Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Hot...keys? I have to stare at the list for hours to find what to build/designate.  I am still in babysteps and therefore don't get a real say here.

1 (0.4%)

Keyboard is slow and clunky, I hardly ever use it. I use the mouse whenever possible and if I cannot use it I make a new suggestions thread.

9 (3.7%)

I never touch the mouse, and even if I did it wouldn't make anything easier or faster. Keyboard4lyf!

116 (47.7%)

I use keyboard and mouse together in harmony. I also hug trees and eat dead bodies.

70 (28.8%)

I am too unique to fit into any of these foolish attempts at polling choices. Good day to you sir.

47 (19.3%)

Total Members Voted: 243

[BradB]

Guys. I am terribly confused. Everywhere I look, I see: "I want better mouse support" and "The interface sucks", rarely actually saying specifically what is that they want.
What I am asking is how come for the entire time I've been playing DF (after the learning stage) these thoughts have never crossed my mind? Is it mainly the newer players wanting to use the mouse, or is it the fully "I know every hotkey" people like me? 

What are the mouse features that you all seem to kick and scream for? I can only think of three ways that the mouse could be used:

• Clicking on a dwarf or buildings in normal play to (v), (k) or (q) them
• Placement of buildings (in a standard RTS style "click button, building placement follows mouse as well as click-move-click for wall placement)
  
• Clicking and dragging out designations, stockpiles and zones.

Is this what it is that you all want feel free to add some more points.
(Keyboard4lyf!)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Was planning on having an interface part of this thread here, but ran out of time. (and yes, I do know about the text/everything icon separation suggestion) 

[Arrkhal]

I would be 100% happy with extending the same support for Designations to every menu in the game.  Left click means selecting a single tile, right click moves the X cursor there.

[Savok]

I'm almost with the OP. The interface could use a little reorganizing, so that the letter names were more consistent... but it's quite fast as it is, and mouse support wouldn't really help most people. Once you've played for a while, the keyboard is *really* fast.

[slink]

The mouse is nice for tidying up mistakes made in designations, but I am quite happy with the keyboard menus.  I surely don't want everything turned into graphical icons where a person suspects the symbol meaning "save file" is actually a cartoon sketch of the programmer's mother.   

[SirPenguin]

In the latest DF talk Toady mentioned this briefly.

I guess we do have control of the mouse cursor display right now ... We have a few extra controls now ... Clicking and dragging, it's not like I'm not for having the mouse be supported and having all kinds of nice things you can do with the mouse - I like nice things - and I know people like their keyboard shortcuts too, and I like keyboard shortcuts but you can click on all the new screens, you can't drag anything but you can click all the new screens, it just doesn't say that anywhere, but you can do it; every new button can be clicked

It's kind of an ambiguous statement, but it SOUNDS like we have more mouse control...I'm not sure what "new screen" or "new button" even is suppose to mean in this case. It could either be literally new screens he's introduced (like, the new squad screen?) or that he did the old screens in the new version so we can click things, or maybe something else entirely

[Deon]

I enjoy the way I play it on keyboard. I wish I could use keyboard to play other games too:). I have a 5-key mouse but still it's slower than typing with my right hand. I want the full potential! Typing with both hands = win. Fast and lovely.

[smjjames]

I don't use the mouse all that much with DF myself anyways. Yea I use it sometimes for doing something precise, but most of the time its just keyboard control.

[Lawec]

I am a keyboard purist here!

[Sutremaine]

I'd like to be able to click on options instead of always having to use the keyboard. Most likely I'd still use the keyboard a lot since I've played enough to memorise a lot of the multi-press commands, but I'd like the option. I can also move the cursor faster than I can scroll from the top or bottom of a list to the middle. For designations I'd like to be able to drag out areas instead of being limited to placing the cursor or selecting one tile at a time.

[KenboCalrissian]

What are the mouse features that you all seem to kick and scream for? I can only think of three ways that the mouse could be used:

• Clicking on a dwarf or buildings in normal play to (v), (k) or (q) them
• Placement of buildings (in a standard RTS style "click button, building placement follows mouse as well as click-move-click for wall placement)
  
• Clicking and dragging out designations, stockpiles and zones.

Is this what it is that you all want feel free to add some more points.

You say this like these aren't very big points at all, but in fact they are incredibly important!  You underestimate the convenience of clicking on things that you want!

Personally, I only use the keyboard because it's a necessity.  There isn't enough mouse support to use it well enough, and I do get frustrated pushing so many keys to get to the nested/nested/nested menu I want and scrolling only in increments of single options or whole pages.  I feel screwed every time the option I want is in the middle of the list, because that's a lot of key presses to get to it.

One of the hardest things for me to learn when I first started was that arrow keys do not scroll through most game menus.  I never would have figured out that I need + and - without using the wiki, and then in 40d16 that changed again (I can't understand why that support was removed from the numpad)!

If you really don't think mouse support is important, try unplugging your mouse and using your OS.  It's completely possible, but annoying and clunky, and the learning curve on keyboard controls is steeper than the learning curve of a mouse.

[Shaostoul]

I use the mouse when doing designs with digging, I would like to see being able to set up wall or floor designations.

Other than that I can't really think of too much else I'd like to see for the mouse, maybe full support of the UI and mouse together?

[CobaltKobold]

Why add mouse support? Accessibility.

First of all, I use the mouse for as much as possible, whenever possible. My left wrist is basically crippled, so extensive typing is kind of torturous for me.

It also makes the game easier to work with. Presently, the mouse works on...the nobles screen, stockpile settings screen, designations (and the sidemenus for them!), the worldpainter (oddly, no kbd support in that), and the relationships screen.

And I know I made a concise statement of non-thinky mouse additions...which resulted in flames for no apparent reason.

[dragon0421]

I like to draw out digs with the mouse if it requires detail, but I usually use the keyboard exclusively for everything else. When I first started it was a huge pain (especially because menus do not always have consistent or intuitive keys), but I got used to it. Though I see a lot of potential for mouse support when Toady updates the UI that even the keyboard elitists would appreciate.

[KaelGotDwarves]

This is semi-offtopic but you guys just reminded me.

You know what irritates me because it makes my eyes hemmorage blood? Setting a room or designation where the tiles intermittantly flash neon blue. Like dining rooms, bedrooms, studies.

It makes me feel like I'm having a seizure and I generally quit playing DF if I've been at it awhile after seeing it.

[smjjames]

This is semi-offtopic but you guys just reminded me.

You know what irritates me because it makes my eyes hemmorage blood? Setting a room or designation where the tiles intermittantly flash neon blue. Like dining rooms, bedrooms, studies.

It makes me feel like I'm having a seizure and I generally quit playing DF if I've been at it awhile after seeing it.

Pfft, those aren't so bad compared to the flashing of the construction icon. Its especially annoying when there is a large area (floor for example) and it can fill your screen with flashing.