Keyboards and Roguelikes

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Keyboards and Roguelikes

Postby GoatBot on Wed Jun 26, 2013 7:21 am

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Re: Keyboards and Roguelikes

Postby booooooze on Wed Jun 26, 2013 1:37 pm

Yay!

If I had a desktop (or, I suppose, a touchscreen), I wouldn't mind (though I'd certainly still use keyboard shortcuts). Touchpad is just miserable, though.

(minor point: once you've explored the level in, say, nethack, mouse control becomes viable/necessary.)
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Re: Keyboards and Roguelikes

Postby Jazerus on Wed Aug 07, 2013 12:38 pm

I'm happy to see this implemented now, but I would like to comment on a few of the points in this post.

First of all, keyboard controls never required some special way to keep enemy information up - that's called "hovering your mouse over them"! It worked in the alpha quite well and I've never understood why this was seemingly the stumbling block for you devs, especially when the alpha had full numpad controls. Sure, I understand that the numpad has been repurposed - but I would seriously like the ability to customize movement/glyph/etc keys and implement a roguelike-style numpad movement system for myself, even if this makes some other parts of the controls slightly less intuitive when I do so. But frankly (and I may be weird), I don't enjoy DD if I'm just flitting from place to place with the mouse ("crossing half the screen in one click"), it takes all of the charm out of it and removes you from the experience of being a guy in a dungeon, even if it's a puzzle dungeon. It's not really about efficiency. I'm glad to see keyboard controls finally, because I would have bought this game two years ago if they were in place. I realize it's not much of a priority for your own experience of controlling the game and I guess this is why it was not implemented for such a long time, but it is a pretty big priority for some of your potential customers who loved the alpha (I still play it! But if it didn't have numpad controls I would never have bothered in the first place). You mention that the mouse is speedy and convenient - to me it's a lumbering, slow way to play the game because of all of the movement between interface areas that it requires, particularly on a trackpad. Playing the alpha, I always kept my mouse in a convenient place to give me rollover information and then moved with the keyboard - keyboard controls do not have to be comprehensive because keyboard players still use the mouse, just not to move and attack. I do not know how you can stand to move your mouse across the screen constantly to use glyphs with only the mouse, for example.

Anyway, I'm super-happy that this is happening since it makes the beta playable finally but I'd really like to see numpad movement as a toggle-able option. It's not about aping roguelikes but about accommodating a certain playstyle which is not your own.
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Re: Keyboards and Roguelikes

Postby Lujo on Wed Aug 07, 2013 3:45 pm

Well, I'm glad this is getting done. I went through 3 phases of looking at it over time.

Phase 1) How do I see what the monsters do exactly? Weird, I guess i'll wait.
Phase 2) After a long time playing and many missclicks and accidents related to combining mouse and keyboard I've concluded that the keyboard it a deathtrap and the only thing it brings to the table is hazards.
Phase 3) There's people who would use the keyboard? Oh, well, I suppose some do find it fun, as long as everyone can be happy. And well, I guess those hotkeys do save time when you're not serious about your run and all, so I use them more often now...
I almost got pwned by Shifty Brickwork!
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