Default Keyboard Layout

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PotatoMcWhiskey
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:47 am

Post by PotatoMcWhiskey »

I'm working on a Default Keyboard layout to hopefully make the game more accessible to new players. I made an image that describes the current keyboard layout (No lables just colour coded commands according to groupings).

http://i.imgur.com/wAKq4US.png

[The area inside the black squares is the "Critical zone" where the most commonly used key inputs should be put.

A few quick notes before we begin in earnest.

1. The goal is to construct this layout for new players.
2. It will be designed assuming new players have played other computer games in the past 5 years.
3. It will be designed assuming new players will be using Keyboard and mouse.
3.1 We are assuming people have F Keys but no NUMBPAD, and a two button mouse.
3.2 We are assuming people are using Virtual Joystick
4. All of the decisions will be made with the goal of familiarity and ease of access for the new player.
4.1. That does not mean I don't think your super awesome keyboard layout that gets you 10:1 KDA isn't awesome. It means I want people to be able to reuse muscle memory from other games to lower the learning curve. (E.G Reload on R, Forward is W)
5. We want the minimum viable layout. The barest number of control keys to effectively pilot a ship and be more than useless. Anything not considered to be essential to basic gameplay will be cut from the layout.

With all that said lets begin.

I think the first pass we will do is CUT CUT CUT all the unnecessary keybindings. If you think I cut a key wrongly please let me know.

The first cut I think we can make is actually SPACE, which is bound to Fire. Along that vein we can cut CTRL+SPACE and 5 which are bound to fire missiles. That leaves us with MB1 and MB2 for Fire Primary and Fire Missiles respectively.

Previous Weapon and Next Weapon are also surplus to requirement. Weapons can be selected using the number keys. This unbinds W and Shift+W.

Drop Mine/Probe is also being Cut from D, leaving only 0 as it's binding.
Similarly Drop Chaff is being cut from A, leaving only 6 as it's binding.

Since we are assuming that people will be playing without Joysticks, we can safely unbind all pitch keys for now, however for the sake of the tutorial I will be leaving them in for now.

Fire Booster is mapped to TAB, 9 and MB 3. There can be some good debate here on the merits of Tab vs MB3. However, for now I'm going to assume we can all agree that 9 should be unbound, and Tab is more intuitive for new players.

As for Throttle. This is going to be a controversial decision, but I'm unbinding Throttle 33% and Throttle 66%. They are useful yes, but we're trying to make the controls simple for new players.

We're also going to be unbinding Target Hostile (H), Target Nearest Enemy(CTRL+E), Target Previous Enemy(SHFT+E), Target Nearest Enemy Base (CTRL+Q), Target Previous Enemy Base (SHFT+Q), Target Closest Friendly (CTRL+F), Target Previous Friendly (SHFT+F), Target Closest Base (CTRL+B), Target Previous Base (SHFT+B), Target Nearest Friendly Lifepod (CTRL+J), Target Previous Friendly Lifepod (SHFT+L).

Toggle Cloak is being unmapped from K. It now only has 8.

And thats it for preliminary cuts. I tried to cut only duplicate keys and keys that new players wouldn't likely use in their first few hours of gameplay. There is a lot more work to do but I think this is a good start.

If you have any suggestions for the next step, please feel free to post it here. I'll be working on this reconstruction some more over the week. Please keep your suggestions relatively short and sweet with a few keys. Don't post me an entire layout that you want me to ascribe to.

Here is my preliminary thought on the next set of changes, and the layout as it stands:

http://i.imgur.com/ODFJRoN.png

We can see from this that the SHFT+ modifier is criminally underused, and could be used a LOT more for less critical keys, and modifiers for other keys.

I'm thinking the most important baseline decision is what to do with the thrust keyes. My current thought is to move the thrust keyes from the numbpad to following.

W - Thrust Forward
S - Thrust Backwards
A - Thrust Left
D - Thrust Right
Q - Roll Left
E - Roll Right

This leaves Thrust Up, and Thrust Down without a home. I have yet to come up with an intuitive place for them to go.
ryujin
Posts: 3167
Joined: Sat Oct 02, 2010 1:17 am

Post by ryujin »

I would do something different with thrust forward and back, and let w be thrust up, and s be thrust down. thrusting up and down are way more useful imo
*#$@faced $#@!tard Troll
Papsmear
Posts: 4805
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2003 7:00 am
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by Papsmear »

Hi Jamboreen,

Thanks for working on this for the community.
It has been needed for years.

Regards
Paps
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Archangelus
Posts: 2376
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:36 pm
Location: Paradise City

Post by Archangelus »

I would put, thurst up/dow, into A, and S. They are the keys you look up for dogfighting (at least untill you figure out all the tricks).

Thrust foward and backwards at space/something else. Since you unbind the hostile target, that could be your backward thurst key.
pkk wrote:QUOTE (pkk @ Jul 18 2014, 06:08 AM) Seems like some people forget, that they're guest here and their status can be removed any time.
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