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[andreasng]

controls in DF are

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random

to say the least. That is not why we love the game.

some menus has s as search... some q.
Some menus require a press and hold alt maybe?

Stating the obvious is to clean all of that out. Make it completely self-explanatory. All shortcuts should ofcourse be 100% streamlined.

But... imagine a sort of finder/searcher. A module that would pop up on screen (in the middle) you start typing, it has severe wildcarding feature. Down up will scroll through suggested actions. Enter will execute.

Type:
"bu c"
It yields:
build chair/throne [b -> c]
build cabinet [b -> f]
build container, chest [b -> h]
build etc etc etc

Type:
"inv s pi"
It yields:
Show Inventory of Stockpile#1
Show Inventory of Stockpile#2
Show Inventory of Stockpile#3
Show Inventory of Stockpile#4 (name: Main)
Show Inventory of Stockpile#5

Of course keyboard shortcuts are faster, but this will not only make everything easier for the player to find, it will also slowly teach the player about the faster shortcuts - and as long as shortcuts are not 100% consistent between menus it'll also make it easier for the player to find things in menus that is not immediately within the player's cognitive reach.

[ayy1337]

Shift + S seems an odd choice when search is most commonly ctfl + F.
And especially on the steam version it seems wasd are not used for any hotkeys because they control movement.

[andreasng]

it can be whatever. a fuzzy wildcard heavy search is what its all about