KeyCraft: In Memoriam. Remapping Your Hotkeys Hello TL.net-ers!
I recently went on a hunt out of interest to make sure that the method of remapping hotkeys had not been lost to the mists of time. The old starcraftgamers (now gosugamers) article seems inaccessible at gosugamers.net, so I have decided to preserve the knowledge here, and hopefully a new generation of players can experience the joy of not hitting 'p' instead of 'o' when trying to siege.
The balancing has more an impact for the high level players of warcraft 3 and of course for 1on1 matchups. Battle.net RT matches will not be affected too hard. WC3 Update 1.30 is preparing Warcraft 3 Reforged: And what we all know: This could be just a new step into the direction of an ultimate Warcraft 3 “Remastered”. So to dive right into it, perhaps the biggest features include, true native widescreen support, the ability for 24 player maps, major hero balance changes, a new ladder map pool for all ladder modes, the major expansions of World Editor limits (Map size dimensions - 480x480, object limit - 30,000, terrain tiles - 16, and many more limits raised), and over 90 new natives for the World Editor.
KeyCraft (the program pictured above) stopped working long ago, so I am here to teach you how to do it the more difficult way. Fun Fact: KeyCraft had a bug where, if you didn't change Psionic Storm research's hotkey, it would set it to 'a' instead of 'p'. Thus, I now use 'a' instead of 'p' as my hotkey for that as I never bothered to change it back. The Programs You will need only two programs to do this (besides Starcraft, obviously). WinMPQ and TblPad.
Find them (Ctrl + F for TblPad and then for WinMPQ and download them) Warning I don't believe TblPad gracefully handles having east asian languages installed. If you have them installed, you will have to a) have someone else do it for you b) uninstall east asian languages temporarily or c) recommended make use of. The Method. Back up patchrt.mpq (located in c: program files starcraft or similar directory) (ctrl + c then ctrl + v in the folder will make a copy of it). Open WinMPQ.exe. Go to File → Open and browse to patchrt.mpq.
Scroll down until you find rez stattxt.tbl. This file contains hotkeys and tooltips for all things in Starcraft. It is what you will be modifying. You might notice that there are a whole bunch of them. They are different languages. English is (at least for me, and probably for you) the first one.
Right click it, and extract to somewhere where you will be able to find it. Close WinMPQ for now (or leave it open in the background, but we won't use it for a while). Open up TblPad.exe. Select File → Open and open up the stattxt.tbl you extracted. You should now have a list of various things.
Remap hotkeys as you desire! I'm going to interrupt the steps for a second to walk you through remapping a hotkey. In this example we will remap the Protoss Observer so that it is built by a 'g'.
After all, who wants to go all the way to the 'o' key on the right there!. Hit Search and type bserver ( without the O!). The reason is that the O in Observer is colored, so it will have markup around it. Thus, searching for 'Observer' would not find what we are looking for!. The first result is: oBuild Observer. The tags are markup for coloring.
The first letter, o, is the hotkey. Represents 'normal' color, while represents the yellow used to represent hotkeys. Since we want our observer to be built with g, let's make some changes!. Did you figure out the changes? FAQ Q: You're a cheating asshole A: I don't really think so.
If it bothers you, don't play with me and don't use it. There have been extensive discussions over this in the past (do a search on TL for Keycraft) and arguing over this is not my purpose here.
I will ignore any people attempting to argue about whether or not this is cheating or hacking or whatever. Q: I don't use English language BW.
A: I don't have any non-English BW versions available to me. I wouldn't be surprised if it works as long as you extract the correct language version from the MPQ (you can make sure you get the right one by opening it up and seeing if it's in your language). If it doesn't, tough luck, sorry, but I have no idea how to help you. Q: Is it compatible with xyz program? A: Yes, it works with absolutely everything from what I know: bwlauncher, maphacks, chaos launcher, iccup, and so on. Q: Can you be banned for cheating? A: By Blizzard?
Maybe, but I've been using it for around 5 years and haven't been banned. If you do get banned, sorry, but it's not my problem and I will do absolutely nothing to help you about it. By competitions? In person, sure, you probably can't use it at something like WCG. Online, they have absolutely no way of knowing, so they can't really ban you for it.
It's not a hack and there have never been rules set for it, although some argue that it's against the spirit of it or somesuch. Q: Any hotkey recommendations? A: Remap scourge to 'c' or something like that-prevents you from spamming 's' once too many times when selecting larvae and making scourge when you desperately need lings.
