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Player Features and Ideas Discussion

 
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Moving your ship using the arrow or WASD keys
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BulletMagnetMan
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2011-11-13 23:20:05 UTC
Can we please implement the ability to use the arrow keys or WASD keys to move your ship. I am a master of orbiting/jinking/zig-zagging a target in an FPS but here I have to revert to clicking the mouse i nthe direction I want to get, which really doesn't work a lot of the time.

This is one of the only games I know where you cannot manually move your ship in space. Why is that? All other space games use the arrow keys so what makes EVE so special? or dumb?

(It's almost as stupid as not being able to look out of the billions of station windows - but that's another issue.)
Tippia
Sunshine and Lollipops
#2 - 2011-11-13 23:34:19 UTC
No.

It would require a complete rewrite of the server (and client) physics simulation code; increase the server load by a couple of orders of magnitude; and make the bandwidth requirement shoot through the roof. It would also be rather lacking in a 3D environment and is already provided by the mouse controls.

What makes EVE so special? 2,000 people on grid, as opposed to one.
Alexa Coates
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2011-11-13 23:54:59 UTC
You technically can manually fly your ship. You can manually adjust your speed, and you can double click in space and your ship will go in that direction.

That's a Templar, an Amarr fighter used by carriers.
Sobaan Tali
Caldari Quick Reaction Force
#4 - 2011-11-14 02:46:03 UTC
How many times does come up again?

"Tomahawks?"

"----in' A, right?"

"Trouble is, those things cost like a million and a half each."

"----, you pay me half that and I'll hump in some c4 and blow the ---- out of it my own damn self."
Nariya Kentaya
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#5 - 2011-11-14 03:15:50 UTC
Sobaan Tali wrote:
How many times does come up again?

too many times.
it seems people are too lazy to juct click in space, and they dont understand how useless this mechanic really is, since WASD removes all spatial awareness for your ship, since you HAVE to look in 1 direction or you wont know where the heck your flying.
Goodgodyourface
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#6 - 2011-11-14 03:43:38 UTC
This is even worse than the people who want a 'cockpit view' first-person piloting dealio.

This is why.
BulletMagnetMan
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2011-11-14 05:11:32 UTC
If it keeps coming up, then there is demands for it. Therefore implement it and see who uses it. If they had written it into the code in the first place, like every other space sim does, then this issue would never have been brought up so many times.

Clicking in space doesn't always work, especially in a fleet op. If you are already rotating your camera to look in a different direction, then how can you click on a different area in space? You have to manically rotate back to where you want to go. That's just dumb.

Being able to turn your ship with d-keys would allow for more freedom of movement and more effective control of your ship and visual queues from the battlefield.

No, I don't want a cockpit. This isn't Tie Fighter.
Goodgodyourface
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#8 - 2011-11-14 05:22:43 UTC  |  Edited by: Goodgodyourface
BulletMagnetMan wrote:
If it keeps coming up, then there is demands for it. Therefore implement it and see who uses it. If they had written it into the code in the first place, like every other space sim does, then this issue would never have been brought up so many times.

Clicking in space doesn't always work, especially in a fleet op. If you are already rotating your camera to look in a different direction, then how can you click on a different area in space? You have to manically rotate back to where you want to go. That's just dumb.

Being able to turn your ship with d-keys would allow for more freedom of movement and more effective control of your ship and visual queues from the battlefield.

No, I don't want a cockpit. This isn't Tie Fighter.





Hey

Not sure if you noticed

But

"Every other space sim" doesn't have 40000 people playing -- that is, having control at all times of their ship in every nuanced direction -- on a single server at once. It's not "written into the code" because the current limits of internet technology make it impossible to play a game simultaneously with 39999 other people while everyone is actively controlling their movements. The game does not see movements as

___________________

Where that line is your ship's movement, rather, it is more like

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

With it 'checking' every few 'ticks' to see where you're going. This is why you can't turn on a dime even with free-movement (double-clicking), because it takes the servers a second to take that command and process it, and then do the movement.

It would be akin to playing a FPS at a few frames per second.
Pelador Rova
No Luck Corp
#9 - 2011-11-14 05:33:00 UTC
-1,

not needed at the expense of bandwith problems monitoring controls as a result. Prefer that to be used for other more useful features. Considering that the engine is not written on a "twitch" based system I cannot comment how radical it would be to possibly re-invent the wheel either.

I'd argue the desire as seems to be indicated is more as a result of "all my other games work this way" suggestion and I imagine this is the attraction why suggestions keep coming up occasionally also.

To be honest if its just to get a quicker transversal velocity as quickly as possible, based on a ship's agility, I could argue it might be even quicker to use the mouse as currently is to select a new heading setting that waiting for your ship and camera to find a new heading whilst steering using the keyboard?
BulletMagnetMan
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#10 - 2011-11-14 05:33:39 UTC
Ok. Fine. You make a fair point.

Something for the future then ... the far distant future. Straight
BulletMagnetMan
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#11 - 2011-11-14 05:40:20 UTC
Pelador Rova wrote:
-1,

not needed at the expense of bandwith problems monitoring controls as a result. Prefer that to be used for other more useful features. Considering that the engine is not written on a "twitch" based system I cannot comment how radical it would be to possibly re-invent the wheel either.

I'd argue the desire as seems to be indicated is more as a result of "all my other games work this way" suggestion and I imagine this is the attraction why suggestions keep coming up occasionally also.

To be honest if its just to get a quicker transversal velocity as quickly as possible, based on a ship's agility, I could argue it might be even quicker to use the mouse as currently is to select a new heading setting that waiting for your ship and camera to find a new heading whilst steering using the keyboard?


Yeah true. Perhaps the right mouse button. Or the the middle mouse button could be removed as a comms option and used for movement.
Pelador Rova
No Luck Corp
#12 - 2011-11-14 05:56:00 UTC  |  Edited by: Pelador Rova
BulletMagnetMan wrote:
Pelador Rova wrote:
-1,

not needed at the expense of bandwith problems monitoring controls as a result. Prefer that to be used for other more useful features. Considering that the engine is not written on a "twitch" based system I cannot comment how radical it would be to possibly re-invent the wheel either.

I'd argue the desire as seems to be indicated is more as a result of "all my other games work this way" suggestion and I imagine this is the attraction why suggestions keep coming up occasionally also.

To be honest if its just to get a quicker transversal velocity as quickly as possible, based on a ship's agility, I could argue it might be even quicker to use the mouse as currently is to select a new heading setting that waiting for your ship and camera to find a new heading whilst steering using the keyboard?


Yeah true. Perhaps the right mouse button. Or the the middle mouse button could be removed as a comms option and used for movement.


Well a configurable mouse key might be useful for directional following or something in theory, i.e. key press turns ship towards mouse direction. But still doesnt remove a monitoring need or actual turning speed issue of ship and camera associated with it. So it logically simplifies the key press but not the potential technical issues associated with it.

So very much a "luxury" item when not essential at best, whereas potentially gamebreaking for an mmo most likley.

As an idea I can see the attraction, just the cost of its implementation seems to greatly outweigh its benefit.