What are “grid hotkeys”? I saw them in the preferences. What are they? How do they work?
4 Answers
Basically, it makes it so all units in a building, unit commands, etc. are assigned hotkeys based on their position in the UI. For example, since a Marine is the Top-Left in the Barracks, its hotkey would be Q. Here's a page I found that has a small picture to illustrate: Grid Hotkeys.
-
The link contained some additional useful bits as well, thanks!– AgosCommented Aug 6, 2010 at 20:06
Grid keys replace the default keybinds by actually mapping the squares of the unit cards to certain buttons on your keyboard.
I don't know the exact commands off hand, but it works something like this:
QWERT
ASDFG
ZXCVB
These keys become the 3x5 grid of the unit card. Pressing "T" triggers the top rightmost command, usually attack move, no matter the unit, and instead of the usual "A" in the default keybindings.
Grid Hotkeys are a hold over from Starcraft 1.
Default Hotkeys use letters in the building/action command for which reference. For example, to build a Bunker you can use the U key.
Grid is an alternative style that mimics the layout style of commands on the keyboard. For example the Stop command is normally bound to the S; grid instead binds it to the W key.
You could have the same functionality at Warcraft III. There were a tiny little piece of software called Keycraft that redefined your key shortcuts to behave like this.
It was a must for me and my friends back in the War3 times :)