I really would like if the game was more like a side scroller as it looks. I mean, use the mouse aim is ok, but most of the time I see myself using a hand to hand weapon in what I need no aim. But even so when I push backwards my character don't turn around to face the enemies behind me, as I am used with all the side scrollers I played. So it ends being really confusing when facing enemies and bosses. Also the moonwalker animation of running backwards is very bad, it is the same you use to run to front, but inverted, I think that is why most games of the style don't include a moonwalk as default. And it could be good if you could just shoot straight to the direction you are point with keys (ASDW) as many side scrollers as Contra do. You could hold the right mouse button to aim more precisely if you want. And it would really help if you don't need to select your weapon each time you want to attack, have a button to use the equiped weapon, and select to use just the other things. Also I really would apreciate if there is a joystick support and a "configure control" option, so I could configure it to play on my joystick and use the mouse just when I am digging or positioning the things, but use the joystick during battles that requires more fast actions. Control the mouse movement in a thombstick would also be good. More Side scroller elements of gameplay are also welcome, like a somersault when you jump to front, like Metroid, walk while ducking or roll, a dash or a backdash. Things like that. Armors should have the option to be hidden, and you could just equip a clothes to change appearance. as it is now, the helmet (if you could call a sun glasses and a mask with sun glasses, helmets) can't be hidden, and I saw no clothes until now to disguise it,
Going from the bottom up for no particular reason: Armor can be covered using vanity slots and there are Head slot items for that purpose. I have an awesome pirate bandana on and have seen a strawberry hat as well. More side scroller elements are probably coming. These will likely be made into techs, and there is a dash tech and morph ball tech already. Control configuration is coming. If you put your weapons in the red and blue slots of the hotbar, you can press X to quickly switch to it. It probably won't be bound to a key to just use a weapon as everyone places weapons in different slots. I disagree with shooting straight in a direction because using the mouse to aim will ALWAYS be easier to use and more accurate. The same goes for walking backwards. You always need to use the mouse to aim because it is built to be played with a mouse and keyboard. To me the current method is way easier to use but that is just personal opinion.
About the three last itens, I desagree from you. You usually can equip only one item at a time (since the main itens you use are the pickaxe and the the weapon, and pickaxe require both hands), so frequently you are mining, and them appear a monster, you still need to switch to the weapon to fight it. Sidescrollers like Contra and Metroid, this don't happens, your weapon is always ready for action. Shooting straight, well, Megaman, Metroid, Contra and so many other were so fun using this method, why do you is better aim in the mouse if you are in the middle of a fast passed combat against a boss? Aim with mouse, takes time, specially if you are fighting agains many enemies, that is why many people preffer to use a joystick to play in the computer. And I know people that preffer the joystick to keyboard and mouse even for FPS games. I should remeber yo that this I am suggestion is just to keep in options, like a "Always Mouse Aim" for you to enable and disable.. The Moonwalk, same reason from above too, we are used to other Side-Scrollers, and this gives you better spped for the actions. Without the fact that you can run backwards at same speed you run forward, do you think you can make it in Real Life? And about the head, well, may have the vanity itens, but some people like me, don't like headgear being showed, and if you don't have a vanity iten for the (as I didn't get it in my hours of game), you have to choose, stay with the headgear, or remove it and lose the extra points. I am just asking an option "Hide Headgear".
This time I will go in order with you. Yes, there is a single button to using a weapon in a side scrolling shooter like Contra. Its also a game where the only thing you do is jump and shoot things. A total of 2 things. Starbound has jumping, shooting, melee, inventory management, building, mining, crafting, and much more. It isn't as simple a game so simple mechanics don't really work, unless they change the inventory slots to give you special weapon slots. If that happens, what do you fire with? Mouse controls mining so what button is pressed? For shooting straight, yes it was fun. In those games without a mouse and not designed around a mouse. Meaning not Starbound. Take a look at this Contra 3 screenshot: 5 enemies at various locations. Only a few can be hit from that position with Contra controls. With a mouse I can hit them more consistantly because I have superior targeting ability. Furthermore the pathing for enemies in those games were simple. Enemies moved in specific paths that very rarely changed. That is why most of the gameplay in those games is timing movements and attacks to enemy pathing, and why most bosses in those games end up using a similar "shoot shoot shoot, duck, jump, repeat" strategy. If you tried only shooting left, right, diagonal, and up in Starbound you are going to die a lot because enemy movement and attacks are way more complex than the SNES era. If it was left as an option, it would be an option that is not used often, if at all. With back pedalling/moonwalking, the same issue occurs. This game is not limited in hardware and input like the games you want it to be like. You look in the direction the mouse is because the mouse is what your character eyes are looking at. Turning like you want only makes sense in a game where you are limited to where you can target. This is not and should not be that game because it is an exploration sandbox with building and combat elements. Not a 2d platform shooter. As for the real life argument I wasn't going to respond to it because this is a game. Also because I can't really understand what you meant. But I used to be in the military (no I was never deployed, medical discharge) and you absolutely will walk backwards while firing a weapon in combat. Not often because you will have other people to give you covering fire but it does happen and it does work fine. Walking backwards has risks, but you probably won't die doing it. As for the headgear, being able to turn off vanity slots to hide armor would be nice, sure. But that has already been discussed a hundred times and everyone pretty much agrees it should be added already. So not much to discuss there. In summation, this is not Mega Man. It is not Metroid and it is not Contra. They should not shoehorn elements from those games into this one because it is an entirely different type of game designed around different gameplay and is too complex for archaic controls.
