Controls

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lemm
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Controls

Post by lemm »

I am writing the keen behaviours now, and I was wondering what people want to do for controls.


We can have 10 different buttons, all redefine-able from F3 menu: up down left right, jump pogo shoot, and then 3 more.

Doomjedi said something about inventory; any other ideas? For the time being, I will just add in "button1, button2, button3" and then we can modify or remove as necessary.

I don't know what this will do to joystick play (does anyone even use that?)
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doomjedi
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Post by doomjedi »

Yes...one can be "use inventory". Other ideas can include "alt-fire", "knee"/"dodge" state (and then "crowl" - with arrows), "use "shild/defence", "slide" (though can be combination of existing arrows), "ground-roll", "talk to creatures/pay/exchange"
Again - many can be combination of existing buttons

Other ideas are "panic button", "play dead" button to get enemies off....
Draik
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Post by Draik »

I use a gamepad, but usually only for Galaxy games/mods.
lemm
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Post by lemm »

heh, panic button

I would like an "action" button, that would be responsible for toggling lights/bridges/other stuff that keen is standing in front of.
Kdash
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Post by Kdash »

I don't think the controls should be messed with too much.
Maybe change the switches to work with the up key, kinda like in Keen Galaxy?
lemm
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Post by lemm »

That's a good idea. I'm not too enamored with the idea of a whole mess of buttons, (although I don't like the pogo being used for switches, which is why I suggested the action button, although up seems more logical now that you mention it.).


I agree we should package as much into the existing buttons as possible.
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doomjedi
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Post by doomjedi »

Ok...my ideas for actions - using existing buttons:

Up - "use" key - for activation of switches etc...

Down - dodge or knee or defence...Keen can stay in this position until Down is pressed again...and have LEFT-RIGHT buttons for crawl.

More Combinations:

Down+Jump - sliding?
Dr. Kylstein
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Re: Controls

Post by Dr. Kylstein »

lemm wrote:I don't know what this will do to joystick play (does anyone even use that?)
If it were up to me, I'd want to support the standard two-button joysticks with a four-button support option, like in the Galaxy engine, but I'm probably one of the few people still using a Gravis Gamepad on an old machine. I think most people use DOSBox, which can map joystick buttons to keys as of 0.70.

As a matter of design I think it's usually best to keep the controls as simple as the gameplay allows. The player should be thinking about the game and not the buttons. So there shouldn't be ten actions just because it's possible. I'm not trying to discourage ideas, but there should be a high threshold for adding buttons.
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CommanderSpleen
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Post by CommanderSpleen »

*uses a Gravis gamepad on original hardware*

I greatly dislike patches that disable joystick support. A four-button patch would be awesome.
lemm
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Post by lemm »

Four buttons sounds good. Maybe there can even be a gravis gamepad patch.

edit:

Four buttons it is then, gravis gamepad patch done.
levellass
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Post by levellass »

In that case we need a Gravis Gamepad item.
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