Alternate Controls?
As many of you know, there are difficulties with the arrow key controls, especially with changing angles. I'm just gonna put out a suggestion; Alternate Controls. Basically a few different controls to make thiungs easier, of course the first alternate control I'm putting foward is point-and-click as especially with the changing angles, point-and-click is conveniant, and telltale customers (I generally believe) are used to point and click.
Another alternate control I'm putting out there is keyboard button choice, what I mean is if for example you don't prefer pressing shift to bring up the inventory or if you want to control movement perhaps you want the keypad? I don't care.
Now being a Telltale game coming out in less than a week I obviously do not expect these changes to be made to this episode, I don't really expect it to even be changed this whole season, I don't really know how easy/hard it is to change game controls. This is just an idea I'm putting out there.
Now you've read this tear me apart with comments!
Thanks for Reading,
Lachlan_is
Another alternate control I'm putting out there is keyboard button choice, what I mean is if for example you don't prefer pressing shift to bring up the inventory or if you want to control movement perhaps you want the keypad? I don't care.
Now being a Telltale game coming out in less than a week I obviously do not expect these changes to be made to this episode, I don't really expect it to even be changed this whole season, I don't really know how easy/hard it is to change game controls. This is just an idea I'm putting out there.
Now you've read this tear me apart with comments!
Thanks for Reading,
Lachlan_is
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Comments
I bought all Sam&Max episodes on Steam, and I was really looking forward to Wallace and Gromit, but now I'm not so sure anymore...
what he said.
While it seems like it could be a decent enough game, I won't be buying it.
The Xbox controls had no bearing on the PC controls. Point-and-click wasn't an option for this property because it puts restrictions on the way our artists can frame their shots.
I don't want to do that. I already have to use the keyboard 10 hours a day for work.
Right, personal opinion and all, but what did you expect? I'm here because I liked the other similar games that Telltale makes, and those let you use the mouse. Naturally, this attracts people who like to use the mouse. No big surprise there.
I always liked Telltale Games because of the humor, really. There was nothing that great about the point and click interface in any adventure games.
We tried several novel control methods and they all felt terribly alien and unintuitive, or were seriously broken in some cases. The linked example would be both.
And what's with the both keyboard and mouse - make up your mind.
Either keyboard OR mouse. Using both in this game is very awkward.
It's not that I dislike keyboard control as such, but when I have to shift between walking with the keyboard and then choose with the mouse - it's too much work and I have to sit upright by my desk.
It's such a lovely game and I loved the demo and the graphic and everything else - but the controls were a real let-down for me.
Edit:
Just read elsewhere it can be played with keyboard alone - but still....it doesn't suit me well.
But yeah i gotta say i prefer point'n'click also, movement can be done well, but this is no were near the level and such as in grim fandango, so either it needs alot more tweaking or its gotta go
It's much better than Grim Fandango. It's not perfect, but it's far and above that.
I remapped the controls to the Gravis Xterminator joystick using the gravis software. Much easier to use the gamepad to move then the keyboard. Diagonals are just not natural on a keyboard.
I set the analog control to emulate the mouse. But I probably won't use it because I also set the POV stick to use L/R as Q/E buttons to select between the onscreen trigger items. I prefer to use my mouse to find the hotspots, but the current controls make using a mouse un-natural, so...
I set the main row of 3 buttons to mouse button 1,2,3. I mapped another buton to Enter so I can easily pick YES, haven't figured out the NO button yet. Other buttons mapped to ESC and TAB. Don't need to map CTRL or SHIFT because the same thing is accomplished with mouse buttons 2,3.
EDIT: NO is the CTRL button, so I will have to map that.
Doing the above, makes the game playable for me.
BUT... They really need to do something about the music. Even if it requires a registry setting for now. Just some way to allow for the music to be adjustable compared to voice. The standard 3 settings music/voice/effects has always worked well in the past.
I highly recommend that TTG create some autohotkey scripts for different styles of joysticks. This will help people like me that will pass over the game because of the current controls.
Keyboard didnt stop me from enjoying Grim Fandango.