Remap hotkeys to your left hand-it's much easier to hit the appropriate hotkeys that way. Remap siege mode/mines to 'd' or some similarly easy to hit key. Q: JPG compression sucks and your images should have been PNG A: Yeah, I guess you're right. I don't feel like re-taking the screenshots though. Q: Something else A: Post in the thread, that's why it's here!
Q: The programs won't run for me. On March 28 2009 17:24 Catyoul wrote: Here is some info in addition to the guide (feel free to add them to the OP): - if you get a list of files unknownblabla instead of the real names, get. In WinMPQ, go to options, then File lists, then Add File list with that file. There are several rez stattxt.tbl in the list, they correspond to different languages. Here are the locale IDs: 0 Neutral (English) 1031 German 1033 English 1034 Spanish 1036 French 1040 Italian 1046 Portugese Extract the one that fits the locale you want to change. If you want to change a different locale than English, before adding stattxt.tbl back into the mpq, go to options and input the right one in the 'Locale ID for adding files' field. P i a n o M a n.
#6 This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online. Q: Can you be banned for cheating? A: By Blizzard?
Maybe, but I've been using it for around 5 years and haven't been banned. If you do get banned, sorry, but it's not my problem and I will do absolutely nothing to help you about it.
By competitions? In person, sure, you probably can't use it at something like WCG. Online, they have absolutely no way of knowing, so they can't really ban you for it. Pretty sad imo.
#9 Funnily enough, I just found the original article at gosugamers.net (not through the search link, but rather from a post at teamliquid.net as I was looking at different topics here with regards to it). You can find it. I'm leaving my version up anyway though, but if you find my instructions confusing or stupid you can use theirs! Anyone else brave enough to step up to admit to using modified hotkeys?
The ones I use are (maybe some others I can't think of at the moment, but I think this is all): Protoss: Dark Templar - f Observer - g Corsair - d Cybernetics Core - z Observatory - g Research Psionic Storm - a Terran: Marine - z Siege Mode - d Spider Mines - d Zerg: Scourge - c. On March 27 2009 20:03 Yaqoob wrote: This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online.
No it does NOT give you an unfair advantage. You wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys.
Its unfair the other way arround, because f.e. In the german version you send medics with e instead of a and that fucking sucks to press 1a2a3e my medics often fall behind because of this. As you are canadian you may get it like this better: if in the NHL only 1 size of hockeysticks would be allowed wouldnt that be fucking unfair the the ppll not falling into the norm? Or even better, 1 size skates, wouldnt that be amazing, no more unfair advantages for ppl with big foots and therefor a better stance?
Just like with hotkeys, its idiotic to not have customizable settings. Ppl with small fingers or not freaky alien finger who spread like crazy have an UNFAIR disadvantage. So all plz stop crying about such minor advantage who are surely not UNFAIR, but enjoy the increased funfactor gained by customizing your hotkeys. As you are canadian you may get it like this better: if in the NHL only 1 size of hockeysticks would be allowed wouldnt that be fucking unfair the the ppll not falling into the norm? Or even better, 1 size skates, wouldnt that be amazing, no more unfair advantages for ppl with big foots and therefor a better stance? Just like with hotkeys, its idiotic to not have customizable settings.
Ppl with small fingers or not freaky alien finger who spread like crazy have an UNFAIR disadvantage. But if there is a rule against, like in SC, it would be cheating. There's tons of sports where some equipment is banned. Like in cycling or F1. Same is true in SC. Some things you are not allowed to use.
And yeah, its unfair. Since if you were to use the normal way to play you would be a lot worse.
So the difference between the normal hotkeys and the way you hack the game is quite big, I assume. Why else make so much effort to break the rules. Also, cheaters are banned on TL.net. Pianoman basically made a guide to cheating. It's not just banned in WCG and any other tournament. It's also considered cheating on iccup, where most people reading here play. Not to mention third party programs aren't allowed on bnet.
Not even chaos launcher is technically allowed. 'Cheating' is defined as breaking the rules. Just because you think it's ok to break a rule doesn't mean it's not cheating. Just because you won't be caught breaking the rule doesn't mean it's not cheating. If you want to cheat like this, fine.
You are right, it's not that a big deal. Many people won't really care. But cheating it is. Of course no harm is meant by all this.
But that's all besides the point. All those WC3 people that claim SC is easy and then go and remap the keys greatly annoy me. It's almost like me playing them in WC3 and turning off auto rally and smart cast for them. #14 It's only regarded as cheating by most people because it's not widely known. Include keycraft in the iccup launcher or something like that and it is no longer cheating, it's just another addition to improve the game by those great individuals in the community. As long as everyone has equal ability to edit their keys, it isn't cheating imo.
