Need general target subsystems hotkeys like Target Power Plant

Soulkiller · Jan 2, 2015

So I am in DIRE need of these hotkeys. In a combat situation you cant afford to "cycle next subsystem" till you find the Power Plant. This is especially true for big ships like an Anaconda when I waste precious seconds to cycle to the Engines or Power Plant which every single ship has.
I would like to have Target Subystem hotkey for ALL for the general things a ship has like: Power Plant, Engines, Shield Generator, etc.

robbyp · Jan 2, 2015

Good luck with this one.. We have been asking for hotkeys for things (such as docking requests) for a long time... Guess its not a priority.

I agree its a pain to select.

Yanaran · Jan 2, 2015

This would be a perfect job for a crew member if we could hire them like in the old games. User-configurable voice commands, "target power plant" and the copilot targets it for you.

In the meantime: Bind a key to "previous" subsystem instead of "next". This will get you the powerplant much quicker, I think it's 3rd or 4th target.

Hethwill_Khan · Jan 2, 2015

*shrugs*

Part of the game as it stands I guess.
Manoeuvre and select sub target at same time using the GUI we have. Ain't even hard to do. Then get back on the fight.
Takes 3 seconds to do this...So whatever.

Plus it is not automated damage, if you don't know. You simply will have a reticle and you will have to HIT that tiny box from the proper side of the sip where the module is ( on some hulls the areas are tiny as hell ).

Ogidch · Jan 2, 2015

This could be handy have to admit...

However I only uses this on larger ships i.e. dropships and bigger, you also have more time to scroll through the menu. With a hot key it will be easy to target anything smaller as well, the NPC's are already easy so if they bring this in please make the NPC's harder.

Popalu · Jan 2, 2015

Totally agree, there needs to be a lot more key binding for ship elements, which can directly affect the game play.

Docking requests, sub-system targeting, etc. I'm using an HOTAS and VA, so can bind most things, but not all, so there are elements which need to be made directly accessible, so they can help people play the game, especially in open play

Ixnatifual · Jan 2, 2015

Agree, this would be great.

vonvonbraun · Jan 2, 2015

Agree 100 percent

Guyperson · Jan 2, 2015

Hethwill_Khan said:
Plus it is not automated damage, if you don't know. You simply will have a reticle and you will have to HIT that tiny box from the proper side of the sip where the module is ( on some hulls the areas are tiny as hell ).

Your weapons are smart enough to aim at that spot once the reticle is close enough, though. Even fixed weapons will snap onto the target box once close enough.

Heartwork · Jan 2, 2015

I would also want an "Explode power plant" button while they're at it. Sheesh!

Hethwill_Khan · Jan 2, 2015

Guyperson said:
Your weapons are smart enough to aim at that spot once the reticle is close enough, though. Even fixed weapons will snap onto the target box once close enough.

Sure thing. As I said it is not automated.

Perjoss · Jan 2, 2015

They might be worried of overwhelming people with so many key binds which is a valid concern, the list of binds is already pretty huge, but I think they could add a new page called 'advanced' and just fling all the non essential ones in there, so most people will only bother with the binds they need to get started and have some fun and then later when they start to look for more advanced settings they're all there. Id quite like a bind for system map as well as the galaxy map one we already have.

Leviathan · Jan 2, 2015

How about an internal "Subsystem targeting Computer" in which you can set up priorities for Subsystems to be automaticly targeted in preset order.

Prio 1: Drives
Prio 2: Shield Gen
Prio 3: Powerplant

Diffrent Module Classes could change the number of possible Priorities:

2C STC - 2 Priorities
2B STC - 3 Priorities
2A STC - 4 Priorities

Ydiss · Jan 2, 2015

Soulkiller said:
So I am in DIRE need of these hotkeys. In a combat situation you cant afford to "cycle next subsystem" till you find the Power Plant. This is especially true for big ships like an Anaconda when I waste precious seconds to cycle to the Engines or Power Plant which every single ship has.
I would like to have Target Subystem hotkey for ALL for the general things a ship has like: Power Plant, Engines, Shield Generator, etc.

I would like this but you should know there's a much faster way to target the module you want, than using the cycle - which can take ages on a large ship.

Left ui panel, sub-systems tab. The power plant is near the bottom of the list, so scroll up. This is way faster because you see the items in a list, rather than need to check each on a cycle.

bambam_ofc · Jan 2, 2015

I don't entirely get this - if there's a fixed set of keystrokes that gets you to the menu objective then you can always create a keyboard macro to put that on a single key. If you have a mouse with additional buttons (like a logitech G-series) you can assign keyboard macros to mouse buttons. I accept you'll still have the menus ping by as the macro play in but it's better than watching and typing.

