Lazy sweeper
Mooooo Cra Chirp Fssss Miaouw is a game of words
I would like to make the case for the Enter hotkey as the number #2 top priority, or at least in the top #10 for a number # of reasons:
The Enter buttond in its semplicity did a number of thing.
In the best Civ of all time III it does everything and a little more.
#1 It Ends (indirectly immediately)the turn. No interruptions for moves or city production, or missing science focus. When pressed repeatedly it just brings you there naturally.
The Main Reason Enter did not work anymore for ending turns after Civ IV it was because of the constant unit cycling and ineffectiveness of the F combo. So you needed Shift+Enter, but the cycle of lost time would repeat until the end of times.
#2 Within turns, Enter simply X the default choice for every kind of message that appears on screen. This saves the player from hoovering around the mouse every time it has to say yes or no. The default position of the mouse pointer in the windows is always on yes. Declare war? Yes, will trigger a safety pop up: Are you sure? In that case arrow down to the second choice and that
second choice should always be something neutral response, that AI can accept in some cases and in others like trespassing just tell you have to move your troops immediately or it's instant war.
The pop up then will default on the most logic choice in order to remain neutral, that is, move automatically your troops outside of enemy territory. All of that is always done with three simple, elegant
consecutive clicks of the Enter hotkey.
#3 In the end, no matter the case, there is always a default more neutral choice for everything, that should naturally default the Enter hotkey to.
#4 Sometime the sneaky devs could formulate sneaky questions and invert the order of things, the Natural movement of the Universal spheres, and make the Ai ask you for gold, a unit, a town or city, a work of Art, a tech, and the default would still be to yes, so the Afk player would pay handsomely the disregard of the devs caretaking of our individual stories. Arrow down should default to No as the right answer. If there are three or more choices to make, more arrow down etc.
#5 The anti-Enter for excellence is obviously the Esc key. In every other case that you do not want to be bothered with answering to anyone or anything that you are not forced to, Esc should
basically do the same job as Enter in many cases, that is, to fasten up as much as possible games interactions that are not part of Strategic part of the gameplay.
#6 The F hotkey combo glory is what makes the Strategic part of the gameplay bearable when there are many units to cycle through, and you have to tell them what to do, because an enemy appeared, because the took damage, etc etc. F is Fortify and forget about that unit Forever. If We wanted to interrupt us, when an enemy was on sight, we would have wanted to use Alert.
#7 The magical combination of these two fundamental keys make it possible to the veteran player, and the younger player, to cycle through the tactical and strategical parts of the gameplay in the
speediest way possible imaginable. Neutrality is Key. Alert pop ups for potential wrong choices a touch of divine. F stands for Flow in my mind.
CIV III Hotkeys - Highlights on the most important one IMO
Interface – City Window
Add to Production Queue Shift-Click
Delete from Production Queue Del
Contact City Governors G
Hurry Production H
Load Production Queue Q
Save Production Queue Shift-Q
Interface – Map Window
Center on Active Unit C
Center on Capital H
Change City Production Shift-Rclick
Clean up Map Display Ctrl-Shift-M
Locate City by Name Shift-L
Toggle Button Position Backspace
Toggle Interface Display Del
Toggle Map Grid Ctrl-G
Toggle Map Zoom Z
Game Commands
Change Government (by revolution) Shift-G
Change Mobilization Level Shift-M
End Turn Immediately Shift-Enter <<<<<< Just Enter neutrally brought you there equally.
Game Commands – Diplomacy
Contact Rival Leaders Shift-D
Establish Embassy Ctrl-E
Plant Spy Ctrl-Shift-E
Use Embassy or Spy Shift-E
Game Commands – Function Keys
Domestic Advisor F1
Trade Advisor F2
Military Advisor F3
Foreign Advisor F4
Cultural Advisor F5
Science Advisor F6
Wonders of the World F7
Histograph and Score F8
Palace View F9
Spaceship View F10
Demographics and Top Cities F11
Show Game Version Ctrl-F4
Game Commands – Management
Change Preferences Ctrl-P
Change Sound Settings Shift-S
Load Game Ctrl-L
Main Menu Ctrl-M
Navigate Civilopedia Arrow keys
Open Civilopedia Ctrl-C
Quit Civilization III Escape
Resign and go to Main Menu Ctrl-Q
Resign and Start New Game Ctrl-Shift-Q >>>>> Was replaced with the Restart button, but it had NO HOTKEY. INSTEAD WITH DOUBLE ENTER CLICK FROM THE MAIN MENU DEFAULTED ON QUICK START (same settings) would do the same job, but faster.
