[Crystal-core] The movement system and input

[Jorrit Tyberghein]

Hi all,

The conversion to python is going well and now I'd like to talk a bit
about the movement system and input in general.

For movement I think the classic wasd system + mouse for looking
around works well.
That's also what is being used right now.

For picking up stuff it is currently rather hard. You have to
precisely aim the center
of the screen (crosshair) on the item you want to pick up and then
press ',' or right
mouse button. The keys are ok but I think that targetting is too hard.
So I would
like to change that so that the pickup action just picks up the
nearest item (that
can be picked up) that is within range around the player. Sounds ok?

When you pick up an item it is either:
- A weapon: in this case it goes to one of five weapon slots.
- Ammo for a given weapon. If you have a weapon of that type then
the weapon will be reloaded. Otherwise the item will fail to pick
up (you can't use it).
- Another item. In this case it goes to the inventory.

You can change weapon with the 1,2,3,4,5 keys or 'e', 'q' for next/previous
weapon.

For using the inventory you can see five items of the inventory at the
top of your
screen (icons). The center icon is the current selected item. You can scan the
items with two (as yet undefined) keys and then you can either use or drop
the item (currently no keys defined for those actions).

For actions to be performed on things that are not in the inventory there
are several options. Doors can open automatically on approach if you have
the right key or object. Otherwise we can have an explicit 'use' action which
will operate the object nearest to the player (similar to the pickup action).
Sounds ok?

I also propose to make a sort of PDA that the player carries around. You can
open this PDA with the 'tab' key (for example). On that PDA you can see:
- Full inventory (not only five items).
- All five weapons and ammo in them (you only see the current weapon
in the game).
- Current objectives. This is a few lines of text describing in short what
your current objective in the game is.
- Health status.
In later stages of the game (when we repair certain equipment in the ship)
the PDA can gain additional features like:
- Mini-map showing where you are.
- Communication messages from the colony ship.

What do you think of all these ideas?

Greetings,

[Mark Sanders]

Post by Jorrit Tyberghein
Hi all,
The conversion to python is going well and now I'd like to talk a bit
about the movement system and input in general.
For movement I think the classic wasd system + mouse for looking
around works well.
That's also what is being used right now.
For picking up stuff it is currently rather hard. You have to
precisely aim the center
of the screen (crosshair) on the item you want to pick up and then
press ',' or right
mouse button. The keys are ok but I think that targetting is too hard.
So I would
like to change that so that the pickup action just picks up the
nearest item (that
can be picked up) that is within range around the player. Sounds ok?
- A weapon: in this case it goes to one of five weapon slots.
- Ammo for a given weapon. If you have a weapon of that type then
the weapon will be reloaded. Otherwise the item will fail to pick
up (you can't use it).
- Another item. In this case it goes to the inventory.
You can change weapon with the 1,2,3,4,5 keys or 'e', 'q' for next/previous
weapon.
For using the inventory you can see five items of the inventory at the
top of your
screen (icons). The center icon is the current selected item. You can scan the
items with two (as yet undefined) keys and then you can either use or drop
the item (currently no keys defined for those actions).
For actions to be performed on things that are not in the inventory there
are several options. Doors can open automatically on approach if you have
the right key or object. Otherwise we can have an explicit 'use' action which
will operate the object nearest to the player (similar to the pickup action).
Sounds ok?
I also propose to make a sort of PDA that the player carries around. You can
- Full inventory (not only five items).
- All five weapons and ammo in them (you only see the current weapon
in the game).
- Current objectives. This is a few lines of text describing in short what
your current objective in the game is.
- Health status.
In later stages of the game (when we repair certain equipment in the ship)
- Mini-map showing where you are.
- Communication messages from the colony ship.
What do you think of all these ideas?
Greetings,

Howdy,

I'm personally quite fond of the Half-Life(like) key bindings. These are:

w, a, s, d: Movement where a and d are used for strafing instead of
turning.
q: Toggle between last and current weapon.
e: Action (pickup items, open doors toggle knobs).
r: Reload weapon.
f: Flash light.
z: Zoom.
shift: Sprint.
control: Crouch.
space: Jump.

Mouse is used for rotating the camera and thus the direction.
LMB: Primary fire.
RMB: Secondary fire (grenade on SMG, Zoom on bow(sniper), etc).
Scroll wheel: Go through your weapon arsenal.

1,2,3,4,5 Select weapons from their five catagories. (crowbar, small
arms, machine gun, rocket launcher, grenade/explosives)

tab for pda/inventory is fine since it is on the right side of the keyboard.

I'm suggesting this since it is far superior to what is currently used.

For example. You use the , as pickup/action. This means I have to move
my left hand from one side of the keyboard to the other. This results in
me having to look at my keyboard because I can't do such a distance
without missing the keys a few times.

But aren't the key bindings customisable? if so then there is no problem
just that I'd first have to tweak it to make it easy to play.

Greetings,

Mark Sanders aka CyaNox.

[Jorrit Tyberghein]

Post by Mark Sanders
w, a, s, d: Movement where a and d are used for strafing instead of
turning.

Yes, that's how it is in CC as well.