So, for example, I have a (G500s) mouse button macro for 'request docking' after I got off my ass and set that up (with Logitech Gaming Software - I recommend that actually). If you don't know what I'm talking about I mean an extra sidebutton on my mouse has been set up with a key sequence ' <1>..<tab>..<tab>..<space>..<down>..<space>..<leftshift>'.

The main challenge is the lack of any fixed reference point in the menus so you have to take moderate care in kicking the macros off, i.e. my 'request docking' is designed with the left panel starting with the 'Navigation' tab, but I'm familiar with ED enough to be aware when I've left the left panel in a situation where this is not the case and take care then.

Rikk · Jan 2, 2015

bambam_ofc said:
I don't entirely get this - if there's a fixed set of keystrokes that gets you to the menu objective then you can always create a keyboard macro to put that on a single key. If you have a mouse with additional buttons (like a logitech G-series) you can assign keyboard macros to mouse buttons. I accept you'll still have the menus ping by as the macro play in but it's better than watching and typing.

So, for example, I have a (G500s) mouse button macro for 'request docking' after I got off my ass and set that up (with Logitech Gaming Software - I recommend that actually). If you don't know what I'm talking about I mean an extra sidebutton on my mouse has been set up with a key sequence ' <1>..<tab>..<tab>..<space>..<down>..<space>..<leftshift>'.

The main challenge is the lack of any fixed reference point in the menus so you have to take moderate care in kicking the macros off, i.e. my 'request docking' is designed with the left panel starting with the 'Navigation' tab, but I'm familiar with ED enough to be aware when I've left the left panel in a situation where this is not the case and take care then.

Sadly it is not always the name number of keystrokes.

Ydiss · Jan 2, 2015

bambam_ofc said:
I don't entirely get this - if there's a fixed set of keystrokes that gets you to the menu objective then you can always create a keyboard macro to put that on a single key. If you have a mouse with additional buttons (like a logitech G-series) you can assign keyboard macros to mouse buttons. I accept you'll still have the menus ping by as the macro play in but it's better than watching and typing.

So, for example, I have a (G500s) mouse button macro for 'request docking' after I got off my ass and set that up (with Logitech Gaming Software - I recommend that actually). If you don't know what I'm talking about I mean an extra sidebutton on my mouse has been set up with a key sequence ' <1>..<tab>..<tab>..<space>..<down>..<space>..<leftshift>'.

The main challenge is the lack of any fixed reference point in the menus so you have to take moderate care in kicking the macros off, i.e. my 'request docking' is designed with the left panel starting with the 'Navigation' tab, but I'm familiar with ED enough to be aware when I've left the left panel in a situation where this is not the case and take care then.

There's no way a macro would make this faster than manually selecting the item. Every ship has a different number of modules.

gurugeorge · Jan 2, 2015

Ydiss said:
There's no way a macro would make this faster than manually selecting the item. Every ship has a different number of modules.

It's easy to make a bunch of macros for different ships. Autohotkey is great for QOL and convenience things, once you have a rough grasp of it, you can really tailor games to your preferences.

You could probably also do it via Voice Attack - you can do a limited amount of UI control with VA.

vonvonbraun · Jan 2, 2015

bambam_ofc said:
I don't entirely get this - if there's a fixed set of keystrokes that gets you to the menu objective then you can always create a keyboard macro to put that on a single key. If you have a mouse with additional buttons (like a logitech G-series) you can assign keyboard macros to mouse buttons. I accept you'll still have the menus ping by as the macro play in but it's better than watching and typing.

So, for example, I have a (G500s) mouse button macro for 'request docking' after I got off my ass and set that up (with Logitech Gaming Software - I recommend that actually). If you don't know what I'm talking about I mean an extra sidebutton on my mouse has been set up with a key sequence ' <1>..<tab>..<tab>..<space>..<down>..<space>..<leftshift>'.

The main challenge is the lack of any fixed reference point in the menus so you have to take moderate care in kicking the macros off, i.e. my 'request docking' is designed with the left panel starting with the 'Navigation' tab, but I'm familiar with ED enough to be aware when I've left the left panel in a situation where this is not the case and take care then.

as you can hopefully understand all this hockety pockety is cumbersome beyone nuisance level and should not be there

lack of a normal in game way to keybind a function is poor

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gurugeorge said:
It's easy to make a bunch of macros for different ships. Autohotkey is great for QOL and convenience things, once you have a rough grasp of it, you can really tailor games to your preferences.

You could probably also do it via Voice Attack - you can do a limited amount of UI control with VA.

the point here is that in a modern game we should have these functions as defaults

gurugeorge · Jan 2, 2015

vonvonbraun said:
the point here is that in a modern game we should have these functions as defaults

Well, kind of, and I'm often miffed when a QOL thing I would like isn't in the game, but the developers can't anticipate everything, and macros (used not to cheat but for QOL things) usually cover anything they leave out, and usually they put things that lots of people want into options eventually.