'Displaced Grid' is a hotkey layout designed for ergonomics and speed.

Warcraft 3 is one of the GODFATHERS of not only the RTS genre but competitive gaming in general.

And it comes to no surprise it's one of the most hotkey intensive games there is.

At 200 Actions-Per-Minute and an average game length floating at around 15 minutes...

We are looking at 3000+ actions PER GAME!

Now, think of how many games an active player might have in one day? In a week? Over the years?..

Why use a hotkey layout designed for ergonomics...of 2001?

The goal was to reduce the gap between what we WANT to do in-game...

and what we can ACTUALLY manage doing :)

Because I, for one, can't play like Grubby.

Truth is: the worse the interface - the bigger the gap between our intention and our execution.

And ironically, the 'slower' player suffers the most from this gap.

So instead of fighting the interface, Displaced Grid is designed to bridge that gap.

With a better interface we can execute our decisions FASTER

BONUS: And without hand fatigue at all!

KEY FEATURES:
• - Noticeably More Compact
• - Main Control Groups: QWASZX - for much quicker access to 6 control groups
• - Select Heroes: '1' '2' '3' - an ergonomical solution that is easier on your hand
• - Items: ALT + QWASZX - visually coherent with backpack and easier access than alternatives
• - Attack command: 'Spacebar' - 100% the best choice right underneath your thumb
• - Abilities: 'E' 'R' 'T' 'Y'
• - Everything else: lower priority right under the Abilities (DFGH & CVBN)

Aside from the 'Displaced Grid' layout, the package comes with extra 7 modules* designed for fun

Module designs follow the same logic of 'bridging the gap' explained earlier.

But...

Please understand: using the modules against an unaware player is technically cheating.

We're not supposed to have this type of functionality in a normal game.

Modules massively improve your ability to interact with the game => they provide a competitive advantage.

Modules are OPTIONAL to use - you don't have to use any of this.

Modules WORK with ANY LAYOUT. You don't need to use the Displaced Grid layout to use modules.

You can easily turn off or deactivate any modules (see instructions below).

RTS games fell off in popularity not only because of their complexity but also because they are 'hard to play'.

'Hard to play' is an illusion. It's a veil. It's not the game that's 'hard to play', it's the opponent that makes it hard for you.

Which is the point of it all.

But the argument is somewhat grounded in reality: it IS hard to CONTROL everything well "to play".

Some players don't see the dexterity check as A PART of the experience.

And some... don't "enjoy sweating out 200 APM" (I've read a lot of comments about RTS games).

And the very intelligence that draws a very specific crowd to strategy games is what's making us self aware of how embarrassing our execution is.

The gap between the 'intent' and the 'execution' might be too noticeable for a lot of players to tolerate.

Add on top of it that it's also a one-on-one battle...

...a mirror for YOUR flaws (and YOUR FLAWS ONLY)...

...no wonder people flake out towards 'team based' mobas.

So unless you LOVE rhythm-management-dexterity-check games, the question "WHY BOTHER?" stands tall. It's not 2003 anymore.

This is even more important in mature communities.

You see, from a newcomer's point of view the experienced players might look completely unapproachable.

You need a significant investment into your ABILITY TO DELIVER.

Which works for physical sports, works for dexterity games. No problem.

Think about it: when we reduce the gap between the intent and the execution, we bring forward tactical knowledge and strategic decisions.

And vice versa.

Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing is up to a debate, because with no physical component you end up with memorization and libraries of flowcharts. Works for chess, works for card games.

RTS games gathered a huge following, but have a relatively inactive PLAYER base.

The ratio between the players to the followers is probably second only to Formula 1.

People do enjoy a good game, but since they don't like their own play - they prefer to watch.

So, to create an RTS with an active PLAYER base... we need to design around accessibility and to do so - we need to design a great interface.

All this... is my attempt at doing exactly that as a showcase.

