Movement controls

The GalCiv way?

from Elemental Forums

SOAPBOX WARNING: my #1 pet peeve with top notch games that screw up controls schemes.

Has a survey been done about this?

Personally I much prefer to move my unit with the mouse and have a WASD (using arrow keys) movement for the mouse.  In GCII I often made sometimes critical errors by accidentally using an arrow key, and using up 2 very important movement turns (1 to get back).

My arguments against giving any keyboard priority to unit movement.

With the understanding I know movement will NOT be restricted to keyboard input.

8 directions on a space by space movement commands requires 8 keys vs. 1 mouse click.  I find it awkward mentally to find it the situation where pressing the correct key for a direction is faster or easier than just clicking the desired location.  I have already highlighted the unit with the mouse more than likely. Removing my right hand from the mouse to move the unit doesn't make sense, nor to me does moving my left hand over to the keypad or arrow keys from whatever typing or quick menu selection I may have done or going to do just to move it back again.

8 direction implies the keypad will be used, which means in all reality, 12 keys are going to be bound to movement only. 4 arrows AND 8 numeric keypad.  IF the four arrows are used for map movement I think that would be viable, although the utility of the 8 numerics locked out for piece movement still eludes me.

Now not knowing how it works in the game, I can imagine the scenario where you have a line of troops and you want to move 4 of the 5 in the line one step 'right'.  So you have on hand on the numeric 6 and one on the mouse. Click the unit, hit the key, repeat x4.  But still I don't think much time or effort is gained over clicking the unit and clicking the desired location. 

To me a better way would be an option for a click-drag for single space movement, much like pushing a checkers draught.  With a little preview arrow to show the new location that your piece will move when you release the LMB

NO MODIFIERS.  I dislike the need for shift/alt/ctrl as a way of adding keyboard functions.  Modifying is ok.  Modifier keys that for instance accelerate the map scroll or change from moving the camera up and down to changing the camera angle are ok.  Just not; holding the key moves a unit, holding modifier and the same key move the map.

My ideas.

Greater keyboard rebinding functionality / access. - Disease of ported games typically (and some that are not), Farcry and Fallout lately. Bad design: you rebind a key that serves two functions in game, but they only list one function in the key remapping. You rebind the key and the function listed is changed but you cannot rebind the second function and or you cannot access it till you change it back. Please don't limit it to ini editing.  Allow more flexibility in keyboard rebinding from within the game.  With  the game running preferably, to help test functionality right away. And if I forget my binding, much easier to check than at the main menu.

 

Menu shuffle via arrow keys (hard to explain) – I think this is a viable addition to menu-heavy strategy games. Allowing with menu's open to have a Windowsish control over tabs. That way I can use my mouse for picking though info on the current tab and have my hand on the arrow keys for flipping from menu to menu, without clicking each tab.  Analogous to flipping though a workbook with one hand with your pencil ready in the other. Just feels more natural.

3,755 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

opps wrong spot

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

No worries a good post by and large. 

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

being able to rebind movement keys I feel is important.   But I figured I'd make a "REBIND KEYS" post after the beta came out if I wasn't happy with the way they have been (or have not been) done.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

When it comes to movement in strategy games one of the most painful aspects is moving large groups of units. I remember playing civ 2 and having well over 100 units in one city (armor, mech infantry, artillery, marines, paratroopers) and I needed them all over on another continent to wipe out some pissy little civilization that ticked me off. That turn lasted forever. Or has anyone played Age of Wonders 2? Where you had all 7 hexes in one battle filled with units. SOOOOO long. I just wish there were some options where you could issue group commands or maybe even an intelligent AI that you give a command to and it figures out the rest. You say all archers target _ unit. And all your archers fire from where they are or  try to move to an optimal location to fire from. It's always a trade off of control, the more you give to the computer the more it tends to screw things up generally. I don't know.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Interesting. I think I want more or less what you want, except that I prefer to keep my hands on the keyboard most of the time when I'm playing a game like GC2. I find the mouse slows me down when I do spreadsheet and dialog box parts of the game and I'm much more likely to screw up my movement if I use the mouse than I am if I use the num pad.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm a mouse guy myself: my laptop's num pad is actually part of the main keyboard, and layed out in a totally counterintuitive fasion. It's nearly impossible to use, and since I use cheats a lot, I don't want to accidentally wipe out a few minor races while trying to build a starbase.