Also to use the reason 'it's editing files' to call it cheating, chaos launcher, penguinplug etc, use injection methods identical to map hacks. I had no idea keycraft stopped working, it wasn't that long that I used it (2 years or so) The more people using it the better. #16 Well the difference is that all around the world different versions of BW have different hotkeys, whereas the amount of units you can select is universal.
So pretending like everyone is on even footing to begin with isn't correct. Second there are already programs like chaos coach, and apm alert that are advantageous for one player to have at a certain skill level if his opponent doesn't have it.
So this isn't some new precedent, people have been using non hack 3rd party modifications of BW for their own benefit for a long time. Third it stops being an advantage if everyone has the opportunity to do it. If everyone who ran the ICCUP launcher also had the ability to change their hotkeys there would be no advantage. If instead of resisting it for some reason when probably 75% of the people here don't even play BW anyway, you focused on spreading the knowledge. Then it wouldn't be a shortcoming of SC we'd have to live with anymore, would it?
Also, I just ran core.exe from keycraft and it patched my patchrt fine, so I think it still works. On March 27 2009 20:03 Yaqoob wrote: This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online. No it does NOT give you an unfair advantage. You wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys. Its unfair the other way arround, because f.e. In the german version you send medics with e instead of a and that fucking sucks to press 1a2a3e my medics often fall behind because of this. Well, it's your own fault for using fucking stupid german version of SC.
Everyone plays with the english keys, learn to do so aswell. EDIT:Actually,Blizz should've set the same hotkey for all versions. But you should not complain, you chose to play that version, you either get used to the hotkeys that are there or switch over to english version. No one is forcing you to use the german version and using keycraft is not an option, imo. On March 27 2009 20:12 janenba56 wrote: cheating is using 3rd party programs to give someone an advantage over another person. Respect for the amount of effort you put into this but at its core this is cheating I'm using a french keyboard azerty OMFG, I DON'T PRESS THE SAME KEYS THAN YOU IMO BAN ALL FRENCH PLAYERS!!
But there is worse. I used a french version of the game for ages! OMFFFFFG BAN ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIFFERENT VERSION OF THE GAME STORM ON T IS FUCKING IMBA!! That's silly. I used that program log time ago to hotkey p my comsat.
0s 9s is far and I'm too lazy. It's nowhere in IcCup rules that you can't do that. Nor in bnet rules. So fuck that.
Obviously, if you go for an msl, you won't be allowed to change your computer, but otherwise whatever? People are just fucking stupid with this competitive stuff. I play for fun, I find the game more confortable with a lightly customized keyboard, what's wrong with that?? And if you really are that stupid, why don't you complain that people are using different keyboard? Should I cry because I play on a laptop which is way harder to master than a desktop keyboard? So wtf, guys, seriously? On March 27 2009 20:17 WhuazGoodNjaggah wrote: You wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys.
I won't suddenly beat Bisu if I have maphack either. If you had half a brain you would put that statement into relation. I would own my clanmate hard if i turned mh on, but when i change medic key from e to a i wont suddenly win more vs him, the only thing changed is, that i wont miss my medics in a fight that often. I could also change the version to english everytime i play a TvZ, then the medic key would be changed too. Wouldnt that be an amazing way to play the game? Especially because it makes it impossible for me to play random, what if i suddenly have to play TvZ?
As you are canadian you may get it like this better: if in the NHL only 1 size of hockeysticks would be allowed wouldnt that be fucking unfair the the ppll not falling into the norm? Or even better, 1 size skates, wouldnt that be amazing, no more unfair advantages for ppl with big foots and therefor a better stance?
Just like with hotkeys, its idiotic to not have customizable settings. Ppl with small fingers or not freaky alien finger who spread like crazy have an UNFAIR disadvantage. But if there is a rule against, like in SC, it would be cheating. There's tons of sports where some equipment is banned. Like in cycling or F1.
Same is true in SC. Some things you are not allowed to use. Yes and we as community make the rules. Its not like different tires are banned in cycling, its not different skate sizes which are banned in icehockey its not different shoecolor thats banned in football. Its fucking ridiculous to ban such things which make no big difference especially if there IS already different things of that. We as community shouldnt cry about things like keycraft we should cry because of maphacks and queue hacks and multi select and multi command and drop warnings and shit like this.
And yeah, its unfair. Since if you were to use the normal way to play you would be a lot worse. So the difference between the normal hotkeys and the way you hack the game is quite big, I assume. Why else make so much effort to break the rules. Ok, i underlined and bolded the shit you spit. You dont even know how much different it is, yet you dare to talk about it like you are wisdom itself. I am currently playing with normal settings as im simply to lazy to change it, why?
