What are your Hotkeys!?

posted on August 17th, 2011, 3:32 pm

All right guys, my question for you is how do you organize your fleets, and use your hotkeys while playing?

For example, my starbase is always the 8 key, my scout is 9, and my fleet starts out with one. I also try to change my movement autonomy to none, depending on which what I am building. When a ship gets damaged in early game, I put it in fleet number two, send the ship back the way it came, and into the yard to go repair.

So, what I want to is what works best for you! How to you organize and manage all of your fleets? People tell me that I shouldn't  have everything in just one fleet, but during a large battle it is hard to keep tabs on everything when they are in different fleets. When they are all selected as one I can see every ability, and the health of all of my ships. Plus, I don't have to give move orders 2-3 different times.

So any tips or special insight anyone might have would be greatly appreciated. I am curious as to what works best for micromanagement and control of your fleets! 

posted on August 17th, 2011, 3:47 pm

well i like to be flexible with my fleet numbers, adapting to each match's unique requirements, but there are some things that i find i do a lot more.

starting scout goes into fleet 9, new scouts go into decreasing slots, ie 8 then 7 and onwards until about 6. i like to get at least 3 scouts in a 1v1. so that takes up 9 8 and 7. important buildings like sfc, moqbara and intel centre tend to go into slot 0 for easy access.

if my fleet is of ships that work well together, like similar ranges and speeds, then i tend to put them into fleet 1 together. this works well early on when fleets arent massive squares, and having everything in 1 fleet works.

if i need ships separate i use fleets 1 and 2. raiding forces tend to get into slot 2 when im klink and romulan. when im borg i put ships into fleet 2 to run them away. or fleet 2 is my supporting ships, such as vinca dodes and later game em scubes and diamonds. artillery is also a consideration for its own fleet number. such as a trio of veqs.

i prefer to use priority repair and not remove ships from fleets when sending them to repair, it means i have to keep my fleet postioned well, but it saves time moving ships between fleets and lets me use more specials.

my yards tend to go onto fleet 1, so that if there's an emergency and i need to respond i can get ships moving fast. sometimes i put vulnerable miners in the same fleet so that i can order several to run quickly before the raid arrives.

posted on August 17th, 2011, 5:16 pm

It really depends on the map and what strategy I'm doing.  Usually I start my scouts with group 6 and move up, group 0 is reserved for buildings like Myles said.  Group 1 is faster ships or shorter range, group 2 is slower or longer range, groups 3-5 alternate between newly built ships/damaged ships and especially slow ships like singularity gens that need to be positioned carefully.

I really think that hotkeys need to be implemented better or at least advertised better in Fleet Ops, since learning to use them is critical to any RTS game.  For example you can transport with the T key, which is how players like Arash get off their lightning-fast boarding of decloaking ships.

posted on August 17th, 2011, 5:36 pm

For example you can transport with the T key, which is how players like Arash get off their lightning-fast boarding of decloaking ships.

not only that, but if u have the mouse already over the ship you wanna beam to, pushing t will cause the beaming to start, no need to click on the ship. which is really handy.

posted on August 17th, 2011, 10:03 pm

Yeah fleet 2 is often my run away fleet. Warpins usually get put in fleet 4

[Tyler]

posted on August 17th, 2011, 10:08 pm

Last edited by Tyler on August 17th, 2011, 10:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I normally have it:

• 1-4 as warships
• 5 for special/repair ships
• 6 for the flagship (a personal ship seperate from the fleet)
• 7 for special stations (like the SFC)
• 8 for freighters
• 9 for scouts
• 0 for constructors

[godsvoice]

posted on August 17th, 2011, 10:41 pm

Last edited by godsvoice on August 17th, 2011, 10:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Fleet 1 are my scouts.

Special Stations are generally 8, i.e. SFC, or faction respective.

Fleet 7 is my veteran or highly ranked ships. Only comes into play after I've started to produce larger tier vessels. For instance, my first veteran kbeajq or intrepid does not result in me creating the 7th fleet. But when my 2nd and 3rd fleets start filling up, I scale them back by taking out all the ranked ships. Fleet 7 becomes purely defensive, and when they start to number in the 12-15 range I know an offensive can be made. If I get it over 20, or in that area, it's generally a fleet that can smash through anything AI.

or, fleet 7 are ships I'm making for a specific purpose. A particular special etc. Can keep an eye on them, then send them out as I please. Very often used for new versions. I'll find out which ships do what by putting particular ships in this fleet and send it on highly dangerous missions... haha. sigh

I generally set up two sets of yards for large scale fleet production for fleets 2 and 3. For example, as Federation, both fleets would have one antares and one eraudi yard each. For Klingons, generally fleet two will consist of two field yards (multiple extensions, generally four yard 2x bop 2x kbeajq, while fleet three may be any number of things. A single battle yard, two, a battle yard and field yard, or even two additional field yards, or Imperial yards. At first, fleets 2 and 3 crush all AI attacks with ship and turret wall sandwiches. As they start to buff up to 16+ ships in a fleet, I send my fleet 2 and 3 out on offensives. Ships that get strengthened are put into fleet 7 and head back home after each battle. Early in game, fleet 2 does small raids, fleet 3 is defensive.... or they'll do a joint attack if AI is building up turrets to close for comfort.

