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Allow keyboard controls to be used everywhere
Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2022 7:33 pm
by astronaute
TL;DR
We can rotate structures using keyboard but we cannot "Fast entity transfer" using keyboard.
What ?
If you try to bind "Fast entity transfer" to a keyboard key, the following error is displayed:

- 4.png (68.07 KiB) Viewed 1387 times
It would be amazing if this restriction was lifted as it doesn’t make much sense to impose this kind of limitations on a user.
Why ?
Mouse is very limited and some users do not have enough buttons or SHIFT/CTRL combinations to use all of the actions properly. Besides, the current limitation doesn’t even make sense because we can make some of the actions requiring the mouse hover on the keyboard (rotate).
Lastly, most mouses nowadays use keyboard keys anyway as they have too many buttons (Razer Naga for instance).
Re: Allow keyboard controls to be used everywhere
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 4:20 am
by ssilk
First: for fast replacement you need to say which entities you wanna replace. That’s currently only possible via mouse. I have no idea (and you either) how that should work then…
I think Factorio 1.2 will eventually support that.
Re: Allow keyboard controls to be used everywhere
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 2:12 pm
by SerhiiS
The default keyboard setup is quite comfortable. The feature that you need is most likely not needed by anyone else. Therefore, you should ask modders to do this or write a mod yourself. I think that in a vanilla game this is not necessary and only complicate the beginner's understanding of the controls.
Re: Allow keyboard controls to be used everywhere
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 7:14 pm
by astronaute
SerhiiS wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 2:12 pm
The default keyboard setup is quite comfortable. The feature that you need is most likely not needed by anyone else. Therefore, you should ask modders to do this or write a mod yourself. I think that in a vanilla game this is not necessary and only complicate the beginner's understanding of the controls.
I’m not suggesting to change the defaults, I’m just asking to be able to rebind to whatever controls I want. Beginners will not be impacted at all.
Re: Allow keyboard controls to be used everywhere
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 7:16 pm
by astronaute
ssilk wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 4:20 am
First: for fast replacement you need to say which entities you wanna replace. That’s currently only possible via mouse. I have no idea (and you either) how that should work then…
I think Factorio 1.2 will eventually support that.
I mentioned "fast transfer", not replacement. Right now I use middle mouse button, but any keyboard key would work without issues for that if it was possible to rebind.