[Joshua May]

Originally Posted by Texan

I agree with HHSJosh. I think that the voodoo things may be too complicated to be handled well. I think that instead of making the user do most/all of the work by mouse, we should do something like:

• Robot movement - Done by the "analog circle" idea
• EX of an arm which has to joints and a winch/hook combination:
  • You hold down 'a' to activate the lower joint. That joint is now movable by the mouse in the analog circle. (I.E. the farther from center, the quicker the movement. The side of center in the circle would determine which direction. Position off of the vertical/horizontal diameter (depending on joint orientation) would be ignored as joints can't move in more than 1D (mostly. good enough for our purposes)) To deactivate the joint and allow robot control again, just release the key.
  • Same thing for the upper joint, only with, say, the 'q' key.
  • For the winch, very similar idea. To activate, hold done a key. The mouse then contols its speed/direction. (and, yes, we would limit it in one direct because it is a winch. Maybe we could 'break' it if it goes the wrong way...)

So... I'm done...

P.S. Oh, wow, that was scary. After I finished typing that, I posted it... and the site was down for backup. Lucky for me Firefox saved everything...

How about you activate the arm with the 'a' key, but then use the up and down arrows to actually move the arm.

Really with the voodoo and that, even with moving the mouse to move objects with a keyboard select, that takes away from the movement of the robot for a second, doesn't it? It would be better if players could multitask and move the robot while performing a specific function, IMHO. It doesn't sound right if the driver has to stop, put the arm up, and move again, you lose valuable time.