Noted.Saktoth wrote:Go complain to TheFatController on the BA forum for these improvements[...]
While playing Forged Alliance, I never felt the need for keys to speed up or slow down the camera. Maybe because it's so well calibrated?Camera Controls
These commands are essential. I dont know how often people use the alt-zoom or control for slow down, but control for rotation and shift for speed are important (though the default could just be faster, since it scales by zoom level anyway). Still, manipulating the camera while you give orders is no great inconvenience. But you really have to offer a new proposal.
Maybe the Spring FPS camera or some other needs those keys. However according to a poll I saw on the forums, an overwhelming majority of the users use the overhead one. Those camera-affecting functions could be moved to less essential keys than shift and ctrl.
The Spring cameras become annoying when I'm queuing buildings in my base, and try to scroll slightly to one side; since the shift key is pressed to queue orders it causes a jarring move instead of the slight scroll I'd expect.
My proposals:
- for the cameras, add one that copies exactly the Forge Alliance one
- for the keybindings, a "Forged Alliance" keyset would be nice, I suppose that if it becomes widely popular it could replace the default
The problem is that those two go together: without a good camera, you need accessible keys to move the view faster, and so on.
I'm not saying that someone should do it for me. Rather, someone should do it for the community if he/she likes the idea. I may even get around it, but I have too many projects and little time...
If I get time to code for Spring (Argh talked about the typemap modification issue that also interests me), I could do it. But then I'll code it in C++ and replace the widget by a simple function call. I just think it's stupid to relegate such basic functionalities to external code.Cancelling orders
[...] and order moving/cancelling is really important (perhaps you can just improve the current widget).
Yup, bandbox selection. Well for this one people have convinced me it should be done by the various games, since it doesn't seem very complicated to code, and unit roles vary a lot from game to game.Selection screening
You mean bandbox selection? Very annoying. Imperial Winter locks out selecting units and buildings at the same time and its infuriating for keeping rally points up to date. Its important to be able to bandbox constructors, as you are often managing a large amount of them, and mobiles are often mixed inbetween. Turrets dont move, who cares if you select them. Double click and control z help a lot with selecting a unit type. The only problem i have is control-z all cons, but i found myself missing the functionality when i screened them. Thats a keybind anyway.
But to discuss it shortly: I find excluding cons, buildings and transports works great when you're under pressure from a surprise attack, and you need to send all available troops. It allows you to do it even from orbital (max zoom out) view with a click-drag-click, without fear of sending cons or your comm to their death or interrupting vital constructions.
Combined with a widget (which we already have) to be informed of idle cons/comm and select them, I think it works much better than Spring's default.
My ideal combination in this area would be the exclusions I just described for the default selection, and a modifier key (meta if it isn't already overused) to select every unit type in the bandbox.
I'll probably test some combinations on my own, and go bother game developers such as yourself if I come up with something that works.
Edit: typo
