Q and E Keys (mapping)

[Gregorovitch]

Fixed title. --- ssilk

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I'm sure one gets used to this, but before I do i wanted to raise the issue of the Q and E key functionality because, until and if you get used to it, it confuses and frustrates idiot newbies like me who have enough to think about already as it is. Basically you get confused and finger-tied trying to either close and inventory window or remove a current item in hand. People are used to doing this sort of thing with a mouse and it's really hard to resist RMB.

I have noticed that with an item in hand middle button/scroll wheel click does not seem to do anything - could that be set as an additional command to dismiss item from hand as an alternative option to 'Q''?

Similarly with an inventory window open RMB doesn't seem to do anything - that would be a good alternative option to 'E' to dismiss inventory window if possible.

[FishSandwich]

Like many games, if you're not happy with the default controls you can change them in the options menu.

[Gregorovitch]

You are absolutely right - just changed those options and they appear to work fine.

I would comment that the very new players most likely to find the current Q and E bindings most difficult to adjust to (and be put off by them) are also those most unlikely to experiment with key bindings to make their lives easier (they tend to worry they'll break something). Clearly the current defaults are so well known now in the community they can't be changed, but I would consider adding a set of secondary bindings for some frequently used commands (such as these Q and E ones) and set them up by default for the most mouse-oriented play possible as new players will probably find that more intuitive and easier to learn.

E is not so bad 'cos it's used in a lot of games that also use WASD, e.g. Skyrim, but Q the way it's used here is not. I think a big issue is that in a game like Skyrim where Q is used to access favourites and I to access inventory in both cases the game pauses making the player relaxed about losing left hand focus on WASD temporarily to use them. Here in real time it's less comfortable. E in Skyrim is real time to interact with world objects but using the index finger up from D to do it is more well known and natural I think. Another way to put this is that a lot of people who are not hard core real time gamers would prefer to keep their fingers firmly on WASD and do as much else as possible using the mouse.

I would also add a restore defaults button on the key binding window to reduce fear of screwing things up.

[JamesOFarrell]

I really struggled with this when I started playing and still get frustrated. I still find myself hitting escape instead of q to clear the selected item as it has become a sort of universal "cancel action" key in games. Maybe changing the behavior of escape to not just close windows (also, it should close the map) but to also cancel the selected item if there is no open window. This seems more intuitive to me and would have alleviated most of the frustration I had learning the game.

[ssilk]

The currently binding doesn't work for example on MacBook. There is not a real right mouse button on it (and the emulation isn't handled in Factorio, or I'm too stupid to get that managed).

A list (4-6) of default key bindings for different keyboards, OS etc. would be my wish.

[JamesOFarrell]

http://clement.beffa.org/labs/projects/middleclick/. Here is a program to add triple finger middle click to the Macbook track pad, it is so very useful.

[Kitefr]

Thanks for the link by the way !

I'm using mac and my keyboard is not very well suited for gaming. My ctrl key is not placed in a right position for this use.
I wanted to make some command like X+Left Clic but it didn't work. You have to select Ctrl, Alt or Shift. You can't select Cmd (for mac) at least.

I wish we an use anything for binding commands !

[ssilk]

http://clement.beffa.org/labs/projects/middleclick/. Here is a program to add triple finger middle click to the Macbook track pad, it is so very useful.

Well, I tried it. Ever tried to play Factorio like so? It's a mess...

[krux02]

The currently binding doesn't work for example on MacBook. There is not a real right mouse button on it (and the emulation isn't handled in Factorio, or I'm too stupid to get that managed).

A list (4-6) of default key bindings for different keyboards, OS etc. would be my wish.

For different keyboard layouts there is a better solution. Use scancodes instead of keycodes (for the programming) and the layout isn't important anymore.