Hot Keys

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Legend
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Hot Keys

Post by Legend »

I would like to know what everyone thinks about improvements to our hotkeys. I have compiled a few suggestions (posted below) and I welcome comments about this.

Add new keyboard functionality by increasing the use of hotkeys.
Current design - hotkeys can turn off and on filters activate different GUI elements including the activation of popups. Once a popup has been activated many hotkeys cease to exist. For example if you press <B> for the base popup you cannot press the <I> popup to change the popup to display the industry popup.

For starters the arrow keys on the keyboard could be set to move through a popup, the score card, <W> could use the right / left arrow keys to move to next / previous pages... and the up / down arrows could be used when there are more than 16 players.

The arrows could be used again if you have selected an email subject line with the preview pane open... you could go up / down the list with the arrows...

I think that putting arrows as hot keys into use would be a welcome addition to the game. What I would like is a list of all of the places where you want to see the arrows functioning.


Another possible use is when a certain condition occurs in the game that a new set of hotkeys are then used for regularily accessed actions. For example, is you press <B> for the base popup... pressing <B> again could start the selected unit building. <A> could activate / deactive a base, <D> could deploy the selected unit in the reserve list...etc.

Another possible use of hotkeys during certain times is when a unit is selected... then you could have the use of a new set of hotkeys for key actions/ orders for that unit... --> The idea would be that when units are selected you could press <R> for reserve, <E> for entrench thereby having less mouse clicks and quicker responses...

What about when your email window is open... <N> will currently open a new window... but what about pressing new hotkeys to send the message after it has been compiled?

One issue with this use of hotkeys is that it may be confusing to have hotkeys change when a popup is open or when units are selected. Having <A> do different things at different times...

Another issue is what PRIMARY hotkeys should be allowed while popups are open and other things (such as when units are selected). For example you could have a unit selected and want to turn on a terrain filter... A different question to answer is, when you have a base popup or other popup open should you be able to press the number <1> and close the base and select CTRL group number 1?

Are there other ways to use hotkeys that you would like to see mentioned here and included in the game? Do you find yourself saying, "I wish I could do this ____, with a hotkey"?
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

:lol: Well U certainly asking hard questions in a way. The R and E keys for reserve and entrench be a good idea. Would have helped me alot a lot of times. As for the arrow keys U could make the up and down take the place of all the functions the middle mouse button does. As for ur other ideas for the arrow keys they sound good to me. As for the line u put in "I wish I could do this ____, with a hotkey"? I wish I could launch missiles with a hot key of some type. :lol: And especially one that would let me center on missile silos when I want to. (It hard targeting alot of nukes I know took me over a hour to target a 100 awhile back. :D ) Just some ideas to help start this.
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red
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Re: Hot Keys

Post by red »

Legend wrote: Another possible use is when a certain condition occurs in the game that a new set of hotkeys are then used for regularily accessed actions. For example, is you press <B> for the base popup... pressing <B> again could start the selected unit building. <A> could activate / deactive a base, <D> could deploy the selected unit in the reserve list...etc.
I like that. A "Mark as excluded" hotkey which can be used when selecting a unit in the base dialog would help as well.
Legend wrote:Another possible use of hotkeys during certain times is when a unit is selected... then you could have the use of a new set of hotkeys for key actions/ orders for that unit... --> The idea would be that when units are selected you could press <R> for reserve, <E> for entrench thereby having less mouse clicks and quicker responses...
I like the idea, but would prefer <R> be repair. Ordering units to enter reserve faster wouldn't help me, but ordering units to repair faster during combat would help a lot.

I would find managing aircraft in combat much less time-consuming and easier if there were a Return to Base function and hotkey. Currently I must select the air group and pan back to the airstrip if I wish to RTB them, and ordering them to return has the disadvantage that I am effectively telling them to rebase, and while they may have launched from a few different airstrips, large groups would then swarm that single airstrip and require redeployment.

Fire missile would be nice as F or D (maybe use D for Bombard if it's fixed?), and RTB if implemented could perhaps be X. I think it'd be very useful to keep all of your combat hotkeys in that single WASD area.

Another hotkey I would like, is to select a unit, and have pressing a key (SHIFT?) while clicking on a hex order a unit to face that direction.
Legend wrote:What about when your email window is open... <N> will currently open a new window... but what about pressing new hotkeys to send the message after it has been compiled?
Great. CTRL+Enter is what I would expect to do that.
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Legend
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Post by Legend »

There is a hotkey for missile silos already! <O> Is this what you are looking for?

I like the ideas presented...

