"Focus is broken!"

[mecha]

To which the answer is "no, no it's not".

You may be experiencing some problems with alt focus, I just had this explained to me by Dyntehos which was much easier to understand than the previous person who tried who basically said "It's broken!" and when I asked "How?" stormed out of irc.

Take this example:

You have your mothership selected, you are in the sensors manager.
You alt focus on the enemy mothership.
You hit f to focus on it.
It focuses on your mothership, you get annoyed.

The problem here is that there is no need at all to hit f, I have no idea why people are doing it but it must be a habit brought over from homeworld 1. All you need to do is alt focus, you're now focused on that ship, no need to focus again!

Some of the differences from homeworld 1:
Alt focusing does not zoom you all the way in on the ship.
Alt focusing does not bring you out of the sensors manager.

You'll find both of these are necessary to effectively use the sensors manager, it's not just a map like in homeworld 1, you can play the game from the sensors if you want.

[Lt___rico]

It is a bit anoing but we will adapt.

[mecha]

Why is it annoying? You never needed to hit f to focus on an alt focused ship, I have no idea why people do it.

[Mehrunes]

I completely forgot about how that worked in HW1. Now I understand what people are complaining about, although I still don't understand why.

[SuccendoSLS]

Eh, I haven't had any problems with this as a longtime HW/HW:C vet. Although I'm constnatly bumping the edge of the screen and defocusing :-D

[Lt___rico]

Originally posted by mecha
Why is it annoying? You never needed to hit f to focus on an alt focused ship, I have no idea why people do it.

It was just a fast way to close in on the action "f" being a home key and all. I dont have as much trouble any mor now that I have a scrole mouse. Back when I played HW1 I did't have one so zooming was a little more complex then just a double "f".

[elfANGEL]

Mecha you didn't finnish your explanation,
after alt/focus in sensor manager on enemy ships hit "space bar" to zoom in on those ships.

[PeanutR]

Well maybe it's possible to play the game from the sensorsmanager, but I'm still not going to do it. One of the great attractions of this game is the great visuals, and from that perspective the sensorsmanager is the low point...

[NovaBurn]

What is the point of being able to alt-focus in the sensors manager, when it doesnt jumo outa of the sensors manage to that ship(s)???

No big deal to me, although it will be hard to get outa the HW habit....is that good thing to do?

[W0ps]

screen bumping can be disabled. That way you can safely click-away the build manager without losing your focus. (although I always press R R to get it out of my view) (research manager on, and then research manager off)

[reki]

hey thats a good tip W0ps, thanks!

[Mr Tyranny]

Originally posted by mecha
Some of the differences from homeworld 1:
Alt focusing does not zoom you all the way in on the ship.
Alt focusing does not bring you out of the sensors manager.

I think that those two things are what most people are talking about..

Quick fix for the patch: Use Alt+Shift to zoom in on an unselected object..

[DarkDemon]

hehehe mecha...its bcause we used f in cata

select a ship...then press f to focus and then press f again to zoom in.

i still try it in the demo sometimes

[SpinDizzy]

It is annoying, at least give us the option to change it back.

[mecha]

nope, even with your blatant abuse of smilies

[DarkDemon]

:weep:









:evilnod: see u online :evilnod:

[DarkDemon]

hey mecha,

what about a clock?
the clock in cata was really useful to perfect a strat.

[malignus]

I found a good alternative to the old way after a few games of frustration. After doing an alt-focus, just hit space. It'll leave sensors manager focused on the thing you want to be focused on. It's a bit annoying at first, but it works at least, and it becomes reflex after a while.

[Keiichi]

Like malignus said, instead of pressing Alt-F F, just hit Alt-F SPACE. I don't understand why people are complaining about this.

-Keiichi

[SajuukCor]

Am I like the only one who hasn't ever touched the "f" key for Homeworld? (Well, for focusing at least lol :grumble: lol) I must be thankful for the middle button on the mouse, which does the same thing as I take it. Middle press focuses, while another click and it zooms all the way.

You know, three button mice are like 10 bucks nowadays Wave of the future!!

[ÜberJumper]

The big thing that mecha's pointed out is that the sensors manager is effectively the game interface as well. You can't have the game alt-focusing out of the sensors manager if you simply want to alt+focus on a ship in the SM. Yes, an option for this would be cool, but realize that the chances of it making it in to a patch are slim unless HW2 sells lots. At this point, adding alt+focus to SM option is a feature, not a bug.

