Please change default keyboard shortcuts

[tomreyn]

As discussed in the PauseGame shortcut key does not work on headless server thread, some keyboard shortcuts can get in the way while playing. To prevent the user from accidentially  hitting keys which can distract from general work / gameplay, other applications and games usually assign such shortcuts to less accessible or differently placed keys or key combinations.

I therefore suggest to change some default key bindings:

Shortcut	Current Default	New Default
ExitKey	escape	escape
HotKeyRotateUnitDuringPlacement	R	R
HotKeySelectBuiltBuilding	B	B
HotKeySelectDamagedUnit	D	D
HotKeySelectedUnitsAttack	A	A
HotKeySelectedUnitsStop	S	S
HotKeySelectIdleHarvesterUnit	I	I
HotKeySelectStoreUnit	T	T
FreeCameraMode	F	page up
ResetCameraMode	space	page down
HotKeyCenterCameraOnSelection	G	space
CameraModeDown	down	down
CameraModeLeft	left	left
CameraModeRight	right	right
CameraModeUp	up	up
CameraRotateDown	W	[8]
CameraRotateLeft	A	[4]
CameraRotateRight	D	[6]
CameraRotateUp	S	[2]
GameSpeedDecrease	-	-
GameSpeedIncrease	+	+
GroupUnitsKey1	0	0
GroupUnitsKey2	1	1
GroupUnitsKey3	2	2
GroupUnitsKey4	3	3
GroupUnitsKey5	4	4
GroupUnitsKey6	5	5
GroupUnitsKey7	6	6
GroupUnitsKey8	7	7
GroupUnitsKey9	8	8
GroupUnitsKey10	9	9
SwitchLanguage	L	f3
ToggleMusic	K	f2
TogglePhotoMode	f8	insert
Screenshot	E	print screen
ShowFullConsole	M	C
ChatTeamMode	H	tab
RenderNetworkStatus	N	f12
HotKeyShowDebug	?	f11
ChangeFontColor	C	f6
ExtraTeamColorMarker	*	f4
HotKeyToggleOSMouseEnabled	/	f8
PauseGame	P	pause
ReloadINI	f5	f5
SaveGUILayout	f11	f9
HotKeyDumpWorldToLog	|	f10

You may wonder why this is better than what we currently have. Here's why:

• Less keyboard shortcuts assigned to letters (a..z): Chance to accidentially change settings while supposedly typing text into chat is minimized; more letters can be assigned for special functions in scenarios.
• Keep all game options out of the area where game orders are given by assigning them to function keys and other special keys: decreases probability of accidential key strokes; prevent issues due to localized keyboard layouts (F1 is always F1, but & is not neccessarily always &)
• More intuitive defaults
• Fix current duplicate key assignment of CameraRotateUp + HotKeySelectedUnitsStop (both set to S)

Remember, these are only defaults - you and everybody can still change their key bindings to whatever you/she/he likes.

Update:
Titi + Softcoder: I'm able to implement this myself, don't need your help there for once. I'm just posting this here for discussion - yours and everyones' comments are appreciated.

[Omega]

I support all of these changes. While it may be a bit of a hassle to try and relearn several hotkeys (eg, we've been using "e" for screenshots since the first versions of Glest), they make better sense as what Tom suggests, and are more "standardized" with what other games use as hotkeys, etc.

[titi]

I am not too happy with some of them

Keep the following:

ResetCameraMode   space ( this can be discussed,  but I personally really like it )
PauseGame   P ( default in nearly every game I know )
Screenshot   E ( was always like this in all glest versions )
HotKeyCenterCameraOnSelection   G ( default in many rts games)


I would like to remove some of the key functions in general like as they are quite useless:

Use mouse to do the following:
CameraRotateDown   W
CameraRotateLeft   A
CameraRotateRight   D
CameraRotateUp     S
FreeCameraMode   F


and I would also stay with these, but this can be discussed:
RenderNetworkStatus   N   
HotKeyShowDebug   ?   
ChangeFontColor   C   
ExtraTeamColorMarker   *   
HotKeyToggleOSMouseEnabled   /

