Regarding the controls in a FPS title. Do you think it is better to have complicated controls (i.e. using HotKeys, and several buttons for doing different things) or to have more simplified controls (the Miyamoto philosophy - one button for Jump, one for Shoot, and then only a few other functional buttons)? I''m very interested to hear your opinions! Peace out. MrMexTaco

The game should be playable with basic controls (jump, shoot etc) but the more advanced controls should be available for those that want them.

And let the player bind his own keys. There was a thread on the lounge about the keys people used and everyone had a unique configuration (and thought that everyone elses configuration was horrible)

The only hard and fast rule is to let people rebind the controls. There are too many veteran players with differing controls for you to be able to please them all with one configuration.

As for the ''sensible default'' for new players, I look at it this way:

Always have mouselook on. That is: push mouse left and right to turn around (rotate around the Y axis) and push forwards and backwards to look up and down respectively (rotating around the X axis). Don''t use pushing forwards to look down and vice versa: most players aren''t pilots IRL and therefore this isn''t intuitive. But of course, offer a ''reverse up/down'' option for those who have got used to it like this. The benefit of automatically mouselooking is that the player can see everything around them without having to press any keys. The disadvantage is perhaps disorientation for newer players. For this reason, you may want to provide a ''Center View'' button that moves their view to looking straight long the direction of travel again. As they acclimatize to the mouse-looking though, they will find this button less important.

Movement... I personally prefer using the right mouse button to move forward. That is a relic of my Doom days. However it occurs to me that it is sub-optimal because although I can go forward just fine, I can''t go backwards when I need to. So, if your game requires backwards motion on a regular basis (and I expect a fast-paced shooter would), I would suggest this layout: S to sidestep left, F to sidestep right. E to move forwards, D to move backwards. This is similar to the cursor key layout. It allows the player to move in any direction without lifting hands from the keyboard or mouse. The reason I wouldn''t use the cursor keys, is because they are isolated on the keyboard. Using E/D and S/F means you have Q, A, Z, W, R, X, C, and V all only 1 key away, making them ideal for other common actions. (eg. W and R could be good for lean left/lean right to see around corners.) Additionally, your thumb naturally rests on the space bar, which is a useful key for an important action. This assumes you have left hand on the keys and mouse on the right: if you had it the other way around, I/J for movement and J/L for sidestepping could be useful.

Shooting: left mouse button works for me. Right or middle button for secondary attacks. Mouse wheel might work well for selecting weapons, but if you have enough weapons it will simply take too long for most players. Therefore assigning weapons to the number keys or F-keys makes sense to me.

Inventory/items: in a game where items tend to be used in non-stressful moments, the mouse wheel is ideal to select between them. But if items need be to selected fast (eg. grenades, flash bombs, reloading ammo, whatever), then you''re probably best allocating quick-keys to these, too. Perhaps use the number keys for the weapons and the F keys for the items.

Ok, apart from those points, I think the most important part is to have a tutorial level where they can learn the controls in a stress-free situation. Thief had a great example of this. It introduced different keypresses and actions as you progressed through the level, so that you learned them at your own pace. By the time the game started proper, you knew the layout well enough to be able to cope with only brief flicks through the manual.

Last hint: if you can, have a little pop-up screen that depicts a standard keyboard with the actions drawn on it. That will mean they don''t even have to consult the manual any more to see which actions are bound to which keys.

Everyone I know IRL who plays these games uses the WASD setup (although some of them are weird and like the inverted mouse)

W = forward
A = sidestep left
S = backwards
D = sidestep right
SPACE = jump
Mouse = mouselook, fire, etc.

Its actually very intuitive. I am surprised that no one else on this board seems to use it.

[edit]
actually Kylotans suggestion is virtually identical, just slightly moved across the keyboard. For some reason I prefer WASD though, it is easier to pick out the keys, although his suggestion has the advantage of having more choice of keys for extra stuff.

Edited by - Sandman on August 16, 2001 12:57:29 PM

WSAD (as I insist on calling it :p ), has got a big advantage over EDSF: it is easier to find. With the A key being directly next to CapsLock, you can immediatly feel if you got the right keys, without looking at the keyboard. This isn''t the case with ESDF... Only a minor difference, but in the end, it can make quite a difference for a ''veteran'' player...

