Tank turret & gun control

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

Whilst watching one of the tank gameplay presentation videos I noticed that the presenter was using the mouse to control both the traverse of the turret and the elevation of the gun, like in so many arcade games.

Now PLEASE I beg you, don't let this be the way it is controlled ingame, that would simply ruin the realism of tank control, and you'll see tank turrets spinning around insanely like in CoD, OFP etc etc..

The old way of using the keyboard controls for turret traverse and gun elevation is by far the most realistic, and feels as "clunky" as real life gun laying.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

I think there was a discussion about this quite awhile ago, but where... I can't remember.

I will be happy as long as I can go into my .ini and change the controls to keyboard. I can see why TWI are going the mouse route, but I never liked it in other games and prefer the way ROOST does it now.

My opinion: using a mouse to aim a personal firearm seems natural. Somehow using it to aim the main gun on a tank seems wrong and awkward and the keyboard feels more like I am actually in there mechanically doing it.

 

[WiFiDi]

Whilst watching one of the tank gameplay presentation videos I noticed that the presenter was using the mouse to control both the traverse of the turret and the elevation of the gun, like in so many arcade games.

Now PLEASE I beg you, don't let this be the way it is controlled ingame, that would simply ruin the realism of tank control, and you'll see tank turrets spinning around insanely like in CoD, OFP etc etc..

The old way of using the keyboard controls for turret traverse and gun elevation is by far the most realistic, and feels as "clunky" as real life gun laying.

this can be fixed easily without changing the mouse. you see im guessing the turret will move at a fixed rate this makes it slow no matter what. you can easilly make a turret feel clunky with a mouse its just an imput device. also why is gonna be like that your jumping to conclustions. this was added this way for solo tanking how you gonna move the tank from commanders slot. with your mouse i don't think so.

 

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

It's just the wrong way of doing it if you ask me. The keyboard controls should always be the standard, whilst mouse control shouldn't even be possible, esp. since it will be too easy and just look plain wrong - looked weird in the presentation video as-well. So I'm hoping it was there just to make life easier for the presenter, and that it's not part of the final game mechanics.

If moving the turret & gun around becomes like it is in Operation Flashpoint then it will absolutely kill a large part of the tanking experience for me.

 

[Dietrich Graf]

I hate when you have to use the mouse to traverse a turret. You sit there moving that mouse right to left or left to right multiple times just to get it to move at least 10 or 20 degrees.

But I much prefer using my joystick to move the tank or traverse the tank's turret since it feels much more realistic than the right or left arrow keys do. But if I had to pick one method over the mouse, it would probably be the left or right arrow/WASD keys.

 

[jalex3]

I like wasd more to.

 

[SCandChives]

I hate when you have to use the mouse to traverse a turret. You sit there moving that mouse right to left or left to right multiple times just to get it to move at least 10 or 20 degrees.

Yea, I don't like the idea of having to use the mouse to control the gun, mainly for that reason.

 

[tofupunk]

Yeah, I hate it when games just use slowed mouse movement for turret control. It always results that characteristic choppy movement because you have to swipe your mouse to the side of the mousepad, pick it up and swipe again until you are pointed where you want.

I simply love that mechanical feeling of aiming with the WASD keys in ROOST/DH. Also, it looks a lot cooler and more authentic from the oustide when the gunner slowly turns the turret, elevates a bit and BOOM. It really contributes to the feeling of facing a big armored beast, in contrast to the spastic things from other games.

On the other hand, watching the GDC video the turret movement looks kind of good. It looks like he is moving the mouse to the side and the turret is following at top speed. If you look closely, the turret seems to move faster to the side depending on how far away from the aim the little mouse indicator is. If that is how it works, I think it would be a fair compromise. Just needs a bit of smoothing.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

I'm sure that whatever method is used to move the main gun and turret, it will be smooth from a game point of view in ROHOS, not herky-jerky like in other games.

 

[Serathis]

Maybe mouse will be disabled for hardcore realism.

 

[Mormegil]

Wasn't the turret controlled by mouse in the mod version, (almond) ROCA?

I understand the WASD will be used by default for some other actions. Hopefully for those who care, controls can be customized for that.

 

[Grobut]

Wasn't the turret controlled by mouse in the mod version, (almond) ROCA?

Yes.

I understand the WASD will be used by default for some other actions. Hopefully for those who care, controls can be customized for that.

Yeah WASD is used to order the driver around, which is probably the main reason they moved the turret controls back to the mouse.
But i hope we can bind it to the arrow keys instead, that'd work pretty well i think.

 

[jalex3]

wasd for turret, arrows for commands is how id rather make it. I don't really care whats default so long as the options there.

 

[Dwin]

I think using mouse control will be fine if it's implemented as sort of a virtual joystick, instead of having to constantly pickup and reposition your mouse in order to turn the turret.

 

[Major_Day]

wasd for turret, arrows for commands is how id rather make it. I don't really care whats default so long as the options there.

Yes +1 let us keep it that way if we want to.

 

[RiccardoTheBeAst]

In the demostration were also used AP shells to blow-off buildings....but i think that "AP" was only a placeholder

Anyway, i'm for WASD too, expecially because the turret will not move at the same speed of mouse movement and they'll go out-of-sync.

 

[Unus Offa Unus Nex]

Would love some dev feedback on this cause it's really beginning to worry me that the mouse actually might be used for the turret traverse & gun elevation in the final game = a big letdown for me.

 

[Grobut]

wasd for turret, arrows for commands is how id rather make it. I don't really care whats default so long as the options there.

I think that would confuse me, i'm so used to the left hand controlling movement and the right hand controlling the "camera", it'd be like opposite land for me. But regardless, i just hope the option is there to let us bind it as we want, so we can all make it work the way that is best for us.

That includes using the mouse, i would not like it personally, but i'm sure there are players out there who would prefer it because that's what they are used to.

But the mouse should definately work as a virtual joystick, or atleast have some kind of traverse left/right buttons, if we have to traverse by constantly lifting and resetting the mouse, it would suck, and look quite silly.

 

[LordKhaine]

I personally prefer the idea of keys too. But that said, if implemented well, a mouse will work perfectly well. And it does have the upside of keeping your hand at the mouse all the time. Which is handy for being the commander.

 

[WiFiDi]

In the demostration were also used AP shells to blow-off buildings....but i think that "AP" was only a placeholder

Anyway, i'm for WASD too, expecially because the turret will not move at the same speed of mouse movement and they'll go out-of-sync.

no it won't because there is no cursor so you can tell where the mouse is aiming.