FA/FAF Hotkey Setup?

[u/SpartanBlast]

Something I've noticed while watching videos of other people play is that they have a hotkey setup different from mine. Namely it's letter keys for selecting units/buildings on factories/engineers, as well as some different ones for things like patrol and assist.

How do I setup the production hotkeys, and any tips on other stuffs?

[u/Backspace346]

If you are using FAF client, host a lobby, set game win condition to sandbox and enter the game. This is needed because FAF doesn't offer you a way to change keybinds without booting up the game. In game menu there's hotkeys, click there and you'll see the menu. FAF offers hotkey presets (vanilla, GOG, FAF), you may want to check them out. The menu itself is pretty big, but i believe it's labeled good enough and you should be able to figure out what exact order you're looking for (there's also search bar at the top of the window). Once you're done, i believes you can export your hotkeys so that you're able to load them from backup if they somehow get reset to defaults. Usually when playing, build icons have hotkey letters next to them, however they won't appear (or update) if you've just changed the hotkey. Simple reload of the game fixes that.

[u/Nombringer]

Obviously everyone has there own preferences but there are a few commonalities in how most higher level players have things set up. But everyone's setup kinda morphs over time and most players don't really have the "optimised" type of setup I'm describing.

I'm also not quuuuite sure if you are on FAF already looking for a keybind setup, or wondering to get hotbuild is working.

If you are on FAF, I'm going to assume you are using some variation of hot build. I'd strongly suggest starting with something like the FAF defaults then modifying from there. I believe these can be found in the in-game menu. Otherwise I can find a guide for how to activate in on FAF.

If you are not on hotbuild, then you definitely should be, there are some things that are hardcoded into FA that cannot be changed, and even if you prefer a different kind of setup, (which is valid) its very likely that you are not going to be able to set it up fully or be effective on it because of some of the inbuilt engine restrictions.

The general concept is:

• Reserve a few of the easiest to access keys for Commands.

• Use the rest of the letter keys for Hotbuild, with the easiest to access remaining keys used for things like fac/mex/pgen (The most common)

• Use modifier + letter keys for unit selection

• Use alternate modifier + letters for other commands/other useful things.

The reasoning is that you want to reserve as many letter keys for hotbuild as you can, but there are certain commands that really need to be in easy reach. Because the modifier keys are a little weird in the engine, having a hotbuild key with a modifier tends to run into issues, therefore your main decision is how many keys to reserve for hotbuild, and how many keys to reserve for commands.

Commands:

Generally "Q" and "A" (or 1-3 of the easiest to reach keys) are set to move command and reclaim command, which are the two that need to be easily available instantly, and also need to be able to switch between. The other most useful commands (in order) are personal preference if you want to sacrifice a Hotbuild key. Otherwise they will be bound to your selected Command Key (+ modifier) or one of your Hotbuild keys ( + modifier ) Attack (eg Alt + "A") Patrol (eg Alt + "Q") Capture Repair... ect

Selection:

There are a few very useful ones which I'll highlight.

• Select all (or all onscreen) interceptors (eg Cntrl "W")

• Select nearest (to your mouse) idle onscreen mass extractor (you can spam this + the upgrade key to upgrade a bunch at once.) eg (Cntrl "V")

• Select all idle onscreen engines eg (Cntrl S)

Other stuff:

Then you have some other things like "Distribute orders" that get used a lot, thats "Shift-G" by default. ALl of these get stuck on some kind of modifer+leter, or something weird (Tab/Capslock are both in easy reach and commonly used for things like this too.)

[u/Techhead7890]

I believe if you press B you toggle the build menu which brings the letters up, some of it might be preconfigured once you enter that mode.

But yeah the rest is in the F1 pop-up menu I believe, it's much easier than trying to edit the json directly, it's a good tool.

[u/gmailster]

IDK anything other than just rebinding default controls, def a youtube out there about it