Oh, and more thing... I guess I am just weird, but did any one of you ever try the ZXAD keys? :p Z = forward, x = backward, a + d = strafe... It works like a charm

quote: Original post by Ronin_54
WSAD (as I insist on calling it :p ), has got a big advantage over EDSF: it is easier to find. With the A key being directly next to CapsLock, you can immediatly feel if you got the right keys, without looking at the keyboard. This isn''t the case with ESDF... Only a minor difference, but in the end, it can make quite a difference for a ''veteran'' player...

Yes, but with ESDF you have the little notch on the F. Personally, I still use the arrow keys, but it works for me because I keep my monitor tilted a little bit.

(Here, I will refrain from using my signature to conserve bandwidth. )

Having a touch of arthritis, a few crushed knuckles from fisticuffs with cinderblocks, and decent sized hands to begin with (you piano players might like to know I span 10), I have my own bindings just like everyone else..

Thank god we''ve progressed to the point where ESDF isn''t the only thing going anymore. Sierra, Origin, and id were notorious for making great games that required you to cram your fingers into this tight space on the ''board. It''s like when you learn how to strum an augmented chord on a guitar by getting all four fingertips into the same fret. Not fun for us well-worn types.

Of course, Kylotan is right, as usual, about the rule being to use binding definitions instead of hardcoding input. A nice touch that most games have missed is that the scripted sequences for training never look back to see what the user has defined. AvP, Oni, and Homeworld are all guilty of ignoring your definitions when you hit F1 for controls help. I''m sure there''re many more.

I use what I call "Big-Hand" controls:
E - Move Forward
A - Step Left
D - Move Backward
F - Step Right

This leaves me an extra key right in the middle of the pattern that is usually bound as my "most-often-used-special-function" key. In AvP, S is my visual mode key (S - Sight), in most FPS games, S becomes Reload, and so forth. Works pretty good!

Post-script:
In the US, we have this fun little thing called the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Its far-reaching legislation threatened to send every webpage hosted here back for a rewrite based on the theory of "Disability Accessible Content" about 2 years ago. The reason I bring this up is because when you get right down to it, the little raised speck on the ''F'' and ''J'' keys were originally designed to help sight-disabled folks (yet another category I am part of) find the home row more quickly. It just happens that it benefits everyone that way.

Totally useless brain-lint from me, yeah, but when designing an input system, these are things one must consider to be a god among geeks

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-WarMage
...bet you''ll never guess what "Colon Hydrotherapy for Dummies" is printed on...

I think it's important to see that there is certainly a reasonable consensus on using a cursor-key shaped system for movement. Whether it is WASD or EDSF or indeed the cursor keys themselves is irrelevant for the purposes of movement, since they all function identically, but potentially important if you need quick access to other keys. So some variation on this is looking like a good idea for a default configuration.

EDIT: This key configuration is also not far from WarMage's configuration, and therefore would not take much work on the part of the end user to adapt it: another bonus.


Edited by - Kylotan on August 16, 2001 6:07:17 PM

quote: Original post by WarMage
I use what I call "Big-Hand" controls:
E - Move Forward
A - Step Left
D - Move Backward
F - Step Right

This leaves me an extra key right in the middle of the pattern that is usually bound as my "most-often-used-special-function" key. In AvP, S is my visual mode key (S - Sight), in most FPS games, S becomes Reload, and so forth. Works pretty good!

So essentially, you''re saying you find it easier to move a finger ''inwards'' for a less-used key than ''outwards''. Interesting.

Kylo:
It''s more about having a configuration that allows me to sit for hours at a keyboard without having my fingers splayed in such a way that gives rise to cramps in my fingers, hand, and forearm.

I came upon this configuration after several hours into Unreal (O hallowed be thy game), when I could no longer comfortably hold my ring finger kinked in the right way to use the ''S'' key as my Step Left key. So I did a little ergonomic research: using my middle finger - my Move Forward finger (and ''you''re #1'' finger) - as an origin, I let my fingers relax and ''find their own keys'', so to speak.

Long story made short, EADF is now my main squeeze, with the added bonus of giving me a much greater range of keys for lesser finger motion. I still reach Ctrl, Shift, and space without much effort, and the ''Q'', ''W'', ''S'', and ''Z'' keys are more readily available without having to ''re-home'' my hand to that cramped ESDF control cluster.

You guys are just lucky I broke my old-school Thrustmaster FCS back in ''96.
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-WarMage
...hunting for the nam-shub of Enki...