Save Game Ctrl-S
Documented but nonfunctional
Espionage E
Retire Shift-Q
Unit Commands (v1.17f)
Activate multiple units in stack Shift-Click
Airdrop (when with helicopter) A
Airlift (when at airport) T
Bombard selected square B
Disband Unit D
Explore Map automatically E
Fortify or Garrison F
Go to selected square G
Go to City by Name Ctrl-Shift-G
Hold Position (skip this turn) Spacebar
Load or Unload Transport L
Move Stack to selected square J
Pillage Improvements P
Sentry (any unit activates) Y
Sentry (enemy unit activates) Shift-Y
Upgrade (when at barracks) U
Upgrade all units of this type Shift-U
Wait (move later this turn) W or Tab
Unit Commands – Aircraft
Air Superiority Mission S
Bombing Mission B
Rebase Mission Shift-R
Reconnaisance Mission R
Unit Commands – Leaders
Build Army B
Hurry Improvement Ctrl-H
Unit Commands – Settlers
Build City B
Join City (when in city) B
Unit Commands – Workers (v1.17f)
Automate A
Automate, keep existing improvements Shift-A
Automate, improve nearest city only Shift-I
Automate, nearest city & keep existing Ctrl-Shift-I
Automate, clear forests only Shift-F
Automate, clear jungle only Shift-J
Automate, clean up pollution only Shift-P
Build Colony B
Build Road to square, then Colony Ctrl-B
Build Fortress Ctrl-F
Build Mine M
Build Road R
Build Road to selected square Ctrl-R
Build Railroad Shift-R
Build Railroad to selected square Ctrl-Shift-R
Build Trade Network Ctrl-N
Clean up Pollution Shift-C
Clear Forest or Jungle Shift-C
Irrigate I
Irrigate to nearest city Ctrl-I
Join City (when in city) B
Plant Forest N
The Enter buttond in its semplicity did a number of thing.
In the best Civ of all time III it does everything and a little more.
#1 It Ends (indirectly immediately)the turn. No interruptions for moves or city production, or missing science focus. When pressed repeatedly it just brings you there naturally.
The Main Reason Enter did not work anymore for ending turns after Civ IV it was because of the constant unit cycling and ineffectiveness of the F combo. So you needed Shift+Enter, but the cycle of lost time would repeat until the end of times.
#2 Within turns, Enter simply X the default choice for every kind of message that appears on screen. This saves the player from hoovering around the mouse every time it has to say yes or no. The default position of the mouse pointer in the windows is always on yes. Declare war? Yes, will trigger a safety pop up: Are you sure? In that case arrow down to the second choice and that
second choice should always be something neutral response, that AI can accept in some cases and in others like trespassing just tell you have to move your troops immediately or it's instant war.
The pop up then will default on the most logic choice in order to remain neutral, that is, move automatically your troops outside of enemy territory. All of that is always done with three simple, elegant
consecutive clicks of the Enter hotkey.
#3 In the end, no matter the case, there is always a default more neutral choice for everything, that should naturally default the Enter hotkey to.
#4 Sometime the sneaky devs could formulate sneaky questions and invert the order of things, the Natural movement of the Universal spheres, and make the Ai ask you for gold, a unit, a town or city, a work of Art, a tech, and the default would still be to yes, so the Afk player would pay handsomely the disregard of the devs caretaking of our individual stories. Arrow down should default to No as the right answer. If there are three or more choices to make, more arrow down etc.
#5 The anti-Enter for excellence is obviously the Esc key. In every other case that you do not want to be bothered with answering to anyone or anything that you are not forced to, Esc should
basically do the same job as Enter in many cases, that is, to fasten up as much as possible games interactions that are not part of Strategic part of the gameplay.
