Unplayable on PC

[norritt]

1. It is impossible for a human being (with less than 3 arms) to operate th controls
2. There is no way to rebind the keys.

Option 1 using mouse:
Okay so we move with "WASD" and dodge with SPACE. So the left hand is on the left side of the keyboard.
Right hand is on the mouse LMB attack, however RMB opens a ring menu which interrupts combat. There is no way to quick cast.

Option 2 using keyboard only:
Again left hand moves and dodges "WASD", "SPACE"
Now instead of using the mouse I can quick cast on the num pad wich means my right hand is way on the right side of the keyboard.
Now some genius decided to put attack on "K" - *seriously*, "K"? How the hell is a player supposed to press "k" when the left hand is used for "WASD" movement and the right hand is on the num pad. What were you thinking? Has anyone of the devs ever playtested with mouse/keyboard at all?

[khamsun]

I had no problem playing with option 1. Not sure what your issue with the ring menu is.

[norritt]

As I stated above it interrupts combat. If you opt for the num pad quick cast option you can not use mouse.

[norritt]

The obvious solution to is *provide keybinding options.

As a temporary workaround till that is implemented:
1. Assign the shoulder button functions to "Q" and "E"
2. Use the "Enter" key for attack.

[The Gentlebros]

Originally posted by norritt:

1. It is impossible for a human being (with less than 3 arms) to operate th controls
2. There is no way to rebind the keys.

Option 1 using mouse:
Okay so we move with "WASD" and dodge with SPACE. So the left hand is on the left side of the keyboard.
Right hand is on the mouse LMB attack, however RMB opens a ring menu which interrupts combat. There is no way to quick cast.

Option 2 using keyboard only:
Again left hand moves and dodges "WASD", "SPACE"
Now instead of using the mouse I can quick cast on the num pad wich means my right hand is way on the right side of the keyboard.
Now some genius decided to put attack on "K" - *seriously*, "K"? How the hell is a player supposed to press "k" when the left hand is used for "WASD" movement and the right hand is on the num pad. What were you thinking? Has anyone of the devs ever playtested with mouse/keyboard at all?

For option 1, you can also use the hotkeys 1,2,3,4(just above the WASD) to cast spells as well.
RMB is for people who want a more tactical approach as the game pauses letting you consider which spell to cast. As mentioned above, you can quick cast with 1,2,3,4(the one just above the WASD)

For option2, the game was not designed primarily with just keyboard in mind, but we have added in functionality for people who game on laptops and don't quite have access to a mouse.
Your left hand is on WASD and Space, that is correct. And as mentioned above, pressing 1,2,3,4(which is just above the WASD), will quick cast your spells.

Your right hand, therefore, is on 'K'. That's all.

[norritt]

Thanks for you comment on this. Let me make a case here from the standpoint of a PC gamer.

1. Regarding option 2.
While quick casting using the "regular" number keys makes Cat Quest less unplayable my general argument still stands.

The left hand controls: W, A, S, D, Space, 1, 2, 3, 4 (=9 keys)
The right hand controls: "K" (=1 keys)

This is a grand total of 10 keys to control which conveniently matches the total number of fingers on human hands. However 9 keys are controlled with 5 fingers on the left hand and one key is controlled with 5 fingers on the right hand. As a result using the current quick cast feature diminshes my ability to move and evade, since I have to swap fingers between movement and quick cast. A way more balanced scheme would be

The left hand controls: W, A, S, D, Space (5 keys for the left hand)
The right hand controls: NUM 1, NUM 2, NUM 3, NUM 3 (quick cast) and ("0" or "Enter) for attack (5 keys fpr the right hand)

2. You released Cat Quest on Steam.
Steam is a plattform for PC Gamers. The native way to control games on PC is to use keyboard an mouse. While some PC Gamers do own an additional controller, not every PC gamer does. I'd go as far as to say most of the PC Gamers dont. However every PC gamer does own a keyboard. Controls are a core feature of gameplay. If you choose to port your game on a plattform it is mandatory to support the predominant control scheme. Would you release an iOS game where you would need to control the main character via WASD on the on screen keyboard ?

3. This whole, admittedly lengthy discussion, would be moot if you'd feature customizable keybindings.
I don't remember a single PC game that did not allow to customize keybindings. There might have been some that didn't feature an in game menu for it but there was at least a configuration file to edit bindings. This includes games that are 15+ years old.

4. The price of the PC version is almost 3 times the price of the mobile version.
Yet you deliver a halfhearted mobile game port, don't even bother to adapt the control scheme to the PC plattform but charge a premium price. Sorry but this is a slap in the face of PC gamers.

That being said I'm pretty sure that this is not a result of bad intentions on your side, but this is how your product comes across to a (core) PC gamer. If you port a game to another plattform, especially if you charge premium price, please don't be lazy and implement appropriate controls.

