ExNomenDei
01-22-2010, 04:16 PM
So I'm a pretty diverse kind of gamer: I've got a PS3, a Wii, a 360, a PSP and a PC. And all of them have different controls, although they're rather similar. I also own a gameboard, which means my controls are different from most peoples'. and that made be realize that controls are icky.
In Titan Quest, you had a basic left-click button. It was attack by default and it was clear what it was for. But after that, the controls became less and less clear: Right-click was your favorite spell, because right-click meant you could more intuitively 'click on a mob and see them die' or something like that. That still worked rather well because it felt like a ranged attack in many cases: You simple clicked on the spot you wanted your Volcanic Orb, and presto, it went there.
But then you got the 1-10 buttons. They worked differently because you had to click or press the number first, and then left-click where you wanted your attack to land. This worked counter-intuitively because you were so used to just clicking where the attack had to land once, not press a button first.
Logically, I propose this: You press the button and your skill lands wherever your mouse cursor was at the moment you pressed the button. Only when you use your mouse do you get to aim first. We see this method used on the afore-mentioned consoles too, because it's more logically to aim before firing than to fire and then aim before your character actually does something.
However, that doesn't solve another problem I found myself struggling with: Going from skillset to skillset. I played a new character and gradually learned where my certain skills were: My Volcanic Orb was on RMB, my potions were on E and R (if I remember correctly), and all the rest of my spells were on buttons 1-9. I had put them there myself but I didn't really think through how I put them there, I just had to remember what kind of spell did what.
Switching to another character then proved problematic. I was so used to pressing '4' to get my AOE spell that turning on-and-off my passive spell, which was on 4 on my other character, was a serious consequence. What other types of games tell me, however, is this: Certain buttons do certain things. If Titan Quest had forced me to learn that '2' was my AOE-spell, and on my other character it was the same thing, I would associate '2' with AOE. If my character didn't have one, well, I likely wouldn't have tries pressing that button in the first place, would I?
If you give each button a certain type of ability, or spell, or whatever, you can make it much easier for players to switch to a different character. If '1' is always your main damage-dealing spell, you can depend on '1' giving you that much-needed finishing blow. If '7' is always your pet-summoning spell, you get to know that button as 'resummon pet', not as 'resummon Core Dweller', and you can more accurately play multiple characters.
Reserving a few buttons for customization, at the same time, will allow the player to keep their second pet-summoning spell in reach at the same time. And if the player has two almost identical spells from different builds, the player shouldn't be forced into using one of them on the appropriate button either: If you have two damage-dealing spells, it should be possible to choose which one to put as primary spell on that damage-dealing-spell-button, and allow you to put the secondary one on the custom buttons. Another option, though perhaps a little too advanced for most players to use, is a modifier so a player can access secondary spells of the same type more quickly: Holding alt and pressing '1' could result in 'death ray' instead of 'hyper-slash', before immediately switching back to your standard skillset. Just pressing alt shortly would allow you to switch between primary and secondary skillset and allow you to hold alt to access the other skillset just as easily.
Edit: It was pointed out that this is a wall of text.
So here's a short version:
- The way Titan Quest forces you to click after activating a skill is a little backwards. You aim and then fire with a gun and the same goes for the way you think in a game. Making the skills immediately activate at the place where your mouse cursor is when you press the appropriate button makes this game much quicker and helps make it feel more fluid. The right mouse button in TQ works the same way.
- My problem with the controls in TQ are that I can't depend on one button doing a certain 'type' of skill. Since buttons don't really have a specific skill in mind for them (outside of the right and left mouse buttons, which are examples of how this would work), they tend to be arbitrary. If we make each button host a certain 'kind' of skill, like AOE, or direct attack, or pet-summoning, then new players and players who don't play 24/7 more easily remember what button does what.
- As Renevent points out, this makes the game slower when you have four different pets to summon. He states rightly that if you have to cycle through the options in some manner, the gameplay will be hindered. I think he makes a valid point.
- Therefore I propose two things. Firstly for some buttons to remain free-form, so you can make your oft-used secondary skills (like resummoning pets in the heat of battle) easier to access. My second proposal is to have the whole idea of putting certain skills on certain buttons the default, but allow you to put any skill on any button as an option, thus freeing yourself to any kind of control scheme.
