How many of you did not know about F7 or F11?

Kevin Ar18 · February 21, 2002, 18:02

F7 and F11 bring up a hidden feature (or so I think) in that you cannot get to them any other way and the game does not indicate that you can get to them.

I voted no, but I should have voted "yes, but not until someone told me" since I know about it now.

Personally, I didn't read through the manual. I only looked up things I needed and usually I found the civilopedia had better info than the manual, so I never knew this feature was there.

Minuteman · February 21, 2002, 18:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Kevin Ar18
F7 and F11 bring up a hidden feature (or so I think) in that you cannot get to them any other way and the game does not indicate that you can get to them.

Huh? Doesn't F7 display the WOWs, and F11 display global demographics??? I must hit those keys 500 times per game. I don't think that they're as big a secret as you think they are.

Do you mean, by pressing F7 & F11 simultaneously something wonderful will happen?? Is that what you mean?

Kevin Ar18 · February 21, 2002, 18:11

No, I mean exactly that -- WOW and demographics. I want to see how many people knew about this feature without somebody telling them.

Minuteman · February 21, 2002, 18:15

No offense, but I think that you may be underestimating the average gamer, and especially, the average civer.

Even for those who scarcely touched their manuals after installing the game, the simple act of playing a game like this will prompt you to explore your keyboard just to see what everything does.

TechWins · February 21, 2002, 18:16

Um, none of your poll options fit for me. I found out about F7 and F11 by myself. I figured since F1-F6 all had a function I might as well try F7 and beyond to see if they had any functions and lone behold they did. Also, I found this out on my second game, but I could see how some may not have figured out the functions of the other F keys.

Kevin Ar18 · February 21, 2002, 18:25

I guess I just like intutive programs where all data is findable in the game through some menu or window. Oh well, now I know about the feature, so I guess it won't matter.

Donnyb20 · February 21, 2002, 18:26

For a while I did not know about F7 or F11 either, however I did end up reading it in the manual and also was very suprised that it was not a menu that you could bring up thru the advisor screen somehow. Especially since both of these menus are very useful to the player and was part of the menus in Civ 2.

ACooper · February 21, 2002, 18:34

"Officer, I didn't know what the red sign meant. I didn't read the manual! Damn, Firaxis!"

The Andy-Man · February 21, 2002, 18:53

u mean, these aint in the menu bars!!! jesus christ!!!!!!!

MonsterMan · February 21, 2002, 19:16

They probably couldn't find a good place to put the buttons leading to those screens. There's a lot of commands, like shift+a, that u can only learn from the keyboard command lists in the manual.

Spec · February 21, 2002, 19:19

Spec.

davidttm · February 21, 2002, 19:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Minuteman
No offense, but I think that you may be underestimating the average gamer, and especially, the average civer.

True enough. I think this question is more relevant to the SUB-average civer; someone like ME. I am only beginning to appreciate how much the keyboard shortcuts can help (I even played Civ II for a long time with just the mouse).

I do it because I'm lazy, but I think it also has something to do with a preference for mouse or keyboard (i.e. I don't have to put the beer down to fiddle with the keyboard).

At any rate, I did read the manual, but I did not memorize all the commands. I did assume that all keyboard commands would have a GUI link and that No Link = No Command. I'm sorry, really.

sachmo71 · February 21, 2002, 20:00

They're in the manual. Civ 3 sucks if you don't learn the hot keys, IMHO.

Willem · February 21, 2002, 20:03

Well seeing how almost all the games I play have some sort of F key command, it just strikes me as second nature to press them and see what comes up. I don't know, maybe I'm weird that way.

Zanzin · February 21, 2002, 20:14

I seem to recall finding out about them by experimenting with all the "F" keys to see if they did anything. And they did, so good!!

Also, I was wondering where the wonder screen and demographics screen was...they had to be there somewhere, right?

hwinkels · February 21, 2002, 20:17

Quote:

Originally posted by TechWins
Um, none of your poll options fit for me. I found out about F7 and F11 by myself. I figured since F1-F6 all had a function I might as well try F7 and beyond to see if they had any functions and lone behold they did. Also, I found this out on my second game, but I could see how some may not have figured out the functions of the other F keys.

Me too. I knew about them within 2 or 3 days of getting Civ III. Nobody told me about them and I didn't see it in the manual.

Spec · February 21, 2002, 20:19

Quote:

Originally posted by Willem
Well seeing how almost all the games I play have some sort of F key command, it just strikes me as second nature to press them and see what comes up. I don't know, maybe I'm weird that way.

Yea, dont you just hate it when one of those "keys" reloads or quits the game....Happens all the time the first time...um...that was weird.

Dis · February 21, 2002, 20:22

I voted wrong. I accidently voted no. I didn't like the other options.

I found out the easy way.

I pushed all the function buttons to see what they do.

Skanky Burns · February 21, 2002, 20:52

I did the opposite to most people.

Since the function keys have been used in Civ since version 1 to give you access to extra information, I just presumed that it would be the same in Civ 3. And it was.

After a few games of using them, then I noticed that the little people at the side of the info screens changed, a different one was highlighted in each screen... well in some of them

Gramphos · February 21, 2002, 21:09

I like Demographics so mush, I couldn't mis the keys. And I read the full manual before I installed the game. (not many gmes comes with paper manuals nowadays)

Scientia · February 22, 2002, 01:24

I believe these function keys had the same function in Civ II . . .

yin26 · February 22, 2002, 01:32

My interpretation of the question:
F11

F7

Code Monkey · February 22, 2002, 01:40

Where's the "It was obvious from the first time I played' option.

For crying out loud, it's a Civ game based on the SMAC code, what are the odds the F-keys didn't have some purpose? I sat down, I played, I clicked on the keys until I learned by memory what they all did.

Skanky Burns · February 22, 2002, 01:43

Yin!!

Standing out from the crowd, as usual

Dis · February 22, 2002, 02:30

I'll be honest. I rarely used the Function keys in civ2 or SMAC. I always used the pull down menus.

Only in civ3 did I realize how useless the menus are in civ3, and had to resort to the keyboard.

Grumbold · February 22, 2002, 04:49

I found the keys very quickly but I do think that eliminating the menus that gave you an alternative and visibly obvious way of getting to all the different commands, screens and options in the game was a mistake. When I was playing Civ III exclusively remembering endless shift+whatever commands is easy. Now playing a mix of games one after the other and I'm forever reaching for the manual to find them again.

DrFell · February 22, 2002, 07:44

Took me about an hour to find them, silly that there seems to be no other indications of their existance, considering how important they are.

Worthingtons · February 22, 2002, 09:30

I actually think this is a good poll, because (while i now feel stupid saying this) I didnt know about these keys until I read something about one of the 'f' keys on here, which then prompted me to test them all.

They should have included these options in menus, for the lazier ones like me

Pembleton · February 22, 2002, 14:21

Quote:

Originally posted by yin26
My interpretation of the question:

That's exactly what I thought. I thought this was about easter egg special units.

As to the function keys, I found out by trial and error.

Bautou · February 22, 2002, 15:14

I may be stupid, but I didn't know about the F7&F11 keys for the longest time until I read about it here. I did read the manual, but I guess I glossed over the F-key listing when I saw (thought) that they were all just shortcut keys for various screens you can get from the advisors.

Until I heard about F6&F11, I did think several times "Where's the Wonder screen?!!" or "How do I get demographics without retiring?!", but I just chalked that up to missing features. I do think it's a little bit poor interface for "shortcut" keys not to actually have a "longcut" method too.