'F' Key Follow View Non-op (?)

[Nicholas Bell]

So what am I doing wrong? 'V' sets me to fixed view, while both 'F' and 'R' key put me in free mode. I can use the flyout to get to the Follow View, but the keyboard shortcut would be much easier.

I am also unable to use (or figure out how to use!) the F2 key.

Your knowledgeable answers and help are appreciated.

Nick

[Bullethead]

There are 2 ways I've found to get into Follow View mode to start with.

Click the Follow Mode button in the upper right corner of the screen. If you have one of your ships selected at the time, the view follows that ships. If you don't have any ships selected, the view will follow the ship that was centered in the POV when the battle began.
Have one of your ships selected and hit the F key. The view will now follow that ship, even after you deselect it.


Once you're in Follow Mode, you need to be aware of a few things.

Every time you select a different ship, that ship becomes the one the view follows.
Up in the upper left corner of the screen, between the time of day and the running text buffer, you'll see what ship the POV is following, if any.
The . and , keys jump the POV to center on every friendly shp in sequence. If you're already in Follow Mode when you do this, the view will follow each friendly ship as you cycle through them.
To follow enemy ships, first get in Follow Mode on one of your ships. Then you have a choice. You can now right click on an enemy ship to follow it. However, when you do this, the POV jumps to where that ship began the battle, so you'll often be looking at open sea. To see the enemy ships, just use the mouse wheel to zoom and you'll jump right to the enemy.
The K and L keys jump the POV around to center on each enemy ship in sequence. If you're in Follow Mode already when you do this, the view will follow each enemy ship in turn as you cycle through them.
Very Important: When you're in Follow Mode, the center of the POV moves over the water on the same course and with the same speed as the ship your following. HOWEVER, all the controls that move the POV still work, so you can have the POV following (as in moving with) Ship A but manually move the POV so that it's looking at Ship B many miles away. If you zoom/unzoom the POV while in Follow Mode, however, it always jumps back to center on the ship it's following.


The F2 key only seems to work on the campaign map screen. It brings up a text box showing the most recent intelligence report you got, which itself might be days or weeks behind when the event reported actually happened.

[Nicholas Bell]

Have one of your ships selected and hit the F key. The view will now follow that ship, even after you deselect it.

Thanks, but this doesn't work. It puts me in Free Mode, not Follow.

The other stuff I understand and use. it's just I can only use the flyout to select Follow mode.