Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I always loved to customize controls in games up to the point when every function I regularly use gets a most efficient way of activation, and it gets imprinted into muscle-memory. I believe the EvE interface is like the game itself for new players - vast, scary but very rewarding once you get to the bottom of it. I spent some afternoons molding the UI to my image and expectations, and it was a useful and satisfying process.

Though lately I did the same with hotkeys, and I feel I discovered some gaps. Namely:

Allign selected
Approach selected
Orbit selected
Keep at range of selected
Warp to / Dock / Jump selected

EDIT: Figured it out, these functions work the way I wanted them if Overview has focus. Now I only wish they worked all the time - besides when chat is in focus of course.

Increase / Decrease default Orbit distance
Increase / Decrease default Keep at range distance
(or alternatively a way to save my 'favorite' distances and recall them by hotkey)


I know there are hotkeys for Approach, Allign, Orbit etc, and those have their uses. I particualrly like the precise, 3d way of how the 'Approach' works for example. I'm not asking for these functions to change, but I'm missing their 'autotargeted' variants, that would work the very same way as clicking the respective icons in the 'Selected Target Window' does.

And orbit/keep at range distances... I was baffled to find out that such an elementary function needs so many clicks and manual inputting of numbers to set - that is very uncomfortable to do in the heat of battle. I heard there is a slightly faster but less accurate way for that using the radial menu, but I couldn't figure that out. Besides, I ain't half like that menu - I would turn it off if I could, as I have more comfortable ways of accessing the rest of it's functions. (Now I have it's delay on maximum, that's almost the same as disabling it). Wish I could adjust those numbers by using the mousewheel over the 'Orbit' button, the same way it works with D-Scan range. Or even better, just having hotkeys for it.


(disclaimer: I consulted with Google and a few EvE veterans for a clickless way of accessing these functions to no avail. If I missed something, I'll be very glad if you point it out)

So vets, how wrong I am?

Just double checked everything. I concur, 'Allign to' hotkey works just the way I wanted it - a quick tap alligns me to my pre-selected target. I'll remove that from the OP.

I tried the rest, and my point still stands. Tapping hotkeys for warp, jump, dock, approach, orbit and KAR does absolutely nothing in itself. Holding (for example) the hotkey for "Orbit" displays a message to me "Orbit - Click target", even if I have a target selected. I want to save that click.

I have a feeling I'm missing an option here. I'd love if these functions worked for me the way you say they work for you. I feel I have already tripple-checked every tickbox in ever tab of the 'esc' menu, in case it's just just a setting I missed. Google couldn't help either.

EDIT: scratch that, found it. Overview should have focus. Ok, my favorite hotkeys will indeed work if I don't actually click something meaningless. So silly. Now I only need to find an option the lock the Overview to always be in focus. :)

I know, right? And I have no doubt using it becomes your second nature over time... I just wish for a more efficient way to become -my- second nature while I'm still a noob.

Indeed. These hotkeys only work by a single tap if Overview has focus.

Considering that the thread I found the same complaint and the 'workaround' is from 2012, it feels it's a long shot for me to wish my hotkeys to always do what I want them to.

EDIT: But at least "Focus Overview" is a function one can bind. I can live with that. Quickly tapping 2 keys for these functions to reliably work is good enough for me, almost couldn't wish for it to be better.

That seems to cause no problem with many other hotkeys. My shortcuts for module activations (for example) seems to be totally unaffected from window focus - unless of course a "type in here" field is active, like a chat window. And the activated modules are also got applied on my selected target, just as I'd love it would happen with the functions in question that only work if Overview has focus.

I don't see any theoretical reason for being able to use a single hotkey for scram or web, but not for Orbit and KAR.

There are just too many ways to select targets outside of the Overview, and it's annoying that hotkeys work differently depending on what way you used.

And I'm full of windows open all the time that either do not have "type me words please" fields, or it doesn't become active just because the window gets focus. Dscan, Probe Scan, People and Places, Fleet, Solar system map.


Though found my workaround - Focus Overview hotkey works well, it's just two keystrokes to warp to my target, or orbit it. Still faster for me than clicking a specific icon.

I believe that's because those hotkeys use your targets rather than something from the overview for context, and something that uses the overview scope to select a target doesn't need the thing it gets context from to be targeted. This simplifies matters significantly because there are only two states for having something locked, either you have something locked and therefore have a target selected or you have nothing locked and you don't, there's no way to have something you don't have targeted be the selection for activating your guns. Even pre-activating your modules runs through the overview and tells the overview to lock a target before it activates the modules.



Glad you found a work around, I'll have to remember that hotkey myself since that would be very useful for me.

I would point out though, People and Places and the Solar System Map both do actually contain text fields.

Personally I'd love it if the Fleet window was part of the Overview context since then I could use overview hotkeys to target broadcasts, but both of those systems are quite old and probably don't know how to talk to each other very well.