5 ms·

https://tinywind.io/wiki/briefing https://tinywind.io/wiki/briefing Shift fires.

tinywind 4mo ago
Lmk if space to fire and shift for map makes more sense I wanted it to feel natural for qwerty and arrow key controls, the space felt a little clunky with arrow keys.
- airstrike 4mo ago
  Tab and M for map, WASD and arrows for controls, space to fire seems like a good compromise
  - tinywind 4mo ago
    I’ll be making this change! Though I’m worried it’s gonna be tougher for people to find the map and ship logs since space is a natural button to try and press early on
    - duozerk 4mo ago
      The whole thing should ideally have a quick modal with hotkeys when you first open it (and a small button to bring it up again if needed).
      - ffsm8 4mo ago
        Modals are the worst ux in games. If it's only a few buttons anyway you can just show them somewhere as hints while the user isn't giving input or until they used then. Eg just show a "m for Map\nspace to fire" until the user used each, hiding them each when the m/space is used respectively for that session (session storage so it shows up again if the user comes back later)
    - altern8 4mo ago
      Space to me means fire. You can show the mini-map in a corner, right? Why do you need to toggle it, Slither has it shown at all times.
      - airstrike 4mo ago
        I agree minimap on corner is ideal, but it does make it easier in a way
    - akavel 4mo ago
      As others mention, show the keys in the interface. It took me a while to discover accidentally, by pressing space, that I can trim the sails. You could make a graphical guide, showing a ship with arrows around, some arrows attached to the hull with keys responsible for turning the ship, some arrows attached to sails with keys responsible for trimming them. Yet another key by the cannons fire to show which key... umm... fires the cannons...
- bennyp101 4mo ago
  My first instinct was space to fire FWIW (Also its giving me Age of Empire feels here!)
- bluefirebrand 4mo ago
  Shift doesn't make sense as a main key almost at all tbh. Space to fire makes more sense than shift to fire Edit: Shift is a modifier key. Hold shift to go from lowercase -> capitals. In FPS games shift is walking -> running. In RTS games shift is "select one of these units -> select all of these units" I know your game doesn't have to follow these rules, you can do whatever you want. However it's worth thinking about what "language" each key on the keyboard is speaking when you want to use it.
  - tinywind 4mo ago
    This actually makes a lot of sense to me. Never thought about shift being a modifier key from a UX perspective, I’ll likely make space to fire and move map to M because of this thread. Thanks guys!
    - bluefirebrand 4mo ago
      Tab is a good key for changing to a map too, if you don't have it for something else already
    - altern8 4mo ago
      This will make it a lot more intuitive to play
    - ForHackernews 4mo ago
      Thank you! It's very confusing to me that spacebar doesn't fire.
- nklp 4mo ago
  Shift has the problem of bringing up windows sticky keys dialog box if you tap it too fast. Spacebar was my instinct for fire key as well. For map it would be 'M'. Whichever you choose, please consider displaying the controls inside the game, at least during the setup screen, don't make the user search for controls in the wiki. :) Also the hp bar below the minimap is a bit weird, would expect it the same as enemy ships above my ship, so i can see if i'm winning or losing a cannon exchange like in a rts game. Or at least someplace more convenient to quickly glance at nearer the center of the screen. Very fun game by the way, well done! Scratches the nostalgia itch of 'Corsairs Gold' for me.
  - simoncion 4mo ago
    > Shift has the problem of bringing up windows sticky keys dialog box if you tap it too fast. An operator fixes this forever by turning off that "enable Sticky Keys" keyboard shortcut. I've not used Windows 11 or Windows 8, but in every other version that had the Sticky Keys feature, I remember there being a prominent "Don't enable Sticky Keys when you press <whatever> X times in quick succession" checkbox in the dialog that let you configure Sticky Keys and related accessibility things. Over the years, I've seen so many videogame streamers get screwed over by the "Activate Sticky Keys??" dialog pop up that it became pretty clear that they were all keeping it in reserve for the entertainment value. Maybe regular folks get so flustered by it that they don't bother to read the system dialog that pops up.
  - ChoGGi 4mo ago
    You can use this reg edit to disable all sticky keys https://github.com/ChoGGi/RegistryTweaks/blob/master/Tweaks/Disable_Stickykeys.reg https://github.com/ChoGGi/RegistryTweaks/blob/master/Tweaks/...
- pegasus 4mo ago
  Space to fire would be my preference as well.
- WarmWash 4mo ago
  Space for fire, I kept hitting it reflexively.
- bonestamp2 4mo ago
  Space was definitely what I pressed first to fire. Then enter. Then shift. Later I realized the menu has the key bindings in it.
- ajdude 4mo ago
  I also tried using the space bar to fire, it took a bit of digging to realize it was the shift key, but space bar felt more natural for me.

