Hotkeys

[alpha123]

This game is sorely lacking in hotkeys, and I've decided to fix that a bit and implement a few hotkeys.

Currently on my list:

• Building hotkeys, e.g. with a unit selected, press b and then f to build a farm
  
• Hotkeys for researching techs, e.g. press r and then z-m to research a tech (maybe, I'm not sure if this needs a hotkey, also I'm not entirely sure how it might work -- the example above is just one idea)
  
• A stop hotkey. I'm not sure what to bind this to by default, since S is already taken for camera movement.
  
• Location hotkeys, e.g. press Shift+F2 to mark a location, and press F2 to warp back there immediately.
  

Please put your suggestions for hotkeys in this thread, and I'll consider implementing them.

[Lion.Kanzen]

start with existent list and the Commands in game and Commands and hotkeys in other RTS. that is good start.

[quantumstate]

Buildings hotkeys should be direct. So just hit f to build a farm. This is how much modern games do it, we should have enough keys.

Don't worry too much about which key to use. They are very easy to remap once implemented.

[alpha123]

Buildings hotkeys should be direct. So just hit f to build a farm. This is how much modern games do it, we should have enough keys.

Thanks, I was unaware of that. In that case I'll probably use zxcvbnm like for unit training. We do have quite a lot of buildings for some civs though (I'm looking at you, Carthage.) Maybe Shift+zxcvbnm for any over M.

Don't worry too much about which key to use. They are very easy to remap once implemented.

I know, and I will probably personally remap stop to S anyway. (I generally don't move the map much with WASD and I use stop a lot.)

I'm just trying to think of something else that makes sense. Maybe Ctrl+s or something.

[sanderd17]

one thing I would like: numpad for number of units selection.

Say you have 10 skirmishers, it's easy to select them all (with the various ui elements). But if you want 5 to work on one building, and 5 to garisson in a tower, it's hard to do.

If you could just hit '5' on your numpad to select 5 units out of your current selection, it could become a lot faster.

For the stop key, why not "H" (from halt)? Germans will love it

[idanwin]

or C for Cancel

[alpha123]

one thing I would like: numpad for number of units selection.

Say you have 10 skirmishers, it's easy to select them all (with the various ui elements). But if you want 5 to work on one building, and 5 to garisson in a tower, it's hard to do.

If you could just hit '5' on your numpad to select 5 units out of your current selection, it could become a lot faster.

That's certainly an interesting idea. I can't tell if I like this. I'll consider it, but currently the problem can be solved by fast accurate clicking (which you should be doing anyway). Don't draw massive boxes, draw little ones or click 5 individual units. It's not as slow as you might expect.

Anyway, if I find the time I'll look at this, but I think other hotkeys have priority.

EDIT: I decided I do quite like this idea. I did a little bit of research and it looks like SDL can tell the numpad keys apart from their non-numpad equivalents pretty easily, so this should be trivial to implement.

For the stop key, why not "H" (from halt)? Germans will love it

H is already taken for resetting the camera. Why H, I have no idea. Maybe I'll move reset camera to R and stop to H.

or C for Cancel

Perfect. I like this, although the problem is I'd like to use zxcvbnm for buildings (like for training units). :/

Edited March 12, 2013 by alpha123

[idanwin]

H for Home I think, but R is better, if it's not used by anything else yet that is.

[Lion.Kanzen]

There is the list, see what button can be modify for best purposes

and which are free to take.

Always

Alt + F4: Close the game, without confirmation

Alt + Enter / Return: Toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode

~ or F9: Show/hide console

Alt+ F: Show/hide frame counter (FPS)

F11: Enable/disable real-time profiler (toggles through the displays of information)

Shift + F11: Save current profiler data to "logs/profile.txt"

F2: Take screenshot (in .png format, location is displayed in the top left of the GUI after the file has been saved, and can also be seen in the console/logs if you miss it there)

Shift + F2: Take huge screenshot (6400px*4800px, in .bmp format, location is displayed in the top left of the GUI after the file has been saved, and can also be seen in the console/logs if you miss it there)

When entering text

Ctrl + C: Copy the selected text

Ctrl + X: Cut the selected text and put it into clipboard

Ctrl + V: Paste what's in the clipboard (it might be copied from text entered previously in-game or from another program)

Ctrl + Backspace: Delete the word to the left of the cursor

Ctrl + Del: Delete the word to the right of the cursor

Ctrl +

: Move the cursor to the start of the word to the left of the cursor

Ctrl +

: Move the cursor to the start of the word to the right of the cursor

In Game

Double Left Click [on unit]: Select all of your units of the same kind on the screen (even if they are different ranks)

Triple Left Click [on unit]: Select all of your units of the same kind and the same rank on the screen

Alt + Double Left Click [on unit]: Select all your units of the same kind on the entire map (even if they are different ranks)

Alt + Triple Left Click [on unit]: Select all your units of the same kind and rank on the entire map

F10: Open/close menu

Shift + F5: Quicksave

Shift + F8: Quickload

F12: Show time elapsed since the beginning of the game

ESC: Close all dialogs (chat, menu)

Enter / return: Open chat box/send chat message

T: Send team chat

Pause: Pause/unpause the game

Delete: Delete currently selected unit/units/building/buildings

Ctrl + 1 (- 0): Create control group 1 from the selected unit/units/building/buildings

Shift + 1 (- 0): Add selected unit/units/building/buildings to control group 1 (- 0)

1 (- 0): Select control group 1

.: Select idle working unit (including Citizen Soldiers)

,: Select idle fighting unit

Z, X, C, V, B, N, M: With training buildings selected. Add the 1st, 2nd, ... unit shown to the training queue for all the selected buildings.