In Titan Quest, you had a basic left-click button. It was attack by default and it was clear what it was for. But after that, the controls became less and less clear: Right-click was your favorite spell, because right-click meant you could more intuitively 'click on a mob and see them die' or something like that. That still worked rather well because it felt like a ranged attack in many cases: You simple clicked on the spot you wanted your Volcanic Orb, and presto, it went there.
But then you got the 1-10 buttons. They worked differently because you had to click or press the number first, and then left-click where you wanted your attack to land. This worked counter-intuitively because you were so used to just clicking where the attack had to land once, not press a button first.
Logically, I propose this: You press the button and your skill lands wherever your mouse cursor was at the moment you pressed the button. Only when you use your mouse do you get to aim first. We see this method used on the afore-mentioned consoles too, because it's more logically to aim before firing than to fire and then aim before your character actually does something.
However, that doesn't solve another problem I found myself struggling with: Going from skillset to skillset. I played a new character and gradually learned where my certain skills were: My Volcanic Orb was on RMB, my potions were on E and R (if I remember correctly), and all the rest of my spells were on buttons 1-9. I had put them there myself but I didn't really think through how I put them there, I just had to remember what kind of spell did what.
Switching to another character then proved problematic. I was so used to pressing '4' to get my AOE spell that turning on-and-off my passive spell, which was on 4 on my other character, was a serious consequence. What other types of games tell me, however, is this: Certain buttons do certain things. If Titan Quest had forced me to learn that '2' was my AOE-spell, and on my other character it was the same thing, I would associate '2' with AOE. If my character didn't have one, well, I likely wouldn't have tries pressing that button in the first place, would I?
If you give each button a certain type of ability, or spell, or whatever, you can make it much easier for players to switch to a different character. If '1' is always your main damage-dealing spell, you can depend on '1' giving you that much-needed finishing blow. If '7' is always your pet-summoning spell, you get to know that button as 'resummon pet', not as 'resummon Core Dweller', and you can more accurately play multiple characters.
Reserving a few buttons for customization, at the same time, will allow the player to keep their second pet-summoning spell in reach at the same time. And if the player has two almost identical spells from different builds, the player shouldn't be forced into using one of them on the appropriate button either: If you have two damage-dealing spells, it should be possible to choose which one to put as primary spell on that damage-dealing-spell-button, and allow you to put the secondary one on the custom buttons. Another option, though perhaps a little too advanced for most players to use, is a modifier so a player can access secondary spells of the same type more quickly: Holding alt and pressing '1' could result in 'death ray' instead of 'hyper-slash', before immediately switching back to your standard skillset. Just pressing alt shortly would allow you to switch between primary and secondary skillset and allow you to hold alt to access the other skillset just as easily.
Edit: It was pointed out that this is a wall of text.
So here's a short version:
- The way Titan Quest forces you to click after activating a skill is a little backwards. You aim and then fire with a gun and the same goes for the way you think in a game. Making the skills immediately activate at the place where your mouse cursor is when you press the appropriate button makes this game much quicker and helps make it feel more fluid. The right mouse button in TQ works the same way.
- My problem with the controls in TQ are that I can't depend on one button doing a certain 'type' of skill. Since buttons don't really have a specific skill in mind for them (outside of the right and left mouse buttons, which are examples of how this would work), they tend to be arbitrary. If we make each button host a certain 'kind' of skill, like AOE, or direct attack, or pet-summoning, then new players and players who don't play 24/7 more easily remember what button does what.
- As Renevent points out, this makes the game slower when you have four different pets to summon. He states rightly that if you have to cycle through the options in some manner, the gameplay will be hindered. I think he makes a valid point.
- Therefore I propose two things. Firstly for some buttons to remain free-form, so you can make your oft-used secondary skills (like resummoning pets in the heat of battle) easier to access. My second proposal is to have the whole idea of putting certain skills on certain buttons the default, but allow you to put any skill on any button as an option, thus freeing yourself to any kind of control scheme.