Grimrock

Mameluk wrote:Oh look, more opinions. Not like I was expecting anything else. Are you even trying to come to a conclusion, or are you doing this just for fun? Some sick, personal fun you get out of nitpicking and elaborating on your meaningless opinions?

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The developers decided to make the right mouse button dedicated for combat, and the left button dedicated for inventory and menus. What more is there to discuss? They wanted to stay consistent, which they did, and reasons why you want to break this balance do not greatly interest me.

The fact that you keep replying to my posts with increasingly hostile attitude tells a lot about what you do for fun... you know two can play at that game. However, I won't indulge you much longer... that said if my opinions are of no interest to you then why did you even bother replying to my last post.

Mameluk wrote:Also, there's no ground for left button being the primary button of the mouse. It's not a fact, it's just you being delusional. It's just a button like the rest of them.

"When in Rome, do as the romans do." In the case of Grimrock, Rome is whatever operating system or platform the game happens to be running under (which at the time of writing this is Windows).

In the case of Windows, as kindly pointed out, the left mouse button is infact the primary button for a mouse. When I use an application I expect it to behave in a way that is native to the platform.

Now, I do not know if a Mac version is planned, but if it is I could even go as far as to say that LoG should be playable with a mouse that only has one button. The following is a testament to that fact, as so say Apple in their interface guidelines.

Apple Interface guidelines wrote: Users expect to be able to interact with their Mac using the input device of their choice. Some users might use a one-button or multibutton mouse, others might be more comfortable with a trackpad --

Just saying, there are things that you don't just change lightheartedly: "Good product design incorporates a number of timeless principles for human-computer interaction." On windows one of these timeless principles involves as mouse and its buttons, as well as the fact that well designed desktop application can be driven without a mouse (blind people, note I deliberately said desktop application).

So if you could please stop calling me delusional, I haven't done five years of software and web development for nothing (I hope). I don't believe anything I have said warrants your assault even though I may not be nearly as awesome as the guys in Almost Human. I respect their design choice, but I do not agree with it, since there are any number of ways to manipulate the left button to work for both combat and inventory management (f.ex. double click or hold, which you seem to have forgotten even exist).

Regarding conclusion, the only true conclusion for this topic is a dev post stating something not unlike one of these alternatives:
1. We believe users will be able to adapt to this behavior.
2. We are looking into possibilities (including configurable mouse behavior, or any number of other solutions we may come up with).
3. This is not on our priority list, it may be looked at or it may not (the politically correct, yet neutral, answer).

That or a moderator closing this topic. Until then I consider this discussion to be very much open. Which means that if anybody (other than a developer or a mod) tries to brush off or in any way discredit the topic I believe I am in the right to back my opinions, in good manner, even if you or any number of people may disagree with them.

Lets assume AH does inplement a mouse-button-customisation:

I think the multiple options would actually overwhelm any player .. in this post it has been asked to do left-click-to-auto-equip, left-click-to-attack, right-click-to-do-all-spell-interaction, left-click-to-do-all-spell-interaction, whatever-click-to-move-character-positions, etc.
This would probably become a very long list in the key-config-menu. Grimrock does actually not work like most modern games with "primary action buttons" and "secondary action buttons" .. it has a very unique way to interact with things (like dragging a key to a keyhole, looking around as a special option APART from normal movement).

Anyway, lets see what the Almost Human team thinks about these ideas and if/how the will implement it into the game.

Here is one idea for later developments - offer the option of an alternate interface with separated character portraits at the top for status and inventory, and and attack/casting panel on the lower right as seen in the prototype/early development screenshots. Basically, and old school interface mode. There could be only two options (minimal/old school) to reduce confusion, and everyone could choose the one they prefer. I personally would be much more efficient if attack buttons were separate.

A more complicated option would be to allow users to reconfigure the interface elements and mouse button roles individually, but this could also benefit left handed users.

I am about half finished with the game, and still consistently use the wrong button for attacking/casting due to hundreds/thousands of hours spent in "left button to attack" games.

Cheers