Mouse control or no?

[Poo Bear]

A few people have commented on the mouse control system. I've used it extensively and thought it was ok, but I think I prefer the feel of an X360 game pad myself. Some have been suggesting the mouse should be consigned to an option activated mode that you have to route out of the frontend menu system and that making it the default is a mistake. That the game is too hard with a mouse.

On the other hand, some people have said the mouse is easier to use than keys/gamepad because they aren't used to 45deg tilt isometric game controls and therefore it is right that the mouse is there by default.



How do you like to play - keys/gamepad/mouse?

[Weeble]

I rarely use the mouse unless I'm trying to work around problems in some of the menus that make it awkward to use keys.

It would be nice if the game didn't trap my cursor in window mode (which I tend to use when going in and out of the editor a lot) when I'm not using mouse input.

Also worth noting - mouse input goes berserk with pen-based input. It's actually quite funny - even if I hold the pen still Asimov will wander about completely randomly. Is there a way to detect if the current pointing device is a pen/tablet/puck?

[Tryagain Infinity]

Other than crane operation, which I use the keyboard for, I'm mouse all the way.

[Poo Bear]

[Agrajag]

Completely keyboard except for the menus, which pretty much require the mouse to navigate efficiently.

[DogBoy]

Yeah, I used the keys except when the occasional GUI task required the mouse. Which was kind of irritating.

[Darth Dallas]

I haven't investigated using game pads for pc games (nor have I got around to taking a shot at Mr. Robot quite yet), but I'd say I'm a mouse/keyboard player.

I suppose I'm put off by the fear of all those damned buttons.

[Tryagain Infinity]

[VyrisTykin]

I actually flip-flop between using the keyboard and using the mouse. The primary reason for this is the need to click more than once on something in a menu in order for it to actually recognize I clicked on it. What I think is happening is that the recognition field for the mouse cursor is too small and I'm too lazy to click dead center or some such.

When hacking, I sometimes use the keyboard for accelerating combat if I'm just attacking. I use the mouse to navigate the nodes.

[Inane]

Same as Agrajag.
When I first started though, I would use the mouse for up-left jumps, since my ****** 4 dollar keyboard can't detect those and shift pressed together. But I switched it to Starscape style, with Q and W, and all is well.

[Lothar]

keys for the platform/puzzle part of the game, and for most of ghost hack. Mouse when I'm selecting something from a long list, or selecting things in different parts of the screen in succession (like equipping ghosts, selling stuff, adding upgrades...) Very similar to starscape, actually -- I use the mouse for most of the stuff on the Aegis and keys for the ship.

Mouse is for when you need to be able to point to a specific part of the screen. Makes perfect sense for strat or civ type games where you have a ton of units or locations to select, or the Starscape ship building areas. Also makes a lot of sense for navigating large menus, like when you're building or selecting things in strat/civ type games and at EVE terminals. And of course it makes sense in FPS games where you want to have pixel-perfect aim (a joystick can also be quite viable in situations like that, depending on the game engine.)

Aside from the above, I do almost all of my gaming with keys.

[DaiShiva]

I use the mouse, once you get used to the 'slide' that asimov has, jumping around is pretty easy.

[TheStuff07]

Keyboard all the way except for the menus.

[Zharmad]

I use the mouse to navigate diagonal jumps, and long jumps around the corner of an intervening crate/block. Otherwise keyboard movement.

[DarkNimic]

I started out with a mix of mouse and keyboard, but quickly went pure keyboard for everything but PDA menus & EVE terminals - the mouse just seemed to make even the simplist maneuvers *much* harder than the keyboard. I slowly moved toward using the keyboard for the menus, too, since the system seemed designed for the keyboard (given the odd selection mechanisms, and the peculiar scrolling of the two-column displays; they don't make much sense to me either way, but they make more sense for keyboard imo), and menus went pretty fast with the keyboard once you figured out the movement pattern for a given menu screen. To me, the mouse controls really felt like an afterthought; a late addition to a game designed with keyboard (or d-pad, or thumbstick) in mind.

Then again, I am a bit more of a keyboard person in general (initially played Quake keyboard-only [now I'm a complete mouse convert], and continue to play the Descent series keyboard-only. For productivity programs, learning the keyboard shortcuts & accessibility keys is one of the first things I do).