Is anyone else here getting tired of using WASD? I'm trying to design a game where you play as a stalker, so I figured this form of interaction might work hand in hand with the type of game play: Movement is performed through use of the left mouse button (really it could be any button). When tapped, the character moves one foot forward. When tapped again the character moves the other foot forward. The faster the button is pressed the faster the character moves. This button can also simply be held down to perform an all out run. My concern is that this form of control might become a bit annoying. Suggestions?

As long as there isn't a level that requires walking at all times... just imagine, you have to walk so... all you hear is...

Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!

And then your left mouse button breaks...

But if not... then it may or may not be a problem.

Just my $0.005

It could get a little tedious. you need some way of smoothly covering distances. People will be tempted to just run like hell until they have to sneak. It'll turn into MGS.

Have you played Full Spectrum Warrior? Maybe a sort of waypoint system would help. As a stalker, you should prabably be darting from bush to shrub to corner, so a sort of destination system might work well. You move a cursor to where you want your guy to go, then push one of, say, three "pace" buttons to determine whether you crawl on your belly, tip-toe through the tulips, or dash and dive to the chosen spot.

For skulking in a move free-form method, the right-click-to-step system could allow you to carefully control the noise you make. For my part, I think it would be freaking sweet if you could maintain stealth on gravel by staying in step with your target and using their footfalls to mask your own. That's a perfect application of the right-click method in a DDR sort of context.

Mebbe you could make it so when the left mouse button is held, the player walks, as if the mouse was being clicked. The right mouse button could be used for longer strides, with the right mouse button held for an all-out run. The mouse wheel (if it exists) could be used to dash short distaces--e.g., the player leaping out of the shadows to pounce on his target, or to dash from one side of a dimly lit hallway to the other. If you're going to do that, you may want to make it so that mouse wheel forward means dash, and mouse wheel backward either stops the dash, or does nothing...It might be a little easy to get the two mixed up.

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Original post by agreatjedi Is anyone else here getting tired of using WASD?

Well, I'm a lefty, so I use the numeric keypad. [smile]

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I'm trying to design a game where you play as a stalker, so I figured this form of interaction might work hand in hand with the type of game play: Movement is performed through use of the left mouse button (really it could be any button). When tapped, the character moves one foot forward. When tapped again the character moves the other foot forward. The faster the button is pressed the faster the character moves. This button can also simply be held down to perform an all out run. My concern is that this form of control might become a bit annoying. Suggestions?

How is this different from the present control systems? There's a 'forward' key for running forward. If you tap it, you move forward a little bit. Isn't this the same thing? I'm a bit confused...

I liked Thief's control system though. There was a button for 'run', another button for 'walk' and a third button for 'creep' (or it might have been a modifier like 'shift + walk'). I'd map the grey-slash key to 'run' and the num-8 key to 'walk', it worked quite well.

Oh, and I'm assuming you are making a covert stealth type game, sneaking past guards. Hopefully you aren't making the sort of 'stalker' sim I thought of first when I read your post!

(Player hides in the bushes, pulls out binoculars, hopes target doesn't close her blinds again like she did last night).

That's not really the kind of reputation that I think the game industry needs more of right now. [grin]

Like I've written in another thread somewhere, you should try the game Robot Alchemic Drive (RAD) for full control of a "player".

The real trouble is that in 3D character-view games (whether they be first- or third-person), the controls generally wind up being cameral controls. You can pan and zoom, and the character follows so that they're in an appropriate position. That's why it's easy to inhabit a 3D world via a 2D screen.

Maybe your more novel system would benefit from an isometric view. Then you could use the mouse to determine a direction, and the distance from the character to the cursor could decide your pace.

For an approximate example, go to Adult Swim's Website and play the "Jail Birdman" Flash game.

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Original post by agreatjedi Is anyone else here getting tired of using WASD?

WSAD is around because it works - and it works well. Players expect WSAD. If you screw around with the expected controls you are bound to lose potential players.

On another note, remember that advanced gamers will often customize their controls so if you try to force a control scheme onto them you will end up frustrating them.

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Original post by skittleo WSAD is around because it works - and it works well. Players expect WSAD. If you screw around with the expected controls you are bound to lose potential players.

Specifically it works for moves where you want to run/walk forward and move to the side/straf at the same time. Also how do you walk backwards (S + left mouse? - that is more complex than just S). Also it is actually quite hard on the finger to repeatatively press a mouse button or hold it down. Also, as mentioned above all you are really doing is replacing W with left mouse. Lastly how do you shoot and use secondry fire (currently the very logical left and right mose buttons.

Put simply the keyboard is used for movement and the mouse for looking/aiming/shooting. Shifting part of the movement control onto the mouse isn't going to be as intuative.

What about using the mouse for movement?
if I left click and hold, and then move the mouse forward, the game keeps track of how far i moved forward with the LMB down. Sort of using the mouse as a throttle. If I let go of the button, it locks the player into that speed until I left click and hold and pull back on the mouse.