EVE General Discussion

if WASD was wanted there would be emergent content. the slogans said so!

As the fellow above me pointed out, you are thinking Forward, Reverse, Left, Right.
In a flight sim it would be Nose up, Nose down, Left, Right... with other keys handling the amount of thrust.

Not practical for general EvE play, but as Mr. ePeen pointed out a mini game would be interesting with fighters/fighter bombers. The one second server tick might make it a very frustrating experience though, even if the server load would allow it to begin with.

First question should be: Why?

What benefit or improvement would wasd controls provide?

well for one, better angles in fights, if you could strafe, this without having to worry about changing "orbit distance" to suit your angular needs, or having to click in space, which takes you out of the relative equation with regards to the target ship.

it would do nothing but present a way in which to garner better angles.

Rather than 'Key controls' which are FPS like. Extend on our current HUD system, we have Speed -/+ on the Hud.
Now add a + (Can overlay the capacitor, or something, I can't make a mock up).
This + then allows you to move a slider on the Up/Down axis and another on the Left/Right axis. Setting a turn amount. The ship then proceeds to turn whatever distance you set, and as it turns, the slider returns to zero. (Maybe an option to 'lock' it which makes it turn rate at current speed or something). This is Submarines in space after all, lets make controls that match the way the flight system actually works. 10 degrees down angle, rudder 20 degrees left, all ships come around.
Fleets can then actually do turns.

Take it one step further (& CCP would have to code server side support for ship orientation for this) and add a 360 degree dial in the middle of the +, and this allows you to rotate your ship, 0 being the standard 'plane' as defined by the tactical overlay, etc.

It gives control of direction without double clicking since double click is problematic when space is busy because it works differently if you double click an object to double click in space, but it doesn't turn Eve into an arcade game.

kangaroo isk farmers.

Actually.. I seem to recall a Dev post somewhere, (maybe not here), that this wasn't at all improbable. I don't recall exactly how it was explained, but it had something to do with server tics and pings and so on.

EVE is what it is though. As much as I tend to enjoy first-person-perspective pilot simulations, (and I do), it just doesn't have to be in EVE to make EVE fun or enjoyable. If it was, it certainly wouldn't result in me investing more or less time than I do now. Maybe at first, but I'm certain it wouldn't be long before I returned to my usual habits.

Granted, if it was introduced, I wouldn't suggest it for standard gameplay, but maybe as part of an alternative sort of gameplay. Planetside Avatar gameplay for instance, with much smaller craft used for exploration and scouting of planets surfaces or something. Maybe even small craft for accessing ancient abandoned facilities and stations in space. No pods in these of course.

That would also be done on battleservers, (or something like), so EVE TQ tics would be irrelevant.

This hasn't popped up before.

Or you can use your mouse for control in addition to WASD.

Simple set I rather like:

W - Strafe up
S - Strafe Down
A - Roll Left
D - Roll Right

Q - Strafe Left
E - Strafe Right

Mouse forward - Pitch Down
Mouse Back - Pitch Up

Mouse Left - Rotate Left (i.e: Fires Aft Port and Forward Starboard Thrusters simultaneously)
Mouse Right - Rotate Right

These can pretty much allow any combination of maneuvers when combined with various levels of engine and thruster power.

Add Right-Click to cycle through available weapons, Spacebar to fire, left click to boost thruster power, (over time pressed), middle scroll to adjust engine power, Shift to cut engines and thrusters, etc.. I could go on obviously, but that is essentially the best control set I've found personally. I made some of it up of course.

edit: Actually, I'd also add to that, middle mouse click to lock target on whatever ship/object is in your targeting reticle, and hold side mouse button, scroll and release to activate EWAR module or secondary weapons systems. Right side hold, scroll, and release for activating defensive system, armor rep, etc..

One reason WASD controls might be impractical for standard EVE mechanics is that they could quite probably get very complicated as a result of the numerous modules, but those latter two controls in combination with the right click control for cycling weapons could be used for High, Middle, and Low racks as well.

Not impossible, but still rather complicated, and--as mentioned--there is the client-server-clients thing to consider. No matter the argument for, it boils down to whether or not it is possible to do in a practical fashion and keep gameplay smooth for all parties.

I could see it, but not for Eve.