Basic controls are not explained

[CoLS Firestar]

Started up a new game since the last time I played this was over a year ago and I fell through the world. Maybe it is better?

A helpful tutorial popped up. Cool.
Following the tutorial, I gathered sticks, made myself a workbench and shelter.

Bu how to place it? F1 didn't summon that help menu that greeted me at the beginning of the game... Went to look in key controls, can't find "place opbject". Finally I found it in my journal. The answer is a long right click that isn't anywhere in the controls section. This is not at all intuitive but so long as you tell me what to do, that's fine. I would really prefer a keyclick somewhere but whatever.

So I build myself a shelter and a furnace and was able to place it down but the furnace kept insisting that it has no fuel.

I tried everything to open some sort of interaction to it.
I held logs in my hand, tried clicking on the furnace. Nothing.
I held sticks in my hand in my hand, tried clicking on the furnace. Nothing.
I held lumber in my hand, tried clicking on the furnace. Nothing.

Tried right clicking, tried left clicking, tried F, E and Enter. Nothing.

Went back to the setting command. Maybe I missed something. Nope. Nothing says "open" Getting increasingly furstrated, I opened creative only to be met with the same sort of forever fighting the controls.

I managed to place a platform of dirt by selecting it (there were helpful commands on screen all about how to select it! But again, nothing on how to place it. I eventually figured out that this was right click.
I didn't want a platform of dirt, so I used "remove" to try to get rid of it.

I selected it just as I had when I made it. Except when i right clicked nothing happened. Nothing got removed. I tried using the block only removal tool, I tried using the "all" removal tool but right click won't work. Neither will F, Enter or left click. I'm jsut stuck with this platform forever because there is nothing that tells me what to do when I've finished my selection.

Okay maybe removing is the wrong way to do it, so I tried to place something else on top of it. Maybe a nice stone structure? Except there's no way to select anything onther than dirt and again, there's nothing in the controls section that tells me how to select anything other than dirt.

I'm starting to get hungry at this point, so I equpped some strawberries. Left click did nothing, right click did nothing, F and E did nothing. So I'm done.
I'm done trying to fight your game and it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ controls that aren't explained anywhere. I'm sure there's plenty of current players that think this is all intuitive and easy but I wonder how many players you've lost to an experience like mine where there's no keybinding for whatever simple thing it is that we're trying to do.

[Avanar]

First of all - i feel with you. The help section needs to be updated and improved. Though for now that would be a waste of time for the dev as the game is changing too much at the moment.

The answers to all your questions can be found either ingame, on the forum on steam / official or simply by try and error.

i have never really used the journal, neither the F1-key. So for me it was intuitive, even though many tricks i found out either by coincidence or by reading up on forums.


your issue with the furnace... about this one i am 100% sure you find something in the journal. there should be even a drawing pointing out where to fill it. that means on the right side of the furnace is a small "hole/door". The primitive funrace has only this hole - the more advanced ones have a door that needs to be opened with "F".

You fill it by right clicking on the hole/door (an icon will appear when your cursor is at the correct position). Hold the coal or wood in your hand for that. Coal is recommended but wood works fine as well.


ABout the platform - thats creative mode. its mostly try and error, though mostly selfexplaining.

F7 is delete it think (its been a while since i tried it). You will see on the uppoer right corner of your screen several options, that can be selected via your keys. It is written for which type of item the delete option will be applied (plants/trees, blocks, structures i.e. planks/beams, objects like table, chair, etc. or everything).

Hit the "DEL" key to delete after selecting the area.


Really, just try around a bit. it is not so difficutl. You already know the primary keys (left/right clisk, F, ctrl, ctrl right,enter, G, L and the F-keys + number keys).

You also know that sometimes holding a key for longer or short time makes a difference.

Try fiddling around with this a bit.

The game is in early access and the dev is constantly changing and improving this game. To invest time in a help-section that has to be reworked over and over again makes no sense at this point.

Good luck with your future tries and have fun :)

[Avanar]

update: eating = have food equipped in your hotbar, hold right mouse click and the eating animation will start

[Avanar]

update nr. 2: see - here it is shown where to fuel the furnace

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/915798053706918937/C57274A504106171ABC9F51658BC4E6A323F950C/

[Princess Goddammit]

This set of videos will help you get on your feet in the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dSXyfrxQMQ&list=PLHAVnZK-nqj2pcdy7Opet2b_nIW-jhpsE

When placing items like workbenches, press the right mouse button. Most benches, and stations can be picked up and reused elsewhere (except for the furnace, which can only be destroyed.).You can also use the right and left arrow keyst to rotate the bench.

