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Just as the title says, is there a way to automatically set groups on units that are about to be produced? (Excluding Zerg, because you can select the larvae egg, thus enabling you to include/set them to a specific group number.)

Thanks.

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  • I think it's not possible with the basic game features... You would need to be able to create macro in order to do that, which is not legal...
    – Lysarion
    Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 8:28
  • macro? with mouse movements to select new units? hm...
    – Meta
    Commented Mar 10, 2011 at 5:11
  • @Meta Yeah, so this question was asked just a few weeks after its official launch, so I didn't know (at that time) the best possible approach to this. I also didn't get to play the beta, unfortunately.
    – happy_soil
    Commented Mar 19, 2011 at 10:15

3 Answers 3

16

I don't think there is a way to do exactly what you describe. If I am wrong, I would love to know about it!

The second best thing I can find is to set a waypoint to follow a unit in your main attack group. To do this, select your production buildings, find a unit that isn't likely to die anytime soon, and right click that unit. New units being produced will follow your main group, and will attack nearby enemies and such.

However, they still won't be in the actual control group, so you can't easily use their spells and whatnot. In order to set that up, the easiest way I've found is to select the units as they're walking toward your group (it's good to listen for "construction finished" sound bites and hit Space) and then press Shift+3 to include them in the original group.

Two things to watch out for:

  1. Units heading toward waypoints are using the "Move" command and will not attack stuff en route.
  2. If the unit you are following is destroyed, the waypoint will end up wherever it was when it was destroyed. If this is right at the front of the enemy base, that's bad.
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  • 3
    You are correct there is no way to do what Happy wants. What's more your suggestion is fairly standard amongst players as an alternative.
    – tzenes
    Commented Aug 9, 2010 at 14:24
  • 1
    Yep, what tzenes said..
    – erikvold
    Commented Aug 9, 2010 at 18:00
5

It's not possible to do such auto-assign. But there some helpers to do it easier:

  • zerg can add larva cocoons to groups (so you select larva and type of unit and press shift+#)
  • protoss can add warping units to group before warping is completed
  • constantly check point where your units rallied to (minimap)

I advise to not rally units to units because your opponent will be able to shut down your reinforcements really easily. Except for special cases of course - like you have a map control / staying on base / rally an observer / playing with AI / ...
Otherwise - it's better to take a step back, combine your forces and continue to move on.

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  • Agree, the accepted answer encourages rallying units to a single unit which can get completely shut down very easily. You'll either want to rally to a shift-queue of many units so that it's difficult for an opponent to clear the rally, or to another area from which you can route your reinforcements to your army while adding them to the control group.
    – Decency
    Commented Sep 1, 2011 at 13:52
4

As other people have mentioned this functionality does not exist in the game.

Usually I uses shift+ group #, to add new units as they are built.

Additionally, you can have production structures (and eggs if you're Zerg) rally to a specific unit. This will cause them to "follow" that unit (which may already be in a group).

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  • Aye, I already use rally to specific unit (that I try my best to keep safe from harm) but I often wish I could just have the production building auto assign their units to a group. I guess this isn't possible, thanks :)
    – Kyle
    Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 8:52

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