Teeny-Tiny GUI Suggestions: Hotkeys

Sort of, it selects the highest tier structure first. So if you have a T3 engineer building power it will select T3 power before T2 or T1 power structures. To build T2 power with a T2 engie it is also only 1 key. Yes if you try to build T1 structures with a T3 engineer it will take additional key presses but even then its far quicker than multiple different keystrokes.

I also agree that the unit construction could be more intuitive. It's very easy for me now that I am used to it but it isn't any more intuitive than just assigning random hotkeys to construct different units. Although it is based off the FA build mode so I suppose the idea was consistency. You could easily make intuitive hotkeys from scratch for unit construction.

A grid system is the sensible default. Although a layered system is vastly superior to TA's paged system, which was really not very good. Zero-K has implemented a layered menu which works well using hotkeys. However the mouse gesture system was not a good idea because mouse movements are slow, imprecise, and needed for specifying a location on screen. Fortunately, the mouse gestures are simple to disable.

Depending on implementation, it may make sense to differentiate building construction and unit production. There are two key differences between the two systems; units will typically be constructed in infinite queue, and modifying that queue is likely to require a different control scheme than the concrete building construction order will. Secondly, buildings' placement location must be specified. Units can be enqueued with a single keypress.

Production queues might be controlled by using hotkeys to append a build order to the order queue. If E is a certain unit, then pressing it adds it to the queue, on infinite repeat by default. Pressing it again makes two, and pressing a different key adds a different unit, making a 2:1 ratio in the infinite queue between those two units. Modifier keys might add larger increments, such as shift for +5, or ctrl for +20. An additional key to clear the queue would also be needed. However players would also be able to click in the queue to remove specific elements, or click in a display panel to add (or view info about) a specific element.

For larger selection, such as for building construction with many structures possible, using sensible groups is better than using "pages." There are two ways to do groups; stacking them up on a single key associated with that group with repeat presses cycling through, and having some logical subgroup system. Stacking is fast if there are only a few entries on each key, and the player can easily memorize a short stack, and only needs to be shown what they are currently about to build. Pressing W for a mex is very fast, and pressing W again for something used somewhat less often than the mex, but related, is also fast and simple. If the number of choices is relatively consistent across the board, and won't be more than about 60 (15 easily accessible keys multipled by up to 4 options in each stack on each key) then stacking is more efficient, and superior.

However I think having logical subgroups makes the most sense, especially for clarity and expandability. A build menu of groups, with a keypress for group selection, becomes a build menu of sub-options. If necessary, groups can have sub-groups before final selections are made. The downside to this approach is that it is slower than stacking, because any selection will require multiple keypresses, regardless of frequency of use. But it is possible to have an arbitrarily large number of options, and the game can display the player's available choices at each sub-group.

this method, definatley the best / most versatile method ive seen

would definately prefer over any other method

I actually like mouse gesture/pie menus. Used it in solidworks (it's a CAD not and RTS) and it was were intuitive.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l9JCa7 ... ata_player

And if this got transferred to the hotkeys, that would be awesome. When you know one you know the other. (That's the ideer anyhow).

Pressing and holding right mouse botton, and moving the arrow will show the UI, hotkey S, this key will also minimise the UI.

Moving op and past the pie botton will give the same result as pressing W. Top right corner, same as E. Right Side, D. Lower right, C... and so on.

Units could be categorised into a layer menu. Water, ground, air and space. Op, down, left, right, W, X, A, D.

Pressing tab, changes the main UI and hotkeys to 8 possible building options, tab again, 8 more, tab again returns to the unit layer interface.

When a unit type/layer is chosen, possibilities will be display in a new cirkle, or a list format, pressing tab will show additional units, witch can be selected with left mouse botton.You can choose how many beside the unit, 1, 5, 10, 50, 100... or hotkey yourself to whatever nummer you might want (1500 click later).
When you're done, right click to return to layer menu, or select a group number 1-9 and sub group 1-9, this also exits the UI, making it possible to place the units.
They are automatically made at factories that are closest or not in use.

A hotkey to replenish you ranks when you're taken losses, would be were useful, simple creating the lost units in the same group.

I may give a radial build menu UI a whack. Somehow I doubt Uber is going to seriously entertain the idea of it for long :O

Honestly, I have no problem using the entire keyboard. I couldn't imagine an RTS without using the entire keyboard.

At the minimum # keys should be selection groups, cntrl + # should bind groups and shift + # keys should append current selections to existing # groups. I think it would be great if unbuilt+currently building units could also be appended to existing groups. Maybe cntrl+shift+# could accomplish this. I did not like how in Supreme Commander 2 cntrl + # automatically appended units constructed from a factory rather than leaving the factories part of the selection like any other unit. This was more than annoying when selecting experimental factories.

Some things to discuss:

1.Some keys need to be close together if they will be used in conjunction. Build commands should be close if possible. D for the d-gun is far superior to O for the d-gun or U for the d-gun. This is an important combat button. It's ok if its named Uber-gun as long as I can still hit the D button for it.

2. Being able to tab between different unit types within your selection which have different commands would be nice. However, I think hotkeys should be readied and enabled even if the specific group isn't currently shown in the visual UI toggles if possible. Since the game is modifiable and new abilities may be added this may not be practical. Could be strange if multiple abilities are attached to the same key and have very divergent functions.

3. If a group of units of different types have the same ability, I want those units to all share the same hotkey to enable it. For instance, if my ACU and my bots have jump jets I want a single hotkey to initiate the jump for the entire group. Also, it would be nice if there were 2 circles for the jump. One circle might show the maximum jump of any single unit and the other circle might show the maximum jump of all units.

4. Displaying the hotkeys on the in game visual toggles would be great and help new players use hotkeys.

5. Repeat build que probably shouldn't be standard for new players, however maybe this could be a one time select menu option for veterans who almost always have repeat build turned on.

6. Alt+key is not a good combat key.

7. All keybindings should be rebindable.

8. I want 2 keybindings and toggles for abilities that turn on and off. For instance, if I have 3 subs that are submerged and 5 that are not selected then I want to be able to submerge the group with the submerge button or unsubmerge the group with the unsubmerge button. This also goes for units that have a siege-mode (although I hope this will be automated), cloaking, shields, intel, on/off, some form of energy consumption, etc.

Well, not everybody is a keyboard pianist with spidery fingers .
The amounts of keys needed should be kept as low as possible, by the engine itself, imo.
Though i doubt it is possible.

Also, if, the biggest hindrance for a consolport(after pc and mac versionrelease) should be dealed with.