New vehicle-gunnery controls

[akatabrask]

It's funny, just a couple of hours ago I was thinking about this and thought I'd post it here
And I agree it would be a good improvent both in terms of realism but also in gameplay as the tank would not be as overpowered anymore.
But I think the arrow keys would feel more natural, dunno, wasd is more the keys you use to move around and such.

[nedlands1]

It's possible. At least in the editor. The nice thing about it is that you can limit the turn rates to realistic values (eg 40 degrees/second for the Challenger II). With a mouse you can overcome the limits with a high sensitivity. The problem is getting the acceleration/deceleration rates so that you can make very small changes when you tap the button, turns at the maximum rate when holding down the button and quick stops when you're not holding the button.

[Waaah_Wah]

I remember asking a DEV about this also, but the response i recieved was 'Hard coded'.
Im not sure how true this stands today, so I will leave this thread open for a insighted response, despite being suggested before.

...mongol...

But this has been done on those AT cannons on Fools Road.

Btw, this would be good for tanks, and tanks only.

[Rudd]

^ why not APCs?

[Solid Knight]

So this all due to people having an adjustable DPI mouse? And again, turret sensitivity can be changed in the controls. Oh by the way, my mouse has hot swappable key bindings so I can map WASD to the X and Y axis of the mouse and essentially be right back where we started. Your scheme loses yet again.

My suggestion is to stop worrying about what mouse other people have. If you feel really bad about it you can always buy one.

[Mora]

Its not only about mouse DPI, if you want to turn the barrel around now you probaly cant move it exactly at the same speed rate witch looks unrealistic and is unrealistic. And for tracking targets we maybe can use some hack code (or code it our selfs) and change it so it wouldn't automatically flip on target but instead the need of a button is needed and it would only work when you hold your cursor for more then 10sec orso on that particle target with the button pressed.

It sounds complicated, it might be too. To code atleast because it may only work with vehicles and air asset that really uses tracking for its guns and missiles or what ever they fire.

It must be coded to not flip on targets all around the map.
It must be coded to really track the targets and thus aiming in front of a moving target in order to hit it.

But maybe i am just dreaming now

[ShavenRaver]

I really like the WASD idea for tanks and APC's. I think if AA's were similarly affected there would be a great advantage to the helis and jets - I think the current balance is fine. Anyone else?

If the WASD keys are possible, I'd like to suggest the shift key option for faster turning. Again, not sure this is possible.

If the WASD keys are not possible, then what about still using the mouse....but.....

No longer have it so that where you look is where you shoot. Let me explain:

To keep the turret still, the mouse needs to be centred. To move the turret anti-clockwise, move your mouse left, and to stop it, move your mouse back too previous centred position. To rotate the turret faster, simply move your mouse further from the centred in the desired direction.

This is actually similar to jet controls. Moving your mouse to the right and keeping it there will result in a constant clockwise barrel roll. To stop the barrel roll, you'll need to bring the mouse back.

With this method, I WOULD be in favour of applying this to the AA vehicles

Any thoughts???

[fubar++]

To keep the turret still, the mouse needs to be centred. To move the turret anti-clockwise, move your mouse left, and to stop it, move your mouse back too previous centred position. To rotate the turret faster, simply move your mouse further from the centred in the desired direction.

Excellent if possible.

[Waaah_Wah]

^ why not APCs?

Because they would suck balls. APCs need to keep their speed and mobility, thats pretty much the only advantage they have. If this would be implemented on APCs, they would be much harder to aim with, so you woul need to drive slower if you want your gunner to hit anything.

[Pariel]

Sounds like a lot of work for not much gain.

Tactics are far more important your mouse in tank battles.

[Katsu]

Sounds like a lot of work for not much gain.

However if the gain is a more realistic model of how tank turrets actually work then it's worth that "lot of work".

[Solid Knight]

Then wouldn't be easier to restrict movement to one axis at a time on the mouse?

And come to think about it, what's really stopping the cannon from rotating left or right while moving up or down? I know some tanks can do both movements at the same time.

Come to think of it, how would the stabilizers and tracking system work if it couldn't?

[DeltaFart]

wow jonny why arent you an RCON?

[Solid Knight]

With that you can still get simultaneous movement on both axises. Why not just limit the acceleration and turn rate? Why force people into WASD?

[NyteMyre]

Future tanks comes with a mouse for the gunner.

[SnakeTheFox]

With that you can still get simultaneous movement on both axises. Why not just limit the acceleration and turn rate? Why force people into WASD?

WASD was my example. For people using a different set-up or even DVORAK (IE weirdos), I'll change my idea to mapping it to the arrow keys (makes more sense now that I've heard it).

The simple idea here is to make it MORE realistic. Sure, most actual tanks control their gunnery with a joystick-like apparatus, but everyone doesn't have a joystick, so the closest cut-off is (in my opinion) the Arrow keys.

Again, I have doubts about the 'hardcoded' argument because, as I said before, the ZIS-3's on Militia maps (the AT guns) are mapped to the WASD keys. I'd think it would be easily possible. But what do I know.

[DeltaFart]

This honestly allows for people to use joysticks now Would be fun to finally use the right method to move turrets

[daranz]

The simple idea here is to make it MORE realistic. Sure, most actual tanks control their gunnery with a joystick-like apparatus, but everyone doesn't have a joystick, so the closest cut-off is (in my opinion) the Arrow keys.

I don't agree with that. Mouse control emulates the analog controls that gunners have, while keyboard controls would be pretty much either 0 or 100%. Yes, you could implement accelerating turret rotation, so that it goes faster the longer you hold it down, but that'd be even more complicated to use in the end.

Think about cars in game right now. Most people use them with keyboard, which isn't really the best simulation of the kind of control you get with a gas pedal in real life. As a result, we have unrealistic car driving, with cars bumping into walls all the time, and going pedal-to-the-metal over all sorts of terrain the rest of the time.

[General Dragosh]

WASD for turn speed not for aiming

Mouse for precise aiming not turning

And that is that... plain and simple