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[zrn]

Hello everyone, I just recently got the game with the steam release. It's a load of fun! Kyzrati, thanks for making such a fun game. I'm still pretty terrible at it, but I know my first win is gonna happen soon. I had a few questions about the game, particularly the interface. I bet most of these questions have simple answers, so I apologize if these questions have been asked before.

1. With a data box pulled up, enter on the numpad pulls up the tooltip (the little box with the blue text that shows up when you look at class, size, or rating in an enemy data window, for example), but it doesn't close it nor do the numpad arrow keys close it. However, normal enter and normal cursor keys close it. Likewise, enter on the numpad does not recenter to your character in the map view like normal enter does. And there are possibly other numpad inconsistencies that I'm forgetting. Is this intentional design?

2. Can you compare items on the ground in keyboard mode like you can with keyboard mode disabled by right clicking objects?

3. Can you move cogmind to your cursor in keyboard mode like you can by clicking?

4. Full detail mode in the combat log usually says what it hit and how much damage it does, but sometimes says stuff like "Assault Rifle (89%) Hit" and doesn't say what it hit or how much damage, and it seems to happen randomly. What does that mean?

5. Just to make absolutely sure, when looking at enemy modifiers, a red bar and a negative percent means resistance, and a green bar with a positive percent is a weakness, right? The tooltip says 'pluses represent greater damage.' Is this the same for cogmind in the status window under resistances? If cogmind is resistant to something, it will be a red bar with a negative percentage? It seems backwards.

And not really a question but more of a tiny bug: while in keyboard mode in a data window of an enemy, when inspecting components or armaments, if you close the second data window of whatever you're inspecting and quickly move the cursor in the primary data window of the enemy, the selection moves back to whatever you were initially inspecting, but in reality your real selection is on wherever you moved the cursor. ie you examine a wheel on an enemy, close the window and quickly move the selection down to another item, the selection warps back to wheel even though if you push enter again, you'll open the other item.

I would ask more questions but I'm too busy playing to type more. Btw thanks to anyone who responds to this thread. Hope I posted this in the right spot 

[Kyzrati]

Welcome zrn!

1. With a data box pulled up, enter on the numpad pulls up the tooltip (the little box with the blue text that shows up when you look at class, size, or rating in an enemy data window, for example), but it doesn't close it nor do the numpad arrow keys close it. However, normal enter and normal cursor keys close it. Likewise, enter on the numpad does not recenter to your character in the map view like normal enter does. And there are possibly other numpad inconsistencies that I'm forgetting. Is this intentional design?

Not intentional! Numpad Enter is just not that often used from what I know, so I've never gotten feedback on what else it might not cover. I can add these two as long as they don't conflict with anything or lead to other problems, which I imagine they don't. I'll check for anything else that the Numpad Enter doesn't cover.

2. Can you compare items on the ground in keyboard mode like you can with keyboard mode disabled by right clicking objects?

Nope.
You can use '3' to get labels with ratings for a general comparison, but for details you'll want to pick up the items. The keyboard examine control scheme can't work while the info window is open. (Before long you won't need to do too much comparing between floor items as you gain familiarity with what they're capable of and what works for your style.)

3. Can you move cogmind to your cursor in keyboard mode like you can by clicking?

Nope, but that's an interesting idea. None of the keyboard players have asked for it in the past two years . Probably because kb players like their precision and specific tactical positioning rather than letting the game decide. For example you'll often want to intentionally travel through certain areas along a non-optimal path, because it's safer. Also different types of builds will often use different pathing styles.

I could add this feature fairly easily though, if anyone really wants it.

4. Full detail mode in the combat log usually says what it hit and how much damage it does, but sometimes says stuff like "Assault Rifle (89%) Hit" and doesn't say what it hit or how much damage, and it seems to happen randomly. What does that mean?

There are a number of possible meanings, but all "hit" actually means is that the to-hit roll succeeded. Some factors may prevent it from actually hitting or damaging a specific target.

Revamping the calc window so that there is no ambiguity with those is something I want to do, but I don't have not enough time to work on it. (It's quite complex, for only minor benefit.)

5. Just to make absolutely sure, when looking at enemy modifiers, a red bar and a negative percent means resistance, and a green bar with a positive percent is a weakness, right? The tooltip says 'pluses represent greater damage.' Is this the same for cogmind in the status window under resistances? If cogmind is resistant to something, it will be a red bar with a negative percentage? It seems backwards.

Right, as it says they are damage modifiers, not resistances. (It's from X-Com.) It's not backwards so much as confusing, since under a damage modifier system with both positives and negatives you can argue for either approach. (It actually used to be the other way around until players didn't like that and it was changed to its current state.)

But don't worry, that display system is going to change to use a resistance format players are more used to.

And not really a question but more of a tiny bug: while in keyboard mode in a data window of an enemy, when inspecting components or armaments, if you close the second data window of whatever you're inspecting and quickly move the cursor in the primary data window of the enemy, the selection moves back to whatever you were initially inspecting, but in reality your real selection is on wherever you moved the cursor. ie you examine a wheel on an enemy, close the window and quickly move the selection down to another item, the selection warps back to wheel even though if you push enter again, you'll open the other item.

Yes that's normal. The cursor is active (and used by the system) even in keyboard mode (albeit hidden), and moving the mouse will technically change what's selected, but because you're in keyboard mode the internally selected item always takes precedence.

[zrn]

Thanks for the detailed response! Your answers make sense, and thanks for clearing up the damage modifier thing. About the 'move to cursor' thing, I would use it but I can always just disable keyboard mode and click so nbd.

[Kyzrati]

True that if you're not doing it very often (which I imagine you aren't?), a simple F2 will suffice . Anyway, I'll keep it under consideration.

[Tack]

#2...I swear I can compare items. Press x and then d on the ground item, then do your Shift+(inventory/equipped part) and you get the comparison.

[Kyzrati]

Yeah that one works, but what some players might want to do is compare two items that are both on the ground. Technically the mouse can do this, but the keyboard cannot (it wasn't even a mouse feature originally, but was added in alpha since people expected it and, most importantly, it was possible ).

[zxc]

Maybe when in 'x' mode it should remember the last item you examined, so that the next item shows the comparison. Then reset the last item memory when you leave 'x' mode.

[Kyzrati]

That's a possibility. The main problem there is it can be a little confusing because it doesn't show the name of the previous item (something I couldn't design in and have it look good despite trying several times, so it's intentionally left out).

I could add it, though there are a lot of considerations and restrictions with a feature like that. Same-action only seems to solve most of them in theory...

[Kyzrati]

Keyboard mode map-item to map-item comparisons coming next release:

[DDarkray]

Keyboard mode map-item to map-item comparisons coming next release:

Nice! And I guess you can do that with inventory items too?

[Kyzrati]

You could always do that with both inventory and attached items. The difference was that it couldn't be done between two map items.

[DDarkray]

Can you also compare map item with inventory item?

[Kyzrati]

Yes, that's what I was saying you can already do that right now. The only thing missing was map-to-map comparisons.

[DDarkray]

Oh ok. I guess I shouldn't be asking questions like this when I'm not using Keyboard mode at all. 

[zrn]

Keyboard mode map-item to map-item comparisons coming next release

If there was a thank button on this forum I would push it. That is really cool.