Why No Keyboard Movement?

[Slarty]

Sorry if this topic has been brought up and addressed before, as I've only just played the game. But I find this very confusing.

I just downloaded Eschalon and gave it a whirl. The game looks beautiful, with one frustrating exception that I just can't get past. Why am I forced to use the mouse for movement?

Having to position the mouse properly, given the 8 directions you can move and the tiny, seamless grid squares, requires a little bit of guesswork -- and quickly becomes annoying.

Having to hold down the mouse button constantly to move repeatedly is ridiculous. It's a basic tenet of user control design that having a cursor controlled by a mouse allows a lot of flexibility, but only when the user is in control of when they use the mouse. The mouse is more versatile than the keyboard, but it's slower to adapt, and users tend to develop unique ways of using the mouse for certain tasks and the keyboard for others to make their work flow smoothly.

But it isn't moving in a single direction that's annoying, it's having to move in multiple directions, to turn a corner or dodge a tree or whatever. Find the position, click, hold, wait stop! now reposition, click, hold, rinse, repeat... it's like performing CPR. The "press a button to walk in a straight line until you press another button" feature, while somewhat thoughtful, does not, therefore, help.

The movement speed could be faster, but I can get over that. The thing I find mind-boggling is that there's no keyboard movement option at all. The arrow keys aren't used for anything else. The keypad isn't used for anything else! And it wouldn't take away from the mouse movement option in any way. Why oh why is there no keyboard movement option?

The game looks beautiful, and some of the UI elements are very nice. But I'm afraid this one is a deal-breaker for me. It makes moving around, something so basic that I shouldn't have to put thought and effort into it, into an irritating burden.

[Jonas_Boggs]

Having to position the mouse properly, given the 8 directions you can move and the tiny, seamless grid squares, requires a little bit of guesswork -- and quickly becomes annoying.

This at least is taken care of by pressing TAB. that will display the grid and perhaps ease some of your frustration in picking a walking path.

[Draphsor]

I just find it much faster to navigate in this kind of game using the keyboard. It would be very nice to be able to use the keyboard to move around.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Having to hold down the mouse button constantly to move repeatedly is ridiculous.

Did you know that "w" or the middle mouse button is walk-lock, and you can just sit back and steer your character? Probably even easier than keyboard movement.

And as for keyboard movement, yes, that would be a good idea. Definitely gonna be in Book II, and I am looking to see if I can get it into Book I without breaking a lot of things. I would most likely need to link it to the keypad (8-direction control) but without interfering with Quick Set spells (number keys 1-9). Not sure what laptop owners would do.....and I don't want to have to remap the entire keyboard to fit it on there.....

[alpha]

Some of the newer laptops have numpad And without it, well, they have a wall-lock AND a touchpad so it's ok.

[Slarty]

8-direction control is nice, but you could just use the directional arrows if keymaps are an issue. (Probably having them make you move in diagonal directions onscreen, which are the straight directons for the grid.) You don't really need to move in the other directions that much, so it isn't that much of a hassle to have to use the mouse for them.

[Unkillable Cat]

I just find it much faster to navigate in this kind of game using the keyboard. It would be very nice to be able to use the keyboard to move around.

I agree with this.

[Draphsor]

Having to hold down the mouse button constantly to move repeatedly is ridiculous.

Did you know that "w" or the middle mouse button is walk-lock, and you can just sit back and steer your character? Probably even easier than keyboard movement.

It's got a bit more mental overhead. Keyboard navigation for me in these kinds of games can become completely transparent. Many hours of nethack and angband testify to that. The mouse, for me, requires more concentration.

And as for keyboard movement, yes, that would be a good idea. Definitely gonna be in Book II, and I am looking to see if I can get it into Book I without breaking a lot of things. I would most likely need to link it to the keypad (8-direction control) but without interfering with Quick Set spells (number keys 1-9). Not sure what laptop owners would do.....and I don't want to have to remap the entire keyboard to fit it on there.....

The numeric keyboard is what I looked to first for this, so that's definitely where I'd expect to see it. On the keyboard itself, I'd expect the normal hjklyubn keys for movement in the eight directions, but that would require a bit of keyboard remapping for inventory and journal. As I'm sure you know nethack does this by using capital letters for things like inventory or other less-accessed commands than movement.

[Necromis]

hmm, pointing mouse arrow towards where I want to go. Yeah that sounds like a real mental challenge. NOT. Come on now it is not hard to simply point the friggin mouse towards the object or side of the screen you are wanting to go to. PLUS it actually shows you a ncie pretty arrow that lets you know what way you are heading. Not real rocket science to move with the mouse, and with the W walk lock it is a lot less effort than the keypads. This being said, it does not hurt if BW wants to add it to later releases as an added upgrade benefit for some people who are too challenged to work a mouse. (this is said in jest, not with venom BTW)

[farvardin]

the mouse movements are already well managed, especially with the walk-lock feature, but I think keyboard movements would be a nice addition, especially for more precision when walking close to traps.

[Spooky]

fwiw, lack of keyboard is pretty much a show-stopper for me. The game looks fun, but not worth carpal symptoms from excessive mousing.

[acoustibop]

As far as the mouse is concerned, I find it best to keep the cursor fairly close to the player for accurate control (there are some games where the further the mouse is from the player, the faster you move, so it's always a temptation!) so it doesn't need a large movement to change direction. But I agree, it would be nice to have keyboard control.

[BasiliskWrangler]

fwiw, lack of keyboard is pretty much a show-stopper for me. The game looks fun, but not worth carpal symptoms from excessive mousing.

Using walk-lock to steer your character with the mouse and keyboard shortcuts for all other actions, playing this game is about as strenuous as blinking your eyes.

[Leej]

I'm not a big fan of the mouse movement control myself, but it is manageable and (imho) not a significant enough issue not to play the game. The time when I found the mouse movement objectionable is when you get within a couple of tiles from a door or other interactive object. The pointer often highlights the door instead of moving your character towards the door, and I found myself often muttering "Yes, you idiotic game, I realize that it is a heavy wooden door. I just want to open the flipping thing!"
Made me wish for some version of Click 'n' Go navigation. Click on the door and your character walks to the door. Travel paths would be stopped for spot hidden skill or a critter coming into line of sight or whatever.

[thurauh1]

I'm currently playing the demo and think this game is really good, in fact the best rpg game since bg1+bg2

I'm not a big fan of the WASD movement, mostly since it seems to be used for most FPS games which really gives me a headache and motion sickness when playing them.

However, I don't mind if you could customize the controls (if it can be done) so you can use the mouse or the keyboard to move around. I know some people at varius sites, both rpg and adventure gaming sites, who would be vary sad indeed if Book II only had WASD movements. Some of these people are older men and women who have been gaming for a quarter of century and now have developed arthritis in their golden years or can't move the fingers as good as they good when they were younger.

That said, though, in Book I, I have often experienced difficulties in getting the mouse to do exactly as I went when I want it e.g. controlling the character or trying to open a door can be somewhat hard work. Hopefully, this get fixed in Book II...