Attack and Formation Command Reworks

Dalas120

Ok - it's very late where I am and I don't have the energy to eloquently justify this (or think it through), so please bear with me.

Attack command is used mostly for the enemy-relative command, not for the "orbiting" UI or anything else. So players have one UI for grid-relative movement (move, strafe, etc.), and another UI for enemy/ally-relative movement. IMO that's just overcomplicating things, and can actually have a pretty big impact on how fights happen.

This is not a fully fleshed-out idea, but what if players could set a relative movement target (grid, x ship, y part) and still issue normal movement commands? So you wouldn't need to "attack command" an enemy ship to hold position relative to them. You would just say "commands are now relative to that enemy" and issue normal movement, strafe, etc. orders. Would probably need 2 commands, one for grid-relative angle and one for ship-relative angle.

Tldr: unify the grid-relative command UI and the ship-relative command UI

SpaceCat

Dalas120
It is true that grid relative attacks would be usefull to have at hand quickly.

Rearanging the attack angle constantly can be a full time job when you have surrounded an enemy that has decided to go into a spin with one of your flanking ships.

Two completely different UIs indeed seem complicated.
The question is: how to tell ships on the fly that they should act "grid relative"?

@Walt but the "WASD" keys are purely for camara movement aren't they??

Walt

Note that if you press the attack button or T key while already attacking an enemy, you can really quickly change your ship's position relative to the enemy, so in that sense the existing attack command is kind of like an enemy-relative strafe command.

Tobi-wan_Kenobi

Walt T key

You just revolutionized my side-strafe dodging gameplay. This is so much easier than dragging the silhouette.

Dalas120

Walt attack button or T key

Whoah! That's cool, and very helpful.

I originally intended this idea more to make commands easier to learn than to make issuing the command easier. For example, to master the attack command, you need to know all sorts of trivia. When do you move in flight direction and when do you strafe? When does collision avoidance kick in and when is it disabled? And I'm sure there's a lot more that I don't know yet. It's probably best to have fewer pieces of trivia to remember, not more.

But, now that I've gotten some sleep I don't think this is too important. There's nothing wrong exactly with the current system, and it would probably be a ton of work to redo for only moderate benefit.

Walt

SpaceCat but the "WASD" keys are purely for camara movement aren't they??

Er, I meant the T key. Post fixed.

SpaceCat

True dragging the shiluette can sometimes be a bit of a picky endeavor if you do not do it the absolute right angle.

... have to try "T" too!

(wonder how to remember "T" like Tflanking, s-Trafing ... 😛 )

Tobi-wan_Kenobi

SpaceCat Tflanking

lmao

Walt

SpaceCat (wonder how to remember "T" like Tflanking, s-Trafing ... 😛 )

It's the most common letter in the word ATTACK.

Tobi-wan_Kenobi

Walt ATTACK

ATTACK??? 😃

TBH I don't think WASD as view control is necessary. I never use them - I always edge bump. If you're running out of hotkeys I think most people would welcome using those for something more important.

Walt

Tobi-wan_Kenobi ATTACK???

I should have said the most common letter occuring in a row. 😛

Tobi-wan_Kenobi TBH I don't think WASD as view control is necessary. I never use them - I always edge bump. If you're running out of hotkeys I think most people would welcome using those for something more important.

The game used to not have WASD because I thought the same thing and it was a HUGE PROBLEM. Okay, maybe slight exaggeration, but people complained about it all the time and kept trying to use them in playtests.

Also, middle-click-drag is where it's at for panning the view. 🙂

SpaceCat

Tobi-wan_Kenobi WASD as view control

I think the majority of PC-gamers are used to WASD beeing a copy of the arrow keys.
+ It is only a default, you can always change it.

Tobi-wan_Kenobi

Walt Also, middle-click-drag is where it's at for panning the view.

Not working for me...

EDIT: Ah, I had it rebound to thumb for some reason.