When fleets 2 and 3 are sent out, I go back to my yards and queue them to fleets 4+5. The yards begin to fill these fleets up, as I give orders to my 2 and 3 fleets. This way, newer ships are not still being built into fleets 2 and 3 and flying across the whole map on their own trying to join in. I set my orders by clicking 2 and 3 when ordering attacks.. so.

When 2 and 3 get destroyed or weakened, as this is my initial fleet with generally weaker ships, I send survivors back home to repair. I then take fleets 4 and 5 and use them to attack. Re-queue-ing my yards to build ships into fleets 2 and 3. Or if it seems best, I have them join half way on the map. Either way, at some point all four fleets combine. Generally though they remain separate and I always have fleets everywhere on the map, these cycle between offensive and defensive purposes. 2 and 3 start as offence. 3 and 4 defence. Then switch it up. Eventually, they all get offensive.


So, 1 is scouts, 2/3 and 4/5 cycle between yards and offensive and defensive roles, 7 is if I'm planning something for specific ships/specials, or is permanent veteran high rank fleet, defensive at first, then go offensive. 8 is stations.

6 and 9 and 0 are spares. Generally 6 are ships that are sent for repairs. I'll send a ship to auto repair, and switch its fleet so it isn't taking new orders any more.

9 and 0 again, fillers. I don't think they generally get a role though... can't remember off top of my head.

EDIT: I think the above does help for micro and macro... but I don't really know. I mean, I usually don't use the full strength of all my ships. It's half and half. And so for attacks, in the beginning of the game, can often number like 4-8. And against AI you are always outnumbered. So you learn to use ships like scalpels almost. Especially Klingons that can cloak. It amazes me how tough small fleets of Klingon ships can be, i.e. taking out mining, ambushing small fleets.

Also, if you get 4 fleets of small number on raids and spread them out all over AI moons, and just wreak havoc is freaky. Can cloak one fleet and destroy something, cloak then move to next fleet on the next moon. Just attack everywhere. Of course, they have such large numbers they can usually respond to more than their fair share, but one fleet is always given free reign and just destroys everything while the others get attacked. Then you tell all four fleets to cloak, and meet up somewhere to take out research or what not. Sometimes I get all four fleets to do an attack like this like half hour or so into an AI game. But usually its split like above, 2.3 and 4.5

posted on August 18th, 2011, 9:58 pm

You know that's an interesting idea to have a separate hotkey for vets. Thanks for the post Godsvoice.

posted on August 18th, 2011, 11:11 pm

That's funny, I hadn't thought about it but playing massive AI games will get you used to controlling bigger fleets with hotkeys.  In some ways it's better practice for that.

I forgot to mention that (like godsvoice said) anytime I have enough breathing room (vs AI or super-outnumbering the enemy) I usually stick my double-gold and vets in their own group.  Not because they're special, but because they can't gain experience and I like to cycle them onto healthy targets while my normal fleet gets the kills.  Of course I don't get to do this against humans very often but anytime I'm against the AI it's standard procedure.

posted on August 19th, 2011, 1:32 am

That's a good idea in order to set it to green alert right before getting the kill

posted on August 19th, 2011, 1:57 am

:-) sure thing funnystuff, glad I could offer something helpful.

In practise, the idea is practical and strategically defensive (in my use at least).

AI attacks you, and like Tryptic pointed out, once ships reach this stage they no longer rank up so keep your weak ships in large groups attacking and your ranked ships at home.

After you start accumulating ships, I like to see minimum five before starting the 7th fleet, then you have a solid defensive fleet. I generally keep it hovering around a new expansion, somewhere I notice the AI has repeatedly attacked, or close by to other fleets depending, or other... i mean, lots of ways to use a fleet.

The main reason is that you know you have your best ships guarding your base. Even when I see maybe 12 fed ships coming at my base, I know that the 5-8 ships I've got held back their are potentially single-gold bar at worst, but more often double gold bar or better. So my Vorchas, Kvorts, and Kbeajq, though few, are going to do some damage. Not to mention, the smaller defensive fleets that I am building. And the ships that have retreated and I've kept in fleet 6 and forgotten to issue new orders to are still lurking around and will engage.

