Hello all,
I'm sure this issue has been brought to your attention a few times already but since there have been no improvements in this direction in the last year and the implementation itself is extremely simple , I would like to suggest you improve the key binding system. Basically there already is ConsoleBindings.json and you can rebind some keys, but only very few and to a very limited range of actions (like join a team etc.).
What is really necessary is to be able to rebind ALL keys to ALL actions, and since the aliens play so very different from the marines there should be a possibility to bind the same key to different actions depending on what team your on.
Due to lack of official support this has already partially been addressed by mod authors, but due to consistency checking this only works on very few servers and you have to use the old system on all others.
I really can't understand why a game as customizable as NS2 still has a control setup worse than every other game I know. I mean, being unable to bind an alternate key for an action? Even half life 1 could do this, and were talking 1998! I have searched the forums and found a few threads suggesting similar things (like the ability to change the MouseWheel direction. Guys, I can't tell you how many times I killed myself with Xenocide while trying to parasite someone in the heat of battle). But not even once I did find an actual statement from a developer why they are ignoring this for years now, even if it's repeatedly being pointed out as a very simple to fix but annoying flaw in their game. I spend a frustrating 2 hours yesterday trying to somehow hack options.xml or ConsoleBindings.json to make the mousewheel only switch between weapon1 and weapon2 to prevent further Xenoxice kills but finally resorted to just creating a makro in my mouse driver to switch to parasite, fire it and switch back to bite.
The only argument I can think of that suggests leaving some keybindings not customizable is that people will start writing pistol scripts or binding jump or shoot on their mousewheel to spam commands. However, they can do this as easily with Autohotkey or their mouse driver. This is basically why the pistol script problem was fixed using a cooldown timer between shots, which of course is the right way and can also be applied to other problems (like spamming the mousewheel).
What I think is a stronger argument that suggests to make the keyboard fully customizable is that these bugs can be fixed, but if you don't and use this horrible binding system to prevent people from creating pistol scripts and whatnot in the game, you allow everyone using a custom mouse config or autohotkey to still exploit these issues. Also you push all honest players that just want to rebind some controls that simply don't suit them to resort to similar tools, which may lead to them creating unfair makros like the parasite makro or pistol scripts because now it's so easy and partially fixes their problem.
So could one of the devs please point out why you are not addressing this issue?
I'm sure this issue has been brought to your attention a few times already but since there have been no improvements in this direction in the last year and the implementation itself is extremely simple , I would like to suggest you improve the key binding system. Basically there already is ConsoleBindings.json and you can rebind some keys, but only very few and to a very limited range of actions (like join a team etc.).
What is really necessary is to be able to rebind ALL keys to ALL actions, and since the aliens play so very different from the marines there should be a possibility to bind the same key to different actions depending on what team your on.
Due to lack of official support this has already partially been addressed by mod authors, but due to consistency checking this only works on very few servers and you have to use the old system on all others.
I really can't understand why a game as customizable as NS2 still has a control setup worse than every other game I know. I mean, being unable to bind an alternate key for an action? Even half life 1 could do this, and were talking 1998! I have searched the forums and found a few threads suggesting similar things (like the ability to change the MouseWheel direction. Guys, I can't tell you how many times I killed myself with Xenocide while trying to parasite someone in the heat of battle). But not even once I did find an actual statement from a developer why they are ignoring this for years now, even if it's repeatedly being pointed out as a very simple to fix but annoying flaw in their game. I spend a frustrating 2 hours yesterday trying to somehow hack options.xml or ConsoleBindings.json to make the mousewheel only switch between weapon1 and weapon2 to prevent further Xenoxice kills but finally resorted to just creating a makro in my mouse driver to switch to parasite, fire it and switch back to bite.
The only argument I can think of that suggests leaving some keybindings not customizable is that people will start writing pistol scripts or binding jump or shoot on their mousewheel to spam commands. However, they can do this as easily with Autohotkey or their mouse driver. This is basically why the pistol script problem was fixed using a cooldown timer between shots, which of course is the right way and can also be applied to other problems (like spamming the mousewheel).
What I think is a stronger argument that suggests to make the keyboard fully customizable is that these bugs can be fixed, but if you don't and use this horrible binding system to prevent people from creating pistol scripts and whatnot in the game, you allow everyone using a custom mouse config or autohotkey to still exploit these issues. Also you push all honest players that just want to rebind some controls that simply don't suit them to resort to similar tools, which may lead to them creating unfair makros like the parasite makro or pistol scripts because now it's so easy and partially fixes their problem.
So could one of the devs please point out why you are not addressing this issue?