I have a hand tremor (it's called essential tremor). It means I'm often frustrated by poor mouse dexterity.

I recently began playing Legend of Grimrock, and I'm enjoying it. However, one of the key game mechanics is being able to dodge (using the keyboard) and rapidly attack (using the mouse). The attack consists of right-clicking a specific part of the interface, then moving the mouse pointer to a slightly different part of the interface and right-clicking again. This is difficult for me, even more so when I'm excited.

My solution is to write a small Autohotkey script that when triggered (by middle mouse click), does these two clicks for me. Here is the dead simple code:


#NoEnv
SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
#Persistent

MButton:: ;In respons to a middle mouse click
MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos ;store the current mouse position
MouseClick, right, 1536, 844 ;move the mouse to and right-click the first attack
sleep 200 ;wait 200 milliseconds
MouseClick, right, 1758, 844 ;move the mouse to and right-click the second attack
sleep 200 ;wait 200 milliseconds
MouseMove, xpos, ypos ;return the mouse pointer to its original position
return


It works just fine.

I don't think it's cheating, more like making my mouse control similar to someone without a tremor.

My question to the forum: Do you think it's cheating?

My answer: I don't think it matters, particularly in a single player game. What matters most is that you're able to enjoy the game. You found a way to work around an accessibility issue that you have with the game, so feel free to use it as much as you wish (unless you find that it makes the game less fun, of course).

I have no problem with players using accessibility tools to make the game playable when it otherwise wouldn't be.

(By the way, one of the first Legend of Grimrock mods, made even before mod tools were released, was one that replaces spiders (which some people are terrified of) with some other monster's model.)

It wouldn't even be cheating in a MMO . The publishers won't be paying out for peoples RSI bills years later.
Havinng to write a script is backwards when we should have more advanced tools to setup controls.

Not at all I guess,,, I do get frustrated over these control settings, not that I'm good at changing accessibility whatevrr i try,, anyway what are games for- FUN right. For that fun you can do whatever you want even if its using a script but it doesn't give much satisfaction. In your situation its not a problem and its a Single player,, so who cares even if its cheat lol,, Anyway have fun.

Not at all: I would call it a well-crafted accessibility feature.

The only time I would call something like this "cheating" is in a game like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat where executing intricate and precisely-timed combos provides a clear advantage over your opponent. And even then, I wouldn't really have an issue with someone doing it so long as it was kept to single-player non-competitive games.

Ha. I can understand that. My first encounter with one was a real 'brown alert' moment. Just made me enjoy the game more.

Ditto with dtgreene and AB2012 for single player games. Cheat all you want. If it's funner for you, who cares? It's your personal business and not affecting anyone.

Multiplayer might be a different story unless it's coop and/or OK with the others.

I figure I'm just returning the difficulty back to the intended level. Without this script, it would be much harder. Being frustrated isn't much fun.

The spider attacks:

I'm a right-hander and I always remap WASD to the arrow keys (and the other keys to something nearby).

That is, for old(er) PC games; because I prefer a gamepad for any other (newer) TPP and FPP games. I don't play twitchy shooters, so I don't care about the (unrealistic) (shooting) accuracy that a mouse can provide.

I actually understand that keyboard & mouse people get defensive when there's a subject/topic about preferred input devices. More and more games (on PC) are starting to treat them like second hand citizens.
On the other hand, I don't like this "PC master race reflex" when discussing this subject online. Nobody's preferred input device is inherently (and in general) superior than that of somebody else. Like you said, it's all about having fun.

So why don't I like/prefer WASD? (or ZQSD, because I use AZERTY)
I always liked the space around the arrow keys (full size keyboard), it's harder to mistakenly press the wrong keys around it. But apparently, that's just me (+ other minority people), since the majority of right-handers prefer WASD.
No judgement here - I'm just sharing my 'story'.

Not at all.

You are only fixing a accessibility issue for you in a game, one that it should of taken in account by the developers anyway. (I have a few family members that also cannot play certain games due to a bad tremor in their hands.)

I don't see a problem with doing it. As others have said, you're making the game more accessible for you.

And while some anti-cheating systems could flag you by doing it, even in single player, I'd only see a problem in using scripts if it gave you an unfair advantage over other players, such as in multiplayer, leaderboards or other types of competitions.

Thanks for the support guys. My tremor isn't usually too bad, but sometimes it can be a problem (spillages and such). It gets worse when I have an adrenalin boost, which with respect to gaming, is exactly the worst time. I envy those gamers that have rapid and precise mouse control. Like the top FPS players.

If someone has similar issues, but isn't confident with programming, I'm happy to have a bash at a custom script specifically for your issue/game.