[Snail]

No, seriously, I've been playing this game for like 10 years and I still don't have any idea what HotKeys are actually useful for.

[Spoon]

F8-12 are all sorts of awesome yo
I know at least two campaigns who will make good usage of them 

[The E]

I sort of thought like that, but now I find them incredibly useful to pick out the one enemy wing that I need to kill out of big enemy waves.

[Galemp]

Very useful in Playing Judas for keeping track of where Arjuna is patrolling.

[QuantumDelta]

Situational awareness.
You used to be able to do some funky AI orders with them too but I don't remember any details now..

Only problem for me is fraps tends to be bound to F12 xD

[TopAce]

It allows you to track multiple targets at once.

[haloboy100]

It allows you to track multiple targets at once.

Yeah, but not while you're targeting an object outside of that group. Otherwise those would have been useful, but I don't see why you can't just use the escort list for this sort of thing if you have open spots for it.

[TopAce]

Preferences, preferences.

[General Battuta]

It allows you to track multiple targets at once.

Yeah, but not while you're targeting an object outside of that group. Otherwise those would have been useful, but I don't see why you can't just use the escort list for this sort of thing if you have open spots for it.

u r dumb

A single overstrength fighter wing will eat up most (all) of the non-modded escort list. OR, you could have it on a single hotkey instead.

[Mongoose]

And the hotkeys enable you to have multiple highlights on your HUD for each target in the group, which the escort list doesn't allow you to do.

[haloboy100]

A single overstrength fighter wing will eat up most (all) of the non-modded escort list. OR, you could have it on a single hotkey instead.

Why would you add a whole wing to your escort list?

[General Battuta]

A single overstrength fighter wing will eat up most (all) of the non-modded escort list. OR, you could have it on a single hotkey instead.

Why would you add a whole wing to your escort list?

Are you serious?

You just suggested doing just that.

It allows you to track multiple targets at once.

Yeah, but not while you're targeting an object outside of that group. Otherwise those would have been useful, but I don't see why you can't just use the escort list for this sort of thing if you have open spots for it.

Or had it not occurred to you that hotkeys can be used to track critical enemy fighter wings, including bombers, Maxim assaults and SSM strikes?

[haloboy100]

Well obviously I didn't mean wings, as that would be impractical, as you pointed out.
Either way, I think it'd be better off to ask this:

Why would you ever need to monitor a whole wing of hostile fighters you're not attacking?

[General Battuta]

Well obviously I didn't mean wings, as that would be impractical, as you pointed out.
Either way, I think it'd be better off to ask this:

Why would you ever need to monitor a whole wing of hostile fighters you're not attacking?

Because there are multiple hostile wings in the environment, and you need to keep track of all their positions to prioritize your own engagement pattern and coordinate the wings under your command in countering them all simultaneously.

Not to mention you can also monitor entire friendly wings to figure out where they are.

And never mind that, the hotkeys are better than the escort list anyway since you can push a key and instantly have your target available rather than cycling E. The only disadvantage is the lack of passive monitoring.

Good FREDders will pre-assign the hotkeys to vital ships in any complex mission and alert the player to the assignments in the directives window.

[haloboy100]

You forget that while you're doing that you're simply sitting there without a target not hitting anything.

[QuantumDelta]

Speak for yourself.

[General Battuta]

You forget that while you're doing that you're simply sitting there without a target not hitting anything.

The fact that you're bad at the game speaks nothing to whether or not I am. Speak for yourself.

Where have you been for the past five years? It's like you never played Forced Entry.

Once your skills pick up to the point where you can effectively manage squadron-force units while also flying your ship, you'll see how valuable hotkeys can be.

[QuantumDelta]

That said I still don't use'em in forced entry, though only for a couple reasons;
a) ....I just don't need to.
b) I try to stay away from my fraps button.
c) I tend to memorise wing arrival locations, and even times in lesser missions (no this isn't a concious effort, multi has made this come naturally..).
d) I mostly skip over the hotkeys in escort missions for the shortcut keys for the comm system.
That said, I could combine them all with the above if I really wanted, the only reason I don't use'em is that I'm too damn lazy.

I'd probably give them a far more serious and 'necessary' look in missions like one of the early(ish) WiH missions (DH) if they worked a bit more like asteroid tracking where they wouldn't disappear if you change targets, or came back automatically when a wing jumped in and you had previously pressed it.

But, I certainly recognise they had uses because I learned to use the radar and soak in the distances on most things to basically have 100% awareness in missions.
Again, they're not really something you need in most single player missions though.

Doesn't mean they ain't useful.

[General Battuta]

They're most useful as pre-assigned hotkeys for mission-critical wings or ships. That way a FREDder can provide a player the ability to rapidly select an important incoming wing (say, an SSM strike or a Maxim assault) as cued by the directives list. The escort list can't do this.

They're also great in stealth missions since you can simultaneously track the position of multiple targets.

[Mongoose]

Yeah, they were invaluable in one or two PI missions with a hornet's nest of enemy fighters you needed to sneak around.  I don't think I've ever bothered with them in Playing Judas, though, since I've yet to be caught by Arjuna wing in all the times I've played it.