No, no, don't bail!

[Wengart]

The OP mentioned a problem canceling smoke. If there is any type of target, be it defensive smoke, target, or target light they can all be canceled using the cancel target button.

[Ranger33]

This is why I just use the space bar menu, no fuss over which hotkey does what or checking what menu you are on.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Ok, here's a question, if you choose to bail out of an AT gun can you get your crew back in? How many do you need to re-enter it if you can? I had 2/4 still alive and the AT gun read "abandoned", nothing you can do there?

You can recrew a vehicle (with the original crew) but not a gun.

[hoolaman]

The OP mentioned a problem canceling smoke. If there is any type of target, be it defensive smoke, target, or target light they can all be canceled using the cancel target button.

Yes but his question was about wego, where a target order will continue to fire until either ammo is gone, the turn ends (and you remember to cancel), or it is superceded by another target type order.

[Peregrine]

Ahh the classic unintentional bail.

As other people have said go with the alternative hotkeys but still modify it heavily. I wouldn't ever bother trying to bind keys to a corresponding letter (ie h for hunt etc). You will remember pretty quickly and it does also display in the interface if you get lost.

I think the priority is to first

- group keys together that you use at the same time in a spot you are happy with

- then around this group logically (according to your own head) spread out the rest of the keys in relation to their frequency of use.

Stuff like blast, bail, mark mines, acquire and dismount are not frequently used so don't bother binding those at all or if you do put them in an out of the way place in the keyboard (I would never have bail or dismount bound anyway).

The most intensive key use you will come across (for me anyway) is shooting and scooting a tank with area fire. Fast, Pause, Target, Reverse, Pause. Fast, Pause, Target, Reverse repeat. In CMSF I would often set-up about 10 scoots at once. So for ease of stringing these commands together I have these keys in a little cluster.

Here is mine as an example. The keys most used are "u" through "[" and "j" through "'" looking at the keyboard plus "." for change facing.

Not much has changed since CMSF but buttoning and unbuttoning will be will more prevalent from what I have seen in the demo. Pasted mine below, but it looks like it didn't preserve that tabs from the text file.

Command Keys Direct

<E>' // move fast

<E>; // move quick

<E>h // move normal

<E>g // move slow

<E>k // move hunt

<E>j // move assault

<E>l // move reverse

<E>t // move blast

<E> // move mark mines

<E>o // target

<E>i // target light

<E>u // target arc

<E> // NOT USED

<E>. // face

<E>\ // target smoke

<E>n // deploy

<E>p // pause

<E>y // hide

<E> // dismount

<E> // bail out

<E>[ // vehicle open up

<E>] // pop smoke

<E>/ // acquire

<E>b // divide teams

<E>n // assault team

<E>m // antitank team

<E>, // scout team

<E> // vehicle team

[LJFHutch]

Oh no I'm using the alt hotkeys like I do in SF, I got them to bail because they were under heavy small arms fire and I didn't want to lose the crew ... I figured I'd re-crew once I'd dealt with the infantry.

[womble]

Is there any way to change things like Alt-T for Trees to the old Shift-T or is that hardcoded ?

Hardcoded, I'm afraid. Maybe next interface iteration.

[Other Means]

@Peregrine.

For the alternative hotkeys included with the game I used the mnemonic approach for move and target commands as much as possible. Obviously there’s compromises, e.g. I (H)unt more than I (H)ide so (H)ide becomes (U)nder-cover.

Where possible though I've grouped them, so the camera controls are bottom left of the kbd and the camera WSAD layout is preserved, just moved to the right. Note though, I use a UK keyboard so I'm not sure whether this is preserved for the everyone else.

Obviously you have a different approach - why don't you create a hotkeys file, I'll host it for you and maybe let other use it?

[Peregrine]

No probs. Still tinkering with mine a bit.

When I first start out I also do a bit of word association. I think how my CMBN keys file is now works better than my CMSF. I played with the CMSF a bit but then stopped.

"L" never used to be reverse but it definitely works better for me in relation to the other keys so when I started using it "L" reverse became "(L)ets get the %^$^ out of here".

It takes about two scenarios to get used to. Should have made a better effort with my CMSF hotkeys file in hindsight.

[noxnoctum]

This is a WE-GO question.

So, you press "K" meaning "hunt", but inadvertently were on the "special" tab. Now you've told the tank to bail. How do you say "oops, I didn't mean that"?

Similarly, it appears (to my limited experimenting) that if you click the "Evade" button, a tank starts popping smoke like mad, and once again I can't see how to say "I didn't mean to click that"...

I've done some manual reading, couldn't see it ... did I miss something?

GaJ

Switch to alternate hotkeys this won't be an issue.

[Blanar]

Bail and Hunt are the same key? Well, that explains a whole bunch! I told that Sherman to hunt forward of the hedgerow and when I looked back the crew had jumped from the tank and been mowed down. I figured I'd missed something exciting but then artillery started falling and I promptly forgot all about it.

Guess I'll have to be a might more careful in the future and start working on those alternate keys!

[dieseltaylor]

I bought a gaming keyboard* with three blocks of 6 G function keys to map too after I had seen the CMSF demo game - not wanting to learn any bad habits I did not play it.

When I understand the game better I will probably map to them!

*LoGitech G11

[Mistah Kurtz]

This was confusing at first, and annoying later. But switching to the other hotkeys file made things much better.

I haven't played CM since 2006 (no Windows computer), but the key shortcuts are still in my fingers.