As for the furnace, locate the large door on the side. Place your cursor over it, and it will turn into a square. When it does, press the "F" key. The door will open. With a chunk of coal or piece of lumber in your hand, hover it over the open door. You will see a ghost of the coal or lumber appear in the doorway. When it does, press the RIGHT mouse button. The counter will show how much fuel is remaining in the smelter.



But yes, this game needs an in-depth tutorial.

Oops, looks like someone beat me to it. If nothing else, check out those videos. They may help. An if you have any questions, just ask.

[Problem Solver]

Tutorial may be great. But remember back when all the games came with a 50 page instruction guide with it. Be honest now. How many of us actually read the guide. We would jump right into the game and experiment with everything. Only when we got stuck or beat down really bad would we consult the manual.

[red51]

I'm sorry to hear that you had trouble with the controls =/

If the default key bindings don't fit your preferences, it's recommendable to change the controls in the game settings (in the game menu hit the "Settings" button, then "Controls"). This is also helpful to get an overview of the current controls in the game.

Basically there are three different interaction keys in this game: Left mouse button, right mouse button and F (on your keyboard). The left and right mouse buttons are always related to the item you're currently holding in your hands.

The left mouse button is usually the "primary action button" for your current item, i.e. when holding a axe in your hands, you can hold the left mouse button to cut down a tree, for example.
The right mouse button is usually considered as "secondary action button" for the current item, e.g. if it's a block item, it places the block in the world, or if it's a food item, you can consume it by holding this button.
Please keep in mind that in most cases you have to hold the mouse buttons to perform a certain action. E.g. if you want to eat your strawberries, hold the right mouse button.

Apart from that, the F key is used for world interactions, i.e. open a door, use furnace etc. As mentioned, the F key is not related to your currently equipped item. A good indicator if you can use F or not is the crosshair: if the crosshair changes into a different icon (e.g. a hand icon, a door icon etc) this means you can use the F key to interact with this object.
Unlike the mouse buttons, you have to press the F key once to interact with an object. Holding the F key is a special action which allows you to deconstruct an object (e.g. furniture), but that's a different story ;)

The "First steps" tutorial in your journal (which is really just a very basic tutorial) usually refers to your mouse buttons with "action key", and to the F key with "interaction key".

It's also recommendable to check out the "Overview" section in the journal, it contains explanations about how to use certain objects (e.g. the furnace, grinder, paper press etc).
To use the furnace, you have to fuel it first. To do that, open the small hatch on the left side (at the bottom) by pressing the F key, then you can put some coal or lumber in it (by pressing the right mouse button while holding lumber/coal in your hands). Once the furnace is fueled, it can be turned on/off by pressing the interaction key (F) while looking at the furnace (your crosshair will turn into a small fire icon).
To load the furnace with ores, hold the ores in your hand and look at the particular slots in the furnace. Place them by pressing your secondary action button (right mouse button).

When it comes to the building part (at least if you want to build with planks & beams, so this doesn't apply to blocks, which are easier to use), things become more complicated unfortunately. But you can press F1 to bring up a small help screen (while holding the construction element in your hands), and it's also recommendable to check out the "Placement" controls key bindings.

I agree that the tutorials in the journal are still very basic, so it's still necessary to check out the controls settings to get an overview of the default key bindings. It's definitely our intention to improve this part in the future, maybe by adding a separate "interactive tutorial level" to the game, or maybe by putting more tooltips on the screen when playing the game for the first time :)

[Walter das Trevas]

Others have answered, so it is no use repeating, but If you reconfigure the key bindings in the control options, absolutely all doubts will be answered.

[CoLS Firestar]

Originally posted by thebadmotherfck:

Tutorial may be great. But remember back when all the games came with a 50 page instruction guide with it. Be honest now. How many of us actually read the guide. We would jump right into the game and experiment with everything. Only when we got stuck or beat down really bad would we consult the manual.

Actually, I did. Growing up, I couldn't wait to open the box and read the manual on the ride home. It was a lot easier to flip through a little booklet than trying to figure out where a certain feature was in when faced with a bunch of menus. Table of Contents and Index are still the best part of any book. Stuck? Just go look up a keyword and it'll tell you exactly what page to look at.

Originally posted by Princess ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

This set of videos will help you get on your feet in the game.

