Re-binding the spacing keys for building lines/boxes

Gabba · Post by **Gabba** » 27 Jan 2006, 08:07

I found this useful info in the wiki:

Space Build (shift + mouse5/mouse4)

Gives your line and/or box structure queues an amount of spacing between structures (default spacing starts at no space). Each click of the spacing expand button gives you an extra LLT-based size space in between each structure on all 4 dimentions. Similarly, each click of the spacing contract button removes that amount of space. You cannot remove spaces when structures are already placed with no spacing between them.

The problem is, I don't have a mouse with 5 buttons, and I doubt most people have one. Could these commands be added to the ones we can re-bind to the keys we want through the uikeys.txt file? Maybe we should also add default keyboard bindings for this useful function, such as pgUp and pgDown, I don't think they're being used for anything else.

Thanks!

Flint · Post by **Flint** » 27 Jan 2006, 08:56

I'm a bit confused on how this would work in game but I actually have five mouse buttons on my mx500, maybe I'l give it a try.

SwiftSpear · Post by **SwiftSpear** » 27 Jan 2006, 09:09

Basicly, rather then just building two structures either boxed or rowed right beside eachother it automatically puts a space in between each structure in the row. The more times you click the key the more space it puts (space increases by one single unit footprint per click)

(edit) I use the spacing functions to build mex on uniform metal distribution maps.

Felix the Cat · Post by **Felix the Cat** » 28 Jan 2006, 04:12

I have a six-button mouse, but I have yet to figure out how to get Spring to recognize my extra buttons and thus get the spacing. The fourth and fifth buttons are left and right pushes of the scroll wheel, which are supposed to be for horizontal scrolling, but nothing recognizes them. The sixth is intended to be bound to ALT-TAB, but I haven't set it up yet.

Admo · Post by **Admo** » 30 Jan 2006, 20:45

yeah i find with my mice that come with special programs to let you edit their functionality, that they don't mesh well with games.

Admo · Post by **Admo** » 21 Feb 2006, 17:43

okay i thought i could live without this functionality but it turns out i need it for landmines. if you drag build landmines they are so small and therefore so close to each other they start cancling each other out, end result, if you drag build them you only get the one at the end of the line.

anyone find a way to possibly bind this to the keyboard? i hit all the mouse buttons

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 21 Feb 2006, 18:07

yeah honestly I find it pretty stupid that they havn't added a key mapping after the 10 or so versions that this feature has been in... I'm making a mantis post...

diggz2k · Post by **diggz2k** » 21 Feb 2006, 19:23

I know there is a way to do the spacing without an uber mouse. I've done it before with my regular 3, the problem is I don't know how I do it. During games at somepoint during the game I hit the right sequence of keyboard and mouse buttons and from then on all my buildings are spaced. It bugs me that I can't recreate it on purpose. This has happened in many games.

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 22 Feb 2006, 00:12

I have just ralised why they may not have added the functionality, left hand holding shift alt, right hand moving the mouse and holding the left mouse button... where are they gonna put it... not everyone is going to want to hit keys with their nose... I'm thinking it could be maped to space, z, x, or c or something, but that's still kinda silly.

so that means basically haveing to set the spacing before you start the build command, like +- or home/end or something... you'd also need to have a widget to indicate the current spacing setting in this case...

Post by **jcnossen** » 22 Feb 2006, 00:40

I've added a binding for Z and X now.

diggz2k · Post by **diggz2k** » 22 Feb 2006, 00:47

For the next version of spring?

Post by **jcnossen** » 22 Feb 2006, 00:49

Should I answer that?

diggz2k · Post by **diggz2k** » 22 Feb 2006, 01:35

no nm

Admo · Post by **Admo** » 22 Feb 2006, 19:53

thanks for adding it in. figures i usually end up hurting myself with my landmines more anyhow... but the fun is overwhelming.

mongus · Post by **mongus** » 23 Feb 2006, 01:15

Zaphod wrote:I've added a binding for Z and X now.

Great!

Please, make it configurable in the uikeys.txt, as i use those 2 keys for other biddings (select all same type and the default "on/off").

(ah, the minefields...)

edit: as for spacing settings.

Its more likely you are going to space some type of buildings, not all of them.

So, it makes sense it "remembers" the last used spacing for that specific building (having the default as 0 spacing).

Gabba · Post by **Gabba** » 01 Mar 2006, 02:52

From the wiki:

Code: Select all

Active State (X)

This command toggles the active state of a unit. If a unit can be turned off this will usually stop it's prodution and/or use of energy and/or metal and/or stop it from doing something and/or change it's stats. For example, turning off a radar jamming building would make it stop drawing power and prevent it from jamming radar, or turning off a solar collector would stop it from producing power and cause it to "close up" increasing it's armor. This behaviour is unit-scriptable so it could technically do anything the designer of the unit wants it to do.

It seems the X key was already assigned to something before. So do we still have a shortcut for that command, now that Zaphod has bound Z and X with unit spacing by default?

SinbadEV · Post by **SinbadEV** » 01 Mar 2006, 02:58

yeah... those are the only keys close to the Lshift keys to hit while holding the mouse button and shift and crtl... your right that it gets in the way... any other suggestions for bindings? '<' or '>' or '?' and use the other side of the keyboard maybe? perhaps the whole keyboard needs to be remapped... someone should come up with a deffinitive list of all the functions that need to be mapped so we can make it all work...

Gabba · Post by **Gabba** » 01 Mar 2006, 03:02

From the wiki:

Code: Select all

Active State (X)

This command toggles the active state of a unit. If a unit can be turned off this will usually stop it's prodution and/or use of energy and/or metal and/or stop it from doing something and/or change it's stats. For example, turning off a radar jamming building would make it stop drawing power and prevent it from jamming radar, or turning off a solar collector would stop it from producing power and cause it to "close up" increasing it's armor. This behaviour is unit-scriptable so it could technically do anything the designer of the unit wants it to do.

It seems the X key was already assigned to something before. So do we still have a shortcut for that command, now that Zaphod has bound Z and X with unit spacing by default?

Sheekel · Post by **Sheekel** » 01 Mar 2006, 03:20

interesting

BeeDee · Post by **BeeDee** » 01 Mar 2006, 07:03

Oddly enough, this spacing binding worked fine for me in 0.70b1 but stopped working again in 0.70b2. Guess I shouldn't have upgraded since for me b1 was working okay. It's just the AIs that were giving me troubles. Ah well, the price we pay for getting to play with pre-1.0 versions. :)

Spring RTS Engine

Re-binding the spacing keys for building lines/boxes

Re-binding the spacing keys for building lines/boxes