Key Bindings

[leeor_net]

There has been some question about the keybindings for OutpostHD with users mentioning differences in keyboard layouts. This is a good point and one I intended to address at a later time but it seems like now is as good a time as any to start talking about it.

While OPHD is in development, I've bound several keys to specific actions (such as complete turn, cancel action, move, etc.). These are mapped to work well on a standard QWERTY keyboard. This isn't carved in stone, though, so any suggestions on different keybindings and keybindings for other actions are entirely welcome.

Default Bindings

Key		Mapping
F2		Save Game
F3		Load Game
F10		Show debug info
F11		Toggle fullscreen/windowed mode
PAGE UP		Go up one level
PAGE DOWN		Go down one level
HOME		Go to surface
END		Go to max depth level
ENTER		End turn
ESCAPE		Cancel edit mode.
W / A / S / D		Move one tile UP / LEFT / DOWN / RIGHT
ARROWS		Same as WASD
0		Go to Surface
1		Underground 1
2		Underground 2
3		Underground 3
4		Underground 4

[havkyp]

Thanks for the keybindings!! 

Does development plans include:

• A human-readable keybinding configuration file?
• A GUI for configuring keybindings?

I saw in the other thread that good keybindings take a lot of effort to develop, and I agree. Therefore I suggest that at this point we should focus on having custom keybindings functionally working, and they be optimised post 1.0?

[leeor_net]

Yes and yes.

I'll focus on it for a later development, perhaps for the 0.8.x series of releases?

[Goof]

In fact on french keyboard the WASD map as ZQSD.
It may be the same kind of problems with non QWERTY keyboards.

[leeor_net]

Which is why I wanted to talk about it. You and lhark both mentioned that the WASD keymapping doesn't work well on your keyboards. It never occurred to me until then that not everybody uses the same keyboard layout.

[Goof]

You could add QWERTZ/BEPO/DVORAK/... keyboard as well.

or almost any layout from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout

[leeor_net]

True. I think what I'll do is "ship" the game with WASD as default and allow for easy reconfiguration of bindings. Possibly offer config files for other common configurations.

[Arklon]

Only took you over a year to reply to him.

Configurable key bindings ought to be standard in pretty much all games these days.

[leeor_net]

Yeah yeah, I know. On both points.

Still though I've gotten enough questions about whether it'll be a thing or not that it made sense to make a topic about it.