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Author Topic: Auto-fire notification  (Read 9252 times)

liamdawe

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Auto-fire notification
« on: May 09, 2011, 11:19:39 AM »

It would be nice to have some sort of notification when you correctly set auto fire as i had a quick game the other night but not sure if i was doing it right, something small like "auto-fire engaged" or something.

Or am i just crazy?

Blips

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2011, 11:27:12 AM »

It would be nice to have some sort of notification when you correctly set auto fire as i had a quick game the other night but not sure if i was doing it right, something small like "auto-fire engaged" or something.

Or am i just crazy?

You're just crazy  :P

When you set autofire, it gets visually toggled on at the bottom left, next to the appropriate weapon group.
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Alex

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2011, 11:33:13 AM »

Perhaps an audio cue is in order. The current indicator is not exactly hard to miss.
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Avan

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2011, 11:34:01 AM »

The current indicator is pointed out in the tutorial as I recall.

David

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2011, 11:36:49 AM »

Perhaps this is a problem of the UI being unclear, (though a sound cue might be cool). So what if the autofire active state was made more obvious?

In addition to the box being lit up, perhaps all the text for the weapon group could alter color/tone slightly, or maybe its textbox could get a 10% alpha of the terminal-green to distinguish it.
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Avan

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2011, 12:08:57 PM »

I am not sure how a sound cue would really help, as yes, I think in this case it would be a UI issue

Alex

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2011, 12:13:04 PM »

I am not sure how a sound cue would really help, as yes, I think in this case it would be a UI issue

The sound is part of the UI, no? :)

It'd let you know whether you turned it on or off w/o having to glance at the widget... but yes, I agree, it's not visually prominent enough.
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Avan

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2011, 12:16:39 PM »

I suppose so XD, though I meant static visuals, as the sound cue would be there only when you turn it on/off

Flare

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #8 on: May 09, 2011, 04:25:12 PM »

I think it can be easily overlooked due to the strafe key being tied to the same shift key that toggles auto fire. In the heat of battle, Switching weapon groups while strafing and having the weapon group remain on autofire after switching back is not exactly an easy process.
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Knall

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2011, 11:43:18 PM »

I think it can be easily overlooked due to the strafe key being tied to the same shift key that toggles auto fire. In the heat of battle, Switching weapon groups while strafing and having the weapon group remain on autofire after switching back is not exactly an easy process.

I think it could also be a good idea to make the shift-key toogle between strafe mode and normal (keyboard controlled) mode.
For instance in the fight against the bis maar (idk if thats the right name) you nearly never leave the strafe mode at all and I died more than once while i was switching weapons (and had to let got the shift key)
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brian

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #10 on: May 10, 2011, 02:01:02 AM »

I think the best solution might be to display the weapon firing arc overlay for weapons that are set to autofire, probably dimmer than the active weapon firing arc overlay, but visible so that we not only know that its turned on, but what direction do we have weapons pointing in as well.
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Blips

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Re: Auto-fire notification
« Reply #11 on: May 10, 2011, 02:53:07 AM »

I think the best solution might be to display the weapon firing arc overlay for weapons that are set to autofire, probably dimmer than the active weapon firing arc overlay, but visible so that we not only know that its turned on, but what direction do we have weapons pointing in as well.

The last thing needed is additional information being displayed around the ships. Perhaps a better solution would be to flash the firing arcs a bright color, and then fade them away when they are set to autofire.
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