Although not necessarily hotkeys, but for fleet arrangement, I've often read how people group their ships by speed, or weapons range, type etc. I found this interesting. But in application, I suppose I'm more used to this mixed way. In mid game, it certainly becomes apparent that my fleet is of different speeds. My Eraudi ships lag behind (not defiant), while my Antares ships start to engage the enemy, and I'm thinking, stupid ships!! wait for the rest of your fleet to catch up with you!! My fault of course. Although, that was quite some time ago. I keep the same fleet set up, but just manage orders better. Although, after playing a recent game, I realized that although not from the start, eventually fleet 5 becomes all my eraudi or larger tier vessels. In early mid game, its like I said everything is mixed. But as time goes on, I do redistribute my fleets. Ranked ships go to fleet seven. And my larger ships go to fleet 5. Fleets 2, 3, and 4 are small to mid sized ships.

It's weird how you don't always think about what your doing, or could do different like organizing fleets by speed.

By the end, fleet 7 is ranked ships purely defensive. Fleet 5 is big ships, and generally are the gateway between my home base and AI base. Fleets 2, 3, and 4 fly around the enemy base attacking. I try giving them a few larger ships still, but mostly, for those specific fleets, I just want large numbers.

Eventually, what happens this way, is you can severely weaken numerous AI opponents with fleets 2-4, and they do take a beating, but they get replenished with yards. In the mean time, your big and ranked ships are left behind guarding your base, and when you decide, you wait for a large AI offensive, and then immediate counter-attack ... with your best ships. They ensure you have a reliable defence for the beginning, and swift finish at the end. You don't get caught off guard by an AI attack, and in the end even if you abandon your base and AI does attack, your fleet is far better.

posted on August 19th, 2011, 10:10 pm

I'm not sure where I made the post, or maybe I made it into a new thread, but in the past I made the suggestion that there be a button that allows ships to be selecable by rank. For instance, if you click a button, it shows you all your current veterans, double gold bar, single etc etc...

I think it was in relation to something else. But this was part of the reason. I have a feeling the context was a bit more complicated that this. Maybe some one remembers the thread, it would have been some months ago most likely.

It may have been in something in connection with ship speed, ship range etc. Special weapons. not sure.

At the time I was looking for somewhere to have information displayed about what the stats for double gold bars is. Veteran stats are displayed in the guide, but only a small fraction of ships attain this. For the most part, double gold bar is just or more so relevant, because this is where most ships will end at.

but um, yeah. maybe someone remembers something about it.

but in general, for this kind of reason for fleet set up, it might be nice to be able to select ships according to rank or other methods for instance.

and um, yeah. not a big thing, in my case it would be helpful, but not a big deal either way.

posted on August 23rd, 2011, 4:07 pm

My hotkeys used to be pretty much what is already posted, but I have been experimenting with things because of the changes that have been made since V 3.(whatever it was last time i played)
Mainly, the experiments are
Short range ships. 1
Medium range ships. 2
Long range ships. 3
(If federation) 3 scouts in a nebula using the super scanner ability or whatever it is. 4
(If kilingon) ships that attack while cloaked somehow. 4
(If borg) captured repair ships 9

Havent played Rom or Dom in V 3.2.5 yet

Also if there are two groups, the list gets extended and things get pushed back
Group one will be 123, group 2 will be 456 or so

I havent had any steamrunners in warp ins or have any naturally occuring artilery in my army (only caputred ships) so if I end up with more than 1 of them i guess i would make them have their own key too.

I have also only played AI in 3.2.5. But this set of keys keeps Sabres and Excelsiors from rushing so close to the enemy there is no way for them to escape if they get targeted.

posted on August 25th, 2011, 1:34 am

first thing I hotkey is always by scout at 4.

My first combat ships are always group 1

If fed, the SFC station gets group 0 so I can always quickly check on it.

Repair ships tend to be five, sometimes nine.

Borg incubation stations are usually 9 8 7 6, ditto dominion sensor stations, so I can quickly toggle them for their speicals.

2-3 tend to be alternate combat groups when my forces are split up, sometimes one of those or five will be damaged ships.

posted on November 5th, 2011, 5:23 pm

I tend to have 2 Combat Fleets and 1 Defense Fleet, i havent used hotkeys as much as i should.
1 Combat Fleet will usually be patrolling the middle sectors or defending extra mining complexes. The other one is usually either doing raids or attacking an enemy base.

Occasionally, ill have a fleet for just repair.

I prefer to keep slower ships with slower ships, and faster ships with faster ships. Like a defiant sovvie combo, the Defiant will get there really quickly, but by the time the sovvie gets there, theres a chance i might have lost most of my defiants, and must retreat due to lack of firepower.