Selecting Level 4 Ships Only

[FarAway Warrior]

Long-time lurker, first-time poster with a total noob question.  I've searched the forums for this using multiple terms but have had no luck, so I thought I'd try here:

The manual says that if I use the "N + 4" key, I'll only select Level 4 ships.  How does this work, exactly?  I've tried every way that I can imagine (holding down the N key, then pressing the number 4; just pressing the number 4; selecting ships that include Level 4 ships, then pressing the N key, then pressing the number 4; etc.), and there's clearly something in the interface that is eluding my simple little mind.  I've not had any trouble getting other aspects of the interface to work, but I just can select ships by level without manually clicking on them by ship type, which isn't quite the elegant interface I was hpoping for!   

In my case, I have an AI homeworld that's guarded by an AI Eye, and I'm just not eager to load my ship up with Class 4 Bombers and then Class 3 Bombers manually.  At the end of the day, I think I may not have the horsepower to do it, even after loading all my Starships and Level 4 and Level 3 and Level 5 ships manually.  Guess this is why they recommend not spending all your Research points until you know exactly what you're up against! 

Arghhh...     

[Nalgas]

The manual says that if I use the "N + 4" key, I'll only select Level 4 ships.  How does this work, exactly?

It's a bit odd/non-intuitive, because normally "N" and "4" aren't considered/used as modifier keys, but you hold "N" and "4" at the same time while using the mouse to drag and select a group of ships.

I'm just not eager to load my ship up with Class 4 Bombers and then Class 3 Bombers manually.

Doing something as simple as that manually isn't actually that hard.  Double-clicking on a Mark IV Bomber will select all Mark IV Bombers on the screen but not any other ships of any other type or level.  It's when you want to do it for all eight of the ship types you have that the other way of doing it gets more useful...

[Cyborg]

What I do is draw a selection box around a bunch of ships, and then I click on the correct ship on the lower right hand corner where it tells me what's contained in the selection. It might not look like it, but that selection description on the lower right is actually clickable.

[x4000]

Welcome to the forums, FarAway Warrior!

Looks like the others have already answered the question, actually. But I will add: in the selection box in the lower right corner, you can also hold shift and right-click various items in there.  So if you, say, select all your bombers, and you have mark I-V of them, and you only want III-V, then just hold shift and right-click I and II and there you go.  Or if you select all your bombers, and you just want mark IV of them, then just left-click the IV and you're all set, like Cyborg said.

Or just double-clicking a ship on the battlefield to select all of its type, like Nalgas said.  You can also hold shift and do that to add all those ships to your existing selection.  So if you want III and IV, then just double-click the IIIs, then hold shift and double click the IVs to add them to it.

Hope that helps!

[Echo35]

What I do is draw a selection box around a bunch of ships, and then I click on the correct ship on the lower right hand corner where it tells me what's contained in the selection. It might not look like it, but that selection description on the lower right is actually clickable.

I usually shift+click what I want out of the side bar on the right. That ship list is immensely useful.

[BobTheJanitor]

I just select all my ships in the system and send them at everything that looks threatening. I'm bad at strategy.

[Nalgas]

I just select all my ships in the system and send them at everything that looks threatening. I'm bad at strategy.

I tend to use the much more advanced strategy of selecting all my ships and then hitting "L" to only send half of them at the scary bad guys so I can keep the rest at home in case they get mad and come try to eat me.  That's actually only slightly an exaggeration.  I use L/shift-L so much that I was very, very sad when it didn't work in SupCom2 when I was playing it last month.

[FarAway Warrior]

Wow!  That is very helpful, folks, thanks so much for the answers!! 

I also had no idea that the Ship List on the right is selectable.  What a brilliant interface design!  I do wonder how many more gems are lurking in this game as I stumble my way through it!!   

Nalgas (fancy name, by the way!!), that explanation clears things up.  I'd tried selecting some ships first and then using N+4 as a follow-on, and had no luck with that, but your approach makes sense.  As does using the ship selection list!!

Under other circumstances, I use the "L" key judiciously.  BUT, in this case, because of an AI Eye defending an AI homeworld, I had to select not just all My Level 3&4 Bombers, but also all my Level 4 Missile Frigates, and my Level 4 Fighters, and my Level 4 Electric Shuttles...

Of course, I ended up losing the game 15 minutes into the battle when 432 Frigates stormed into my homeworld system.  I'd gotten greedy and kept my Bombers committed to the homeworld attack.  Pretty silly, given that I had all those Level 1 & 2 ships parked back at my nearest friendly planet.

Ah well, I'm still figuring out numerous aspects of the game (this was only the 2nd full game I've completed, to a happy or unhappy end!!).  Just little details like Mobile Builders, for example...

Thanks again for the warm welcome to the forum and the great responses.  One more reason to recommend this game to my friends!

[Nalgas]

Thanks again for the warm welcome to the forum and the great responses.  One more reason to recommend this game to my friends!

The people here certainly don't suck.  That's why I ended up sticking around, too, after I found an answer to whatever it was I first came in here looking for.  It's small enough that you get to recognize and know the regulars pretty quickly but active enough that you can get answers to things equally quickly, and the nature of the game and already-existing members seem to result in people actually speaking intelligible English and interacting politely, which is unusual for anything game-related on the Internet.  Those guys in charge who run the place probably help with that, too.  Heh.