BECAUSE IT DOESNT MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE! I played a TvZ vs my clanmate, we are about equal me a bit better than him (like i win 4 out of 7). This TvZ took like 50mins, i won but i was fucking angry after the game, because i left my medics like 2 or 3 times behind, it was just unecessary but it didnt decide the game. He didnt win the game because i have a fucked up key setting, but it significantly lowered the fun for me to play TvZ and i love to play TvZ. Also, cheaters are banned on TL.net. Pianoman basically made a guide to cheating. It's not just banned in WCG and any other tournament.
It's also considered cheating on iccup, where most people reading here play. Not to mention third party programs aren't allowed on bnet. Not even chaos launcher is technically allowed. Why you say chaos launcher (actually its plugins) is TECHNICALLY not allowed? Its against the rules = its cheating = dont fucking treat it different. If you name it dont lower the fact just say it plain and correct. ChaosLauncher plugins = cheat/against the rules PERIOD!
On March 27 2009 21:24 Scooge wrote: What's the difference between this and a hack that allows multiple building selection? It's just a convenience for casual players right? L2P the game the way it was designed and with its shortcomings and stop trying to get an advantage over people. You like hard numbers? I can tell you the difference.
To make 10 zealots i can do it like this 1b2b3b4b5b6b7b8b9b0b b=build zealot or i can do it like this 1z2z3z4z5z6z7z8z9z0z this takes almost the same ammount of time, BUT with multiple buildings you do this: 1z thats 10 times less as actions as the other 2. Dont make fucking shit comparings. Its like comparing murder to stealing a chewing gum. Also im not trying to get an advantage over someone when i adjust my hotkeys i just want to have the SAME as my opponent. My opponent can send his medics with a, i want to send my medics with a aswell, is that so much of an advantage i get?
On March 27 2009 20:03 Yaqoob wrote: This is banned in any competitive tournament so I find its pretty stupid and it gives an unfair advantage online. No it does NOT give you an unfair advantage.
You wont suddenly beat bisu because you have superior hotkeys. Its unfair the other way arround, because f.e.
In the german version you send medics with e instead of a and that fucking sucks to press 1a2a3e my medics often fall behind because of this. Well, it's your own fault for using fucking stupid german version of SC. Everyone plays with the english keys, learn to do so aswell.
EDIT:Actually,Blizz should've set the same hotkey for all versions. But you should not complain, you chose to play that version, you either get used to the hotkeys that are there or switch over to english version. No one is forcing you to use the german version and using keycraft is not an option, imo. Noone is forcing me to use german version? In my country i can only buy either french or german version of starcraft. Only because some mind crippled idiot like you tell me i cant play a game how i feel convinient without getting an unfair advantage i should buy another version of starcraft? Oh and plz all the whiners, dont play maps like bluestorm, because they are all made with 3rd party programs and therefor violate the EULA.
On April 27 2004 17:58 hasuwar wrote: Djetter, you are such an idiot. Go read some other posts. USING A DIFFERENT KEYBOARD IS NOT EDITING THE FILES. STOP POSTING. Man, he just answered on ur utterance about disadvantage u'll get if someone changes button's site, not about editing.
You better read ur own posts before insulting ppl. When u r talking about considering this stuff as a 3rd party program, i can understand ur point, coz i don't know shit in it. But 'getting advantage over me' is quite funny to read coz u already play with many, many guys who have set their keyboards pretty much more comfortable than ur one. And afterall, as someone already said: understanding of the game, good strats and timing r things, which do u better. #125 i cant believe u guys are pointing out things that clearly were not meant to make the game easier for one player using the 3rd party software.
Bwscanner does not make it easier for one player using 3rd party software. Neither do mods. What the fuck are you guys thinking? Blizzard didnt make this feature for sc. If you get used to this feature, u wont be able to use it in any offline competition. Good offline players will not use it. But you will use it against them.
You will press things faster than they will ever be able to press. Maybe it won't matter much, but that shouldn't be for us to decide.
Maybe some newbie thinks map hack wouldn't matter much either, for example. The point is, you're using it because it helps your game. Other people can't use it because blizz and all offline competition won't allow it so they don't want to get used to it. You using it gives you an advantage and forces opponents to use it to compete. Wait i think i already posted this point.
Oh well i guess i needed to again. If blizzard supported this and give it publicity and included it in the next patch, it wouldn't be a hack. The sc standard is blizzard. When sc makes a new patch, everyone plays it. No one debates which version to play. There are no 1.04 or 1.03 or 1.00 leagues anymore are there?
