X marks the WHAT????
Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 6:38 am
I would really like to see some changes to the keyboard shortcuts. Listed below are a few of the problems I run into during game play. Some of these keyboard shortcuts seem to be just bad planning on the part of the game developers, and a little effort to change the problem areas would make the game play much better. It would also be great if the next version of Freedciv could offer users the ability to disable any keyboard commands that he prefers to not use, either intentionally or by accident.
(x) The easiest way to center a unit is to type a "c". Unfortunately, the letter "x" is adjacent to "c", and it is much too easy to inadvertently type an "x" when intending to type a "c". Even worse, the "x" command sends the unit off in some strange direction, to an undesirable location, where it will simply stop and rot until it is later found and told to do something useful. There may be a reason to use the "x" command, but I have not found it yet. Even if "x" is useful, surely it can be changed to uppercase "X" so one must press the shift key to type it, instead of accidentally typing the lower case "x" when intending to type the lower case "c".
(f) So I am playing along and I tell a worker to build a road. Naturally, I use the keyboard shortcut "r" to do that the easy way. Only later I discover that the worker resource has been wasted because I inadvertently typed a "f", which is adjacent to the "r" that I wanted to type. The fortify command is useful, but I use it only a few times during a game. It would be much appreciated if that command could also be changed to the uppercase "F", so I would not accidentally type it when I wanted to type the lowercase "c".
(shift-c) I use the keyboard command "shift-v" many times in a game to move all units at that location to a new place. That is especially useful when moving workers to or from a pollution repair. So what happens if I accidentally type the adjacent "shift-c" instead of "shift-v"? Disaster!!! All of the workers in the entire game stop the tasks they were working on, and just flash until they are told what to do. That is a huge amount of very undesirable extra effort, only because "c" is adjacent to "v". If I cannot have the ability to disable the "shift-c" command (that I never use), is it possible to at least change it to something else, like "ctrl-c" or "shift-ctrl-c"? Reducing the pain caused by poor planning with the keyboard shortcuts will help to make the game more fun to play.
(x) The easiest way to center a unit is to type a "c". Unfortunately, the letter "x" is adjacent to "c", and it is much too easy to inadvertently type an "x" when intending to type a "c". Even worse, the "x" command sends the unit off in some strange direction, to an undesirable location, where it will simply stop and rot until it is later found and told to do something useful. There may be a reason to use the "x" command, but I have not found it yet. Even if "x" is useful, surely it can be changed to uppercase "X" so one must press the shift key to type it, instead of accidentally typing the lower case "x" when intending to type the lower case "c".
(f) So I am playing along and I tell a worker to build a road. Naturally, I use the keyboard shortcut "r" to do that the easy way. Only later I discover that the worker resource has been wasted because I inadvertently typed a "f", which is adjacent to the "r" that I wanted to type. The fortify command is useful, but I use it only a few times during a game. It would be much appreciated if that command could also be changed to the uppercase "F", so I would not accidentally type it when I wanted to type the lowercase "c".
(shift-c) I use the keyboard command "shift-v" many times in a game to move all units at that location to a new place. That is especially useful when moving workers to or from a pollution repair. So what happens if I accidentally type the adjacent "shift-c" instead of "shift-v"? Disaster!!! All of the workers in the entire game stop the tasks they were working on, and just flash until they are told what to do. That is a huge amount of very undesirable extra effort, only because "c" is adjacent to "v". If I cannot have the ability to disable the "shift-c" command (that I never use), is it possible to at least change it to something else, like "ctrl-c" or "shift-ctrl-c"? Reducing the pain caused by poor planning with the keyboard shortcuts will help to make the game more fun to play.