Experimental Controls

[SimonC4]

Like @theotherjay has mentioned in another thread, I too was interested in applying some sort of reverse thrusters / brakes. I've created a branch to do some experiments with the controls and have taken it a step further to include sideways thrusters. The controls are operational, but there's no animation or sound. The purpose was really to see if the concept works. If you are interested, check out the branch and we can discuss here.

The new controls are PC only:

• Q, E - Turn the ship
• W - Thrust
• S - Reverse thrust
• A, D - Sideways thrust
• Right-Shift - Brake

Edit: Fixed formatting
Edit2: Added brakes

 

[Cervator]

Very cool sounding. Looking forward to playing with this a bit this weekend

Going to get a few things out of the way tomorrow (Saturday) first then checking on the pending PR + Android and will look at this some then too.

Is http://steamcommunity.com/app/342980/discussions/0/613958868359863586/ just a coincidence or is that your Steam name?

 

[SimonC4]

No, that's not me. My Steam name is SimonC4. It did inspire me to work on the key mapping though

 

[SimonC4]

A small update. I've added some brakes, so that applying them will slow the ship regardless of which direction it is travelling. This is currently mapped to the right-Shift key.

 

[Cervator]

Cool

I'd love to see that as a fitting option, coming at a price. There is something about taking the time to excel at flying without brakes that should give you a little edge ...

 

[SteelGolem]

I played a little bit with this myself in my own project, and having Q E for the strafing and A D for the rotation felt more natural. Unfortunately, as a result of familiarity with FPS controls and their forward-facing-based approach, I still found that after turning even a little bit, I'd lose my bearing in the X-Y-axis-aligned camera framing, and would wind up trying to strafe in the wrong direction. It could be that I'm just not used to it, I'm not sure...

I'd like to propose a camera rotation alignment with the player ship so its 'forward' vector is always facing up. With an always-facing-up ship, the game can leverage the ample horizontal space during planetary fly-by instead of having the planet offscreen at the bottom 90% of the time you're flying over it. Thoughts?

 

[Cervator]

I'm not opposed to tinkering with the way the camera works, but considering the shifting around that currently happens when transitioning between space and planet I don't know how easy it would be?

Ideally it would be an optional toggle of some sort, but I don't know how the feel would work out. Probably would be a worthwhile experiment if somebody has the time to play with it, hint hint