Okay, I’ll accept that I could be wrong, but I thought I recalled the game including a keyboard map.
They all had keyboard maps because joysticks of the era had so few buttons that you had to use both. But the stick itself was the desired primary movement interface. Keyboard mostly for targeting and other subsystems.
Of course it included a keyboard map! Sticks only had maybe 2-4 buttons back then, for the most part, so the rest was on the keyboard.
OK, then perhaps it was hybrid? A designer could clarify but my guess is they expected the keyboard to be used, even if the joystick was involved.
A hybrid, what?
Hybrid, meaning, game design that expects a keyboard and another peripheral (e.g. mouse, joystick, etc.) Even if the mouse wasn’t default per “kb/m”, designing with a keyboard is obviously different than designing for a gamepad.
I used to be a keyboard heavy gamer but that changed as I played more consoles into the 90s/2000s.
THEN EVERY GAME IS A HYBRID!
Sorry, sorry, I am PRICKLY this morning.
Every PC game, perhaps. But saying “every game expects a keyboard” obviously isn’t true.
Heh, I was surprised when you used the word “bullshit” so quickly in response. ;)
I think the key point I was making was that as a genre, with one notable exception, none of those games were designed as solely mouse and keyboard as the primary interface.
The keyboard in those circumstances was more or less a mickey-mouse secondary HOTAS device in terms of design. And the mouse itself was last resort.
Cool, makes sense. I was trying to think of a space sim that focused on kb/m and was hyper focused on the keyboard aspect vs the mouse.
Every flight sim enthusiast I know has a HOTAS, which seems to be the norm for the genre (clearly both Brian and Travis have far, far more invested into the genre than most of us here!)
AFTER Freelancer, some space games tried to copy that mouse and keyboard formula, with limited results. I was just playing 2007’s Tarr Chronicles yesterday, which DESPERATELY wants you to use a mouse to control the thing, for example.
I would’ve used a HOTAS a decade ago but I am old and broken and impatient. And moving my hand that far to do anything while playing a game makes me crabby. I need to preserve these old joints.
I’ve always considered mouse the absolute worst option for flight (apart from keyboard only) - and nearly as low on the list of input combinations as mouse in a driving game shudder
That said I did spend a lot of time on mouse input, with multiple style options and complete remappability. You can also switch from any other input mode to mouse control instantly at any time in any game state and all the controls update.
Actually I take that back - I liked keyboard only over mouse in the original wing commander games.
It WAS the norm, back in the 80s and 90s. Maybe not full-blown HOTAS, but a lot more people had joysticks.
The gamepad is pretty much the modern day joystick in terms of usage and adoption.
War Thunder’s airplane side’s arcade mode works best with M/K. That was a revelation, after trying to play it using a gamepad. I think the difference was that they use the mouse to sort of indicate where you want the plane to go, rather than to give direct inputs to flight controls. In the screen shot below, the computer will roll the airplane, apply rudder, and pitch up to bring the attitude of the airplane (crosshairs) to what the mouse is calling for (open white circle). May only be a good system for third-person view.
I can’t remember which game caused me to get a gampad for my PC. I’m pretty sure I played Rebel Galaxy using M/K originally when @tbaldree gave away demo codes here, and maybe on release, but used a gamepad when I returned to it last year. M/K was fine for that game, though it is better with a gamepad. (I planning on buying RGO when it releases on PS4, which will obviously use a gamepad.)
War Thunder’s arcade mode airplane flying is wonderful with M/kb - outright better than any other control option. But the keyboard piece is vital - I’ll eat the lunch of people just using the mouse to steer.
I have a gamepad for various arcade racers and FIFA games and a HOTAS for flight sims that put the emphasis on sim so I’ll probably end up trying all the options when Outlaw drops.
As I said,