Hotkeys changes

[Vokarya]

I want to make some changes to hotkeys. There are a couple problems that have been reported and I have found others.

Automate City Defense: This is clashing badly with Center on Selection. I think Shift-C will be better for automate city defense and leave vanilla-C to center view.

Automate Pillage: Vanilla-P is being used for both Automate Pillage and Paradrop. I would prefer to have vanilla-P be paradrop and Control-P be automate pillage. (Shift-P is Pillage.)

Build Jungle Camp: This, for some reason, does not have a hotkey. Vanilla-J is not being used for anything at the moment as far as I can tell. It looks like a perfect match to me.

Plant Forest/Plant Jungle: These are using the same hotkey combination of Ctrl-Alt-F. This is also the combination that enables the flying camera if cheat mode is enabled. I think Plant Forest should be Shift-F which is only used for build Anti-Air Aquatic Defenses, and Plant Jungle should be Shift-J which is unused.

Consolidation: I want to consolidate all Mine improvements under Vanilla-M, all Route improvements under Vanilla-R, build Forest Preserve and Hybrid Forest under Vanilla-F, and Fort/Bunker/Command Center under Ctrl-F. Routes might need testing, but the only time when there are two viable routes are between Railroad and Highway until Maglev.

Are there any others that need help?

 

[<Nexus>]

It's great that you take care of even these things

IIRC there was something about B too. Archer bombard and regular bombard clashing each other and/or with Automate border defense or something like that? I don't remember. Maybe it was fixed long ago I just didn't notice. Nevertheless mentioning won't hurt I guess.

 

[Samson]

This is great, I particular C which really gets me.

Other ones include:

• S, which is sentry and range bombard
• Shift-M, should be shaft mine but does not work for me. Perhaps this will be changed by "consolidate all Mine improvements under Vanilla-M"
• It seems to me that the route chosen when you press R is the lowest route available but I would generally prefer to build the best. So after I get Monarchy on an unimproved tile pressing R builds a cart path, to build a road I need to press the unit action button. I would prefer it if it built a road by default. I like having the 2 actions at any point, as you say to allow selection between Railroad and Highway.

 

[Vokarya]

It's great that you take care of even these things

IIRC there was something about B too. Archer bombard and regular bombard clashing each other and/or with Automate border defense or something like that? I don't remember. Maybe it was fixed long ago I just didn't notice. Nevertheless mentioning won't hurt I guess.

I noticed that too. Vanilla-B is very overused but I need to break it down.

 

[<Nexus>]

It seems to me that the route chosen when you press R is the lowest route available but I would generally prefer to build the best. So after I get Monarchy on an unimproved tile pressing R builds a cart path, to build a road I need to press the unit action button. I would prefer it if it built a road by default. I like having the 2 actions at any point, as you say to allow selection between Railroad and Highway.

I think it's rather the XML order. I think that issue could be solved by reversing that in the file.

 

[Vokarya]

I think it's rather the XML order. I think that issue could be solved by reversing that in the file.

Actually, there's an XML tag for that: <iHotKeyPriority>. All we have to do is set them in the right order.

I got different results at different in-game points without modifying the tag:

All Classical techs, access to Stone: R triggers Build Paved Road.
All Industrial techs, access to Stone + Iron + Steel + Oil Products: R triggers Build Highway.
All Modern techs, access to Stone + Iron + Steel + Oil Products + Copper: R triggers Build Highway, even though Maglev is available.

If I set the <iHotKeyPriority> for Maglev to 6, then R triggers Build Maglev.

 

[Vokarya]

Build Orchard is currently shift-P along with Build Pasture and Build Plantation. Could we change Orchard to vanilla-O? Vanilla-O is currently only used for Build Offshore Platform.

 

[Vokarya]

I think I have a good breakdown for vanilla-B for air units. It all depends on if you are using Enhanced Air Bombardment or not. If you aren't, there is only one B mission. If you are, then there are 5 and they are ALL currently using B.

• Bomb defenses can stay as vanilla-B.
• Bomb buildings should be shift-B. This is not currently used at all.
  
• Bomb factories should be shift-F. This is not currently used for any air unit.
  
• Bomb port should be shift-P. This is also not currently used for any air unit.
• Bomb production could get away with shift-S. Shift-S is currently Build Dig Site and Steal Plans.

 

[<Nexus>]

Actually, there's an XML tag for that: <iHotKeyPriority>. All we have to do is set them in the right order.

