Spring RTS Engine

"j" key has the same functionality as middle mouse click.

Springrts.com is not really targeted at players (granted, it doesn't do a good job of making that clear), and can't really distribute content in the installer for various reasons (license, warez issues, size).

most games (with the exception of * annihilation games) have their own installers which include the game, some maps, and the spring engine. see http://www.spring1944.net/downloads.php for an example.

moriarty wrote:

Auswaschbar wrote:In the spring version I have, esc brings up a menu where you can select if you want to quit, resign etc. Pretty standard behavior.

Yes. (well no - F10 seems to have become the default for bringing up menus in RTS', but anyway).
Alt-F4 is a default for "quit" in almost all windows applications - not just games.

Escape is default for games with very few exceptions (does anything other than Blizzard games use F10?), many games ignore ALT-F4.

That would be a personal preference. If the Spring behaviour was so much more superior, then why do so few other games have it? Because the norm is to left (or right) click the mini-map to zoom the camera

You're not getting it, you can control your units via the minimap, this is much better than using it only for moving your game view. You can disable this with a setting but it's on by default for a very good reason.

and not everyone has a middle mouse button.

Everyone does have a middle mouse button. I haven't seen a mouse with only two buttons in a few years and cheap three button mice cost practically nothing today and they're essential for internet browsing.

Nemo wrote:Springrts.com is not really targeted at players (granted, it doesn't do a good job of making that clear), and can't really distribute content in the installer for various reasons (license, warez issues, size).

With the link saying "download and play" - springrts.com does a very good job of giving the impression it is made for players. If it just said "download" however, I'd probably agree with your point.
Also remember, most folks don't know what the difference is between an engine and the other stuff (content).

manolo_ wrote:spring isnt ported for mac as far as i know :)

While I realise it's not entirely current - http://springrts.com/wiki/Spring_on_MacOSX

Escape is default for games with very few exceptions (does anything other than Blizzard games use F10?), many games ignore ALT-F4.

Going to have to disagree on both accounts. Supreme Commander uses F10, so does Demigod to name a couple of relatively recent examples. I'm fairly sure there are plenty of others that do too (not at home at present so can't test). Not that I think Esc is that bad - after all, it does say ESCape .
As to Alt-F4 - Most games do recognise it in my experience, including TA (it brings up a dialog - "are you sure you want to quit to windows"). Sword of the Stars didn't, but I pointed it out and they added it in one of the patches.

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That springlobby bug I was rambling about: You can see they're overlapping when they shouldn't be (only one is supposed to be shown).

ALT-F4 might work in some games but I've seen lots of games where it doesn't work. Escape is the most common method of quitting games, but as said you can edit uikeys.txt in the Spring directory to change this if you want to.