Disclaimer 1: the code might not look pretty for some of you senior level software engineers: I made it all from scratch over 2 months of learning autohotkey, and I'm aware it might not be up to par with enterprise practices. All code is open on github.

Disclaimer 2: We use pixel hunt to 'see' things like item cooldown (cooldown is a hard blue overlay so we can 'see' it). For some modules to work, you will need to do a quick to set up.

Step 1. You MUST use the 'GRID' layout.

Step 2. Go to your %USERNAME%/Documents/Warcraft III folder

Step 3. Open War3Preferences.txt

Step 4. Change every QuickCast=0 to QuickCast=1 (CTRL + H)

Step 5. Enjoy!

Download Autohotkey v1.1: https://www.autohotkey.com/

Download 'Displaced GRID' from Github: https://github.com/etofok/Displaced-Grid-for-Warcraft-III

Run "(RUN THIS FILE) Displaced GRID.ahk" with Autohotkey v1.1

You will be greeted with a splash screen

"Displaced GRID" will appear in your Tray menu

Right click on this icon to get access to Tray Menu:

The layout will work out of the box.

Icon in Tray indicates whether it is On or Off

The layout is active ONLY when the Warcraft III window is active.

When Warcraft III is NOT active (if you're tabbed out) - you'll have your regular hotkeys.

Please note: when the layout is active you won't be able to type in chats (because your keys are remapped).

You can toggle the layout On/Off via a Hotkey.

Default is ScrollLock.

You are free to change the hotkey in 'UserSettings.ahk' (open in Notepad)

"IMAGE_OVERLAY.png" is what is displayed on top of the Warcraft III window.

This is a lifesaver.

It's aligned for the 1920x1080 resolution.

If you DON'T play in 1920x1080 - the overlay image will be off grid.

So, in this case you'll need to adjust the overlay to your resolution.

This is how I would do it:

1. Go into Warcraft III
2. Take an in-game screenshot
3. Paste the screenshot in any .png editor
4. (there are tons of websites, and also photoshop and canva)
5. Use "IMAGE_OVERLAY.png" to align everything correctly
6. Save and Replace the original "IMAGE_OVERLAY.png"
7. (don't change the name or the extension)

I use photoshop

Some modules require very precise pixel coordinates to work. Otherwise they will not work.

For example, we can 'see' that an item is on cooldown by its blue countdown overlay.

But we need to 'know' where to check for it on the screen.

That's why the App needs to know where YOUR item slots are located on YOUR user interface.

Here's what you can do.

If you DO play in 1920x1080: everything should work without any modifications.

If you DON'T play in 1920x1080: you need to adjust a few numbers to YOUR game resolution.

This is very simple:

1. Open 'UserSettings.ahk' in Notepad
2. Find "Item1.x" data
3. You will see X,Y coordinates for each of the 6 item slots
4. Go into Warcraft III
5. Take an in-game screenshot with an item on cooldown
6. Paste the screenshot in Paint
7. Find THIS pixel:
(this exact pixel: blue overlay on top of the white item border.)
(Tray Menu)
8. Adjust the X,Y coordinates in 'UserSettings.ahk' for your item slots, so that you can use QuickCast Items and QuickDrop Items modules

9. Adjust the X,Y coordinates in 'UserSettings.ahk' for the Portrait UI element as well, so that you can use Self-Target Cast module

10. (OPTIONAL) To reanchor groups for the 'Command Multiple Groups' module use this:
(Default groups are 1,2,3,4 which are bound to A S Z X)
11. (OPTIONAL) To reanchor groups for the 'Camera Hotkeys' module use this:
(Default groups are 7,8,9,0 which are bound to F1 F2 F3 F4)

In 'UserSettings.ahk' (open in Notepad) you can Enable / Disable modules on App start.

Set "True" to Enable a module.

Set "False" to Disable a module.

Disabled modules won't appear in the App Tray Menu.

This is useful if you only want to use the Displaced Grid layout, without any modules.