Crash Bugs first, Useability next, and balance somewhere in between (bad huge balance errors could be argued as a bug, but it's hard to judge balance without the full product).

[DarkDemon]

hey...what about the clock?

[SajuukCor]

Originally posted by DarkDemon
hey...what about the clock?

Grab an egg timer

[yian]

In Cata you could lpay the entire game in the sensor, too, and I never liked it. I usually use the sensor to locate my squads or my ships, and clicking on them and bringing me the them quickly is what I wanted.

[Rent-a-Zilla]

The sensors manager in HW2 is great (very much like Cata actually); anyone who doesn't learn how to/refuses to play the game from the sensors manager is going to get screwed.

[mecha]

make a file called autoexec.lua in your bin folder and put this in it:

function updateTimer()
	dr_clear("timer")
	dr_setautoclear("timer",0)
	local str = format("time:%.1f",Universe_GameTime())
	dr_text2d("timer",0.5,0.96,str, 200,120,240)
end

Rule_AddInterval("updateTimer", 5)

[DarkDemon]

ya cool.
thx man.

[Mr Tyranny]

OMG.. I hope that modding this puppy is going to be as easy as that! :monocle: :bow2: Thanks for the insight!

[Mehrunes]

Originally posted by mecha
make a file called autoexec.lua in your bin folder and put this in it:

function updateTimer()
	dr_clear("timer")
	dr_setautoclear("timer",0)
	local str = format("time:%.1f",Universe_GameTime())
	dr_text2d("timer",0.5,0.96,str, 200,120,240)
end

Rule_AddInterval("updateTimer", 5)

Fascinating...

[Warpath81-DD]

@Mecha

The reason I miss alt-focus so much is how fast you have to move to truly micro a larger game. When you are having to jump very fast from place to place on the map, it can take up a lot of time having to hit space every time to get out of sensor manager.

I know a few people might say this is silly, but think about it. You are fighting a battle on 3 fronts, you have to jump from all 3 quickly and your hotkey groups don't work well for focus (fleets split). If you have to jump from fleet to fleet multiple times, plus check your ru ops from time to time, that extra second or so to do space bar adds up very fast. You have to alt-band box, and then space.

I am getting used to doing it with space. It goes a good amount slower when you are micro'n very quickly, but I think I can make it work. I just think it would be nice to have an option to be able to alt-focus out of sensor a-la HW1 style. I would certainly use it.

As for not wanting to go out of the sensor manager, you can scroll in the sensor manager very easily. Why would you need to alt focus? Just bandbox and hit f, just as easy. and zoom out-scroll is very quick too...

It is all about speed when it comes to battle micro. Sometimes seconds can make a huge difference when they add up.


But this is just my 2 cents. I'll get used to whatever =)

[Mehrunes]

Originally posted by Warpath81-DD
You are fighting a battle on 3 fronts, you have to jump from all 3 quickly and your hotkey groups don't work well for focus (fleets split)...

...and you would probably be able to handle things much more effectively if you were doing all of this in sensors manager instead dropping out for whatever reason.

[motiv-8]

How do you make a .lua file?

[Mehrunes]

Originally posted by motiv-8
How do you make a .lua file?

Uncompiled .lua files are just regular text files that end with '.lua'.

[SpinDizzy]

Originally posted by mecha
nope, even with your blatant abuse of smilies

What?!?! 1 tongue smiley geez.
Yeah It's just that it's force of habit, from homeworld, and I like to go back to the orginal every now and again.

nvm, Hope you don't mind me and others being overly critical sometimes, I can imagine it's not always very nice being as it's yours and others work. You really can see the thought that's gone into everything when you look at it from a certain perspective, and as more people get used to it, less rants of course, hurrah.

luff you Mecha.

[CPowers22]

I always used middle mouse for focus and space to get out of sensor manager. Didnt even know you could use F :P

[Langy]

What the hell. Just double-click the middle mouse button and you pop out of the sensors manager. That's what you want, right? If you don't have a middle mouse button, or even a mouse without a scroll wheel, buy one! My optical one only cost $12, and it's infinitely better than a two-button normal mouse. Sheash. Cheap bastards

Now, if that's not what you want... then WTF is it?

