[Joshua May]

Originally Posted by afflictionblade

for the voodoo mode, we would have small red circles on the robot called "handles" you just grab onto that handle and drag it.

let's use MOE's arm for an example:

say MOE's arm is at a 90 degree angle. the player would grab the handle and move the pointer over. now we know that nobody can keep the mouse on the exact edge or the circle of rotation, so here's essentially how it would work. when the pointer is moved, the computer draws a line from the joint to the pointer location. then it rotates the arm until the handle hits the line. basically matching the angle. well, this may not be exactly how it would be programmed, but essentially how it would respond.

now, let's consider a 2-jointed arm, like my team had:

we would have a system like this for each joint, but for operating ease, we can have a special key to activate an alternate mode when held. the player would hold this key down, and grab the handle at the end of the arm. now, anywhere within the arm's range, that point would go, and here's how. the computer would form a triangle between the two arm segments and the line between the handle and the first joint. this way, it would be like actually grabbing the arm at the end (like we can on our controls) and pulling the middle joint in space, allowing the two to turn to the point where they fit.

these handles would act almost like the title bars on windows, click and drag.

Sounds nice, but I think it's a bit complex for gameplay. I think it would be easier to have something like W=first stage up, S=first stage down, E=second stage up, D=second stage down (not necessarily those keys)