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Wilko's Hotkey Guide

By Wilko - 20th March 2009 - 20:10 PM

Gamereplays and United-Forum member Wilko has taken the time to write up his guide to efficient and effective hotkey management. In this guide you will learn some valuable tips to improve your reaction time, and give you the extra advantage on the battlefield. This guide was posted originally in German and was carefully translated by Gamereplay's very own Moblin_DK. So without further ado, Wilko's Hotkey Guide:

The basic principle is that I've moved the "Macro Keys" (Macro-Management Keys) down by 2 fields so that the keys are next to each other.

Okay, now for the explanation:
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The colored buttons are actively used in the game. The colors indicate with what finger I use the button:
Red for the thumb
Purple for the index finger
Blue for the middle finger
Green for the ring finger
Yellow for the little finger

The gray keys are not used during the game but are nevertheless useful. The dark gray are not used at all in the game. The blacks are keys I have removed from my keyboard.

I just start at the top right and work my way through each row explaining each buttons use:

ESC = Exit the game or give up. Also used as a pause button, for when you need to pause a replay.

F1 = Select all units
F2 = Unlock Support Power
F3 = Units scatter. Important Hotkey if you play a lot with Infantry. Simply F3 to scatter threatened units and after 1-2 seconds click on the enemy unit, then box select any threatened units, old or new, and repeat as necessary.
With enough practice you be able to avoid hitting the wrong key as each of the 3 keys is used with a different finger.
F4 = Return to base. Earlier I often used this to micro my air-units from the airfields. Now I rather double-click-spam team micro. Also continuously checking to see if a vindicator, after his bombs has been dropped, needs to be sent home with its secondary, or if it's ready for a new bombing run (It sounds difficult, but after some time you get an accurate sense of when the vindicators are ready to start again). Still use it from time to time though when I see units close to my construction yard on the mini map.

F12 = For screenshots of opponents whose mothers, when vacuuming, accidentally pulled the Internet cable out.

^ (The key left of the "1") = Select all units of the same type. Select a unit and then tap once to select all units in view, or tap twice to select all units of this type on the entire map.

1-0 When playing as Allies:
1 = Main Unit (in this case Peace Keepers and sometime Javelins). Refresh the group often by taking in new units (Key use: "1"/ double "^" / "Ctrl+1")
2-4 (early) = Scouts (1-3 dogs depending on the map)
2 (later) = Possibly a second main unit such as Riptide or Guardians when against Empire.
2-0 (Land) = Vindicator + Apollo. Apollo's all in one group. Vindicator in individual groups to maximize stop bombing if the opponent has little AA. Otherwise in groups of two, because you can not effectively stop micro without risk losing a Vindicator. If the opponent has a lot of AA then use groups of four so that at best you only lose one Vindicator. You always have to assess whether attacking would be cost efficient or whether you should chose another target.
2-0 (Sea) = Riptides + Hydrofoils (+ possibly dolphins) + Air. Riptide all in one group, same goes for dolphins. Hydrofoil in individual groups and air as described above.
Always control Hydrofoil with double "^" for Anti-Air, and individually when using their secondary (if you fight against Akulas also move around using the mouse so that you're out of reach when the submarine surfaces, since the Soviets like to "Stop & Go "Micro their Akulas).
If you scout that your opponent is trying to control the sea early then quickly build 2 dolphins. If it is an Ally mirror and the opponent has a relatively large number hydrofoil. Basically: Riptide > dolphins / / dolphins> many Hydrofoil and few Riptides or Hydrofoil and dolphins / / Hydrofoil + Riptide (or Hydrofoil + dolphins, although the former is better)> destroyer
And always support with Air.

Tab = Aggressive unit stance. If they are to attack buildings along they way. Used it often in C&C3 but only sometimes in RA3. In RA3 you have to manually select target, if walls are around and you do not want to waste your shots. If you know that you'll be running into enemy units then set you units back on offensive.
Ctrl + A = Offensive unit stance. Default for units coming out from the production structures, unless of course you've changed the structures setting.
Ctrl + ^ = Defensive unit stance. For when you don't want your units to move but still attack things in range. Pretty handy in C&C3 when facing a mine drop. Quickly chose the units then press Ctrl + ^ to minimize damage. Also quite useful in RA3. For example: If you want to block choke point like the ones on Fire Island (yeah okay, that's not a common need) or when you need to prevent an air-to-air unit, which hovers over an area that prevents ground units from attacking (mountains, cliffs, etc.) so that you have line of sight from following an enemy air unit to its death.
Ctrl + Tab = Hold fire. For when you don't want your units to attack. I always put my Vindicator on "hold fire" because it is annoying if they, on their way to the target, decides to bomb something else. Also useful for Flak drops do deny your opponent the early warning from the twinblade attacking the harvester. Gives him less time time to build walls, move harvester etc. In C&C3 it was a must for a good Engi-BMT Lamer.

