Hot Key to move cursor to active unit??

bobneudecker · January 5, 2004, 14:53

Does anyone know if there is a hot key in Civ III that will cause the cursor to jump to the active unit on the screen? If not, what is the best way to contact the developers to put this on the wish list?

Snotty · January 5, 2004, 18:37

C for Centre.

bobneudecker · January 5, 2004, 21:56

Thank you. Just what I needed.

bobneudecker · January 5, 2004, 22:14

Woops! That wasn't it after all. The C key puts the selected unit at the center of the screen. That's good, but then I want to hit a key to make the cursor arrow go there, no matter where it was parked. Any other ideas? Thanks.

vmxa1 · January 6, 2004, 01:23

I don't see anything else in the Manual for CivIII. I did not check PTW or C3C.

bobneudecker · January 6, 2004, 12:33

I couldn't find anything there either. Thanks for your reply.

Filippo · January 8, 2004, 05:12

I doubt you can move the mouse pointer with the keyboard. After all the mouse is a different device from the kyeb. If you would do with the keyboard what you do with the mouse, what would be the use for the latter ? I believe that moving the mouse pointer from a corner of the screen to its center (eg. the max distance it can have from a centered unit) takes even less than remembering, finding and pressing the keyboard hotkey to do it.

bobneudecker · January 8, 2004, 11:24

Thanks for taking the time to reply. The reason for my interest is based on the fact that I have a degererative eye diisease that severely limits my peripheral vision. When playing CivIII I often have a hard time locating the cursor arrow. Granted, this is not a show-stopper. I just swish the cursor around until it appears in the box at the lower right, where the active unit is identified. Then it is easy to follow it to the center of the screen.
Similarly, if I want to take a look at a city that is not active, I swish the cursor to the map at the lower left, click on the map, and follow the cursor to the center of the screen. Nevertheless, I would like to hit a key to short cut this process. I shouldn't think it is impossible.

Snotty · January 8, 2004, 18:32

I imagine you would need an external program to do this. I have posted in the off topic forum to see if anyone can knock one up for you.

MichaeltheGreat · January 8, 2004, 19:49

Quote:

Originally posted by Filippo
I doubt you can move the mouse pointer with the keyboard.

The mouse pointer is just another type of graphical object in Windows, it can be moved by any means (including randomly on a timer) that a programmer wants to have it moved.

There is a graphic for the cursor (standard, I-beam, hourglass or what have you), x and y coordinates from the corner of the desktop, and some simple behind the scenes crap that you really don't even tweak at the MFC or ATL level, let alone .NET, so that Windows can identify the active window under the cursor and handle different click events.

bobneudecker · January 9, 2004, 00:34

Thanks to Snotty and Michael the Great for your thoughts and actions. I have noticed that in Windows XP if you go to the control panel and get into the cursor control panels, there are a couple of interesting options to check. For one. you can opt to hit CTRL and have some animation appear around the cursor arrow to help you locate it on the screen. For another, you can elect to have the cursor select the default dot in any dialog box. I think the Civ programmers would have to use a similar technique to move the cursor to the active-unit circle.

P.S. I am new to this board and am impressed with the activity and helpfulness of the members. Thanks,

reds4ever · January 9, 2004, 21:27

Quote:

Originally posted by bobneudecker
P.S. I am new to this board and am impressed with the activity and helpfulness of the members. Thanks,

Come down to Off-Topic, you'll soon change your mind