I had really high hopes for this game (ENDLESS SPACE). The art is beautiful, the factions look interesting. The game seems very well-designed and balanced, but I can't understand the near-total lack of meaningful keyboard shortcuts.



It's not unusual for turn-based 4x games to take hours, over the course of days. I don't know about you, but that much time spent squinting and clicking is a recipe for eyestrain and RSI for me.



I've seen other posts on this forum listing undocumented shortcut keys for ENDLESS LEGEND. Please, please, please add similar keys to ENDLESS SPACE. F1-F7 mapped to the toolbar buttons would be a huge improvement. Thanks for reading.

that would be nice to have

I'm missing hot-keys too. Master of Orion 2 had more of them. In Space Empires V they even were (semi?)customizable.

Hi guys,



Here are the list of the keyboard shortscut of Endless Space

• Esc / Right mouse click: closes the current screen and returns to the previous menu, except for the galaxy view.
• Galaxy View
  
  
  • WASD / Arrow keys: move the view
  • Num-Enter: ends the turn
  • Return: opens the chat interface (multiplayer)
    
    
• Fleet selection in Galaxy view
  
  
  • Right click on destination star to issue a move order to the selected fleet
  • Shift + Right click: queue up move orders for the selected fleet
  • Ctrl + Right click: force free movement (once the proper technology has been researched)
    
    
• Battle View
  
  
  • H: Hides / shows the user interface
    
    
• Battle View / Free Camera mode
  
  
  • Arrow keys: move the view
  • Mouse wheel: changes the camera angle
  • Mouse right click + pan: rotates the camera view
  • Ctrl: sticks / unsticks the camera on your fleet
    
    
• Rally point
  
  
  • Keep Left CTRL to enter rally point mode
    
    
    • left click to select start system and left click to select destination’s system
    • Double left click on the system to remove the rally point
      
      
    
    
    
• Construction queue:
  
  
  • Bottom of all queues: CTRL when you click on the chosen improvement
  • Top of all queues: CTRL + ALT when you click on the wanted improvement
  • Top of one queue: ALT when you click on the chosen improvement
    
    
  
  
  

Hi Marcelo - thanks for responding. With all due respect, please note how many of the keyboard shortcuts you've listed are just modifiers for mouse clicks!



To me the mouse is a very slow and inefficient way to navigate a detailed UI, because I often type much faster than I point-and-click on a 1920x1080 display. I'm going to bring up the Empire screen dozens or hundreds of times over the course of a lengthy game. Asking me to point-and-click on a tiny button in the upper-left corner of the screen each time, rather than just hitting F1, seems unnecessarily cumbersome.



ENDLESS SPACE is clearly a game with some depth. It also has precedents, and those create expectations in your audience. There are good reasons why the most successful 4x franchises on PC feature extensive keyboard shortcuts. Please don't ask me to unlearn the way I've approached this genre for over a decade, just to use what for me is a less-efficient control scheme.



The fact that your other 4x games DO support function keys makes their absence in ENDLESS SPACE all the more mystifying.

SantaDog, there are "mouse" people and there are "keyboard" people. I assure you that I'm a a keyboard person. So, while I would like to see more keyboard shortcuts*, the game does play quite well without them. If you walk away from this game, it's your loss.



*The shortcuts I would most like to see would be function keys to go to the various screens (e.g., F1 to go to Empire Management screen). Other than that, I'm happy with the interface, and I don't feel like I'm doing a bunch of mouse-clicking that would be better served by keyboard shortcuts.

coyote, I completely agree. I'm not partisan: there are PC games I play with controller, mouse or keyboard, in various combinations. I'm ambidextrous, so there are games where I use the mouse with my left hand, and others where I use it with my right. But I like to play efficiently, and for the 4x genre that usually means a combination of keyboard and mouse, because of the number of sub-screens and dialogs that must be negotiated. Interacting with the game is a pleasure. Interacting with the game's UI is a chore.



I'm trying to get over it and give ENDLESS SPACE another shot, but I'm frankly disappointed, because it's been a while since I got drawn into a sci-fi 4x, and I just can't see myself giving this UI hours and hours. It feels like I'm being subjected to somebody's experiment in minimalist UI design, ignoring 20+ years of history and the conventions of the platform it's running on.



If keyboard-free 4x is such a great design, why did Amplitude give it up for ENDLESS LEGEND? I suspect it's because most 4x players, like me, expect a more-than-minimal level of keyboard support from their PC 4x games.

What keyboard shortcuts would you propose? Maybe they will listen? Make a proposal or two.

YucaFrita wrote:
What keyboard shortcuts would you propose? Maybe they will listen? Make a proposal or two.

That's a good suggestion. First, though: I'm not suggesting that the UI become fully keyboard-driven. This would require a major overhaul as (for starters) the current UI doesn't represent keyboard focus. Much as I'd like the ability to use the arrow or tab keys to move around grids, I don't think it's realistic.



Given that restriction, we're looking at global shortcut keys that perform the same function (almost) regardless of context. For example:



Esc - Close screen or dialog (already implemented)

F1 - Empire screen

F2 - Research screen

F3 - Military View screen

F4 - Diplomacy screen

F5 - Academy screen

F6 - Options screen



Because so much time is spent on the Galaxy screen, there are a few additional hotkeys I'd love to see there:



F10 - Hide UI for screenshots (also applies to Battle screen)

Space - Execute all planned moves for fleets

Ctrl+Enter - End turn. I'd prefer no distinction between Enter and Num Enter in this regard.



Intra-element navigation could be enhanced by applying a few principles across screens. For example:



Tab/Shift Tab - Next/previous solar system. This would apply to the Galaxy and System View screens.

Left/Right Arrow - Next/previous item within current system or view. On the Galaxy screen, Left and Right Arrow would cycle between fleets. On the System View screen, Left and Right Arrow would cycle between planets.

Enter - On any screen that allows single or double-click activation of selected items, Enter should perform the equivalent action. For example, on the System View screen, pressing Enter would be the equivalent of clicking on the highlighted planet (zooms to the Planet View).



Ironically, since this is a post about keyboard shortcuts, there is an enhancement to the mouse UI that I'd like to see: add edge-of-screen scrolling to the Galaxy screen. This would also free up the arrow keys, which currently nudge the Galaxy screen view a few pixels in each direction, to be used to cycle between fleets or other interactive elements.



Thanks for reading and considering. Appreciate any feedback.

In addition to already mentioned keys for access to main screens from galaxy view I would like to see shortcuts for fleet commands: repair, refit, guard, siege, bombard, invade, disband, merge, launch (in the system view). For some reason Endless Space 1.1.49 (and 1.1.42 earlier) on my computer isn't very responsive to mouse clicks: often click is ignored, or button gets pressed but not depressed by click. Probably some Unity quirk. On a side note, is there a way to go from empire management screen (the list of systems) to certain system on galaxy view?

Also should add to the list:



PgDn/PgUp - Zoom in and out on zoomable screens, i.e. Galaxy

Just an aside: it's easy for threads about perceived flaws in a game to take on a negative tone. I'd like to note that I'm impressed enough with ENDLESS SPACE, despite its flaws, that I purchased ENDLESS LEGEND (Emperor Edition) today. For one thing, I've already discovered by searching these forums that LEGEND implements most of the keyboard shortcuts I'd like to see added to SPACE. For another, I appreciate the quality and aesthetic sensibility that Amplitude brings to their games, and want to support it. And LEGEND looks like a kick-ass high-fantasy 4x, to boot.



Fingers crossed we'll see more keyboard shortcuts in SPACE eventually. Thanks for reading.