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[jph wacheski]

Hi all, just lookin for some feedback on the control scheam here, it is a bit key heavy, in that I find while playing several keys are often held down to manouver in curved stafeing patterns, . at least that is what I like to do.  I have heard a report of key droping due to hardware limitations,. and that is what I am looking to find out more about,. please give it a shot, it is only a tinny d/l,. and report any problems,. the screen rez. is currently fixed at 1280x1024 (I can comiple some other formats if ppl want, just ask) you can force it to run in a window, if you have a monster screen, with -w

  http://www.emix8.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=134

scroll down for the latest ver. !

currently my only thought to lessen the key-heavy-ness would be to reverse the fire button to auto fire and only stop when held,. but i would like to here other ppls experiances first.
any other feedback is of course welcome,. it is only a small demo,. once you clear it nothing further will happen,. Thanks!

I have uploaded a small (low-quality) video to show the gameplay;

   

[Terry]

It's really cool so far

Here's a few things I'd change, though:

- You're right about the keys being too cumbersome - have you considered the Warning Forever control scheme? I'm doing something similar for Buster Drake and it works really well. Basically, you've got a view cone that moves separately to your character. It tends to want to point in the opposite direction that you're facing, and holds position when you're shooting. I think it could work really well here - you should check it out if you haven't seen it.

- You might want to release a lower res version of the game - my laptop only shows the top left of the screen

Looking forward to this one!

[Melly]

The control scheme takes a good deal to get used to, and I did get the "beep" from the keyboard not registering too many buttons at once every once in a while. As a personal rule I never create keyboard control schemes that force the player to press more than 3 buttons simultaneously.

Gameplay is pretty cool, however, and I found myself compelled to try and master the control scheme, but not for too long. It's pretty damn hard too.

[Headmade]

About the Keyboard problem:
http://www.sjbaker.org/wiki/index.php?title=Keyboards_Are_Evil

In a two player game for example, you'll have to be careful NOT to assign the keys in such a way that the actions of one player can block the keys of the other.

I first discovered this effect when I gave one player 'W','A','S' and 'Z' (which is a 'diamond' pattern on a QWERTY keyboard) and the other player 'I','J','K' and 'M' (another diamond pattern) as the means to move their characters around on the screen. When the lefthand player presses 'W' and 'S' to travel North-East, the other player will find that moving North, East or West by pressing 'I','J' or 'K' won't work anymore.

We have to be very careful to allocate keys that don't interfere with one another.

For example, I could give one player 'Q','W','E','R','T' to play with. That would mean that I would EITHER have to give the other player 'Y', 'U', 'I', 'O' and 'P' (same keyboard ROW but different COLUMNS) or give him 'H', 'J', 'K', 'L' and ';' (different row and different Columns).

[jph wacheski]

Tinarg- I am aware of this problem,. I was lookng to find out how many actual people trying the game encounter it. I must have a good keyboard as I do not get any problem at all, even when using WASD to move, fireing and strafeing are fine here,. I assume using the ARROW keys will aliviate the interfearence on even old boards as these keys should be poled seperatly,. and that really is the hart of the problem, all the hardware does NOT respomd the same way!  I added the WASD support for right handed people, as I am left handed and find playing on the ARROWS better,. in fact using WASD is very hard for me! I THINK removing the WASD and making everyone play on the ARROWS may stop the problem, however I am not sure if it is easyer for right handed people to play using WASD ?? Perhaps I will just take the WASD of the screen text and leave them active,. . ?

Melly- did you get the BEEP using WASD?  thanks for the kind remarks. It is not hard after a bit of practice,.

Terry- I have indeed played forever warning, great game!  I do not think the controles are cumbersome, I'm just concerned about the hardware issues,. In fact I   am quite happy with the range of movements that can be achived,. the game presents a bit of a learning curve for some players, however it provides a good deal of depth, once mastered.    I do fully intend to release the game in other rez.s once it is done..,

thanks all.

[MekanikDestructiwKommando]

Hazarding a guess that playing with a USB gamepad avoids the Beeping. At least I hear about people playing fighting games this way so..