And just the same, there will be no league for people who want to use this hack, just a minority of people using it, gaining whatever insigificant advantage against whoever plays them and probably will never quite be sure how you press such difficult keys so quickly yet suck (since anyone who might ever play an offline competition will not bother fucking with software to get keys how they want). #127 a config.ini was intended for ppl to edit with a text editor. Blizz didnt intend ppl to customize their own mpq for online play. Blizzard also allows map hack on battle.net, for your information! Just because they didnt stop it doesnt mean they wouldnt consider it a hack. If u go to play on another computer u seriously think its gonna be like 'ok i gotta download keycraft, and i gotta download my file'? Maybe someday people will accept that, but oh wait, ppl hvae been playing with these 'so hard' keys for 6 yrs.
So unlses blizz backs it it wont be a standard, it will be some fringe thing like i said, which it will. I dont care who uses it, but u have to be stupid not to consider it a hack, however minor you judge it to be. U have to use a 3rd party software to do it, to make it easier for you to keyboard things while 90%+ of ppl will not. 'oh so they have to download it too'. #130 Lots of people don't bother changing their keys even when the game has a built in facility for it.
The people who do may have an 'advantage' because the value they place on the convenience of custom keys outweighs the minor (for them) hassle of configuring them. Similarly, those people who feel that downloading a hotkey customizer is too much of a hassle can simply not use it in the same way that people who didn't want to configure the gamei launcher wouldn't play gamei. People who play on gamei get to play with more skilled people! That gives them an advantage!!!! People are being forced to download unrelated software in order to improve at the game!!!?!!?
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Call it whatever you want, I'm not going to bother with semantics especially when people have their own definitions for everything-some people were even saying this isn't a third party program. When it comes down to it, all this program will do is allow people to configure controls in the same way that you can for similar games made by the same company, and many many other computer games. No big deal in my opinion, and it's nice to see someone release this when the company that developed the game won't ever do it. #136 I don't consider it a hack. I can remap all my keys however which way i want using windows programs. And I do have a custom setup from such a program loaded up always (for non-bw reasons however).
If i remapped them for BW reasons, i wouldnt need to change any BW file. Secondly, some people think people will gain an advantage. It seems to me the people who are happy as clam with the defaults have an advantage over the people who find the defualts awkward as hell. Bw shouldnt be a dextarity contest.
Thirdly, there are other ways through hardware people can gain an actual advantage. But because its hardware, its not a hack so you have to STFU and let them continue on. Drawing the line here, i just find it strange. And im not talking about the special SC keyboard either. #138 'offline players will not use it.' As I pointed out, this argument is flawed. 'blizzard didnt make this feature for sc.'
Blizzard didn't make this feature for W3 either, only when some other person did it and it got accepted did Blizzard integrate it in TFT. Hasuwar, your 'modifying files' argument is totally wrong from the technical point of view and yet you're calling other people idiots. Installing mouse drivers is modifying system files too. Installing RemapKey or other keymapping utility that allows you to remap your keys (eg. Have 8 9 0 instead of q w e) for BW modifies system files too. Does it have to modify SC files? One of the olders ways of disconnecting has to do with dropping your internet connection.
It doesn't modify any SC files, yet is commonly regarded as abuse. And, as someone pointed out, people have been making total conversions / MOD's and Blizzard hasn't deemed them as a hack. People have been changing StarCraft sounds, Blizz even gave a utility to help them and it's not considered as hack, though you could argue it gives players an advantage if eg. The sound of burying lurkers would be much louder or simply different (a beep accompanying it). The world is not black and white, like someone said, there are shades of gray. And insulting other people just because they do not agree with you is not a sign of maturity. #140 It's just a program to configure your keys!
I wouldn't use it, because i am already used to the standard, but i don't mind if my oponent use it, even if he raise his apm from 120 to 180. I DON'T care, I like my oponents to play as confortable as i feel, if they can be faster with another configuration. I don't mind. Starcraft is a RTS.
Not a DDR Machine where you have to be that fast. Of corse speed will help you. So if you can be faster with another configuration. Go for it, i don't mind. I don't think i can be faster with another key configuration.
And if i could. I don't care. SC/BW it's a game. I don't care to lose, i'm not going to live of this, and if i lose, my pc it's not gonna explode.
I hate when i beat some guy in Street Fighter and he blame the button configuration. So if you want to set your own.
And that is going to raise your level, make you faster, make you accurate, please do it. This program will not just help to raise the level of multiplayer game, but also to help the game to stay alive a little longer, to make it more competitive, and to finish excuses like 'i lost because the 'P' for probe it's far away.' 'I can't use my french keyboard', etc. So bring it on!