Forums » Suggestions
Targeting Controls
Targeting Controls
We currently need some work on targeting controls, if this is to be comparable to other games. Currently, I find myself using the U key far too much, and having to click a specific name. There are a number of fixes to be made overall, in my opinion.
1. Make the X (closest hostile) button select the nearest hostile, and by pressing it subsequently within a second or two makes it select the second closest hostile, and so on. If you don’t touch it for approx 5 seconds, then hitting it again will select the closest hostile.
2. Addition of a “Select aggressor” key – would target the last person to have shot (and hit) you, or simply the closest hostile if nobody has shot at you
3. Auto-select of next hostile – useful in group fights and botting. This would be toggleable, like flight-assist.
4. [Debatable] Sector list of players below weapons loadout, or ship status. This may provide too much info, and it also may take up too much space in active systems.
5. Military priority selection mode, and Mining/normal priority selection mode. Military priority would mean that you could only select ships, but no asteroids (useful for targeting people in asteroid fields), and Mining/normal mode would allow both people and asteroids to be selected. Personally, I find it annoying to select an asteroid a number of times while trying to target a hostile, or even a friendly player.
Edit: 6. Target Next key, would just target the next ship in-system. Particularly useful until CP's /iff command gets implemented (not that it won't be useful after that point)
Overall, I think these changes would solve the problem. The only reason I’m selecting this is because some of these things just are really annoying not to have, after having had them for many years in other games.
~The Professor
We currently need some work on targeting controls, if this is to be comparable to other games. Currently, I find myself using the U key far too much, and having to click a specific name. There are a number of fixes to be made overall, in my opinion.
1. Make the X (closest hostile) button select the nearest hostile, and by pressing it subsequently within a second or two makes it select the second closest hostile, and so on. If you don’t touch it for approx 5 seconds, then hitting it again will select the closest hostile.
2. Addition of a “Select aggressor” key – would target the last person to have shot (and hit) you, or simply the closest hostile if nobody has shot at you
3. Auto-select of next hostile – useful in group fights and botting. This would be toggleable, like flight-assist.
4. [Debatable] Sector list of players below weapons loadout, or ship status. This may provide too much info, and it also may take up too much space in active systems.
5. Military priority selection mode, and Mining/normal priority selection mode. Military priority would mean that you could only select ships, but no asteroids (useful for targeting people in asteroid fields), and Mining/normal mode would allow both people and asteroids to be selected. Personally, I find it annoying to select an asteroid a number of times while trying to target a hostile, or even a friendly player.
Edit: 6. Target Next key, would just target the next ship in-system. Particularly useful until CP's /iff command gets implemented (not that it won't be useful after that point)
Overall, I think these changes would solve the problem. The only reason I’m selecting this is because some of these things just are really annoying not to have, after having had them for many years in other games.
~The Professor
I'm not sure, but I think you can toggle selecting asteroids.
What I really want over targeting controls is to be able to manually tell Vendetta who I want to label friendly and who I want to label hostile.
Because lots of UIT players have good Serco standing, and show up green on my radar, but have a history of attacking Serco players. I want to be able to override my computer's designation with my own and have a command like:
/iff "<player name>" [friendly|hostile]
I also want guild radar dots similar to group dots for easier combat coordination.
But your ideas are also really good. Maybe for your sector list idea, you have to click a button to get ship status and weapons loadout. But in that event, maybe have a flashing indicator on your radar to show who is doing this scan. I tend to think that people who want your ship loadout are trying to decide whether to attack you or not.
Also maybe have a small health bar underneath targeted guild and groupmates. I don't think it's inconceivable that friendly pilots would have secure links to other pilots to communicate status. It would again make it a lot easier for combat coordination to see who's healthy and who needs to repair. (usually when someone's smoking and flaming, it's too late to get a repair pilot over)
What I really want over targeting controls is to be able to manually tell Vendetta who I want to label friendly and who I want to label hostile.
Because lots of UIT players have good Serco standing, and show up green on my radar, but have a history of attacking Serco players. I want to be able to override my computer's designation with my own and have a command like:
/iff "<player name>" [friendly|hostile]
I also want guild radar dots similar to group dots for easier combat coordination.
But your ideas are also really good. Maybe for your sector list idea, you have to click a button to get ship status and weapons loadout. But in that event, maybe have a flashing indicator on your radar to show who is doing this scan. I tend to think that people who want your ship loadout are trying to decide whether to attack you or not.
