Issues backpedalling with the slow vehicles

[Nacery]

Whooops I erroneously deleted my previous post regarding this issue with the Kilgore. I think I found out why driving backwards with the Kilgore doesn't seems as good with other tanks when the option reversing with absolute is turned on maybe is because how slow it is.

For example in the middle of a combat trying to drive backwards with the Kilgore will often result with the tank turning all into the other direction exposing its back to the enemy, this doesn't happens with the Prowler because of it's fast turning speed. This issue happens with other slow vehicles including Mechs.

[Desiire]

Do you mean when you try to back up, the vehicle insists on turning to face the direction it wants to move instead of just backing up?

I've been noticing that off-and-on with everything short of the agravs (obviously). It seems like most of the time the mechs/tanks want to face the direction they are moving instead of simply reversing which I guess makes sense because it's faster to accelerate forwards than drive backwards, but that's the whole reason we have the E key/"align vehicle with mouse cursor" button right?

[Nacery]

Not exactly, for example with Screen Absolute controls and reverse absolute turned on take the Moongose or the Kilgore, now just push up and the vehicle will go up as intended, now; if you push down the vehicle will reverse but if you push any direction while reversing (for maneuvering backwards) BAM the vehicle will just turn all the way around exposing it's backwards.

[MagneticJerk]

Problem is, how do you differentiate between a player wanting to turn 180 degrees and a player wanting to reverse with absolute controls, without having to introduce another button specifically for turning?

[Nacery]

Yeah, that's exactly why I think Tank controls work the best for Tanks and Mechs with screen relative would be the best for Agravs, unless the game could differentiate this. A workaround would be double tapping the direction to confirm a full turn into that direction but it would only be useful for certain movements and could introduce other issues that would require a full control rework.

[Boss Tweed]

Hey Nacery, you can actually tune when you vehicle will go backwards with an in-game variable. It'll take you a few minutes to navigate the debug, but I'm sure it'll be worth it for you as it'll allow you to tune the movement parameters for any vehicle you're piloting.

Use this guide to get started, will teach you the basic for navigating the debug menu:
http://imgur.com/a/ElgMV

Then what you need to do is load into any level with the vehicle you want to modify (in this case the Kilgore), hit F1 and go to the |Mech debug| tab. From there right-click on the 'mech' prompt, which for the Kilgore will be: 'assets/data/units/player/loy_tank_10.json' -- this will open a new menu in the |Data editor| tab -- then right-click the first entry on the right side menu labeled 'leg:', which for the Kilgore will be: 'assets/data/lowers/player/loy_tank_10_lo.json'.

You're now looking at the movement data for the Kilgore. Open the toggle for 'Vehicle data', and you'll see a bunch of elements related to movement, most of which should be self-explanatory like 'max_forward_speed'. For determining when your vehicle reverses though, the item you want is 'forward_pref_ratio', 13th down on the list. For Screen Absolute controls on non-agrav units, we have to use an element of the pathfinding AI to determine when the player should reverse or turn their vehicle and go forward instead; it's an agglomeration of several different variables including forward and reverse max speed, acceleration, min and max turn speed, and current vehicle velocity. The end result is that we added the 'forward_pref_ratio' variable as a direct way to modify that formula without changing any of the vehicle's handling characteristics, which I'll break down here:

forward_pref_ratio > 1.0 — vehicle is less likely to use reverse
forward_pref_ratio = 1.0 — no effect, pathing AI uses only the vehicle's handling
forward_pref_ratio < 1.0 — vehicle is more likely to use reverse
forward_pref_ratio = 0 — vehicle only moves in reverse

The exact numbers for the forward_pref_ratio to set different angles vary based on the vehicle's movement stats, but I've made a diagram specifically for the Kilgore to give you an idea:
http://i.imgur.com/7B1vdoT.png

In your case, I think you'll want something around 0.75-0.9

Hope this solves it for you!

[Nacery]

OMG yeah now feels sooo much better, didn't knew that the game allowed so much tweaking! Just a question, does this change saves or do I have to input everytime the game is launched?

[MagneticJerk]

It will save the changes if you hit the red save button on the top right. Otherwise it will revert to the defaults on restart.

[Boss Tweed]

You should write down your preferred settings though, as any update to the game that touches that game data (I actually tweaked the Kilgore's default pref_ratio after our conversation) will override it so you'll have to redo your changes when that happens. In this case the next update will have my FPR tweak for the Kilgore so you will need to redo yours for that vehicle after the next patch. Otherwise though it stays.

Glad I could help!

[Ratha Wynter]

Is there a chance in the future of being able to set per-vehicle movement schemes via that vehicle's customization menu?

I found that with any of the slower turning vehicles, specifically tanks, that i preferred using forward = move forward left/right = turn left/right. Where as with the mechs i tended to prefer directional movement to equate to the mech turning to move into the direction of the keys being pressed. If memory serves all tanks and mechs are handled by the same global scheme so i was constantly switching back and forth between control schemes. Having more global categories or a 'remember this preference for this specific vehicle' would be really nice. If maybe a bit of a mess to try and implement cleanly.

Sometimes movement preference also depends on the weapon loadout too, so being able to quickly change movement schemes for a vehicle would be kinda nice. (Part of the pause menu instead of buried in the options menu perhaps?)

[Boss Tweed]

If something like this were easier to implement I'd consider it, but given how small a team we are and how large a backlog of work we still have on the game I can go ahead and tell you this just isn't something we're going to do, sorry.

[Boss Tweed]

This issue has now been addressed.