HighXplosive

Firstly thank you for truly understanding what I am talking about. In answer to your question about the mouse wheel for lean left and right - no, I am not suggesting the mouse wheel be used for those controls because that would be confusing and impractical. I think lean left and right should remain distinct controls because it would allow the player to choose to lean left or right OR step left or right THEN lean left or right (as already exists in the game). I do however, to add to my idea, think it would be a nice addition to allow player to lean left or right, while holding the adjustment key, by pressing strafe left and right instead of lean left and right - just another way to streamline controls slightly.

Placebo, permit me this small transgression. I have no appetite for childish soap operas either, but I do want to defend this idea I have carefully spent time writing by discrediting the first few replies and poll votes and I'm sure you agree that defending an idea is on topic and relevant so long as you don't become offensive and childish. I am simply presenting some facts for people to read and for them to make decisions about the 'quality' of the first few replies. After that, I will not mention it anymore unless more unfair criticism is made. http://s16.postimage.org/i55in8lrp/image.jpg http://www.tsviewer.com/index.php?page=ts_viewer&ID=987844 I will let this information speak for itself. ---------- Post added at 18:50 ---------- Previous post was at 18:46 ---------- I should probably say that I agree that no controls should be removed. More options to customise controls are always good, provided they are clearly labelled. "Up" is hardly a suitable name for a control that makes you CROUCH!

Interesting - he never said he was talking about you. I think that speaks for itself. I also note that your profile states you are friends with Stagler and that your posts occured at almost the exact same time as a few of the other first posters. And that you are both in the same clan with some of the other first few posts. Just pointing out some facts, that's all. I agree. Consolidating controls and then making all the obvious improvements we have wanted for years would help 'modernise' the game to involve those players who simply found the game unintuitive and sluggish. The complexity of this game should derive from its niche status as a brillaint military simulator, not from fighting the physical limitations of hardware devices. Such a change would be a benefit to everyone - even those who can't see it.

With all due respect, you don't understand the problem. Reassigning keys doesn't SOLVE the problem because the problem is that there ARE too many keys. Furthermore, reassigning keys doesn't SOLVE the problem that the mouse wheel is an excellent tool for MULTIPLE purposes but key assignation only allows it to be assigned to ONE purpose. Reassigning keys is a WORKAROUND, and a poor one, because if I do reassign my keys so that my mouse wheel changes stance I still have a ridiculous amount of keys for movement speeds. In addition, making my mouse wheel adjust stance means it can no longer be used to traverse the scroll menu. In other words, you can do one or the other, not all. The proposal I have given is intended to simplify the functionality of keys AS WELL AS introduce some sensible user interface controls to a clunky scroll wheel menu. You have misunderstood the problem and the improvement this would make to the controls if you think reassigning keys solves the probem.