Modify mouse action

Ctrl + Right Click on building: Garrison

Shift + Right Click / Left Click when placing buildings: Queue the move/build/gather/etc order

Shift + Left click when training unit/s: Add units in batches of five

Shift + Left click on garrisoned unit/s: Ungarrison all units of the same type

Shift + Left click on market barter icons: Buy/sell resources in increments of 500

Shift + Left Click or Left Drag over unit on map: Add unit to selection

Ctrl + Left Click or Left Drag over unit on map: Remove unit from selection

Alt + Left Drag over units on map: Only select military units

Ctrl + Left Click on unit/group icon with multiple units selected: Deselect

Right Click with a building/buildings selected: sets a rally point for units created/ungarrisoned from that building.

Ctrl + Right Click with units selected:

If the cursor is over a structure: Garrison

Otherwise: Attack move

Overlays and developer options

Alt + G: Hide/show the GUI

Alt + D: Show/hide developer overlay (with developer options)

Alt + W: Toggle wireframe mode (press once to get wireframes overlaid over the textured models, twice to get just the wireframes colored by the textures, thrice to get back to normal textured mode)

Alt + S: Toggle unit silhouettes (might give a small performance boost)

Alt + Z: Hide/show sky

Space: If timewarp mode enabled (in the developer overlay), speed up the game

Backspace: If timewarp mode enabled (in the developer overlay), go back to an earlier point in the game

Alt + K: Show the 0 A.D. logo and copyright notice as a watermark for images.

Camera manipulation

W or [up]: Pan screen up

S or [down]: Pan screen down

A or

: Pan screen left

D or

: Pan screen right

Ctrl + W or [up]: Rotate camera to look upward

Ctrl + S or [down]: Rotate camera to look downward

Ctrl + A or

: Rotate camera clockwise around terrain

Ctrl + D or

: Rotate camera anticlockwise around terrain

Q: Rotate camera clockwise around terrain

E: Rotate camera anticlockwise around terrain

Shift + Mouse Wheel Rotate Up: Rotate camera clockwise around terrain

Shift + Mouse Wheel Rotate Down: Rotate camera anticlockwise around terrain

F: Follow the selected unit (move the camera to stop the camera from following the unit/s)

H: Reset camera zoom/rotation

+: Zoom in (keep pressed for continuous zoom)

-: Zoom out (keep pressed for continuous zoom)

Alt + W: Toggle through wireframe modes

Middle Mouse Button or / (ForwardSlash): Keep pressed and move the mouse to pan

During Building Placement

[: Rotate building 15 degrees counter-clockwise

]: Rotate building 15 degrees clockwise

Left Drag: Rotate building using mouse (foundation will be placed on mouse release)

e. if you look F1 is free.

Help me

Free:

F1,F3,F4,F5,F6,F7,F8

R,T,Y,U,I,O,P.

....

Edited March 12, 2013 by Lion.Kanzen

[feneur]

Perfect. I like this, although the problem is I'd like to use zxcvbnm for buildings (like for training units). :/

Is there a reason not to use Esc for Cancel in this context? It's more or less standard overall, so I think it would make perfect sense to use it in this case as well Imho it would be preferable with hotkeys which makes sense in terms of having at least some resemblance to the name of the building being built (to make it easier to learn which key goes with which building). E.g. F for farm field, O for outpost, W for wall, etc etc, and yeah I really think we should scrap using WASD for navigation, we have the arrow keys for that and it would free up some useful keys.

I also think we should use a similar combination, e.g. Ctrl (or Alt) + the hotkey used to construct a building to select a building (Or maybe just have the same hotkey work as a selection hotkey when no unit is selected? That would rule out using the zxc etc keys though as you might have one building selected and want to select another.).

[Pedro Falcão]

I see Mythos's point that you need to scroll the vision without changing our mouse position, Feneur, but i confess these situations are so rare with me that i wouldn't mind if the camera controls were all set to the mouse wheel (with Ctrl and Alt for the other 4 commands). Instead, i prefer to have the command buttons as close as possible to my left hand's idle position (attack, attack-move, patrol, build, etc.)

[idanwin]

The hotkeys should be customizable in the option menu, so if you want them to fit your style, you'll have to change them there. For now we should try and develop a really intuitive range of hotkeys that new players can learn easily and that old rtsers can adapt to quickly (or preferably don't have to adapt to).