The enemies in Starbound have the same IA than Contra and games like that, That I saw, they just jump high and try land as near you as they can, in a kill kill style, not complex. And about you image of Contra 3 (great game), yes, you can't shoot them all from where you are, but I can garantee you that if the same situation happen in Starbound, I could kill everyone faster in Contra, because my controls would answer quikly. And I will say why, in Contra, the direction you shoot is fixed, and when your charater move you aim change only based only on that, but with the mouse, it change based in your movement and the mouse moviment, two aspects to control at the same time, that is why it is slower, more accurate, but slower. About how it could be. well, Attack with equiped weapon could be LMB, holding RMB you go to Starbound aim system, and can use LMB and MMB as the left and right hand. moonwalk can be done holding the RMB, for every aspect you hold RMB it became the normal control of starbound, but while it is released thegame is a side scroller platform shooting. It can be made. And I am still hoping they can get bosses that use somekind of advanced IA and not the only Kill Kill that I saw until now. And about controls most people don't use. Well, in my town, that I know only I use inverted Y camera in joysticks games. And my friend had a videogame arcade (don't know how call in it in English, it was a place that you played videogames (XBOX and Play3) playing by hour) , he never met someone that used the inverted Y camera in any kind of game, including FPS. I think that the rates of people who use this are very few considering my sample. Even so, every game has the option.
Well, thats half true. With a Pickaxe it is, yes, but you can switch VERY fast with just pressing X. i usually have my pickaxe in slot 1, a strong sniper rifle in 2, and pistol + shield on my X Setup. well...thats false. a player with a mouse is always faster than someone with a controller. a good player can set a very precice shot in not even a second, a controller player is limited in his speed and reaction, thats why most fps games for consoles have aim assist or just need run'n'gun. the only thing that would be even faster would be a good designed lightgun game (think there was a test a while ago, one player with oculus rift + lightgun against a few players with normal setups), and yes, i tried that myself one time. the speed you can have with a lightgun is just incredible. in short: Lightgun>Mouse>Controller. For me it would be Lightgun>Trackball>Mouse>Controller. for a sidescroller a controller is just more comfortable, you can sit back and relax. but you cant compare a sidescroller with a fps or even a a combat system like starbound has, a system with dynamic movements, different angles etc. sidescrollers are limited. for example: look at this video an compare it yourself. a pc gamer with keyboard+mouse is WAY faster and has nearly no limitations. you are faster in FPS and RTS, the only thing where a Controller can be better is a TPS game. also i disagree with your AI statement. the AI in starbound is different. Sure there are a few enemies that will jump at you, but there are alos enemies with projectiles, bombs, flamethrowers etc, and they can attack from different angles. also i guarantee that i can kill everything 10x faster with my mouse than with a contra-system. also there is a huge difference between sidescrollers like megaman, contra or metroid and fps games or something like that. the fights there were designed to work with that system. the enemies have the same restrictions as your player. fixed attack angles, patterns, positions etc. fps are faster, have more variables, exactly like starbound. a single pixle can decide if you hit or not, and with a contra-like system this would be your death. a sidescroller wont have that, all fights are designed for you to hit them, a very simple system. starbound is different. we also get directional melee attacks in the future, so it will become even more complex. in starbound a single hit hurts, its not like in megaman where every killed enemy can drop additional health for you, where you can just walk through them while pressing just two buttons. if you can attack only in the direction you are looking at, you will have a very bad time. running backward while shooting ultra-precise shots at the enemy is a good strategy. in sidescrollers you have no "tactical retreat" just running straight forward and shooting. you had only a limited amount of platform hights, all designed for you do shoot them from specific spots. Starbound is different, levels are randomized, there is no way to hit everything with just 3 or 4 directions. well...you would remove all shields, and all dualwielded weapons from the game with this system... PS: Sometimes you have to accept the design of a game. and the fighting-style is mostly fixed everywhere, there can be slight changes, like directional spear-attacks, but thats also a system that allready ingame for the guns. Your system would change everything, the whole balancing, i dont think its gonna happen. Also you are a minority, most PC-Games will agree that Mouse and Keyboard are the best equipment for FPS, RTS etc, while controllers are the best for Racing, Fighting and some TPS. The platforms are different, you cant adjust everything for every controll-type.
Never said that for RTS and FPS a controler would be better, one of my friends preffer controler to mouse to FPS, but I still preffer Mouse. But for third person not-shooters(witch mean any side scroller) and games like Darksiders, a controller is much better. You can aim better on mouse, but can act faster in a controler And AI of any side scroller can shoot any angle, you can shoot just in the 8 directions (including jumping), but everyone shoot everywhere, play Contra on NES, it is hard, but is good, you feel the action. The AI of the flyers are the same, kill kill, the just shoot on you and move romdomly near you, most old side scrollers, the flyers do the same. There is no different paterns to learn to avoid.
