New controls added to the speed circle.

[mitm001]

I would like to suggest adding an optional reverse control to the speed circle. This could be toggled under settings.

It consists of a line with a [ o ] dot i.e. a handle that can be dragged from the inner speed circle to the outer speed circle to initiate reverse in the speed desired according to position along the line where full speed reverse = stopped on the outer circle.

The handle could be held and used to set reverse position like dragging does.

First Left mouse clicking anywhere inside the speed circle could reset it to that speed and forward to the position/direction. Dragging outside the speed circle just moves you in that direction but in reverse.

I can't count the number of times I have tried to reverse in a battle and instead firing or some miss click with the right mouse drag makes me move/turn forward right into a torpedo or the attacking sub.

Having a handle to quickly initiate reverse, stay in reverse and hold onto would be easier.

[finnbear]

You do realize mouse controls already allow reversing, if you start in a relatively small range of angles directly behind your ship, right?

Are you suggesting that the above is too hard to reliably use, such as because the angle range is too small? (an accessibility issue?) Are you suggesting the addition of a visible marker for the ranges that mean going in reverse?

Please note: As an exception to the rule, level 1's do not allow reversing. They turn very fast, and reversing is almost always a mistake.

[mitm001]

You do realize mouse controls already allow reversing, if you start in a relatively small range of angles directly behind your ship, right?

Absolutely.

Are you suggesting that the above is too hard to reliably use, such as because the angle range is too small? (an accessibility issue?)

Its very unreliable. Especially when in a hurry. If you miss-click you move forward and start a turn instead.

Are you suggesting the addition of a visible marker for the ranges that mean going in reverse?

A dragable toggle at the 180d point of speed circle that spans the inner to outter circle that keeps reverse initiated up to speed desired until canceled by left mouse button (LMB) single clicking inside the speed ring or dragging the toggle back to the inner circle.

The single LMB click inside speed ring could start forward movement at that clicked speed towards that selected direction although it may be a better option to have to manually toggle off reverse instead due to firing at objects that are within the speed ring. It would need to be tested to see what is the more desirable option.

RMB drag outside the speed ring would still set direction of reverse if toggled to reverse.

LMB click outside the speed ring while toggled in reverse always fires weapons or if requiring reverse to be manually toggled off while using this option works best instead make LMB always fire weapons period.

A toggle that can easily be grabbed with the left mouse button so you have exact control of speed and steering while in reverse.

This could be an optional checkbox in settings to allow the current method of selecting reverse to still be used.

[mitm001]

I know what its like to be a developer of a game. There are certain things that should be addressed though and this reverse control is definitely tops of the list in my book. Drag for reverse is not working at all like it should. It takes to fine an area to control it and causes well over half the sinkings I have to suffer each day.

[finnbear]

I know what its like to be a developer of a game. There are certain things that should be addressed though and this reverse control is definitely tops of the list in my book. Drag for reverse is not working at all like it should. It takes to fine an area to control it and causes well over half the sinkings I have to suffer each day.

I'm sorry that I don't have a good answer for you at this time. While I realize that the current control scheme has flaws, adding additional toggles/modes/etc. adds complexity. Changing the controls for firing weapons creates a risk that the new controls are confusing, unintuitive, and/or foreign for players. Adding complexity and risking the need for further fixes are two things that I don't feel very comfortable doing right now since, as I mentioned elsewhere, I'm pretty busy with school work and I barely have time to play, much less develop games (and if I did have time to develop games, most of it would go to new game projects, since we really hope to expand our collection).

Two ideas:

• A simple solution I thought of would be to add a small tick mark at each side of the reversing angle range. If you think this would be helpful, we could try including it in the next update.
• All the code is open source. In theory, you could implement your proposed solution in such a way that convinces us it is better and worth adopting.

[mitm001]

I'm not sure if it adding ticks would make a difference really. The RMB drag leads more often than not to miss clicking, which is what causes the forward turn problem.

I would like to contribute but it requires me to learn yet another series of languages and tools adding to the over 30 I learned just for writing games in java. I would post the list but its off topic and causes me heartburn just thinking about it.

I will take a look at rust and see if I can maybe get the spark back for coding.