 to 6- research buildings (e.g. Ebay, Evo Chamber), or CO specific buildings (e.g. Stukov’s Civvy Compound, or one of Vorazun’s Dark Pylons)
7- production building set #2
8- production building set #1
9- town hall (exp)
0- town hall (main)
ctrl and shift to create/add/remove units.
use minimap to work cameras (no scrolling) to catch units add/remove them for scouting/positioning/attacking
if you really really want to get rid of this bad habit you play ladder and you unbind it. the difference from plat to master is your how well your ability to not use F2 and really hotkey cameras and using the mini since it allows you to/multi prong harrase/counter drops/attack and macro/micro all at the same time
F2 is like a very very bad habit and can easily lose you games in solo ladder since anyone diamond+ knows how to multi poke and the people you see get pulled apart by terran drops are the F2 users that scrolls their camera and doesnt camera jump with mini map
in co-op using F2 all the time is fine, but nonetheless you could still improve your game a lot even in co-op if you got good at using control groups to split your army, micro better, and to macro better for sure.
This is how I first started moving away from F2. I’d select my army with F2 and assign to “2”. (My keyboard has those smaller annoying function keys so I don’t rely on them for frequent tapping.) Once my army gets big enough, I split some into group “3”. And for some builds where I know I don’t want too many in one group, I’ll start assigning new units into “3” directly, with rally points adjusted so that if I box the group and add or Ctrl-select unit type and add, it adds new units to that group.
I hadn’t thought of this for co-op but that was mostly coz it doesn’t scale well. In the sense, if you want to make 2 armies, you’d need 4 keys. 3 armies would require 6. (okay, co-op doesn’t need 3 unless you’re solo’ing a mission like MO.)
My F2 is also ~ for this very reason. However, I don’t yet use camera locations. The keys are just sitting there…waiting for me to use them. Btw, how does hero selection work if you’ve assigned a camera location on F3?
Same here. Though what I’m trying now is splitting the army into two groups, with galleons in each - with the smaller group getting more galleons. Box select the group and assign it again so it includes anything you created since. However with HH, if you need to suddenly be in a different place, use Horner’s units’ jump; and pray you already researched it.
It can also be used to move your army to a spot and immediately move your groups to different locations. Anything that goes to the original rally point is unassigned. (Can’t do this on ladder though.)
Funny you mentioned this. I was getting so mad on campaign last night because I would make my third base F3 and it kept selecting Kerrigan. So I just unassigned that.
To add, usually I ~ for select all army and have my hero bound to control group 1.
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I went for ages thinking that all decent players never pressed F2 at all, but now I’m not so convinced. I think a hybrid position is pretty much fine.
For me, the key idea is you only hit the F2 key during a macro cycle, not for micro. Your macro cycle is something like:
- What cash have I got? Let’s buy some things.
- Where’s my rally point right now? Let’s add stuff there to control groups. (This is when you can use F2 if it makes sense to.)
- Let’s update my rally point to somewhere else if there’s now a better spot.
If you’re losing units a lot, it indicates that your macro cycle doesn’t regularly involve 2 and 3 yet. Probably better to have a habit of doing those steps only every minute or so, then getting burnt by the screw-ups that using F2 in micro can cause.
Query more generally: do people like the idea of adding larvae to control groups? Been trying it lately and it’s often a disaster for me, leading to units rallying to their death when there isn’t a clear path between both bases and my frontline.
FYI - for single-hero commanders like Nova, Stettman, Alarak etc, the hero defaults to F3 - so that’s one less control key you need to bind.
Controllable objectives (i.e. trucks on Cradle) default to F4.
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Back in SC1 there was no F2 and you could only assign 12 units to a control group. It was annoyingly limited. As I have always enjoyed macro more than micro the idea of creating an F2 A move army is massively compelling and appreciated. In that case micro is relatively achievable by using tab. I don’t like assigning separate controls groups to different roles as it is more than I find myself able to keep up with, it just isn’t the way my eye-hand coordination works and I have accepted that. Being able to tab through casters tends to get the job done without a bunch of my units getting out of place. The only time I find this approach is when mind controlled units have higher casting priority and jump to the front of the selection list, what can you do.
However, low mobility commanders on maps that require split forces can benefit from hot keys (usually no more than 2 or 3) but I usually make the armies self-sufficent anti-air/detection/casters as needed in each control group so they can all fend for themselves.
If I a lm running an F2 a-move deathball where certain units like to run out ahead (corsairs are about the worst at this) I use the push forward/engage/pull back method. A-click out out ahead of everything then let the slower units engage then a-click closer to the slower units to pull the faster units back.
I also agree that hotkeying buildings will really help to keep up with your base without neglecting attacking I usually put tech buildings and production on 2 or 3 and nexuses on 0. When I play vorazun or a wormy-zerg I usually use 1-3 for worms/dark pylons. I keep key use some what fluid depending on map and commander (I play random on both).
Lastly, SC has always had a player culture that was highly opposed to so-called cheese. Like if you are using an in game features that makes life easier you some how aren’t playing the game right. I specifically build armies and choose commanders and maps that can be F2 A-moved as I find it infinitely more fun than micro heavy armies and commanders.
I guess what I am saying is do what you like and don’t get too worried about keeping up with the Jones’s
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I keybind units that I need fine control of, either to use an ability specific to them or because they tend to die easily if I move the army because they float out in front of everyone else. Examples include Nova’s Ravens, Karax’s Energizers, Zagara’s Overseers, and Alarak’s War Prism’s. By microing these units, you not only keep them from getting killed, you can quickly use their manual abilities to strengthen your overall army.
This is the main thing I’ve started doing, since making this thread. I’ve shifted all the stuff I usually bind down, leaving my first control group for units that “have a death wish.” I can still use F2+A, but then I can grab my smaller group and directly control them. I’ve noticed the biggest difference doing this with Mengsk, as it’s now much easier to take blimps in and out of patriot mode.
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Currently, i have a big problem with my hotkey.
Ctrl and shift combination key sometimes fail so i can’t Ctrl + left click or Shift + left click as sharp and precise as before.
The number hotkey also has some complication where it either disable the group hotkey or require me to press more than once for it to change.
It was persistent problem on 2 separated pcs and i have no idea how to fix and apparently no one has ever had this problem before so yeah, my micro is sucked and i am dead stuck with f2.
Well, fortunately for you, there’s a possibility to rebind all possible keys in game — including the control groups and their management.
It would be a major change in habit + a lot of hotkey change. More importantly, i will be short on keys to bind.
I have this same problem but in my case, I think it’s a combination of lag, and fps, and very old laptop performance; and a slightly un-registering Ctrl key. Several times a game, a Ctrl-click to select a group in the unit box (bottom middle large part) will just select one of those units and not all of that type. And then I wonder why only one observer is following my army while the others are just hanging out together.
In my case, it didn’t work and observer was not selected at all.