Normal (rotation-independent) WASD controls would be great

[sull]

First off, I like the game so far. Will definitely give it a thumbs-up when I review it, does a lot of things well and is surprisingly polished for the price.

I've noticed that more things in this game are reliant on the player character's rotation than is common for top-down view games, namely the directional sound and the movement controls.

The "directional sound" part of this is actually really cool, it adds to the realism in a big way and sounds great in my stereo headphones.

Unfortunately, the movement feels profoundly wrong. Moving in a specific direction requires you to move your mouse to rotate your player in that direction and press w, or if you're some kind of daredevil, you could aim in a different direction (which still has to be specific for the angle you want) and simultaneously switch to a, s, or d. It feels a little bit like a flight sim, in that it sometimes takes concentration to predict what each key press will do.

In a game that demands so much from the player -- including looking around with the mouse to keep track of dozens of enemies -- these contrived, user-unfriendly controls are bad. Rotation-independant controls (ie. "W" always moves player up the screen, "A" always moves player left, regardless of where they look/aim, like in Hotline Miami) would work wonders in making the game more playable and enjoyable.

Again, good game, but it could be SO much better if the controls were changed to something more intuitive.

[swingline]

I just had first playthough and lost all reference to which direction my player was pointing and died as result. It's hard to tell by looking at screen. Came here to see if there was some discussion of controls. Didn't realize that WASD might be dependent upon direction of my mouse. Will try again.

edit: I think I'm going to have to just practice to navigate relative to the mouse pointer direction. I keep pushing "s" to go down when I should be pushing "w" when my cursor is in the downward direction. I keep running towards the robots instead of away from them.

[sull]

Originally posted by swingline:

I just had first playthough and lost all reference to which direction my player was pointing and died as result. It's hard to tell by looking at screen. Came here to see if there was some discussion of controls. Didn't realize that WASD might be dependent upon direction of my mouse. Will try again.

edit: I think I'm going to have to just practice to navigate relative to the mouse pointer direction. I keep pushing "s" to go down when I should be pushing "w" when my cursor is in the downward direction. I keep running towards the robots instead of away from them.

I was able to move semi-reliably by using the w key ("forward") almost exclusively, using the mouse to change direction but ignoring the a, s, and d keys unless I was positioning myself precisely or aiming at a robot. Maybe that could help you.

[swingline]

Originally posted by Everyone:

I was able to move semi-reliably by using the w key ("forward") almost exclusively, using the mouse to change direction but ignoring the a, s, and d keys unless I was positioning myself precisely or aiming at a robot. Maybe that could help you.

I'll try that. good idea.

[Herodotus]

As close to the mouse-driven movement of "Action Legion" by just holding down one movement key, though I prefer just mouse-driven obviously. Might be worth a look after all...

[sull]

Originally posted by Herodotus:

As close to the mouse-driven movement of "Action Legion" by just holding down one movement key, though I prefer just mouse-driven obviously. Might be worth a look after all...

I should note that the controls actually function very smoothly, it's just that they're designed in a way that I find kinda disorienting when my focus is somewhere other than the player. But if they align with what you're used to from Action Legion, then go for it!

(I've gotten sort of used to the movement controls, but still insist that they're not ideal)

[Herodotus]

Cool!