So here is my direct question: Would having hotkeys do different things at different times confuse people? For example, <B> can open a base and then pressing <B> again build a selected unit?
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

:lol: Guess I need to press more buttons. As for the R for either reserve or repair couldn't u have it for both? Maybe shift + R for one of them. (don't think its being used for anything is it?) As for letters being pressed twice as in B. I don't think it be confusing well not to me anyways not sure for anyone else.
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Agamer
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Post by Agamer »

I'd like to see hotkeys for the gamespeeds. 0 and <Pause>=pause,1=slow, 2=normal, 3=fast. And why not make the hotkeys user configurable ?
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Post by Draken »

What about <N> on the unit popup to rename the unit?
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Post by Tampa_Gamer »

Draken wrote:What about <N> on the unit popup to rename the unit?
That would be great for those of us that rename units. I also would like a hotkey for entrenchment. Other ideas (also mentioned elsewhere):

(1) Convert the space bar so that it toggles the pause button to cut-down on extra steps everytime you have to pause/restart the game; and

(2) Allow the hotkeys to be re-designated by players by putting them into a .txt or .ini file which can then easily by modified to suite each player's personal preference for left/right handed accessible keys.
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Post by szabfer »

I would like to see some hotkeys to quick jump on previously defined MAP locations.

For example CTRL+F1 would mark the current map location and SHIFT+F1 (or simply the F1) would jump to the location immediately.

This could help me a lot on navigating between several fronts.
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Post by szabfer »

Yesterday I started the world map scenario of my campaign. First, I had to deal with the 1000s of useless units what I captured at the end of the previous scenario.

Now I'm praying hotkeys on the unit screens: scrap unit, sell unit, deploy unit and the grouping buttons... also hotkeys on the building screens for the checkboxes (autodeploy, repeat build etc).
The best solution would be hotkeys for every pushable/checkable objects on the dialogs (buttons, checkboxes). They are badly needed on the unit management screens, I spend half of my life on this popups, moving my mouse left and right on this 100 times...
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Post by felinis »

<R> for Repair, <Ctrl><R> for Reserve, <Shift><R> for Retreat.

<S> for Scrap, <D> for Deactivate, followed by a confirmation message box.
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Post by tonystowe »

Agamer wrote:I'd like to see hotkeys for the gamespeeds. 0 and <Pause>=pause,1=slow, 2=normal, 3=fast. And why not make the hotkeys user configurable ?
I agree Agamer!
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Post by tonystowe »

szabfer wrote:I would like to see some hotkeys to quick jump on previously defined MAP locations.

For example CTRL+F1 would mark the current map location and SHIFT+F1 (or simply the F1) would jump to the location immediately.

This could help me a lot on navigating between several fronts.
Great Idea!
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Post by tonystowe »

Hotkeys are always a great addition to games and as mentioned earlier it would be great if the player could program whatever key he wanted through the use of a txt or whatever file.

An option that is being overlooked is the programming of the number pad to perform multiple functions. I don't know the first thing about programming, however I can see me pressing the "7" key for Air forces; the "4" key for ground forces; and the "1" key for naval forces. Keys 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 would allow six potential options for the selected number "1, 4, or 7". I used the military example for just that, however this could serve a purpose for any level of the game (I suppose).

Function keys F5 - F12 could facilitate alot this as well while keys F1-F4 are reserved for game specific uses ,i.e. F1 for Help, F2 for Diplomacy, etc.


For Military purposes:

* I would like to see a hotkey that would allow me to quickly increase or decrease the alert status of a particular base and the assigned units/aircraft/etc act according to that status. You all are going to point me in the direction of the DEFCON selection, but hear me out. Instead of raising my DEFCON across the board - which has negative affects on all my neighbors - I would rather raise the alert in a defined area, or direction, which will allow me to focus my aggressive actions. This may be redundant, however if my airbase in the below example understood that Level 0 represents a "Training Status Quo" for all aircraft with the majority of the missions being training related; and that Intel gathering acft, such as the E-8, conducted missions that didn't encroach too deep into my neighbor's territory; etc. Level 1 would represent 2x fixed-wing acft patrolling in an air superiority mode and Intel acft would conduct a few deep incursion missions (radar only); Level 2 would increase patrolling, base preparations, etc. Level 3 would increase these actions yet again.

My example. I decide to deploy to Airbase "A": 1x E-8, 6x F-15, 4x A-10, 4x CH-47, 1x KC-135, 4x AH-64. As Country "XYZ" begins showing belligerent intentions (or not) I would like to select Airbase "A", press the hotkey and the game understand the Level status of that base. This would only affect that particular base and a small symbol would show up indicating its alert status. The same could apply to aircraft carriers and other naval and ground forces as well.
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