Are you serious? 29 minutes until he gets to "how to use a furnace"... Oh look, it's time for bed and can't play because I spent all my time listening to someone harp on about what was in old versions of the game and other crap that has no bearing on what he's doing right now...

JUST KIDDING! That video says "There's not need to fill it up with coal" so congrats on suckering me into wasting 30 minutes of my life on an outdated video.

Originally posted by red51:

I'm sorry to hear that you had trouble with the controls =/

If the default key bindings don't fit your preferences, it's recommendable to change the controls in the game settings (in the game menu hit the "Settings" button, then "Controls"). This is also helpful to get an overview of the current controls in the game.

I agree that the tutorials in the journal are still very basic, so it's still necessary to check out the controls settings to get an overview of the default key bindings. It's definitely our intention to improve this part in the future, maybe by adding a separate "interactive tutorial level" to the game, or maybe by putting more tooltips on the screen when playing the game for the first time :)

Thank you for your indepth answer. I'll see what I can do about rebinding everything so I can get a better feel for what they do. Both of those suggestions sound lovely and I can't wait to see them :)

[Jon]

One more small pointer: do what you just did - ask on the community forum. That's what I've done and countless others. The RW community is a great place to get the tips you may need or point out something you may have missed. Maybe your questions and answers will help someone else?

:-)

[Lynn]

I bought this game and played it for a while (15 hours or so) a couple of years ago--also bought it for a friend cause she wanted to build stuff and it looked amazing. (It didn't catch on for her, because she felt that it needed more work to be done.) Did some basic stuff and some building, which was fun and went well, but had some problems with placing windows :\ ...declined to study further at the time.

I recently have picked it up again. It has tons of potential, so I came back to it to check on what is going on with it. It is still in Early Access, but feels complete in many ways. (Haven't worked on building yet, but enjoying it immensely. It also converts the old saves, so I'm looking at my old buldings that I was working on!)

I'm not an adept gamer, but I figured out how to do things by fiddling with different possible options. There's various info that appears in-game, and the Journal. Sometimes you also have to look things up on the net, but the info and help is there.

Originally posted by Walter das Trevas:

Others have answered, so it is no use repeating, but If you reconfigure the key bindings in the control options, absolutely all doubts will be answered.

I would have to disagree. I don't see the "holding down" of the mouse button and F key there, which are fundamental to the mechanics, and can easily be missed with just exploring the keys.

[Walter das Trevas]

I do not want to sound aggressive, Lynn, but some things are obvious or intuitive.
However, what seems obvious and intuitive to me, does not seem obvious to others, so I can not use myself as a rule, after all, I can be the exception. ;)

[Lynn]

Originally posted by Walter das Trevas:

I do not want to sound aggressive, Lynn, but some things are obvious or intuitive.

And I don't want to sound insulting. Walter, but I'm not sure what post you are reading.

[Walter das Trevas]

Originally posted by Lynn:

Originally posted by Walter das Trevas:

I do not want to sound aggressive, Lynn, but some things are obvious or intuitive.

And I don't want to sound insulting. Walter, but I'm not sure what post you are reading.

Your post.
You disagreed with me, and I disagreed with you explaining that from the beginning I considered the commands quite intuitive, but like I said, maybe I've explored controls more than most gamers and by quickly discovering how most controls work, has seemed easy.

[Lynn]

Originally posted by Walter das Trevas:

Originally posted by Lynn:

And I don't want to sound insulting. Walter, but I'm not sure what post you are reading.

Your post.
You disagreed with me, and I disagreed with you explaining that from the beginning I considered the commands quite intuitive, but like I said, maybe I've explored controls more than most gamers and by quickly discovering how most controls work, has seemed easy.

I responded to your most recent post. It implied that all answers will be found in "reconfiguring your bindings", which is not the case.

Your edit, that "you might be an exception", sounds a bit arrogant to me. The controls are not necessarily intuitive, and the OP is a legitimae question. Also, I could be missing it....but I don't see any previous post from you that gives any context to your post.

[Problem Solver]

Hey ColsFirestar. The furnace issue: It need coal to work. Left hand side of furnace near bottom is a door. Place cursor on it and press F. Should open door. Next highlight coal on the top row and right click the open door to place coal inside. (must be coal. Not logs sticks and lumber) Eating strawberries works similiar. Make sure they on top row. Highlight them. (they be in your hand) Hold right mouse button down for 2 to 3 seconds for the eating to take effect.