Also maybe have a small health bar underneath targeted guild and groupmates. I don't think it's inconceivable that friendly pilots would have secure links to other pilots to communicate status. It would again make it a lot easier for combat coordination to see who's healthy and who needs to repair. (usually when someone's smoking and flaming, it's too late to get a repair pilot over)
1. I agree. The command x is bound to is RadarNextNearestEnemy, so in my mind it would make sense to cycle through enemy targets. But, I think it should reset to targetting the closest enemy in less than 5 seconds, 1 or 2 seconds would be better IMO. Or, maybe change RadarNextNearestEnemy so it always cycles through enemies in order of distance from you, and add a RadarNearestEnemy command that would always target the nearest enemy.
2. Done. The command is RadarHitBy. It's not bound to any key in the default config, though. See: http://www.vendetta-online.com/manual/app_commands.html
3. So if your current hostile target is destroyed, you automatically target the next nearest hostile? That could be nice. Saves us having to hit the x key.
4. Once a configurable HUD is created (so players can select what they want on their HUD), this should be an option. Until then, I think it would add too much clutter to the HUD, and so should be left off.
5. There used to be commands RadarNextNearestPowerup & RadarPrevNearestPowerup, back in the day of SpaceQuake, but they have been removed (since we don't have powerups floating around anymore). I think they should be replaced by commands like RadarNextNearestAsteroid & RadarNextNearestCargo. Oh, but for "I find it annoying to select an asteroid a number of times while trying to target a hostile", you can use RadarNextFrontEnemy (bound to z by default), so you don't have to worry about 'roids. But, that doesn't help for non-hostile ships.
6. (CP's iff command). I'd love to see this. Hopefully expanded to /iff "<player name>" [friend|friendly|hostile|foe|toggle|auto] (/iff "<player name>" auto would return to the normal state of iff operation). It should also be saved between gameplay sessions, and should have a /iff list command, to see who I have set to be a friend or enemy.
2. Done. The command is RadarHitBy. It's not bound to any key in the default config, though. See: http://www.vendetta-online.com/manual/app_commands.html
3. So if your current hostile target is destroyed, you automatically target the next nearest hostile? That could be nice. Saves us having to hit the x key.
4. Once a configurable HUD is created (so players can select what they want on their HUD), this should be an option. Until then, I think it would add too much clutter to the HUD, and so should be left off.
5. There used to be commands RadarNextNearestPowerup & RadarPrevNearestPowerup, back in the day of SpaceQuake, but they have been removed (since we don't have powerups floating around anymore). I think they should be replaced by commands like RadarNextNearestAsteroid & RadarNextNearestCargo. Oh, but for "I find it annoying to select an asteroid a number of times while trying to target a hostile", you can use RadarNextFrontEnemy (bound to z by default), so you don't have to worry about 'roids. But, that doesn't help for non-hostile ships.
6. (CP's iff command). I'd love to see this. Hopefully expanded to /iff "<player name>" [friend|friendly|hostile|foe|toggle|auto] (/iff "<player name>" auto would return to the normal state of iff operation). It should also be saved between gameplay sessions, and should have a /iff list command, to see who I have set to be a friend or enemy.
I agree with all of Beolach's points, and had forgotten about the "Hitbylast" thing Beolach mentioned in point #2. I'll go bind that to something right now...
Even if things like the "hitbylast" bind exist, things like this should really show up in the controls list. In fact, I think pretty much every bind should show up (with the exception of /explode, which should be eliminated), just so people know what is out there for their use.
When people are trying hard to learn how to play, and they gradually succeed, but later find out that there are all these other things that would have helped, that brings nothing but feelings of "what the ****??? Why did nobody TELL me about these things????" This is particularly true of PvP. For quite some time, I was trying to PvP with Mouselook on (with a little sucess...but I improved greatly right after turning it off), but after finally figuring it out, I was somewhat exasperated that wierdness like that would even exist.
In short, don't make people look around for the various binds. They should all be in one place, and the optimum settings ought to come with the game, or be included in a readme, or something.
When people are trying hard to learn how to play, and they gradually succeed, but later find out that there are all these other things that would have helped, that brings nothing but feelings of "what the ****??? Why did nobody TELL me about these things????" This is particularly true of PvP. For quite some time, I was trying to PvP with Mouselook on (with a little sucess...but I improved greatly right after turning it off), but after finally figuring it out, I was somewhat exasperated that wierdness like that would even exist.
In short, don't make people look around for the various binds. They should all be in one place, and the optimum settings ought to come with the game, or be included in a readme, or something.
"They should all be in one place"
What, like here: http://www.vendetta-online.com/manual/app_commands.html
"and the optimum settings ought to come with the game, or be included in a readme, or something."
