UX Update: Designing Game Controls

Greetings Soldiers,

A game is all about interaction. You remember all these cut scenes some old games threw at you? That’s not going to happen with the new Call. We want you into the action, and we’re going to make it good. Currently we’re working on designing the basic controls. To design the controls we are looking at the modern gaming standards. The use of mouse and keyboard will be our main focus.

As in most games the left hand will be on the left of the keyboard. The hotkeys that need to be easy accessible are centred mainly around the ‘W’ button, directly under the player’s left hand. The number buttons are used to select individual soldiers and the alphabetic keys are used for commands whereby timing is critical. The ‘Q’ button is the shortcut for throwing grenades, a key feature. Further away lie hotkeys whereby timing is less essential. We have to thoroughly test this key layout to see whether or not it works for the game. One thing to keep in mind is that the keys will be fully rebindable so you can always use your personal preferred layout.

As with most games, the right hand rests on the mouse while playing. We’ll be developing for the most common two button mouse, which features a third scroll wheel button. Like with the keyboard, additional mouse buttons can be bound to the desired commands for optimal flexibility. The use of the mouse will be the most familiar to RTS players. Left-clicks are mainly for selecting while right-clicks are used for interaction. The scroll wheel is for used for controlling the game camera.

We however do have a very special feature planned for the golden release. We want to implement a control wheel for advanced mouse control. The control wheel is a context-menu positioned around the cursor. Pressing and holding control will summon the menu and directional movement indicates the desired option. The control wheel is still being designed. The subject will be covered in-depth in a future update. We’ll keep you posted!

Comments

InValid's picture

Im glad they we be rebindable, depending of the importance of each command people may well want to move the nade and run key to q and w
Degeling's picture

Wazzup Mr Invalid!
Degeling's picture

I've been hiding under a rock, like a real communist!
Ryan's picture

The ping dynamic is pretty much as imagined and seems a pretty obvious and solid choice imo.

Some inane questions:

Will there be a hotkey to select more than one soldier for a specific command? e.g. shift+(1,2,3,4) then c?
How will actions work? Will I have an option to disregard mouse click and just autocast on my cursor? Likewise the inverse.
Will it be possible to have binding settings sync'd to an account rather than saved on their machine?
How will camera reset work? Will it reset to the midpoint of your guys?
As ridiculous as it sounds I hadn't even considered a reload dynamic, seems interesting - will there be any kind of notification?
MartinH's picture

Good, I like questions, especially insane ones.

Yes, there will be the option to select mutiple soldiers in order to execute multiple identical commands. Using the mouse selection box or by holding control while pushing the number keys. "Autocast" can be enabled in the options menu, it is turned off by default for new players. I'm not sure if the keybinds can be saved into the player's account. It doesn't sound like too big an issue. I'll ask Florian. Camera reset will reset the height and angle ofthe camera to its default position. Using the number key of the currently selected soldier will focus the camera on the soldier. The reload mechanic is something we still have to decide upon, I'd put it in, just in case. Any other questions?
Ryan's picture

Appreciate the reply!


No other questions to be honest, though I'm really interested by the concept of the reload dynamic - kind of adds another layer to the gameplay and raises the skill ceiling. Hopefully it doesn't prove too tedious in testing.
Florian's picture

A quick reply with regard to binding hotkey mapping to the account rather than the PC:

This is something we did not consider! But an excellent idea. I've added it to the specifications and we'll see what we can do. In fact, many of the user settings should be stored in the user profile rather than on the PC.

Thanks for the idea! :)
Ryan's picture

Appreciate it. It's a small quality of life thing, but I know I've been frustrated quite a few times when I've had to reinstall a game and found that my bindings had been reset. C'est la vie until now.

Another that I felt was a bit daft to ask was the possibility of multiple binding sets. The premise being that different classes may control differently enough to warrant a significant change in binding layouts. I mean, just comparing the sniper class to the riflemen class makes me believe I could condense the whole thing down into a much more comfortable layout.

Remains to be seen whether it would prove beneficial though, I suppose that's what you could only really find out through play testing rather than hypothesising.

Cheers.
Erik's picture

Hey all. I just put a new poll online. Results of last poll: Old school hard leash: 49%. Limited flexible leash: 33%. Extended flexible leash: 4%. No leash: 13%. Thanks for voting! Seems that a large majority prefers somewhat of a leash. So do we ;) Food for testing of course!
fortyoz's picture

I thought this was gonna be a nicer upgraded version of coc. This focus on shooting, whats it gonna be a snipe fest thats it? Nade battles made the old game, this setup seems way off, with nothing to represent the old game. And whats up with the game telling you where the best cover is? Your supposed to have to learn that. Thanks for all the hard work but, I just dont see this being anything like the game we were all addicted to.
Erik's picture

Hello forty.. :) Where have we said that there is a focus on shooting instead of nading? Martin even talks about nading/the nading hotkey as a key feature. I dont remember saying that the game tells a player where the best cover is either. In the old game the various cover types supplied different amounts of cover; did you know this? I didnt. This will be the same in the new version, but now a player will get somesort of indication of this instead of not having a clue... Have you been drinking again? :P

Colethemole69's picture

Erik just handed out a BURN! :D
fortyoz's picture

In the above keys there is no mention of nading. Aswell obviously cover in the old game varied. You dont sit there and have the game tell people ooo this is 80 percent cover or 20 percent cover you learn it! As far as nading goes I know you always wanted a all hotkeys game I dont sorry!!!!!
Colethemole69's picture

Ahhh dont get all grouchy about it...never seen the oh burn! twitter account I take it. It was a classic burn. hahahaha
Erik's picture

Forty, my previous reply was a bit harsh perhaps, my apologies ;)
'Q' will be the hotkey for nading (HK's are fully customizable though). Lets not forget that next to the hotkeys, players will be able to interact with the map (using their mouse). This will replace the 'old' button panel. We talk to a lot of people who have never played CoC, the button panel is quite an outdated feature apparently. Modern gaming standards: view as much of the map as possible. Also informing players about certain cover types seems a very logical choice in the modern gaming world. But lets not forget, ALL features will need to be tested. Results of testing can aid us in choosing to implement certain features or not. I hope that you all will help test the game :) Lastly I would just like to stress that CoC will remain CoC.
InValid's picture

so just to be clear on this, i can use the right click on my mouse to move solider...
:D
Thank you jesus
vadimim321's picture

keep doing great jod
WarBoss's picture

Its looking good...
I am already loving this game...

Hurry up guys, i wanna play :-)
Mrdood92's picture

This seems like a good set-up but people love to customize. So make sure that is a thing! =)
GameMation's picture

Just found this. Really cool, might take a while to adjust.. unforunantly on a mac you know have a page up and down button. Would we be allowed to change our own controls?