Hotbar: Recommended configurations and usage

[zOldBulldog]

I have been struggling to figure out how to best configure my hotbars.

What I know:
- There are 10 hotbars
- You can scroll between them with <Atl><MouseWheel>, but not select them with something like <Alt>1 through <Alt> 0. Whoever designed that should be drawn and quartered, it is the most unwieldy selection system I ever saw. I will likely remap to <Alt><LeftMouseButtons> but even that seems clunky. So I expect that I'd really use only 1-3 hotbars as more would be ineffective.
- I read that once you have an item selected you can hit E for a list of similar items. That seems promising, as it would cut down on hotbar items needed.

QUESTIONS:

1) How do *you* select the hotbar to use?
(assuming you remapped or used something else)

2) What is your hotbar setup and why did you choose it?
(i.e.: what items in each hotbar)

Thanks for any advice on the topic.

For any youtubers reading this, while there is plenty on the mechanics of HOW to setup a hotbar, there is virtually ZERO coverage on good hotbar setups. It is a simple topic and yet so needed. It should attract tons of views, especially if you pick the title right.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

EDITED:

When you are in the Q Buld menu each line represents what tapping E is cycle through. So it's a good idea to just put the most left one in the hotbar, that saves a lot of space. Aith time you know exactly how many times to tap E.

With holding E you can even acess differen lines of the building menu.

Lets make an example:

You chose a 2m concrete foundation:

withe tapping E you will cycle through 2m, 4m, 1m and with holding E you can not only chose the same, but also the different materials.

Note how I start with 2m foundations instead of 1m - as an exception: Because 1m do not align to the world grid

With help of these selectors I just use the first 4 hotbars

[tdb]

Ursprungligen skrivet av zOldBulldog:

2) What is your hotbar setup and why did you choose it?
(i.e.: what items in each hotbar)

Roughly:
Bar 1: Belts and power lines
Bar 2: Pipes
Bar 3: Production machines
Bar 4: Railway
Bar 9: Stuff for constructing foundations and scaffolding
Bar 10: Stuff for constructing my factory buildings

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gordon✪Gekko:

With holding R you can even acess differen lines of the building menu.

Doesn't holding R allow choosing the build mode, similar to how single pressing R cycles through the modes? For me it's holding E that brings up the radial menu for selecting related buildables or materials.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

And on each of these four I have power line, foundament and container, because these three are most used.

@ tdb: Yes, tapping R is build mode and holding E is enhanced wheel selection, thank.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Another amendment:

When holding E to bring the wheel up for enhanced selection, and lets say you are selecting foundaments:

It makes a difference if you HOVER the mouse on something and then release E (in this case you chose what you have hovered over) or if you CLICK with the mouse on the particular foundament in the wheel (in this case you chose the next material of the same foundament).

Make yourself familiar with it, saves you later a lot of time.

Now the most useful trick ist to middle click on something ypu have already build in the world: This selects this very part to build next.

[zOldBulldog]

Thanks for posting so fast. To those coming later, keep them coming. This is good advice for all newcomers like me.

I already used the advice to setup a "temporary" 2-hotbar setup for pre-steel that is already paying off. And I will certainly take inspiration for all who will come later:

Hotbar 1: The most used. All of the stuff that goes on a factory floor, minus the production machines.
Hotbar 2: Factory building construction plus production machines.
A few things did not make it into hotbars as I am not using them much... like pipes. I used them to setup my coal plant and haven't touched them in days :)

These will inevitably evolve over time into something similar what all of you posters will be describing.