Monday, October 22, 2012

New control scheme

In the past the mouse control scheme has had a significant advantage over keyboard users. The mouse allows the player to shoot and move independently, allowing them to dodge, defend, and attack at the same time. People without a mouse (or are using touch pads) couldn't use this control scheme, so they had to use the keyboard only controls, which only allow you to move and shoot in the same directions. On top of that the game has been balanced with the mouse controls in mind, so keyboard users are at a clear disadvantage.

I've addressed this problem by changing the keyboard control scheme to use both WASD and the arrow keys to control movement and laser firing respectively. This allows keyboard users to shoot and move in different directions, sharing the same advantage that mouse users have. Due to keyboard button limitations, for this control scheme I've had to move the "launch powerup" key to the F key to make sure it isn't affected by any ghosting.


The previous keyboard controls have not been removed and can still be selected if the user prefers. I have named this previous scheme "legacy controls" because they resemble the classic Asteroids controls. I know completely removing this scheme would have made some fans angry.

Players can now dodge and attack at the same time with the keyboard