Help with Mark-selection filter

[Harry]

This filter has always given me fits.  I tried changing the default hotkeys (N plus alpha) to a single keypress, like F1 or a letter key.  It doesn't seem to work.  Must this hotkey have two keypresses?  Ugh.  N plus a number key is just too big a stretch for my hands.

Also, it doesn't seem to matter whether I select ships first and then hit the key, or whether I hold the key while selecting ships.  Which is the proper method?  Select first, then hit key?  Or hold key while selecting?

Thanks.

[Hearteater]

If you are holding the filter key down when you let go of the mouse button, everything in the square is limited by the filter you are holding down.

[Harry]

Ah: it kicks in on *release* of the button.  I'll try again.  Thanks!

[Hearteater]

I find I use the "injured" filters a fair amount.  Especially on attacking through a worm hole.  I can quickly box-select all my <33% health units and have them retreat to were engineers are waiting to repair them.  Then I send them back through.

Also, you may not have noticed, but there is a different between double-clicking a unit and triple-clicking a unit.  Single-click just selects the one unit.  Double-click selects all units of that type AND mark.  Triple-click selects all units of that type REGARDLESS of mark.  I can't recall if the selection is limited only to what is on screen since I rarely have ships I'm trying to select off-screen.

[Harry]

Oh, I didn't even know about triple-clicking!  I'll try that.

I changed the Mark-filter combo to F plus alphakey.  That's working better for me.

[Faulty Logic]

Also, you may not have noticed, but there is a different between double-clicking a unit and triple-clicking a unit.  Single-click just selects the one unit.  Double-click selects all units of that type AND mark.  Triple-click selects all units of that type REGARDLESS of mark.  I can't recall if the selection is limited only to what is on screen since I rarely have ships I'm trying to select off-screen.

WHAT? That would help so much. I thought that your only options were select_unit, select_military_units_in_box, and select_everything_in_box. Thanks.

[zoutzakje]

haha yeah I was lucky enough to see this implemention happen, otherwise I'd have no idea of it's existence. Now I use triple click all the time.

[Hearteater]

Just to toss this out, the list of ships you currently have selected in the bottom right is clickable.  And you can subtract ships from it.   Alt+clicking a row removes that row from your selection.  Slightly less useful, but you can also Control+click a row and it will limit your selection to just ships of that type, regardless of mark.  Regular clicking a row selects just that row, which is a single ship type and mark.

Also, I double checked and double/triple-click is just ships on the screen.

[Harry]

Yep, I alt-click on that list of ships all the time.  When I'm forming an attack fleet, I'll do a ctl-comma to get all the military ships in the system, then alt-click out the ships I don't want.  Then make a control group of the remaining ships.  It's great!

[Hearteater]

You found the 1/2 and 1/3 keys yet?

[Harry]

Yep, I love those.  L and Shift-L, yes?  Kinda wish there were a 2/3 key, but those are great.

Also, I never knew about the Threat filter until I played this last campaign.  I would look at the "Threat" number and wonder what it meant, where it came from.  Now I've bound Threat to "T" on the galaxy map, and I can instantly assess where I need to cull the enemy. 

[Mánagarmr]

AI:War - Keypocalypse
$14.99
Genre: Strategy

Comes with an additional keyboard for keybinds!

(No seriously, I jest, but there's a lot that can be customized and ease up on micro in AIW, which is pretty awesome)

[Mephology]

Somewhat related. I frequently want to divide a fleet into two groups to enabling attacking multiple targets at the same time, or responding to developing threat with part of the fleet. My current method is:

• select relevant units and assign to "1"
• move group to a unique location
• hit "l" assign half to a group number eg "2"
• move this half (group 2) to a another unique location
• return to the original location and select the balance of the units and assign to group number "3"

I now have a whole group (1) with the ability to quickly split into two equal pieces (2,3). I repeat this process numerous times throughout my games and it seems needlessly inefficient in terms of game time and real time. Have any suggestions for having this be faster?

[Hearteater]

When ordering a group to do two different things, I often select them all, order them to do #1, then halve the group and issue order #2.  You can pause or not depending on your comfort and the complexity of the orders (you don't want order#1 taking any of them out of system before you issue order#2).

If you really need two actual control groups, do the following, you can use group subtraction (control+alt):
Select a group of ship
Assign them to a control group (Control+1)
Split the group in half (L)
Assign these ships to another control gorup (Control+2)
Remove control group #2 from control group #1 (Control+Alt+1)

The last step removes the currently selected ships (which happens to be control group #2, but could be any arbitrary ships) from the control group whose number you press (while holding done control+alt).

[blesak]

thanks for all the information guys