Lmk if space to fire and shift for map makes more sense I wanted it to feel natural for qwerty and arrow key controls, the space felt a little clunky with arrow keys.

airstrike 4mo ago
Tab and M for map, WASD and arrows for controls, space to fire seems like a good compromise
- tinywind 4mo ago
  I’ll be making this change! Though I’m worried it’s gonna be tougher for people to find the map and ship logs since space is a natural button to try and press early on
  - duozerk 4mo ago
    The whole thing should ideally have a quick modal with hotkeys when you first open it (and a small button to bring it up again if needed).
    - ffsm8 4mo ago
      Modals are the worst ux in games. If it's only a few buttons anyway you can just show them somewhere as hints while the user isn't giving input or until they used then. Eg just show a "m for Map\nspace to fire" until the user used each, hiding them each when the m/space is used respectively for that session (session storage so it shows up again if the user comes back later)
  - altern8 4mo ago
    Space to me means fire. You can show the mini-map in a corner, right? Why do you need to toggle it, Slither has it shown at all times.
    - airstrike 4mo ago
      I agree minimap on corner is ideal, but it does make it easier in a way
  - akavel 4mo ago
    As others mention, show the keys in the interface. It took me a while to discover accidentally, by pressing space, that I can trim the sails. You could make a graphical guide, showing a ship with arrows around, some arrows attached to the hull with keys responsible for turning the ship, some arrows attached to sails with keys responsible for trimming them. Yet another key by the cannons fire to show which key... umm... fires the cannons...
bennyp101 4mo ago
My first instinct was space to fire FWIW (Also its giving me Age of Empire feels here!)
bluefirebrand 4mo ago
Shift doesn't make sense as a main key almost at all tbh. Space to fire makes more sense than shift to fire Edit: Shift is a modifier key. Hold shift to go from lowercase -> capitals. In FPS games shift is walking -> running. In RTS games shift is "select one of these units -> select all of these units" I know your game doesn't have to follow these rules, you can do whatever you want. However it's worth thinking about what "language" each key on the keyboard is speaking when you want to use it.
- tinywind 4mo ago
  This actually makes a lot of sense to me. Never thought about shift being a modifier key from a UX perspective, I’ll likely make space to fire and move map to M because of this thread. Thanks guys!
  - bluefirebrand 4mo ago
    Tab is a good key for changing to a map too, if you don't have it for something else already
  - altern8 4mo ago
    This will make it a lot more intuitive to play
  - ForHackernews 4mo ago
    Thank you! It's very confusing to me that spacebar doesn't fire.
nklp 4mo ago
Shift has the problem of bringing up windows sticky keys dialog box if you tap it too fast. Spacebar was my instinct for fire key as well. For map it would be 'M'. Whichever you choose, please consider displaying the controls inside the game, at least during the setup screen, don't make the user search for controls in the wiki. :) Also the hp bar below the minimap is a bit weird, would expect it the same as enemy ships above my ship, so i can see if i'm winning or losing a cannon exchange like in a rts game. Or at least someplace more convenient to quickly glance at nearer the center of the screen. Very fun game by the way, well done! Scratches the nostalgia itch of 'Corsairs Gold' for me.
- simoncion 4mo ago
  > Shift has the problem of bringing up windows sticky keys dialog box if you tap it too fast. An operator fixes this forever by turning off that "enable Sticky Keys" keyboard shortcut. I've not used Windows 11 or Windows 8, but in every other version that had the Sticky Keys feature, I remember there being a prominent "Don't enable Sticky Keys when you press <whatever> X times in quick succession" checkbox in the dialog that let you configure Sticky Keys and related accessibility things. Over the years, I've seen so many videogame streamers get screwed over by the "Activate Sticky Keys??" dialog pop up that it became pretty clear that they were all keeping it in reserve for the entertainment value. Maybe regular folks get so flustered by it that they don't bother to read the system dialog that pops up.
- ChoGGi 4mo ago
  You can use this reg edit to disable all sticky keys https://github.com/ChoGGi/RegistryTweaks/blob/master/Tweaks/Disable_Stickykeys.reg https://github.com/ChoGGi/RegistryTweaks/blob/master/Tweaks/...
pegasus 4mo ago
Space to fire would be my preference as well.
WarmWash 4mo ago
Space for fire, I kept hitting it reflexively.
bonestamp2 4mo ago
Space was definitely what I pressed first to fire. Then enter. Then shift. Later I realized the menu has the key bindings in it.
ajdude 4mo ago
I also tried using the space bar to fire, it took a bit of digging to realize it was the shift key, but space bar felt more natural for me.