Hehe, I didn't know that the original Civ4 devs thought even of that

Build Orchard is currently shift-P along with Build Pasture and Build Plantation. Could we change Orchard to vanilla-O? Vanilla-O is currently only used for Build Offshore Platform.

Great!

I think I have a good breakdown for vanilla-B for air units. It all depends on if you are using Enhanced Air Bombardment or not. If you aren't, there is only one B mission. If you are, then there are 5 and they are ALL currently using B.

• Bomb defenses can stay as vanilla-B.
• Bomb buildings should be shift-B. This is not currently used at all.
  
• Bomb factories should be shift-F. This is not currently used for any air unit.
  
• Bomb port should be shift-P. This is also not currently used for any air unit.

All good.

• Bomb production could get away with shift-S. Shift-S is currently Build Dig Site and Steal Plans.

Where does S come from? How will I remember that? "Bomb the production <edit>."?
Couldn't we use shift-H ? I don't know if that's used for anything but "Bomb hammers" is an easy thing to remember even if it says "Bomb production". IIRC the button has a on it.
But I really don't want to be nitpicking. Good job anyway.

 

[Vokarya]

Where does S come from? How will I remember that? "Bomb the production shit."?
Couldn't we use shift-H ? I don't know if that's used for anything but "Bomb hammers" is an easy thing to remember even if it says "Bomb production". IIRC the button has a on it.
But I really don't want to be nitpicking. Good job anyway.

S came from Sabotage. Shift-H is "Sentry while Heal", but air units can't sentry. Fighters can be set on Intercept, but that's vanilla-I. So Shift-H is fair game.

 

[Vokarya]

Let's unpack vanilla-B for land units. It currently does four things:

• Bombard city defenses
• Archer bombard
• Ranged bombard (collateral damage)
• Automate border patrol

Vanilla-A is available for Archer Bombard. Vanilla-A is only used for Automate Worker and Automate Airbomb. Shift-B is available for ranged bombard. That just leaves Automate Border Patrol. Shift-P is already used for Automate Pillage. Ctrl-B is used for Show Bare Map and Alt-B is used for Log Battle Stats. Would any other letter be appropriate? Most of them aren't used very much.

 

[<Nexus>]

Does Automate Border Patrol really needs a hotkey? It's not something that you press every turn, like Archer Bombard and so.
(Actually, by design I wouldn't assign a hotkey to any automation - or almost none. Since you use these actions so rarely, you will hardly memorize their hotkeys and will mouse over the button anyway.)

 

[Vokarya]

Does Automate Border Patrol really needs a hotkey? It's not something that you press every turn, like Archer Bombard and so.
(Actually, by design I wouldn't assign a hotkey to any automation - or almost none. Since you use these actions so rarely, you will hardly memorize their hotkeys and will mouse over the button anyway.)

There aren't so many action options that they are really competing over hotkey space. I don't think it is unreasonable to give every action a hotkey option for players that really want to learn their favorites. However, the more commonly the option is used, the simpler the hotkey should be. The rare actions get pushed off to the combinations.

I was thinking of standardizing the automation hotkeys on Shift-letter. That way you would be less likely to hit them by accident:

• Shift-A instead of A for Automate Worker/Automate Airbomb
• Shift-C for Automate City Defense
• Shift-E instead of E for Automate Explore
• Shift-H instead of H for Automate Hunt and Automate Hurry
• Shift-N for Automate National Defense
• Shift-P for Automate Pillage
• Shift-Q for Automate Promote
• Shift-R for Automate Religion/Automate Recon
• Shift-S for Automate Protect
• Shift-U for Automate Upgrade (but this clashes with Unload All)
• Shift-X for Automate Pirate/Automate Airstrike

 

[Vokarya]

Here are some more tweaks to get some of the actions off of S.

• Vanilla-E is only used right now for Automate Explore. Land and naval units with Strength can explore, but air units and workers cannot. That makes it ideal for Fighter Engage and Build Dig Site, which I will change to Excavate. Vanilla-F is off limits because it is the truly universal Fortify/Sleep command.
• Shift-S is used for Steal Plans on Espionage units. Shift-S should be used for Automate Protect.

 

[Vokarya]

One more. G commands are generally Go To. Vanilla-G is Go To for one unit, Control-G is Go To for all units of the same type, and Alt-G is Go To for all units on the same tile. Shift-G is vacant. I think this should be used for the Go To City command that is currently Control-Shift-V. The V is probably related to Viewports, but I don't know how much AND actually needs them. Unifying every Go To under the same letter seems better.