Rethink key binding UI

[sp0q]

I believe it does not inform you when you use an already bound key too, which makes it tiresome to keep in order.

 

[who?]

Live and Beta sharing key-bindings isn't ideal either. It's great that when you launch the Beta, it already has your controls from Live set. But if you're tinkering around with your controls in Beta, you don't necessarily want to mess up your controls in Live.

 

[sewerratuk]

That might be the case for you. It may also be a major hurdle for new users before they get to your position. Sure, it's not a priority and the range of available options is outstanding. The presentation however is rather inconvenient.

I understand ya. Like everything in this game, it takes a little work and practice to become accustomed to it. I guess it gives you a taste of what is to come

 

[BurnyBurns]

I believe it does not inform you when you use an already bound key too, which makes it tiresome to keep in order.

It does! Although it only displays the notice briefly at the bottom. A prompt asking you whether you would like to rebind a key would be more useful imo. I know that as a beginner, I had no clue which function I had just left without a keybinding.

 

[Wasp0]

Live and Beta sharing key-bindings isn't ideal either. It's great that when you launch the Beta, it already has your controls from Live set. But if you're tinkering around with your controls in Beta, you don't necessarily want to mess up your controls in Live.

If it is too much for you "Who?", you can always give your beta to me

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

Yeah it's horrible - best advice for setting the SRV controls is go upwards not down as it, at least, wraps the controls.

 

[sp0q]

It does! Although it only displays the notice briefly at the bottom. A prompt asking you whether you would like to rebind a key would be more useful imo. I know that as a beginner, I had no clue which function I had just left without a keybinding.

Oh yeah, you're right! : ) But you still need to figure out what the hell got messed up

 

[furrycat]

It'd also be great if they added Hold/Toggle options for each on/off control (or else added a direct binding for it).

Yes I forgot about that. Between not being able to hold/toggle every control and only being able to add two inputs per control I've had to jump through a bunch of TARGET/FreePIE/vJoy hoops to get things close to the way I want.

I believe it does not inform you when you use an already bound key too, which makes it tiresome to keep in order.

A message appears at the bottom of the screen very briefly; very easy to miss. When I catch a glimpse of it I usually just cancel out of editing rather than try to figure out which control I just broke.

Live and Beta sharing key-bindings isn't ideal either. It's great that when you launch the Beta, it already has your controls from Live set. But if you're tinkering around with your controls in Beta, you don't necessarily want to mess up your controls in Live.

As a rule, live and test environments should be completely separated. Here again, though, things aren't as bad as they used to be. You'll remember that the 1.2 beta added new keybinds which people duly configured. Then when they went back to live the new binds caused the client to reject the whole configuration. Now the bindings files include a version number and the client knows to ignore any versions it doesn't recognise.

If you're playing the 1.5 or 2.0 beta right now you may well find you have Custom.binds, Custom.0.8.binds and Custom.1.8.binds in your configuration directory. The first is obsolete and would be read only if the others didn't exist. The 0.8 file is the 1.4+ format and is used by the live client. The 1.8 file is the format used by the beta.

If you edit your bindings with a client which supports a particular version it will save the changes to the appropriate file even if an older one was initially read.

Yes, its poor but I don't see it as a priority though. Can't say as I go into it much after getting things set up

You're going to have a lot of fun when Horizons launches.

 

[imski]

Also the default action of the esc button to cancel out should have an "you will lose all changes proceed y/n?" checkbox. I've got caught out by that one far too many times to count

 

[Avago Earo]

+1 More or less what everyone's said here. Could be improved thus: Each Control category starts in a collapsed state. Already bound controls are given a reminder prompt before executing a change. Separate controllers are specified for clarity.

 

[Shaamaan]

We've been asking for a better 'options' menu since before release. The one we have now has too many things crammed into it and sucks badly. Unfortunately, FD seems to think it's brilliantly put together and just keeps adding more to it.

Well, to be fair, once you set it up you don't really have to go back to it, so I can see it not being a priority for FD.

Bonus - did you know you can have multiple key setups stored and switch between them quickly? You need to poke around ED settings files somewhere inside the Windows user directory, and make a copy of the custom settings file (rename it), and it'll be available for later from the in-game presets dropdown.

 

[furrycat]

make a copy of the custom settings file (rename it), and it'll be available for later from the in-game presets dropdown.

If you don't also edit the copy and rename the PresetName at the top of the file all you'll get is two profiles with the same name in the dropdown.

 

[Shaamaan]

If you don't also edit the copy and rename the PresetName at the top of the file all you'll get is two profiles with the same name in the dropdown.

Good point - forgot about that!

 

[Elooder]

I still think tabs are better than collapsible groups or sections. With those, you still have to scroll up/down to get to the needed section but with tabs, the sections are already there. Should be something like the cockpit side screens.

 

[SpionKop]

+1 from me