[feneur]

I see Mythos's point that you need to scroll the vision without changing our mouse position, Feneur, but i confess these situations are so rare with me that i wouldn't mind if the camera controls were all set to the mouse wheel (with Ctrl and Alt for the other 4 commands). Instead, i prefer to have the command buttons as close as possible to my left hand's idle position (attack, attack-move, patrol, build, etc.)

There still are the Arrow keys to pan without using the mouse The question is just whether it's worth having the WASD keys in addition to that

[idanwin]

I personally always use WASD (&QE), otherwise I'd have to move my left hand.

[feneur]

I personally always use WASD (&QE), otherwise I'd have to move my left hand.

It's a lot quicker to move your hand from one area of the keyboard to another than to move the mouse in my experience, but I guess it varies from person to person (I'm left handed, so for me the arrow keys are more relevant, but still, the distance between e.g. the arrow keys and the zxcvb keys is still the same regardless of which direction you go )

[Lion.Kanzen]

i Agree with idawin, its highly necessary a Option menu screen to do changes in game.

[idanwin]

It's a lot quicker to move your hand from one area of the keyboard to another than to move the mouse in my experience, but I guess it varies from person to person (I'm left handed, so for me the arrow keys are more relevant, but still, the distance between e.g. the arrow keys and the zxcvb keys is still the same regardless of which direction you go )

My mouse is set on a very high sensitivity, moving from one side of the screen takes about the width of my thumb (and I have violinists fingers, so that's really not much). Moving my hand from the zxcvb keys to the arrow keys on the other hand is far.

Anyway: What are we arguing about? (or are we even arguing?) My point is that the WASD should stay and that zxcvb sounds good for training units. (The distance between arrows & zxcvb is too big, but that between WASD & zxcvb isn't)

[FeXoR]

Just wanted to tell that many keyboards including german ones have "Y" and "Z" swapped. So yxcvb should be used instead of zxcvbif if it's such a keyboard.

[Lion.Kanzen]

In Spanish kboard we have "Ñ"

[sanderd17]

It's a lot quicker to move your hand from one area of the keyboard to another than to move the mouse in my experience, but I guess it varies from person to person (I'm left handed, so for me the arrow keys are more relevant, but still, the distance between e.g. the arrow keys and the zxcvb keys is still the same regardless of which direction you go )

I like to have most common shortcuts on the left hand, and use my right hand to operate the mouse. So I move with WASD, and for the group selections, 1234 are my most important keys. I don't use zxcvb that often, but maybe it's because I don't play enough games.

So if we're not discriminating the left-handed people too much, I'd prefer it stays that way.

Btw, how are the keys being read? In Belgium and France, an AZERTY keyboard is quite common, but I switched to QWERTY a few years ago. The problem with AZERTY is the the keys A,Z,Q and W are all swapped around. In AZERTY, it should be ZQSD instead of WASD. If the keys are being read by their position code (so positions 18,31,32 and 33), then there's no problem.

Most AZERTY users know that, when games talk about WASD, they should try ZQSD.

[idanwin]

In Belgium and France, an AZERTY keyboard is quite common, but I switched to QWERTY a few years ago.

Yay! Another Belgian using QWERTY!!!

More serious now. Maybe the game should detect the keyboard configuration and adapt the hotkeys to that automatically. Not sure how feasable this is though.

[alpha123]

I don't plan to get rid of WASD any time soon. That would be a bit too much of a radical departure, I think. I don't use WASD or the arrow keys often though. I don't move the camera much -- too slow -- except by clicking on the minimap. When I do move the camera, it's with the middle mouse.

About different keyboard layouts: As far as I understand, we just cater to QWERTY by default, but the keys are completely configurable so that's a non-issue. Eventually there will be a pretty GUI in-game for configuring keys.

A hotkey proposal I'd like to bounce off you guys: A "restrict selection" hotkey (I thought bound to Ctrl+Shift, but that doesn't matter). Here's how it would work:

Say you just exhausted a metal mine near your main, so there are lots of other workers there. You'd like to just select the idle ones that finished mining. You could, of course, just Shift+click them all manually, but depending on how many miners you have (> 5) that is less than optimal. Here's how you'd do it with restrict selection:

1. Press Alt+. to select all idle workers.
   
2. Ctrl+Shift+left drag to restrict the selection to the boxed area.
   

You could also do it in the other order:

1. Left drag over the area containing the idles.
   
2. Ctrl+Shift+. to restrict the selection to idle workers.
   

As another example, to select all idle members of group 2 (for me this is my building group in the early game):

1. Alt+. to select all idles.
   
2. Ctrl+Shift+2 to restrict the selection to members of group 2.
   

Again this is also possible the other way.

I could personally see this being an extremely useful hotkey, but I'd like some more opinions.

[wraitii]

Is there already a possibility to only select females/only select idles when selecting units "in a box" with the mouse?

[quantumstate]

You can easily select units of one type by drag selecting them all an then clicking the unit portrait to select only that type. Idles only isn't possible as far as I know.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Is there already a possibility to only select females/only select idles when selecting units "in a box" with the mouse?

No, but shift+'idle worker button' works!