Advanced Use of Control Keys - longish

Mon Mar 03, 2003 7:31 am by LoneWolf5050

Lots of good discussion here, that's great to see.

I've been trying out some novel control schemes in the demo and I'm wondering if anyone else has been doing anything similar....

I got to thinking that, to pull off really cool moves, what you needed to be able to do in Freelancer was separate the movement and targeting controls, kind of like how the Mechwarrior games work, where you move the Mech in one direction (with keyboard/joystick), but aim in another direction (with the mouse).

By default in Freelancer, the mouse controls movement and targetting. That's what I think a lot of people believe the great "mouse interface" innovation is. But I think the greatest innovation is simply being able to interact with the HUD via the mouse. It's actually a handicap to do both movement and targetting to the mouse too.

So what to do....

I've tried changing the default control scheme so that the WASD keys turn the ship left, right and pitch up and down. (What clicking and dragging with the left mouse button normally does.) That way, I can move with the keyboard and target with the mouse. It takes some practice to get used to, that's for sure, but it seems pretty deadly in combat so far.

The "Engine Off" key (default is Z) is also pretty important if you want to do really fast turns. It lets you turn around while still heading in the direction you were going when you cut the engines. The neatest part is, as soon as you kick your engines in again, you take off in the new direction that you're now pointed in.

I would also recommend toggling autoleveling off. I think you have to assign a key to that first, since I don't think there's a default key for it.

And I would also recommend you don't fly around at top speed all the time, it's easier to aim when you're slower, but use the afterburner a lot instead if you have to approach an enemy fast.

By controlling the ship this way, it almost makes combat in Freelancer into a game of "Descent" in space. You no longer zoom around the map so much as you spin and slide.

Has anyone else been experimenting with the control scheme? Found out anything interesting?

--LW

Mon Mar 03, 2003 7:50 am by aerundel

Are you fighting people in multiplayer this way? Because I can't see you winning many fights doing this. You have better control just pointing at something instead of positioning your ship WHILE pointing at something. I'm imagining your control scheme is as good as an FPS player using the strafe keys to turn instead of strafe, which is to say I don't think it works as well as turning with the mouse.

Mon Mar 03, 2003 7:56 am by LoneWolf5050

No multi in the demo, which is all I've got.

When you use the mouse for moving and shooting then you can't shoot to the right and move to the left at the same time. You can do that with my setup. Plus, you can still move and shoot in the same direction if you wish.

So it should be some advantage.

And the normal "mouse flight" control with the mouse+left mouse button is still available regardless of what you've done to the keyboard controls.

--LW

Mon Mar 03, 2003 8:12 am by aerundel

Is that really useful though? I mean that's almost like turret view. Just burn past him at an angle while firing at him until your guns can't turn anymore (unless you're a freighter, then the carnage continues =) If you're turning away from the target and shooting it, you'll have even less time to hit the guy. I guess I'm not seeing any practicality in it...

But hey, don't let any of my comments stop you or anything. If you're comfortable with it, that's all that matters.

Edited by - Aerundel on 03-03-2003 08:19:44

Mon Mar 03, 2003 1:23 pm by LoneWolf5050

A major difference between this and turret view is that in turret view you can't steer your ship, which is a bit of a disadvantage to turret view.

I kept running into a problem where I'd be moving the mouse way off in one direction to steer the ship where it needed to be, but the guy I was shooting at was not necessarily underneath where the mouse cursor was pointing while I was steering. So by steering via the keyboard and shooting with the mouse, you can get more precision in your aim.

The ship AI in the demo does seem to be a little "slow" though. I'm interested to see how combat works with opponents who can think! : )

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about the strafing, I'm talking about using the keyboard to turn and pitch the ship.

