A few general ideas to improve keyboard shortcuts to be a bit more consistent overall:
About the “Del” key:
- Have it work for build sites and not just for fully-constructed buildings. This saves a lot of “clicking time” when the player has to delete several build sites for fences, for example.
- Have it remove the currently selected crop on the Farm window, and only delete the entire farm when all 3 years are empty. I’ve deleted the entire farm accidentally even though it was in use all 3 years because of the key’s current behavior.
About the “Esc” key:
- Have it only close the last opened window. If I want to close multiple windows it’s super easy for me to press “Esc” multiple times. But if I just want to close one sometimes that’s impossible and it forces me to click on the “X” of each window repeatedly. The “Esc” key closes multiple windows at once (which was quite confusing when first learning this game) when selecting resources to set storage limits or discarding items. A few specific examples:
- “Esc” closes both windows at once here:
- “Esc” closes all 3 windows at once here:
About the “Shift” key:
- Like with many RTS titles, have it add / remove soldiers from a control group. Example: I’m controlling my archers and one of them gets hit. I order the wounded archer to retreat to safety, but there’s no easy way to remove him from the control group of the archers. So as soon as I reselect the platoon and order them to fire, the wounded archer moves forward again and risks dying.