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

Mercies are a trash unit anyway. Extreme rng cancer because aa's are retarded. The ability to instakill full hp acus is insanely stupid too. With good micro you can survive 30 corsairs or 5 strats for some time, but you see 5 mercies come while ur aa is a bit behind or it randomly died and u cant do anything about it. Probably the worst unit design in the entire game.

Best idea in my mind to not make it bad is to make it have big aoe but little dmg and do damage over time. Groundfire infront of enemy army reinforcements to delay or dmg them. If you fire it in the middle of enemy army they can react and dodge damage because of damage over time so there is counterplay instead of "i hAVe aA". Also should have a human amount of hp and fuel.

I dont know what ur talking about all my maps are definitely top tier

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.

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

Yes i do

Aside from main navy units of frig destro bs

Uef has neptunes shieldboats coopers
Cybran has stealth boat t2 sub
Aeon has t2 shield t2 sub tempest
Sera has t3 shield

And thats not counting situational units like atlantis, t3 sub, missile cruiser

Meanwhile air balance

Asf

Now compare which list is bigger

Everybody agrees valki is wrong

Hoverbombing bombers is more unrealistic than groundfiring subs and instead of 1 in every 200 games it happens 1 in every 2 games. Waiting for the HOVERBOMBING IS BROKEN AND UNREALISTIC thread, thanks

See you again next month when u find the forums again

I dont know what ur talking about all my maps are definitely top tier

First bomber

Its almost like the factions have different strenghts and weaknesses. How strange

@arma473 said in Make t3 navy more exciting!?!:

It would be nice if buildings had zero volume until about 25% completion. They would only start to grow after 25%.

That would be a terrible idea

cybran bs's are only 1k mass more expensive than a bc and have only 1 less speed, so no you don't get 2-3 neptunes on the frontlines before the cybran has its first bs arrive. If you don't think this is true then the same argument can be used for the summit switch since summits are painfully slow and the initial investment is way higher. Also you should factor in how obese barracuda's are vs uef in early t3 stage since you often don't have the luxury to build coopers if you're rushing t3 navy. It's pretty easy to suicide some barracuda's in to kill early shieldboats before a critical clump of them is on the field. Sniping cruisers with bc's shouldn't really be a thing if you play it properly and keep don't charge your cruiser in with the rest of your navy.

All in all bc's can be absolutely obese, mostly vs t2 navy, in a well done push but aren't great vs bs's barracuda's and on open enough maps they can get easily swarmed by t1/t2 navy if ur not paying attention properly (i've seen enough sadboy thau bc pushes). I'm not saying UEF is weak or some shit, i value their navy higher than cybran navy, but to say that cybran gets absolutely clapped by them in the t3 stage is just completely wrong.