Usually I'm wary wary to alter the established ADOM keybindings but one of the good things of our Steam launch is that ADOM gets challenged in regards to usability from new players with a fresh eye on things. I personally enjoy this a lot as I really perceive a big difference in how "the old guard" (the experienced and established ADOM community) and "the fresh blood" (mostly new Steam customers) tackle ADOM and I strongly believe that this is good for the game.
Tonight I noticed a suggestion I never had thought about but that struck me as extremely valid: A new player suggested to swap z (zapping a wand) and Z (casting a spell) as you usually cast a lot more spells than you zap wands. Thus it would make sense to reduce the number of keypresses from two to one for spellcasting by mapping it to z instead of Z.
Although this is one of the "big changes" (in my book) I'm usually hesitant to do, this particular idea strikes me as an excellent and very valid point.
Please give me some opinions :-)
P.S.: The suggestion was accompanied by the idea of allowing letters (a-zA-Z) for quick marking spells (and IMHO then also skills) which I also like greatly.
I always do that already (in config files). I also set "use power" to "m" key, for easy drakeling spit and such, and "switch position with monster" to "b" (though that's not that needed nowadays).
ReplyDeleteI cast spells by pressing 'esc' and zap with 'z'. Both take one press, problem solved.
ReplyDeleteThat's fine. The old guard of players can just adjust their keybindings file, and the newbies will get a better set of bindings.
ReplyDeleteI've been back and forth on this one. I've swapped the keybindings in the config files on multiple occasions. I'm for it.
ReplyDeleteAlso I like the idea of quick-marking spells and skills for faster use. I wouldn't be against even a convoluted key combination for these shortcuts. (i.e. Ctrl+Shift+KEY)
I think you should wait for a few more simplification ideas. When I read the title, I thought it was going to be a merging of the two, or something else that actually simplifies and reduces the number of keybindings. Just swapping the keys doesn't really help.
ReplyDeleteYou use Z more than z if you're a spellcaster. I don't think this change made much sense.
ReplyDeleteRelated to the casting page, but unrelated to keybindings. I notice that the capitalisation of the header in the select spell page is different from the zap wand page. Also, in the GUI there is no background for the select spell page if you don't know any spells. The background only appears once you learn spells.
ReplyDeleteWhy not use z for zap and c for cast? Wouldn't that be both simpler and easier to remember? Afterall, you "z"ap a wand and "c"ast a spell.
ReplyDeleteBecause we also 'c'lose doors :-)
DeleteOh yah. I forgot about that. Thanks for pointing that one out, TB.
DeleteI always used Escape for casting spells.
ReplyDeletePlease stick with the old mappings, my muscle memory is hard coded at this point!
ReplyDeleteI've swapped z and Z since probably the first time I played a spellcaster (2-3 years ago), so personally I'm all for setting that as default. And letters as quickmarks would be awesome!
ReplyDeleteSince we're on the subject: I add 'wq' as 'walk to nearest upstairs and 'we' as 'walk to nearest downstairs' - q because it's "behind" the w key and thus in a way points back, and e because it's in front of the w key and points forward, in a way. Makes it a lot easier to quickwalk to nearby stairs instead of the more awkward w> / w< - especially when the autowalk decides I need to stop and look at every rock and dagger lying in my path.
While we're at it, why not give us a single key to go both up and down stairs, and a key that can both close and open doors? I beg you!
ReplyDeleteI was going to suggest the same thing. With stairs, the player can only be standing on one or the other, and for doors the vast majority of the time a player is only next to one.
DeleteThomas,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the release on Steam, I know I for one couldn't give you my money quickly enough given how your masterpiece has provided me years of fun! (Although I still haven't legitimately won a game!)
Hey I apologize first for coming here for stupid question but I really want to play on steam, but I can't stand the UI. I'm in ASCII mode but my stats aren't displayed across the lower screen as they always have been. I've got some weird display at the top giving me my Race/Class, DV/PV, hp and so fourth. I can't for the life of me figure out how to change it. Someone help me out here please!?
I'd be fine with the swap. It sounds like a net gain. It also sorta matches the shift usage of other straight-out-of-inventory things like Shift-D for Drink and Shift-U for Use. Heck, Shift-I goes straight into your inventory.
ReplyDeleteI swapped Z and z after my first aggravating game as a Wizard in 1998 or 1999. All the most used controls should be without modifiers, less often with shift, avoid Ctrl as it's not available on some devices. I forget all the keys I changed, but I know I have s swap places, numeric keypad 5 to search, o open, c close, C chat, z spell, Z wand... and quit on :q! so I never trigger it accidentaly.
ReplyDelete