TLDR Summary Use the mouse wheel to adjust speed up/down as well as stance up/down and menu scrolling when you hold specific keys. Keep Toggle Prone, Toggle Crouch. Fix Lean/Roll. Get rid of all the confusing/redundant keys for pace. Add stance indicator Additional random idea - mouse wheel could be used to adjust throwing distance when a key is held instead of having multiple throwing type keys (Drop, Roll, Underarm, Overarm, Hold in Hand, etc). Definitions I am going to start by listing the controls that are relevant for my suggestions so you all know what I am referring to. The current system in the Alpha imports the control system from Arma 2 and adds new a new adjustment control for stances. Stand up Crouch Prone Up (which actually functions as "Toggle Crouch") Go Prone (which functions as "Toggle Prone") Adjust (the new stance adjustment feature in Arma 3) Lean Left and Lean Right (including toggle variants)*** It also imports the movement speed controls from Arma 2 and adds a new combat pace toggle (tactical jog). Turbo (functions as sprint) Turbo Toggle (sprint toggle) Fast Forward (functions as sprint) Slow Forward (functions as walk) Walk or run temporary (hold to walk/run, includes toggle variant) Evasive Left and Right (roll left and right when prone) ***I should point out that lean left or right are intended to function as evasive left or right (roll left or right) as stated in the Field Manual controls in the Arma 3 menu but do not at the time of writing in the Alpha. This needs to be fixed. Note that I am using custom controls. Problem The problem is quite clear: there's just too many damn controls. There are two sides to this argument - some people love this level of customisation and others loathe the complexity of it. The latter group are the losers at the moment. I have come up with a control scheme that preserves all the controls I have listed while being more simple, intuitive and fluid than the myriad of controls we have here. I should note my drew a main part of my ideas from the way Splinter Cell Chaos Theory handles multiple movement speeds using the mouse wheel, so for those of you who have played that game, you will have a good idea of what I intend. All I am basically suggesting is that the mouse wheel does stance and menu scrolling as well when you hold specific keys. See below for more detail. Rethinking the Controls The theory is rather than seperate all the paces into this confusing set of controls that seems to afford special status to Combat Pace (which is only special by virtue of its profound absence from previous games) is that all the movements speeds are simply on a scale from slow to fast, much like the new stances are from low to high. There are 4 core movement speeds in Arma 3 Alpha at the moment - Slow, Tactical, Fast, Sprint. When standing these correspond to Walk, Combat Pace, Run and Sprint and these 4 paces exist in Prone or Crouch at ALL height levels (i.e. including the new adjustment heights). In relation to this, there are 3 core stances in the game - Prone, Crouch and Stand. Each stance has 3 adjustment heights - Low, Mid, High. In additions to this, Crouch and Standing have 2 adjustment steps - Left and Right. Furthermore, Crouch and Standing have Lean Left and Lean Right. Prone has Roll Left and Roll Right instead of Leaning. Heres how I suggest combining all the above controls/facts into a scheme using the mouse wheel. I will declare a list of suggested new controls and define what they mean and do. Speed Up/Stance Up/Menu Up - Increases movement speed, when "Adjust Stance" is held it increases stance, when "Scroll Menu" is held it scrolls through the menu. Speed Down/Stance Down/Menu Down - The opposite of the above. Strafe Left - Strafes Left, when "Adjust Stance" is held it steps left. Strafe Right - Opposite of Strafe Left. Lean Left/Roll Left - Functions exactly as just now (i.e. hold to lean left including in step left stance). Lean Left Toggle - See above. Lean Right/Roll Right - Opposite of lean left. Lean Right Toggle - See above. Adjustment- Activates Adjustment mode on Stance Up/Down controls when held, deactivates on release - the stance on release is retained, double tapping this key resets your current stance to the core stance at your height (Mid Prone, Mid Crouch, Mid Stand). Toggle Crouch - Functions like current Up (see definitions above). Exists for the purpose of allowing you to quickly adopt Prone instead of cycling stances. Toggle Prone - Functions like Go Prone (see definitions above). Interaction Menu - It shows the existing scroll wheel menu but with the following fundamental differences. Your current shouldered weapon is listed so you can "cancel" the menu by selecting it. The menu only appears for as long as the key is held - on release, it activates the last thing highlighted (to cancel refer to above point about reselecting held weapon). Alternatively, selection can be done by using another control called "Select Menu Item" which isby default mouse wheel click. Altnenatively, the scroll menu can be discarded and a widget can be used whereby items are presented graphically and selection by mouse click when held. In addition to all this, there is an option called "Invert Stance/Speed Adjustment" in Game Options that changes the default function of the Speed Up/Stance Up/Menu Up and Speed Down/Stance Down/Menu Down keys. By this I mean scrolling the wheel adjusts your stance instead of speed and the Adjustment key is held to adjust your speed instead of your stance. What is crucial for this scheme to work is responsiveness of the controls. Finally, to top this all off, there MUST be a stance indicator (and that's an already requested obvious feature regardless of this idea I've presented). I understand this can be hard to visualise but as said, if you have played Splinter Cell Chaos Theory you will have an idea what I mean. In that game, the mouse wheel is used to adjust your speed. To reiterate - all I am basically suggesting is that the mouse wheel does stance and menu scrolling as well when you hold specific keys. Random Idea Mouse wheel could used to adjust throwing distance of grenades when a key is held OR scrolls through grenade types.