Keyboard Shortcuts

[sasin]

I was wondering to what extent people use keyboard shortcuts, and which ones are the most popular. Do people use build mode?

[Hammie]

Keyboard commands kind of vary per player, im my case i rarely use keyboard commands, and only use them to quickly select templates or use the shift commands to make a build queue , however i do know a couple players that rely heavily on the Keyboard commands, if they are managed effectively and are know off by heart what each one is it can give you that ever so slight advantage in reaction speed and could possibly win a battle, however as always with supreme commander it completely depends on the player, and the situation, as 9 times out of 10 your attention needs to be everywhere at once.

[rootbeer23]

forget build mode, get the hotbuild mod.
also, since you ask: i find it essential to have certain commands assigned to keys on my left hand:
w - patrol
q - overcharge
z - pause
tab - infinite build
1 - acu

[Gothmos]

Don't forget the ever useful alt-right click attack move. It's also useful to know z for pausing factories or the such.

[Nombringer]

TAB- Idle facs

Shift space - Idle engies onscreen

This is with GUI and hotbuild

[Kurbain]

Shortcuts are really useful in my opinion since there are so many things in Supreme Commander which you have to keep an eye on.
There is so much macro and micro-management possible that usually there are more things to take care of than you can actually handle and you will have to prioritize and just do the things which are the most important.
If you use a lot of shortcuts, it will save you quite a bit of time in the long run which you will be able to spend on those things you otherwise wouldn't find the time for.
There's no drawback to using shortcuts as long as you know them by heart.

My recommandations:
1. Use GAZ_UI and Hotbuild. Get them as quickly as possible. The longer you play without them, the harder it will be to get used to them later on.
2. Put all often used unit commands on a key which is easily reachable by your left-hand.
3. Create shortcuts for selecting certain units. Most important for me are "Select all air units", "Select all land units", "Select all navy units", "Select next air factory" (I just use it to select my single air factory without having to look at it), "Select all indirect fire units" (To check if any artillery or MML are nearby to deal with PDs), "Select all Air Combat Units" (To select your interceptors quickly), "Select all factories on screen", "Select all engineers", "Select closest idle engineer". I use Alt+Key for those.
4. Use GAZ-UI to make factory queue templates.

Personally I also like to use the split-screen function (Home/Pos 1 key). Assuming you always have the map zoomed out on the right side, you can save time because you just have to take a look at the right side of the screen rather than zooming out to see what's going on and you can select units on the left side of your screen and use the right side to give orders. Especially useful for macro-management of your attack units.