The current functionality of the arrow keys is… really weird. Worst of all, it’s used by a staggering amount of the young playerbase who don’t know any better. Holding down right-click to rotate the camera is also an uncommon behavior that most new players don’t understand.
Here’s what I’m thinking:
Change the arrow keys to work identically to WASD. This fixes the problem of young players who are trudging through every game with slow, unresponsive tank controls because they don’t know any better. Paired with the follow camera, they’ll finally have proper control on the level of Xbox & mobile players. On top of this, the arrow keys don’t function correctly with fixed cameras; only up and down move the player.
Add a new camera mode for developers that rotates the camera freely without having to hold right click (possibly invert the behavior and have right click unlock the mouse). This will let developers make more user-friendly games with a simple switch of an option. This is a standardized type of camera that is lacking from Roblox.
When I did the ROBLOX Accelerator/Incubator programs and we had weekly playtests with kids, this was one of the things that bothered me the most when they played on PC/Mac. It doesn’t feel fair to us that they’re stuck using these without express knowledge and it isn’t fair to them since the controls are so bad.
Plus, it’s just legacy at this point and it’s entirely unnecessary.
i’ve got to say this kind of thing happened all the time in my accelerator stay as well, and it sort of seems like, while we can disable this behavior, the default controlscript shouldn’t support it, or the arrowkeys should behave better
While I agree, I’m not too sure about a whole new camera mode. In my honest opinion, it is currently bloated with modes that aren’t often if ever used to begin with, and something should be done about that too.
The following I’ve never seen used, and only observed their functionality being replicated in a different way via Scriptable anyways.
Additionally, there seems to be little if any documentation on how these modes work, and how the api for them works should any scripter dare try to edit it (as the comments in them are usually obvious of not clear enough).
I believe a reform to maybe the CameraScript and maybe ControlScript to take into account for the much needed improvements for younger audiences, and enriching gameplay controls where possible. Regardless, there aren’t any complaints I really have for ControlScript besides the previously mentioned arrow up and down key functionality.
Big agree, but my only big issue with this would be that it’s such a big, sudden change. There’s no way to “ease” into a change like this–anyone using the arrow keys won’t be conscious of ROBLOX enough to notice any “update” warning that the arrow key functionality will be changing. They’ll just hop into the game one day and the keys won’t work like they used to, and cue [more] insanity on the forums.
I like to use the arrow keys to move the camera when I join games on my laptop. It’s actually more efficient than using the trackpad, and works fine in casual/social games.
Same. RMB on my trackpad is double-tap, so that + dragging is a pain. I think we need to improve the control scheme though: since the left/right arrow keys are useful, we trick users who aren’t tech savvy into thinking they should use the up/down arrow keys as well.
Put your right hand on the arrow keys (index left, middle up/down, and 3rd right arrow); now, your four fingers on the spacebar, with your thumb resting below. This is how users who use the arrow keys control their character. Compare that to normal WASD+spacebar for left hand, and your right hand on the arrow keys (same as previously but with middle resting between). It becomes quickly obvious which hand placement is easier.
Maybe instead of making the left/right arrow keys emulate A/D, we should make the up/down arrow keys control pitch of the camera. Players would control their movement with their left hand, and their camera with their right – same as with a mouse+keyboard. AFAIK the largest problem is arrow movement, and not players knowing how to use the mouse.
There’s nothing wrong with the <-, → keys – why would I use , and . ? This is also a feature request aimed at designing a better default control scheme so new users don’t have trouble picking it up – not one looking for workarounds on a per-user basis.
