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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: Strafing + Turn To  (Read 3447 times)

drdragoon

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Strafing + Turn To
« on: August 26, 2014, 06:00:46 PM »

Is there any way to modify the game such that the old "Strafe + Turn To" keys return? I used them exclusively in place of regular strafing. The new control scheme with the toggle is HORRIBLE. It does not "turn to" and attempt to move in the direction that you are intending to strafe. You can no longer tight strafe left while still turning left. Can the devs add back the original functionality of the earlier game versions as a permanent OPTION to enable?

Just give us the original keys that existed in earlier versions. That's all I ask. I don't want anything more than that. Add them back, and set them to "not enabled" as default, and let us add them if we want them. I cannot play the game since the changes went live long ago. I'm trying to get back into playing, but there's no point. Without those keys, this game is horrible.
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Sundog

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Re: Strafing + Turn To
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2014, 06:23:03 PM »

Pretty sure this is what you want:
Spoiler
[close]

Starsector has a good dev team. They don't remove useful features unless there's a good reason to.

Shift doesn't toggle the turn-to-cursor behavior, it inverts the default behavior only while it's held down.

drdragoon

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Re: Strafing + Turn To
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2014, 07:07:56 PM »

No, I know what that does. And it doesn't work the same as the old "Strafe and turn to right/left" keys did. It simply doesn't. Add to that, that you have to use it as a constant keypress or as a constant toggle on, which is not what I want.

I want the actual individual keys, from the older versions. Not a toggle mode. Not an active press mode. Just. The. Keys.

Turn left/right.
Strafe left/right.
Strafe and turn to left/right.

If it's such a simple thing, then why not simply add them back? If you don't want to do it for an official release, then is it possible to mod back in the keys? As it stands, I thought the interface couldn't be modified by mods.
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Thaago

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Re: Strafing + Turn To
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2014, 07:14:31 PM »

Erm, I don't have a copy of the game with me right now, but can't you just reasign the keys to do this? I thought that they were set in settings as shift+blah and you can just make them 1 key?
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drdragoon

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Re: Strafing + Turn To
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2014, 07:27:38 PM »

The old "strafe and turn to cursor keys" would actually cause your ship to move in specific ways, depending on if you were attempting to turn through your cursor on the left or right. It would allow you to perform tight turns by strafing in one direction while moving your cursor, and longer turns by strafing in the opposite direction, as in the old scheme, the "strafe to cursor" would not attempt to cross the cursor if you were strafing in a direction opposite of your cursor movement (Or is it vice versa? The functionality was neutered so long ago that it's hard to recall. All I have is mechanical hand movements to go on, now.)

It used to be that I could turn in a direction using the turn key if I wanted to go there fast, or go in for a slow or fast arc with the "strafe to cursor" keys, depending on how I wanted to do it.

You can't do that now.

And the active mode needed to strafe+turn is just horrid.

If the devs are able to simply release a mod that can be applied manually to revert/add back the controls to how it was before the "strafe to" change was implemented, I would be ecstatic.
« Last Edit: August 26, 2014, 07:29:14 PM by drdragoon »
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Alex

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Re: Strafing + Turn To
« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2014, 07:34:46 PM »

... You can no longer tight strafe left while still turning left. ...

Hmm. The specific controls you have to use to accomplish this aside (for now, at least), I'm a little confused by this, since you can definitely do that.

If you want to strafe left while turning left, you just: 1) hold down Shift-A and 2) move your mouse maybe 30 degrees or so to the left from where your ship is pointing. Maybe a little more if your ship can turn very fast. If you want to turn slower, you can move the mouse closer to where your ship is pointing.

Purely on the level of the controls letting you perform specific maneuvers, am I missing something here?
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drdragoon

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Re: Strafing + Turn To
« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2014, 03:57:37 PM »

In that it was superior with the older versions, and that having specific keys instead of having an active press or a settings toggle is infinitely better than the current scheme. At least for me.

Wouldn't it be fine to add back the individual keys and let users pick what scheme they want?
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Dark.Revenant

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Re: Strafing + Turn To
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2014, 04:05:32 PM »

You can still strafe with specific keys; by default, Q and E.

If you are having problems doing this, you may be suffering from keyboard rollover errors, where your keyboard is incapable of registering that combination of keys.  See here: http://www.gigahype.com/nkey-rollover-test-page/
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Alex

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Re: Strafing + Turn To
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2014, 05:04:04 PM »

Wouldn't it be fine to add back the individual keys and let users pick what scheme they want?

Well... it really wouldn't be. As fine as it sounds (who doesn't like options?), options are actually pretty much the devil as far as development is concerned. It's more testing (an ongoing time cost that piles up), and in this case, more items in the keyboard config tab, which is already near to overflowing. It's more complexity for the player to grasp when figuring out how they want their controls to work. It's more complexity in the code, making it more difficult to make other changes.

That's not to say no options, ever - they just have to pull their weight. I'm guessing you'd want to say that this one does; I respectfully disagree.

Using shift as a modifier to WASD controls is common practice - think sprinting/walking in just about any FPS, for example. I appreciate that you'd gotten used to the way things worked, and would like them to continue working that way. I mean, I generally subscribe to the notion that "everything new is terrible", myself :) Unfortunately, it's just not practical for me to keep a bunch of toggles for every single way things worked at one point or another. It's an alpha, and things change. Hopefully for the better, but it's a given that not everyone will agree on that on every point. Adding options for every change that someone might not like is a recipe for long-term disaster.
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drdragoon

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Re: Strafing + Turn To
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2014, 03:36:35 PM »

But this is a case where the option already existed, but was taken away. You can leave the toggle as it is, and just add the pre-existing keys back, right? At that point, you add "Strafe to left/right" as blank selections, for anyone that wants to use them to use. You don't even need to modify the existing toggle selections. And it's hardly overflowing, at least to my eyes. Also, I have issues using shift, and assigning an active key to my intended motions interferes with what I'm trying to do. I don't want it to always be on with the toggle, since it interferes with aiming without moving, and I don't want to have to hold down a key to make the repetitive motions, as that causes me much hand strain/confusion.

My point is, the old scheme existed, and was arbitrarily removed. Why not just return it, for those that were already using it? It wouldn't interfere with the current setup, as you could add the two key selections back, and just not assign them by default. Failing that, can you provide instructions on how to mod them back for those that are interested?
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