Do I need a dedicated number-pad to play this version of the game?

[Shogun]

I played the old one over ten years ago, and you were basically in for frustration if you didn't have one (I know ten-keyless keyboards have a toggle where certain portion of the keyboard can turn into a numberpad, but it's just dreadful).

So the only thing I'm wondering, does this version of the game allow for basic WASD intuitive control along with a mouse (since I see mouse support has also been added somehow miraculously).

I really don't want to buy a keypad, as I am a Topre Keyboard user, and all other switches are just awful for me. And a proper Topre num-pad is just in a weird situation where no one knows if these are being produced anymore, thus actual units go for more than whole keyboards at times..

One other thing - I heard this game has somehow (even though Tarn said long ago, it's not happening due to the monotonous task it would be) has multi-threading support. Thus FPS death isn't really a thing anymore especially if you have high core count, high frequency CPU's. Is this actually true? Because again, if so, it feels like a miracle in the same way this supposed mouse control feature seems to be.

Thank you for your help everyone.

[amade]

Re numpad: I don't think I've ever touched it in the Steam version, except maybe to search something by stockpile number, which seems to have been disabled/broke a few updates ago for some reason. What with using the mouse, switching between it and using the numpad would be quite the hassle (YMMV). I'm not sure if anything's even binded to them as I've never checked. View panning and moving keyboard cursor (if enabled) in current version is done via WASD.

Re FPS death: https://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180561.msg8451117#msg8451117

Re multithreading (couldn't find the original source, this is the best I can get): https://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=183206.msg8580989#msg8580989

FWIW, and this is purely anecdotal, enabling multithreading on my 400+ pop fortress increased my dismal 8 FPS to 12 FPS. While still slow, it's a massive improvement (like going from a bumper-to-bumper traffic crawl to moving slowly but steadily).

[Saver Sigonith]

You don't need a keypad - you hardly even need a keyboard. Everything can be done with WADS and a mouse.
There's a few hotkeys that can be used atop this, though they're different hotkeys than before (much to some players chagrin!) the game can no longer be played solely with a keyboard (which will likely get updated at some point but it's DF so, give or take a few years).

[Shogun]

Originally posted by Saver Sigonith:

You don't need a keypad - you hardly even need a keyboard. Everything can be done with WADS and a mouse.

Thankful to hear that, I think I'll give it a shot in this case, I'm absolutely fine with using keyboard and mouse at the same time, and a million hotkeys if needed, I just had such a tough time using my Scroll Lock enabled, which turned a portion of my keys into a num-pad before the Steam version existed.

Really shocked in a good way to see this isn't required anymore. It seemed the game was originally dead set on continuing development, UI/UX/controlls/graphics be damned, but that seems to have turned around.

Originally posted by amade:

FWIW, and this is purely anecdotal, enabling multithreading on my 400+ pop fortress increased my dismal 8 FPS to 12 FPS. While still slow, it's a massive improvement (like going from a bumper-to-bumper traffic crawl to moving slowly but steadily).

Just out of curiosity, what CPU is this?

[amade]

Originally posted by Shogun:

Just out of curiosity, what CPU is this?

It's an i7-6700K, already a decade old.

[MoonClipper]

When I play DF I use 100% mouse. I don't touch the keyboard even for panning the screen.

[AlP]

Originally posted by MoonClipper:

When I play DF I use 100% mouse. I don't touch the keyboard even for panning the screen.

You don't use the zoom hotkeys?