--LW

Mon Mar 03, 2003 1:55 pm by Godlike Entity

this is how my controls are set up:

w is afterburner
s is reverse thrust (use this to kill ur speed and turn fast)
a & d are strafe left and right respecitvely

everything else is default, reverse thrusting to go into turns is almost as fast as powerslide turns and the acceleration is easier to get back up to full speed (you can use ur afterburner anyway)

_____________________________
Peace through superior firepower.

Mon Mar 03, 2003 2:13 pm by AndyB

Bind it to ur mouse!

Easy when you have cruise and stuff. Get an MX700 and you have loads of buttons to configure

Scroll wheel is default set to ur speed btw.

Mon Mar 03, 2003 2:47 pm by StarGod

actually, i use the thrustmaster tactical board for almost all of my commands. I find it to be incredibly useful.saves a lot of hunting and pecking on the keyboard.

The infinite reaches of space are my home. And you'r trespassing.

Mon Mar 03, 2003 3:56 pm by Deviant

First off, note turning w/ the mouse doesn't turn at the speed at which you move the mouse... it turns dependant on how far the cursor is from center, meaning it is NOT like a FPS... turning w/ the keyboard is as fast as the mouse.

I've tried this config myself thinking the same thing... you can't really aim in one direction while flying in another in FL... not without sacrificing movement control. I still might try getting used to it, but I've never been good at flying w/ the keyboard. I think this method could be deadly though... SP or MP. This way, you can easily and simultaneously evade incoming fire while still accurately targetting and unloading on enemies. It's perfect for when you have one of those moments where 3-4 enemies are bearing down on you when you make initial contact... you can just step out of the path of fire, and shoot into the swarm of them. IF you can get used to flying this way, I would totally go that way w/ it. I mean, THIS is a true "move in one direction; fire in another" interface. By default, the only way to do that in FL is to surrender flight control.

For button assignments, I did the same thing I always do... I use the Numpad as my center of operations, and surrounding keys for supplemental control. This is how I have it now, but I may change if I decide to use the keyboard for flight controls.

Num8: afterburn
Num2: Reverse Thrust
Num5: Engine kill
Num/: Cruise
Num4&6: Strafe
Num7&9: Nanobots & Shield Batteries
NumEnter: (reconfigure as appropriate) Missiles, torps, or mines
Num+: Alt. Missiles, torps, or mines
Mouse3: Tractor beam all
Mouse4: Scan (I'll probably change that to missiles
Mousewheel push: Toggle Mouseflight
NumDel: Countermeasures

ArrowUp: Goto
ArrowDown: Dock
ArrowRight: Formation

PageDown: Target Nearest Enemy
End: Turret View (as if I'll use it)

That's all I can remember right now.

Edited by - Deviant on 03-03-2003 16:00:06

Mon Mar 03, 2003 4:49 pm by foolhardy

My controls are a little wackey coming from the FPS world, but this is how I operate. For one, I dont like moving my hand all over the keyboard to do simple mundane tasks, so usually I'll assign something to the same key but combine it with shift or alt. Like so:

Shift - E = Cruise
Shift - D = Afterburners
Shift - A = Freeflight
Shift - S = Goto
Shift - F = Dock
Shift - G = Fly in formation

Most of those same buttons:

E = Throttle
D = Reverse
S = Strafe left
F = Strafe right
A = Shield repair
G = Nanobot

Weapons:

Q = Torpedos
W = Missles
R = Mines
T = CM

Most of these settings are subject to change as I'm still finding the best solution.

Tue Mar 04, 2003 3:46 am by sellout

I've been using the WASD for pitch and turn just as you mentioned. I actually had intended on doing that since the first time I read that FL would use mouse and keyboard hehe. Against the AI its very effective, especially in third person where it is easier to see where you are being attacked from and evade accordingly. I'm hoping this particular control scheme will be useful for the Banshee in MP which I hope to use as my primary ship. If you noticed in the demo, its pretty hard to hit light fighters until they bull rush you... I've found that I can dodge shots pretty well and still keep a steady beat on the target, but I tend to fire in long sustained bursts of 3 to 7 shots. This allows for what I call clutch aiming between manuevers and allows you time to think instead of just aiming.

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