[Warpath81-DD]

Originally posted by Mehrunes


...and you would probably be able to handle things much more effectively if you were doing all of this in sensors manager instead dropping out for whatever reason.

It is not always easy to micro a large battle from the sensor manager, specially when you are doing priority targeting with multiple groups (i.e. int. group, bomber group, ion group, torp. group, etc)

Its to hard to do in sensor effectively. At least I think so...but that is just how it feels to me. Other people probably play/think differently.

[RoundHaed]

If you instist on using "f" for focus: something you may not have noticed
if you hit "f" twice it will take you out of sensors manager and
focus you on your selection Like double clicking. So drag a box
over what you want to focus on in sensor manager then hit "f,f"

[cateye]

As spin said, hopefully u dont mind us critizing. The things that are good tend to be mentioned less than the things ppl dont like. Its only natural.

So if i understand it right, the theory is to play in sensors manager most of the time...theres one thing that is really missing then: When u Alt+Bandbox something a list of enemy/friendly ships should pop up somewhere. Its really crucial if u want to run the battle from sensors, cuz bombers and intys for example just look the same in sensors...

[ÜberJumper]

There's a way to get enemy ships to pop up, I just can't remember how to do it. They end up showing as red ships in your task bar tray.

Also, if you mouseover (tedious I know) you will get what the unit types are.

[cateye]

Thats really good news

[Alpha_1]

Seeing as the timer is inserted with a simple text file, how hard is it to create an addition to it to give you a listing of the ships onscreen?

In cata there was the green of your own, red of enemies and light blue of allies. By holding down ALT and band boxing a group of ships you could see all the ships in the box listed to the upper right.

Homeworld also had the listing of selected ships that one could see in the upper right, however this was only of your own ships.

Still these two games had a less intrusive text means of selecting specific ship types out of a massive group. How hard (for that matter, what code) might need to be added to the autoexec.lua to add these mods to the game?

Don't get me wrong, I do like that I can select ships from the bottom viewing window, but this text version could be used when the menu is minimized and thus allow for faster in game responses. It actually takes longer to select out ships now than it would with a text based means as in HW or HW:C. This is mainly a function intended for high heat battles where you need fast control of all your ships, not for the mundane build, research, move, and group work.

[Timeless]

Guys, I had the same initial reaction to the alt key not pulling me out of the sensors managers, but it's simple, really. You can alt focus anywhere in the sensors manager, then simply hit the spacebar to exit the SM to that exact spot--very easy to do. I find I can whip around HW2 much easier and quicker than in HW1--got to love edge scrolling and/or using arrow keys to move all about--it's fantastic.

Most people requested changes to the UI, to the sensors managers, etc....we got them and now people are crying for the old way. Give it time, shed your old expectations, then you will see how remarkable HW2 is in regard to camera control, UI and the SM. HW1, awesome game as it is/was, seems archaic by comparison.

One thing I would like to know, however, is if they are going to fix recordings. I don't mind playing from the sensors managers or from a zoomed out position but this game will be missing a lot if we can't later watch our recordings, as this is a prime time to enjoy all the neat eye candy.

Oh--and if we use this timer mod, will it throw the game out of sync if the other players are not using it?

Timeless_OMO

[cateye]

@OMO:

That timer mod wont throw u out of sync, because it actually only modifies the UI...behavior of ships (speed, armor, etc) isnt affected, neither are ships created or destroyed, so its totally save to use it in MP ... im not sure "mod" is the right designation for that.

[Timeless]

Well, it does MODIFY the game.

[Mikali]

Anyone know how to make just a regular clock, formatted similarly?

I tried using the date() function without formatting the string, but was not successful.

[giniustflord]

Originally posted by mecha ok how do i put this in it how bout jest posting a file that can be inserted int the bin file and making things esey for those of use who dont know how to write code bud thanks

make a file called autoexec.lua in your bin folder and put this in it:

function updateTimer()
	dr_clear("timer")
	dr_setautoclear("timer",0)
	local str = format("time:%.1f",Universe_GameTime())
	dr_text2d("timer",0.5,0.96,str, 200,120,240)
end

Rule_AddInterval("updateTimer", 5)