What about KB only controls? In the walkabout sections, Wallace looks at items of interest, just as in Grim Fandango and Dreamfall. Any chance that future episodes would allow for the object that Wallance/Gromit is looking at to be interacted with with a KB key (in addition to the existing mouse selection)? I realize that KB selection would not work with the in-car section in the demo, but it would be nice to be able to just lounge back and play with the KB in at least some of the sections.
I know whatcha mean, though it'd be really good with something like this, it'd be frigging awesome!!
The vast majority of people are fine with the control scheme as it is. Fleshing out and supporting an additional control scheme to try and satisfy every group of people just isn't feasible in a universe with limited time and resources.
You can play through the game with just keyboard. There are many different keys for cycling which things Wallace/Gromit is looking at (eg if you're playing with WASD you can use Q and E to page around between hotspots on screen), and many different keys for interacting with objects, including space or enter.
Never expected the keyboard+shift... i mean..... SHIFT??? why didnt you pick an easyer key to use like the space bar?.... and why you need to open the inventory with the keyboard if you are going to use the mouse to select the items anyway??
You should have made both ways of control available as testing grounds and see what people liked the best, not alienating the players that like point and click controls.
Reinventing the wheel isnt always a good way to go, I really hope you use the point click mouse control for Sam and Max season 3 as that is the only franchise i would be putting my hopes on.
(god bless demos!!)
... and while this method will surely take some getting used to for those people who don't play shooters, it will feel very natural and convenient afterwards - provided there are not more than 6-8 items in the inventory at the same time
gotta love the old forum members
I have a few problems with the controls and is not about getting used to the keyboard, I have played shooters half my life, I started playing since wolfenstein 3d appeared (im even replaying System shock 2 right now since I don’t have a video card to run Bioshock) but that is not the point.
If you feel it was THE only way to have a "cinematic framing" then i must say you didnt think it through really well and may be in desperate need of a kick in the behind. Having a black bar covering the top and bottom of the screen wasn’t just annoying also, it doesn’t mean you are watching a DVD movie, it means you are watching less of the detailes in the scene.
I still dont get it, why was the point and click control removed, and what was really gained from it? what was the purpose?
I'll dig up Grim Fandango one day and check if the controls were really that bad - I remember hating them for not being the mouse at the beginning, but I can't recall them getting much in the way later in the game. Indeed, at some points I rather enjoyed direct controlling Manny
if you look at our previous games like Sam and Max or homestar, the cameras for navigation (the playable bits) are farther back and less cinematic to incorporate space for players to click on the ground because that's the only way they can get around environments. You might also notice that those games look a lot more "gamey." A DP for a movie wouldn't shoot shots like that because it wouldn't make sense to and its not very exciting. We are trying to stay true to a license known for amazing cinematics.
The black bars weren't put there for cinematic effect. They were put there so everybody who plays the game will be playing it at the same aspect ratio. Having a fixed aspect ratio allows our artists to frame their shots better, since they know exactly what is and isn't going to be visible.
But I remember thinking how cool it was to be allowed to use a mouse to move my character around. I missed typing in commands though, but that's different
What I meant was I remember how cool I thought it was when they finally allowed you to use mouse controls in the games. And I don't like how the trend now seems to point in the other direction. Well, trend might be a strong word, not that many adventure games use keyboard controls yet. But there are a few.
And are you saying that because people had to cope with slow and broken control schemes back in the day, it means they should cope with them in 2009?
One question though: How do you PAUSE the game? Spacebar just skips dialogue lines (like right clicking) - in S&M/SBCG4AP it was the pause button...
Edit: I did like how when I tried to hit Esc part way through a conversation/cut scene, it came up with "Tea Break! Controls currently not available". Very funny
You pause the game by hitting ESC to bring up the menu. If you hit ESC during dialog, it just pauses the dialog as you saw.
No, it really was pretty bad. Turning corners and selecting things with that engine was terrible, and the only options for how the arrow keys mapped were camera-centric and person-centric, which, given the environments they chose, translated to bad and worse.