Controls overhaul and Squad possession

Controls overhaul and Squad possession

Sometimes development doesn't yield a screen shot because it's behind the scenes. This is mostly one of those cases. The entire human input system was overhauled to be far more flexible and support more devices at the same time. The controls before while being able to be personalized, were universal. Different screens really needed their own set of defined controls, and with the main simulation/piloting screen taking up most of them, very few keys were left for other screens, and certainly not ones that made any sense. Also, the joystick support was rather hard coded, and really only supported the first two buttons. It was one of those situations that was "good enough", but now isn't. Now each screen can have it's own unique set of preferences for each button on the system, and a specific command can have more than one button from difference devices assigned to it. So if you wanted Keys "J" and "K", Mouse button 3 and 7, and joystick buttons 3, 5, and 32, you could do it. Why would you want to assign so many buttons to the same command, who knows, but you can. Also, Axis support being assignable is a big add to the system. This includes mouse button axes (which includes the mouse wheel). They can be assigned like the buttons so there is overlap if you want. The main reason for the flexibility is because everyone's layout is different and their own personal play-style is different. Someone on the livestream said they got a mouse with a lot of extra buttons for a different game but never really was able to use it for another game until now. I have been aware of people fighting the controls, and this update has greatly helped.

To that end, fleet control, or more specifically, possession has been made far easier. The targeting of an enemy has also been overhauled. Using that overhaul, it can now target the nearest HEALTHY friendly ship. There is no point in possessing a ship that is critically damaged. There are also now one button possessions that can allow the player to instantly jump to another one of their own ships that is healthy, and have the option to keep their old target, or switch to the target that the AI had before the player took over. This allows the action not to be interrupted in the middle of a giant battle in space. Instead of being the old two step process of finding a ship (which usually meant scrolling through all the ships to find one that works which took a while) and then possessing it, now it's a simple button. Which can, of course, be assigned to an extra joystick and/or mouse button. Also, the addition of how many ships are left in your squad is now in the readout in the upper right (self-damage monitor). This is to show you how many ships you have left that are in action. It will disappear if your ship is the last one. Personally, I have one joystick button for targeting, and one button for the instant possession. It really keeps the game action flowing!

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