Post by Mark Sanders
Mouse is used for rotating the camera and thus the direction.
LMB: Primary fire.
RMB: Secondary fire (grenade on SMG, Zoom on bow(sniper), etc).
Scroll wheel: Go through your weapon arsenal.

We only have primary fire for now. The RMB is used for picking up
stuff. But of course that could be changed. However for the first versions
of CC we will most likely not need secondary weapon firing.

Post by Mark Sanders
1,2,3,4,5 Select weapons from their five catagories. (crowbar, small
arms, machine gun, rocket launcher, grenade/explosives)

Same in CC.

Post by Mark Sanders
For example. You use the , as pickup/action. This means I have to move
my left hand from one side of the keyboard to the other. This results in
me having to look at my keyboard because I can't do such a distance
without missing the keys a few times.

Well you can also pick up using RMB.

Post by Mark Sanders
But aren't the key bindings customisable? if so then there is no problem
just that I'd first have to tweak it to make it easy to play.

Yes, they are customizable but it would be nice to have good defaults so that
few people feel the need to customize.

Greetings,

[Jorrit Tyberghein]

I'm a bit hesitating now. There are three 'action' like operations
that you can (or will be able to)
do in Crystal Core:

- Pickup the nearest item (medkit, key card, whatever).
- Activate the nearest item (button, elevator, door, whatever).
- Use the currently selected item in inventory (actually use the
medkit, whatever).

It would be fairly easy to distinguish between the first and the
second. If an object
can be picked up we will not use it but instead put it in inventory.
If an object cannot
be picked up we will try to use it where it is. In the game we have to
make sure that
we do not try to put multiple types of objects to close to each other
so that there
is no confusion on what actually will happen.

As to the third I think that needs a different key because you need to
be able to
distinguish between using/picking an item on the ground and using an item in
inventory.

So I think we can reduce this to two actions. One is pickup/use item
on ground. The
other is use item in inventory.

How does that sound?

Greetings,

[Elián Hanisch]

Post by Jorrit Tyberghein
I'm a bit hesitating now. There are three 'action' like operations
that you can (or will be able to)
- Pickup the nearest item (medkit, key card, whatever).
- Activate the nearest item (button, elevator, door, whatever).
- Use the currently selected item in inventory (actually use the
medkit, whatever).
It would be fairly easy to distinguish between the first and the
second. If an object
can be picked up we will not use it but instead put it in inventory.
If an object cannot
be picked up we will try to use it where it is. In the game we have to
make sure that
we do not try to put multiple types of objects to close to each other
so that there
is no confusion on what actually will happen.
As to the third I think that needs a different key because you need to
be able to
distinguish between using/picking an item on the ground and using an item
in inventory.
So I think we can reduce this to two actions. One is pickup/use item
on ground. The
other is use item in inventory.
How does that sound?
Greetings,

yes, there should be another key for using the inventory items, It think that
in most games it's the 'p' key, and the [] or '¡ keys for switching between
items (spanish keyboard here, might not match yours, they're keys next to
backspace and enter keys)

~ m4v

[Elián Hanisch]

Post by Jorrit Tyberghein
For picking up stuff it is currently rather hard. You have to
precisely aim the center
of the screen (crosshair) on the item you want to pick up and then
press ',' or right
mouse button. The keys are ok but I think that targetting is too hard.
So I would
like to change that so that the pickup action just picks up the
nearest item (that
can be picked up) that is within range around the player. Sounds ok?

sounds fine atm, since there wont' be many pick ups, but I think there should
be another parameter to look at for avoid ambiguous situations (like picking
up an object when there's another at equally distance, or closer) like...
dunno.. the distance to the centre of the screen from player's point of
view?

Post by Jorrit Tyberghein
- A weapon: in this case it goes to one of five weapon slots.
- Ammo for a given weapon. If you have a weapon of that type then
the weapon will be reloaded. Otherwise the item will fail to pick
up (you can't use it).
- Another item. In this case it goes to the inventory.
You can change weapon with the 1,2,3,4,5 keys or 'e', 'q' for next/previous
weapon.
For using the inventory you can see five items of the inventory at the
top of your
screen (icons). The center icon is the current selected item. You can scan
the items with two (as yet undefined) keys and then you can either use or
drop the item (currently no keys defined for those actions).
For actions to be performed on things that are not in the inventory there
are several options. Doors can open automatically on approach if you have
the right key or object. Otherwise we can have an explicit 'use' action
which will operate the object nearest to the player (similar to the pickup
action). Sounds ok?

yes, but I suggest for make things simpler and make all doors open
automatically except those that need a key/fix, and leave manual doors for
later.
For open a door manually I did like the player to interact with door's control
panel (or just a open/close button) and not the player 'using' the door

Post by Jorrit Tyberghein
I also propose to make a sort of PDA that the player carries around. You
can open this PDA with the 'tab' key (for example). On that PDA you can
see: - Full inventory (not only five items).
- All five weapons and ammo in them (you only see the current weapon
in the game).
- Current objectives. This is a few lines of text describing in short
what your current objective in the game is.
- Health status.
In later stages of the game (when we repair certain equipment in the ship)
- Mini-map showing where you are.
- Communication messages from the colony ship.

I'm fine with the PDA

~ m4v