The new tool bars and short cut keys are the initial changes planned for the game user interface.
We thought we would use this Blog Post to share what action each icon and short cut key represented.
There is some logic been applied to both. For example;
- Yellow Icons represent an irreversible game action – such as next turn
- Grey Icons are game administratve functions such as Save game.
- Red Icons are a ‘Doing’ action where you change a unit’s state. Usually, these are tied to a Ctrl + shortcut so that you have to consciously decide to select the action
- Blue Icons are usually Dialogs or reports. They normally have an Alt + shortcut. In the case of air and artillery they use Ctrl + shortcuts due to the potential changing of a units state
- Light Brown Icons are for engineering functions
- Green icons are informational actions and will normally be a single key press. These actions do not change the game state and the vast majority are an on/off toggle
Here is the full list of Icons with description and the applicable short cut keys in red;
Till the next update…
David
Looking at the shortcuts, for those of us who use Parallels with a Mac keyboard, how do we access the items using a Numbpad key?
Hi,
There are usually three different ways to access a game function once we release the beta. Using the short cut, clicking on the icon or going to the drop down menus. In the case of Parallels, you will lose the shortcut capability if you don’t have physical access to the Number Pad, but you will have an icon available to click as well as drop down access.
There have been many shortcuts keyed to the Number Pad in the past and we had not had issues to date and we’re comfortable that we have provided alternative access.
This looks pretty cool. It would be even cooler if you could select two or more (applicable) icon buttons to be active at the same time. For example show HQs and show organization at the same time would be very useful rather than having to jump between the two.
Can you make the toolbars into floating toolbars, please. It’s fairly easy and those of us with two monitors can move the toolbars to the second monitor and get more map space.
Thanks,
Paul
Paul,
I will have to talk to Berto on that. It’s an interesting idea but something that is definitely not programmed for currently. You can turn the toolbars off – which is possible during play once you memorise your favourite shortcuts. I’m finding I play more with those than the tool bars once I learn them. Less mouse movement…
David
David,
Good to know about turning off the toolbar. Many, many editors and s/w dev tools are easier to use with keyboard shortcuts so you don’t waste time grabbing the mouse. I have often felt that All of JTS and HPSSIMs series would be better with more keyboard shortcuts. Turning off the toolbar is equivalent to what I wanted by floating them
Thanks,
Paul.
While I am at it, there is a genuine, bonafide bug with auto-scroll. If you have two monitors, move the map to the second monitor, auto-scroll sees the mouse in the second monitor and scrolls the map all the way to the right (typically, if #2 monitor is on the right).
Can you fix that?
Thanks,
Paul
Another improvement that I would like to see is to make the dialog boxes larger (and scrollable in size), and in particular the Strength Dialog Box needs to be larger with large OOB’s.
Also it would be great if one could click on a unit in a dialog box and have that unit highlighted/selected on the map. The dialog boxes in general still have this 90’s look and feel. It would be great to bring them up to current standards.
Thanks for the feedback Ron. we have plans around dialog boxes and reporting but not for the upcoming beta release. Your suggestions will go into the list to be looked at.