Monday, January 10, 2011

Mnemonics to remember Starcraft 2 Building Hotkeys

Does anyone have any good limericks or memory conventions for remembering the Starcraft 2 hotkeys?

For example the unit circle and which trig function is positive: All signs that count = all sin(), tan(), cos()

Hotkey List


Terran

Basic

* U - Bunker
* C - Command Center
* S - Supply Depot
* B - Barracks
* R - Refinery
* A - Academy
* E - Engineering Bay
* T - Missile Turret 

Advanced

* F - Factory
* S - Starport
* A - Armory
* I - Science Facility 

Addons

* S - Comsat Station (To Command Center)
* N - Nuclear Silo (To Command Center)
* C - Machine Shop (To Factory)
* C - Control Tower (To Starport)
* P - Physics Lab (To Science Facility)
* C - Covert Ops (To Science Facility) 

Protoss

* N - Nexus
* G - Gateway
* P - Pylon
* A - Assimilator
* Y - Cybernetics Core
* F - Forge
* C - Cannon
* B - Shield Battery
* S - Stargate
* C - Citadel of Adun
* T - Templar Archives
* R - Robotics Facility
* O - Observatory 
  • There's a simple one thanks to Blizzard:

    Farms and* production buildings are always the first letter in their name.

    The more important the building/unit, the more likely it is to be the first letter in the name. Because of how often those buildings are built, Blizzard gave them more priority when resolving first letter conflicts.

    So you can be sure of:

    Terran

    • C - Command Center
    • B - Barracks
    • S - Supply Depot
    • F - Factory
    • S - Starport

    Protoss

    • N - Nexus
    • G - Gateway
    • E* - Pylon*
    • S - Stargate
    • R - Robotics Facility

    Zerg

    • H - Hatchery

    (I don't know what's up with Zerg in SC2 yet, so I don't know what happened to creep colonies? All of these hotkeys were recycled from SC1, which I have plenty of experience with.:) )

    If you're after a building that's not important, its still worth trying the first letter, and probably the second, but a few are just going to come down to rote memorization.

    *Farms currently disputed. See comments.

    Lotus Notes : Pylon is actually E.
    WillfulWizard : Uhoh. I did not verify the shortcut list Elpezmuerto posted. My quick research (can't load up the game at work) supports this: http://www.starcraft2freaks.com/starcraft-2-hotkeys-list/ So much for my mnemonic. Anyone have an idea why they changed it, considering nothing else uses P?
    en1gmatic325 : The goal is too keep all the hotkeys in one area as much as possible, specifically where the left hand is usually on the keyboard. It makes it much easier to micro when your hand doesn't have to move around as much and it lowers the risk of ending up with your hand being off by 1 key.
    WillfulWizard : @en1gmatic325 That sounds quite plausible.
  • I don't think the use of mnemonic devices is optimal here. Mostly because it is hard to associate letters with buildings. You could try imagining some crazy command center with big C in the construction etc. My suggestion for you will be to just play a few skirmishes with no click on UI policy. It get memorized very fast this way. It is also the best way to be non-clicker/keyboard turner in wow.

    From Krogan
  • I switched to the Grid keyboard layout (through the game settings) and now simply use positioning instead of memorising letters. Since that's what I used to use for my WoW UI (back in the day :D), it came more naturally to me than predefined key-letters, even though I've played my fair share of StarCraft 1.

    So, Build Hatchery is Z Q

    Pool is Z A

    "MOAR HYDRAS NAO OMG" is 1 Q S S S S S S S S S S S S (hatchery on control group 1)

    and so on..

    Tullo : In case anyone's wondering, my WoW UI looked like this: http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8647/wowscrnshot041509183448.jpg
    F.S. : I use the Grid Layout too, not only simpler to remind keys (for sure you have to know where is which building/unit/command in the grid) but they are also very close togheter -> less hand movement
    VxJasonxV : Grid, Grid, Grid, Grid, Grid, Grid, Grid, Grid, Grid, Grid, Grid, Grid. There has NEVER been better command organization in a Blizzard product than Grid. Grid is INSANELY helpful, because it's all consistent and _makes sense_ (omg!).
    Tullo : Where Grid really shines is in custom games, because there's a not-insignificant chunk of the mapmaking community who, in my opinion, are bad at hotkeys. I don't have to learn any new buttons :)
    From Tullo

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