[Omega]

I am not too happy with some of them

Keep the following:

ResetCameraMode   space ( this can be discussed,  but I personally really like it )
PauseGame   P ( default in nearly every game I know )
Screenshot   E ( was always like this in all glest versions )
HotKeyCenterCameraOnSelection   G ( default in many rts games)

In GAE, and at least a few other games I've played, space is the hotkey for centering on selection, and I strongly support Tom's suggested change for that. Yes, screenshots have been "E" for a long time, but it doesn't make any sense really, and the vast majority of games that support screenshots use Print Screen as the hotkey. Heck, Ctrl + Print Screen is the system hotkey for taking a screenshot of the entire window (to the clipboard). Though, in retrospective, keeping pause as "P" is a good idea, especially since most laptops don't have a pause key (mine would need me to use Fn + Page Down...).

I would like to remove some of the key functions in general like as they are quite useless:[/b]

Use mouse to do the following:
CameraRotateDown   W
CameraRotateLeft   A
CameraRotateRight   D
CameraRotateUp     S
FreeCameraMode   F

Eh? I've used those hotkeys loads in the past (in classic Glest) to better align the camera for screenshots. Granted, I far, far prefer GAE's system of using the middle mouse button to move the camera freely, which would make these obsolete, but otherwise, they should have a hotkey.

and I would also stay with these, but this can be discussed:[/b]
RenderNetworkStatus   N   
HotKeyShowDebug   ?   
ChangeFontColor   C   
ExtraTeamColorMarker   *   
HotKeyToggleOSMouseEnabled   /

Do you have any reason to keep those besides the fact that you're "used to them"? While I'd agree that changing trivial things too often overcomplifies everything (eg, if Ctrl + Z was used as a paste hotkey in some program, I'd find that a bad choice, since we're used to Ctrl + P, which makes more sense (Paste starts with a "P") and we already know it; not to mention Ctrl + Z is usually undo) Tom's suggestions can reduce the incident of hitting a hotkey when intending to send a chat message.

Changing the font color? Does anyone actually do that? Why not just make it an INI option and scrap the hotkey in entirety? Same for the OS mouse enabled hotkey. As well, the hotkey for debug is listed as "?", but technically, that's really just Ctrl + /.

[tomreyn]

Keep the following:
ResetCameraMode   space ( this can be discussed,  but I personally really like it )

I'm not suggesting to change your personal preferences ;-) but to set some new defaults which everyone can easily customize if so desired, especially people like you and I.

PauseGame   P ( default in nearly every game I know )

I can't think of any game which also (1) has in-game chat, (2) has an option to pause multi-player games and (3) uses the (lower case) P key to trigger that. Softcoder had deiabled this shortcut key for multi-player games initially for exactly the reason that it's easy to hit P while trying to chat. Not knowing his reasons, and because it seems unintuitive to me to have a key binding working in single player but not multi-player games for the same function, I filed a bug on this and he since made the key binding work in multi-player, too. Where do we go from here?

Screenshot   E ( was always like this in all glest versions )

I collect about 20 screenshots per week just because I accidentially hit the E key while supposedly chatting. It really seems like a bad default to me.

HotKeyCenterCameraOnSelection   G ( default in many rts games)

Same issue as above, though this one is not as grave since by the time you start chatting you often have the selected units/building (if any) focussed anyways.

I would like to remove some of the key functions in general like as they are quite useless:
Use mouse to do the following:
CameraRotateDown   W
CameraRotateLeft   A
CameraRotateRight   D
CameraRotateUp     S
FreeCameraMode   F

I've never been using these keys on purpose until I looked into the keyboard shortcuts these days. But at least the first 4 do seem to make sense to me for videos very much. Which, admittedly, is a rare use case.

and I would also stay with these, but this can be discussed:
RenderNetworkStatus   N   
HotKeyShowDebug   ?   
ChangeFontColor   C   
ExtraTeamColorMarker   *   
HotKeyToggleOSMouseEnabled   /

Of these, I find the C key most problematic when it'S too easily accessed. I guess I could also live with this shortcut being moved to the Options screen instead.