No such thing. The way that I fly my ship is probably different from the way you fly yours. And the places where I've stuck my controls are probably different from yours as well. A lot of my controls are set up so they're the same as they were in alpha/beta, and that's where I like them. t is sector chat, and T is channel chat. Since release, the default is reversed. And I like mouselook for certain situations.... like when piloting the Behemoth. Then I don't need to be moving the mouse quite so much to get the control I want.
What, like here: http://www.vendetta-online.com/manual/app_commands.html
"and the optimum settings ought to come with the game, or be included in a readme, or something."
No such thing. The way that I fly my ship is probably different from the way you fly yours. And the places where I've stuck my controls are probably different from yours as well. A lot of my controls are set up so they're the same as they were in alpha/beta, and that's where I like them. t is sector chat, and T is channel chat. Since release, the default is reversed. And I like mouselook for certain situations.... like when piloting the Behemoth. Then I don't need to be moving the mouse quite so much to get the control I want.
No, I mean by "they should be all in one place" that all the commands should be easily-bindable in the controls menu. Right now, newbs and people who don't know computers all that well, particularly IRC, would have no clue how to bind some of the more complex commands. Besides, that topic just looks scary to people who are just getting into this.
I understand that there is no "optimum", but at the very least, there should be a short discussion in the tutorial of what most players use in various situations. It just needs to be described to a player when they join, so they don't end up getting frustrated by a seemingly bad interface/control set.
I understand that there is no "optimum", but at the very least, there should be a short discussion in the tutorial of what most players use in various situations. It just needs to be described to a player when they join, so they don't end up getting frustrated by a seemingly bad interface/control set.
I haven't read everyone else's posts, just skimmed so I'm sorry if I'm repeating something, but I would really like to be able to set WHO's hostile. I'm rogue Itani, and I fight for the Serco, but sometimes, even when I'm in a group for CtC with some sercs, and I press x, it selects one of my groupmates. Yes, I am +999 Serco, but they are still KOS Itani just like me.
You repeated me. READ THE POSTS :P
Harry: newbies shouldn't need to bind things. Really. Vendetta's basic keys are very useful for starting out. There's nothing that you need as a newbie that's not included in the default keyset. Sure, thinks like +turbo, and other binds are useful, but not absolutely necessary.
Harry: newbies shouldn't need to bind things. Really. Vendetta's basic keys are very useful for starting out. There's nothing that you need as a newbie that's not included in the default keyset. Sure, thinks like +turbo, and other binds are useful, but not absolutely necessary.
I'd just rather see a "select nearest player" key, because the whole color system thingy just doesn't work. You can have someone who isn't red attack you quite easily. And there'd be no easy way to select them! So the next best thing would be to have a "select nearest player" key.
And asteroids. Sometimes I mine when I need money. But most of the time I don't. When I'm out botting, I like to use the "select next in front" key to select a bot that is mining so I can backstab him easily. Unfortunately this often results in me selecting the entire asteroid. Kinda annoying.
And asteroids. Sometimes I mine when I need money. But most of the time I don't. When I'm out botting, I like to use the "select next in front" key to select a bot that is mining so I can backstab him easily. Unfortunately this often results in me selecting the entire asteroid. Kinda annoying.
Anytime you are damaged, the ship that caused the damage turns red on your radar until either you or that ship moves to a different sector.
But, a RadarNextNearestShip that doesn't discriminate between friends & foes would probably still be useful to some people.
Re: Harry Seldon
> No, I mean by "they should be all in one place" that all the
> commands should be easily-bindable in the controls menu.
They're all there. I personally do prefer to use the commandline to bind commands to different keys, but on the options->controls menu it does have all the commands in the game, although they're not listed by the actual command, and many of them are not bound to any key by default.
But, a RadarNextNearestShip that doesn't discriminate between friends & foes would probably still be useful to some people.
Re: Harry Seldon
> No, I mean by "they should be all in one place" that all the
> commands should be easily-bindable in the controls menu.
They're all there. I personally do prefer to use the commandline to bind commands to different keys, but on the options->controls menu it does have all the commands in the game, although they're not listed by the actual command, and many of them are not bound to any key by default.
yea, it does that, the whole point to setting someone as hostile before hand is that i'd rather know that someone is hostile before I get tri-flared by them.
And actually, the ones in the controls menu have many of the commands that pertain to fight, but there are some things that aren't like group and guild commands, duel, msg, among others.
And actually, the ones in the controls menu have many of the commands that pertain to fight, but there are some things that aren't like group and guild commands, duel, msg, among others.
*bump*
Can we please have CP's /iff command?
Can we please have CP's /iff command?