Q-I = The building options normally keyed to F1-F8.
A = The building option normally keyed to F9. The only building option for that hotkey is the Soviet Crane. Should be "O" if I where to follow the system above. Using that however would cost time and forcing you to move your hand. Therefore "A" is a better place.

Enter = Message all players.
Backspace = Message allies. I would recommend you communicate with audio applications such as TeamSpeak or Skype though.

S = Stop (cancels the last attack on command). Used for choosing new targets. An example: You're fighting against a group of enemy tanks and your opponent retreats the tank you've focus fired on. Your units will follow the tank so that they can continue the attack. The tank then kites them making the units move instead of firing. Instead just press "S" so that they stop and find new targets (units always attack the unit closes to them). An even better solution is to focus fire on a new target (preferably one that's already taken damage).
Also remember to use it after force firing on a bust drone has killed it. Otherwise the unit will continue to attack your own unit.

D = Reverse move (Makes the units move backwards). This Hotkey was very popular in CnC3 because you could pull back from fights quickly (the units moved just as fast backwards as they did forwards, but they didn't have to do turn around thereby saving time). In RA3, however, the units are 25% slower when reverse moving, and therefore should only be used in certain circumstances. For example use it with units, where it is important they stay on target and would lose it they started turning (the Guardian secondary or hammer tanks).
The directional armor plays almost no role for your use as the tank takes almost as much damage from a front hit as with a hit from side or the rear. You can also fly your Twinblades backwards, if you want to show off in front of your mates.

F = Attack move (units ordered to move this way will engage all enemy units they encounter on their way). You should always use this command to move units from A to B, unless you need the unit to move to B to do even more damage (Flak-Blade, Tanja-IFV, etc.)

G = Sell
H = Repair

SHIFT = Hold and left click to cue 5 units in the build menu/ Hold and right click to stop production of the unit. Hold and right click, while stopped, to cancel the entire build cue. You should not start construction with the shift command. Use the hotkeys and then use the shift+ left click (allows you to build a little bit faster)

Ctrl = Force attack (Forces your units to attack the ground or allied units). The "Shoot on the ground" might seems totally useless at first glance, but it can be used advantageous.
Order your forces to attack the ground outside their range. They'll all position them self so that they'll be able to shoot that spot at their maximum range. This will arrange them in the optimal formation (normally a semi-circle) for your attack (With large amounts of units this doesn't really work).

X-N = The build menu hotkeys with the hotkey for the war factories on my mouse (which I'll explain in the following section). (Alternatively, you can also use hotkeys by XN <-- Makes no sense to me)
"set Rally point" is also on my mouse. Alternatively, you can use "J".
The reason I have those two hotkeys on my mouse is that in CnC3 you often had several weapons factories. My War Factory hotkey is on the front left and my Rally point hotkey is on the rear left (Razer "Lachesis" <- not sure of the model), so I only have to move my thumb over the side of the mouse and right click to move all my rally points. In RA3, I use it out of habit, since it doesn't really hurt my game. Takes just as long as selecting the production building + pressing the "J" button would (personally I find that my way is even a little faster)

Y (In the picture it is Z seeing as I couldn't find a German keyboard template)= Waypoints. Issue a list of orders to your units. Use it to: create scouting routes, destroy a base efficiently (Remember to prioritize which buildings gets destroyed first), prevent naval units from getting stuck by giving them a waypoint route (I hope the next patch fixes the "run a ground" bug)

Alt = Secondary ability (hotkey for the units secondary ability)

Alt+Q-Z + Alt+ A-H = Use Support Powers (Remember Z=Y as explained above). CnC3 had a lot of support Powers, so that Alt + the first row (Q-Z) and even a few keys from the second row (A-H) was needed. In RA3 only the first 3 keys are needed (Ctrl + Q / Ctrl + W / Ctrl + E) <-- not sure if he means Ctrl or Alt in this paragraph.

Space = Jump to the location of the current event (as soon as you hear a message, you should press the Space button to know what is going on there)

Ctrl + J-; = Create Bookmarks.

J-; = Jump to bookmark. Bookmarks are a part of the maps you jump to when pressing the key. I don't use these in game because I prefer to double click on a team (1-0) to jump to the scene (with my units already being selected so I don't have to use a drag box). Instead, I used these keys when I'm looking at replay to quickly switch between the two bases so that I can accurately compare the the Eco-and time differences.

M = Set Beacon. Use it to call your ally attention to a specific event.

, = Show Health Bars. Some players have the health bars show, and some not. I personally think that it's a disadvantage not having the health as shown, as you might miss a wounded enemy unit.

. = To fast forward the replay


Hope that you found it helpful, and if you want, you might try out my hotkeys.

-Wilko