[The Gentlebros]

Hey Norritt, we thank you for your feedback, and we will most certainly take this criticism into all our future projects. :)

Just to address some of the concerns you voiced out, and explain why we did some of these things:
The control setup for KBM we came up with was a scheme that would at least fit 100% of PC users(did you know that some keyboards don't come with NUM pads?). So we were limited to just the left side of most keyboards, and of course, the mouse.
As mentioned previously, our ideal way(and how the game teaches you to play) is to use both the KB and the mouse in tandem. The primary way to cast spells is to use the magic circle(mouse right-click), but since the keyboard offered more buttons for users, we added in the option to quick cast magic as well(1,2,3,4 above the WASD).
The Option 2 you mentioned, was in fact, not even in the game when it first launched. It was only added in after people requested it. It wasn't how we meant the game to be played by most people, but we wanted ppl w/o a mouse to still be able to control the basic functions of the game.

And yes, we agree that having customization controls would have solved most of this, and believe me when I say this; we also wished we could do it!
What most people don't realize about game development is that a lot of things have to be planned from the beginning, or else its very difficult to implement later on.
Call it a lack of foresight or understanding of the PC market(this is our first PC game after all), we had failed to plan for control customization.
So to add in such a functionality would cause us to more or less to rebuild key features and systems for our game(or at least that's how our programmer explained it to me at the time).
In the end, we opted to hard-code any potential control scheme people would want, and quickly release updates(which is the result of the current control scheme, so if you're unhappy with it, it was actually a community effort! XD)

That being said, we're not trying to make any excuses, and I hope this can be the end of this debate(we at least, wanted to reply you since you put in so much effort in writing the feedback for us).
We're sad to see that we come off as 'lazy developers' especially since we worked ourselves to the bone trying to get the game out(the PC version actually came out first, it wasn't a port as most people seem to think). Compared to the mobile version, we really changed a lot and added so many new things we thought PC gamers would enjoy.
A good example, funnily enough, is the controls. On mobile, the game is point and click....and the lazy thing to do would have been to just use that same control scheme for PC right? But nope, we knew PC gamers would prefer to use WASD to move around, so we built a whole new set of controls and mechanics just for PC to make use of the KBM(rolling is not available on mobile). Furthermore, we also integrated gamepad support as we thought a lot of PC gamers would like that too. This is not even mentioning a lot of the other QOL stuff we did like SFX/BGM sliders, resolution options etc.(All of which are only on PC).

Just to wrap things up, we're really appreciative for your feedback as this will definitely help us make better games in the future. Also we hope some of the things here have helped explain why we did certain things.

We wish you a great day ahead, and happy gaming! :)

[The Geeky Gimp]

I came here to ask about keybindings as well. I was loving Cat Quest, but am now having trouble playing because of the controls and the complexity/high damage of the enemies. I am a disabled PC gamer, so the ability to rebind keys is extremely important in whether or not I can play the game at all. I would have honestly prefered the point-and-click style over unremappable keys. Thankfully, I have the new Xbox Adaptive Controller and will set that up so I can play this again. But folks shouldn't have to buy extra equipment to play the game. I understand what's done is done, but I ask that you consider accessibility when making Cat Quest II. Thanks!

[ed]

I think a general rule of PC development is that if you don't allow key rebinding someone will complain. The funny thing is that there are lots of ways to remap keys. On the Mac I use Keyboard Maestro, if I'm playing Cat Quest it turns every F I type into a K, so my attack key is now F. Back in the dark ages when I used Windows the macro software that came with my keyboard solved the problem. If you want to do something really complicated under Windows AutoHotKey is free and open source, but you'll spend a lot of time reading the instructions.

The nice thing about moving K is that now I can play with my left hand and my right hand is free to pet my cat :)

[NekoiNemo]

Almost beat the game. On kb+m and have no issues. You can quckcast with numbers, if oyu want. But casting through menu is just as efficient seeing how menu reacts immediately upon button being pressed so you can technically instacast with it by flicking mouse in the direction of spell you want as soon as you press RMB.

Though i agree that not allowing to rebind keys is BS.

[klorehore]

I was upset with not being able to rebind as I got started, but the default keybinds worked just fine after getting used to it. I never used rmb though. I just now finished the game 100% on my first playthrough, and had a great time doing so. A vacation day well spent ;)

[Frapadingue]

please add keyboard mapping options, not all the world play on qwerty keyboards, in Europe it's mainly azerty

[fhenri94]

it is playable on pc and easy to use on my opinion.
Even if the right click pause the game, if you know wich spell you want, you can choose it fast and you wont even realize the game paused.

[Pathogenic]

It is very playable on the PC. I use a wireles Xbox 360 gamepad though...

A gamepad is the only way to go for this game.

[pollylee]

Sorry if this has been answered but I am unable to fly...I have got the the point of being able but no key on my laptop alows me to. somebody said it is 7 but that did not work.

Any help will be very much appreicated. Thanks

[The Gentlebros]

Originally posted by pollylee:

Sorry if this has been answered but I am unable to fly...I have got the the point of being able but no key on my laptop alows me to. somebody said it is 7 but that did not work.

Any help will be very much appreicated. Thanks

The icon to fly should be on the top left of the screen. The button to press is on the icon as well. If I am not wrong, it should be 'F' if you're using a keyboard!