First of all, you don't have your terms right. I am assuming from your spelling and grammar so far that English is not your first language, so I will not fault you for that. But there are plenty of third person games that are not shooters and are not side scrollers. Jak and Daxter is 3rd person and has no shooting elements (in the first one at least iirc). Super Mario 64 is another 3rd person game with no shooting. It isn't a side scroller either. What you mean to say is 2D or 2.5D side scrollers. Side scroller by definition means third person as it would be impossible to navigate sideways in first person accurately. But to get to my main point, it is not much better, it is your opinion that it is better. An opinion that me and others clearly disagree with. I prefer playing old side scrollers like Mario or Mega Man or even 3rd person action like Darksiders, DMC or MGR: Revengeance with a keyboard and mouse because I can manage my movement better with WASD and I can aim better with a mouse in 3rd person action games. It all boils down to personal preference, and so far it seems your preference is not preferred by a the others who have chimed in here. Especially in the case of aiming on a 2D plane, as you are not restricted to rigid aim directions based on where you are facing or positioned. Also because I was unable to comment before due to being at work, your proposed control scheme looks messy, convoluted, and as someone else said pretty much breaks using certain weapon types. There is no way you can seriously say your proposed method is easier than: 1. Press X 2. Click on enemies to fire in their direction until they die 3. Press X to switch back to your previous item.
ALL of the changes to actual gameplay mechanics OP has suggested would require you to remove many abilites from the player for them to work. Not aiming melee direction with the mouse would basically make melee fighting impossible since you couldn't back up and attack at the same time and no you can't use right mouse button to fix this because you need it for your right hand. Left mouse button is left hand item and right mouse button is right hand item. Are we just not supposed to have two one handed items ever and basically make all items two handed then? Not actually aiming and only shooting in preset directions like in older games would be silly. Why would you want to remove the ability to aim at thos inbetween spots? Hate to tell you but in most of those games you only had one weapon at a time and switch merely buy grabbing a power up. In those that had multiple options like Super metroid you still had to manually switch. Have grapple beam selected? Can't fire missles or charged shots without SWITCHING weapons. In megaman you usually except with very select weapons can't fire regular buster shots without switching off other weapons. The game already has a dash amd double jump and such you just have to aquire them. Just like in other such games you don't just start with these abilities. They just need to work on letting you equip more than one of em at a time which I read somewhere something like that is planned anyway so a moot point. Would be nice if mobility skills didn't require energy though. Seems silly to limit dashing and such since not doing so would make for more fast paced gameplay.
I said to use MMB as the other hand, Dead Space (even if I preffered to play on the XBOX joystick) used a similar system to change between action mode and shoot mode. Sikelh. And other game i played that has the same shooting system of Starbound was A.R.E.S. And you know, it only makes me want play Meagaman X (X4 until now is my favorite). And Yes, I am brazilian, and it is already hard to find one here that is fluently in english (and God, there will be a World Soccer Championship here)
Keyboard and mouse is both more precise and much faster, anyone can put their cursor over something in a fraction of the time it takes a joystick to drag over to it. Some games feel better with a controller though because they're designed/balanced around that kind of movement, third person adventure games especially. That's mechanically though, personal preference is personal preference and is rather subjective (a friend of mine prefers inverted controls and he's pretty much a monster in my eyes), but you can't escape the fact that certain games are built around certain controls. In a lot of those games enemies appear in predetermined places and move consistantly in such ways that you can hit them with those few directions, in Starbound the terrain and enemies are all over the place in terms of locations and movement abilities. Gravity can be different and dependent on what movement techs you're using you're going to be all over the place, aiming the full 360 with a mouse is practically necessary when using ranged weapons and I'd hope they'd implement it for melee too.
One Middle mouse button is harder to use frequently to be useful for that purpose. That's part of why the fable PC controls were so god awful it was nigh uplayable. And I wouldn't use horror type games as examples of good control schemes because while not as bad as resident evil controls dead space did have a bit of that tank controls feeling going on. It also wasn't a side scroller but a completely different type of game so doesn't fit as a proper example here.
No idea if it will be helpful, Ant, but if you're not ok with pressing X to switch to your weapons, I'd like to propose my setup. Does not solve your directional preference, but maybe it'll improve something. I usually put my melee in slot 1, range in slot 2, pickaxe / drill in slot 3 and for my "X" gear I have a flashlight and some 1-handed gun, currently a grenade launcher, but that's irrelevant. So I can walk around with some form of gun and a light source pretty much always, I can tap 3 when I need to mine and then I can tap 3 again to hide the tool and return to the X setup. Getting attacked while mining? Tap 1 for instant melee or 2 for instant gun in your hand. Or tap 3 again to hide drill and pull out your gun / flashlight combo. You can also put a shield there instead of flashlight and nearly immediately block enemy attack. Basically, getting your gun ready when mining is a matter of one button tap.