#6 The F hotkey combo glory is what makes the Strategic part of the gameplay bearable when there are many units to cycle through, and you have to tell them what to do, because an enemy appeared, because the took damage, etc etc. F is Fortify and forget about that unit Forever. If We wanted to interrupt us, when an enemy was on sight, we would have wanted to use Alert.
#7 The magical combination of these two fundamental keys make it possible to the veteran player, and the younger player, to cycle through the tactical and strategical parts of the gameplay in the
speediest way possible imaginable. Neutrality is Key. Alert pop ups for potential wrong choices a touch of divine. F stands for Flow in my mind.
CIV III Hotkeys - Highlights on the most important one IMO
Interface – City Window
Add to Production Queue Shift-Click
Delete from Production Queue Del
Contact City Governors G
Hurry Production H
Load Production Queue Q
Save Production Queue Shift-Q
Interface – Map Window
Center on Active Unit C
Center on Capital H
Change City Production Shift-Rclick
Clean up Map Display Ctrl-Shift-M
Locate City by Name Shift-L
Toggle Button Position Backspace
Toggle Interface Display Del
Toggle Map Grid Ctrl-G
Toggle Map Zoom Z
Game Commands
Change Government (by revolution) Shift-G
Change Mobilization Level Shift-M
End Turn Immediately Shift-Enter <<<<<< Just Enter neutrally brought you there equally.
Game Commands – Diplomacy
Contact Rival Leaders Shift-D
Establish Embassy Ctrl-E
Plant Spy Ctrl-Shift-E
Use Embassy or Spy Shift-E
Game Commands – Function Keys
Domestic Advisor F1
Trade Advisor F2
Military Advisor F3
Foreign Advisor F4
Cultural Advisor F5
Science Advisor F6
Wonders of the World F7
Histograph and Score F8
Palace View F9
Spaceship View F10
Demographics and Top Cities F11
Show Game Version Ctrl-F4
Game Commands – Management
Change Preferences Ctrl-P
Change Sound Settings Shift-S
Load Game Ctrl-L
Main Menu Ctrl-M
Navigate Civilopedia Arrow keys
Open Civilopedia Ctrl-C
Quit Civilization III Escape
Resign and go to Main Menu Ctrl-Q
Resign and Start New Game Ctrl-Shift-Q >>>>> Was replaced with the Restart button, but it had NO HOTKEY. INSTEAD WITH DOUBLE ENTER CLICK FROM THE MAIN MENU DEFAULTED ON QUICK START (same settings) would do the same job, but faster.
Save Game Ctrl-S
Documented but nonfunctional
Espionage E
Retire Shift-Q
Unit Commands (v1.17f)
Activate multiple units in stack Shift-Click
Airdrop (when with helicopter) A
Airlift (when at airport) T
Bombard selected square B
Disband Unit D
Explore Map automatically E
Fortify or Garrison F
Go to selected square G
Go to City by Name Ctrl-Shift-G
Hold Position (skip this turn) Spacebar
Load or Unload Transport L
Move Stack to selected square J
Pillage Improvements P
Sentry (any unit activates) Y
Sentry (enemy unit activates) Shift-Y
Upgrade (when at barracks) U
Upgrade all units of this type Shift-U
Wait (move later this turn) W or Tab
Unit Commands – Aircraft
Air Superiority Mission S
Bombing Mission B
Rebase Mission Shift-R
Reconnaisance Mission R
Unit Commands – Leaders
Build Army B
Hurry Improvement Ctrl-H
Unit Commands – Settlers
Build City B
Join City (when in city) B
Unit Commands – Workers (v1.17f)
Automate A
Automate, keep existing improvements Shift-A
Automate, improve nearest city only Shift-I
Automate, nearest city & keep existing Ctrl-Shift-I
Automate, clear forests only Shift-F
Automate, clear jungle only Shift-J
Automate, clean up pollution only Shift-P
Build Colony B
Build Road to square, then Colony Ctrl-B
Build Fortress Ctrl-F
Build Mine M
Build Road R
Build Road to selected square Ctrl-R
Build Railroad Shift-R
Build Railroad to selected square Ctrl-Shift-R
Build Trade Network Ctrl-N
Clean up Pollution Shift-C
Clear Forest or Jungle Shift-C
Irrigate I
Irrigate to nearest city Ctrl-I
Join City (when in city) B
Plant Forest N
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