The problem

Most top players in faf use lots of hotkeys, as is the case with all rts games. However even though faf has tons of different possible hotkey binds you can use they end up being unusable for 1 simple reason: The lack of keys on your keyboard to assign hotkeys to. This is especially noticeable in faf because unlike other rts games there currently isn't (fully) a system in place to work around this issue.

Let me take Aoe2 (and sc2 to a lesser extent) as an example. Aoe2 has, just like faf, a lot of different hotkeys to work with. However In Aoe2 you have the ability to overload hotkeys which drastically improves the efficiency of using your keys to bind hotkeys to. You have a worker selected? Press D to make a stable. You have a stable selected? Press D to make a knight. You have a unit selected? Press D to make them go into defensive stance. Meanwhile on faf you assign D to dive your t1 subs and now the D-key is completely unusable for anything else.

Let me try to emphasize just how bad this is.

A UEF land fac has 20 possible units it can make. Just assigning hotkeys to those units already takes up every single letter key that's in a realistic range of your hand. You are somewhat spared by the current hotbuilding key binds that are currently available by being able to merge land/air/navy & build hotkeys together, but at this point you've only covered the basic hotkeys and already lost 20 keys. General unit commands like move, attack, patrol, stop, assist, reclaim, capture and repair need to be added too. Then you have tons of other often used hotkeys too like drop (from trans), OC, pause, repeat, launch tml, etc, etc. At this point i have only touched the more common hotkeys and haven't even begun assigning them for unit abilities, selection or other features.

The solution

As mentioned earlier there is already somewhat of a solution to this issue and that is the current hotkey combination list under hotbuilding. Although it isn't perfect, if it would be possible to add whatever combination of hotkeys to any button(s) you want it would already be a lot better than the current situation.

So what i'm envisioning is a mod with some sort of template that allows people that have no understanding of coding to easily adjust a few values to construct their own hotkey combination. For example You should be able to assign dive, drop, launch tml and enable/disable shields all to a single hotkey. What i think is most important is that there should be some sort of extensive instruction file in the mod for how to properly use it.

If anyone has a different idea or solution that's viable feel free to share it.

All in all the mod should allow of better competitive play since a better hotkey setup allows for more possibilities.

@myEmperor said in Why so gay thing exist?:

Would our game really be worse without this unit?

yes

@Pearl12 said in Fire beetle balance suggestion:

They are intended to be used as a snipe unit,

no

cool story

im signing up to arrive an hour late again

@arma473 said in Veterancy removal for most units:

There is no reason why robot armies would "get smarter" from veterancy, or why individual units would benefit. If the AI actually is learning from experience, the entire army should get stronger. It isn't consistent with the Supreme Commander "backstory."

Having a well balanced game with interesting features is more important than the logic and/or backstory. Researching some extra range or attack upgrade in Aoe2 will instantly give all archers anywhere on the map extra range and attack. Does this make any sense? No. Is this good for gameplay? Yes

@archsimkat said in [META] Basic frameworks for faction balance:

Here's a replay of me as UEF vs Petric as Seraphim: #12940483. KI think I demonstrate the strength of UEF over Sera against an arguably much stronger player.

No you don't. All i see is a crippled petric playing crippled for the entire game. If he was UEF the game would've gone the exact same way.

It's pretty buggy

https://puu.sh/GNXmQ/4425692c6a.mp4

Wont be able to make it in time to play but i can do some casting if needed

What time does the groupstage start at

Wont be able to make it in time to play but i can do some casting if needed

2 very good friends
Me
Ftx

Edit: nvm didnt see rating limit

found the first person that likes forbidden pass

@Degulum said in The Vault sort by rating system is bad and needs to be changed:

@Brutus5000 Which is still good, it means that that mod has some form of popularity and allow for changes to be made.

so the people that rate a mod 1/5 stars in an attempt to warn people that its a bad mod are actually unintentionally boosting its popularity. A great system indeed

picking ftx as my first pick

I love terrorist timings