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Crosmando: Do you want me to put a C in front of it to satisfy your nitpicking?
You mean a Character RPG, focusing on characters and their growth, instead of an Action RPG, focusing on combat and killing? Still, communication and a Game Master who knows what he's doing is the best control scheme.

I have played a lvl 7 thief who got a Great Wyrm under his utter control due to proper communication and explaining to the Game Master of what exactly I did to set it up. I have bluffed my way to controlling a criminal organization before I was lvl 5. I have tried (and utterly failed) to prevent the destruction of a priceless orb by doing a "Die-Hard" bungee of the side of a tower (SPLAT!).

Only computer game in which I think those are possible are in NWN, in a multiplayer, where the optimal control scheme is voice chat. So now, KBM isn't the best way to control an RPG. It's the best control for most rpgs, since they are designed around it, but don't claim it's the best possible.
The "keyboards are not designed to play games, we could do better" argument is a rather valid one in theory, but in practice it's :

- Still the best device to handle all the shortcuts of buildings, units and control groups in strategy games due to the number of keys.
- Not optimal to play FPS & TPS because you're using three fingers just to move around but it doesn't matter because that's pretty much all you have to do with your keyboard. The most important part (aiming and shooting) is handled by the mouse.
- For the racers, flight/space sims and platformers you have dedicated devices, so there's no point in designing a "gaming keyboard".

In the end, if the M&K is so powerful it's basically because we have yet to design a better input device than mouse to navigate through any interface. The only competing one is your finger in touch-interface but even then you lack :
- The distinction between pointing & clicking
- Having multiple clicks
- The ability to see under your big greasy finger ;)
- The shortcuts of your keyboard.
Post edited March 09, 2013 by Hobbz
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Crosmando: Do you want me to put a C in front of it to satisfy your nitpicking?
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JMich: You mean a Character RPG, focusing on characters and their growth, instead of an Action RPG, focusing on combat and killing? Still, communication and a Game Master who knows what he's doing is the best control scheme.

I have played a lvl 7 thief who got a Great Wyrm under his utter control due to proper communication and explaining to the Game Master of what exactly I did to set it up. I have bluffed my way to controlling a criminal organization before I was lvl 5. I have tried (and utterly failed) to prevent the destruction of a priceless orb by doing a "Die-Hard" bungee of the side of a tower (SPLAT!).

Only computer game in which I think those are possible are in NWN, in a multiplayer, where the optimal control scheme is voice chat. So now, KBM isn't the best way to control an RPG. It's the best control for most rpgs, since they are designed around it, but don't claim it's the best possible.
No, I mean a Computer RPG
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JMich: You mean a Character RPG, focusing on characters and their growth, instead of an Action RPG, focusing on combat and killing? Still, communication and a Game Master who knows what he's doing is the best control scheme.

I have played a lvl 7 thief who got a Great Wyrm under his utter control due to proper communication and explaining to the Game Master of what exactly I did to set it up. I have bluffed my way to controlling a criminal organization before I was lvl 5. I have tried (and utterly failed) to prevent the destruction of a priceless orb by doing a "Die-Hard" bungee of the side of a tower (SPLAT!).

Only computer game in which I think those are possible are in NWN, in a multiplayer, where the optimal control scheme is voice chat. So now, KBM isn't the best way to control an RPG. It's the best control for most rpgs, since they are designed around it, but don't claim it's the best possible.
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Crosmando: No, I mean a Computer RPG
Good. Now read the rest of my post. KBM is still inferior to proper communication with a Game Master who knows what he's doing for an RPG.
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orcishgamer: snip
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Nirth: You know, people have different opinions. Screw the objectiveness of whatever is best, we like different things.

However, with that said, I would like to get an example of where a gamepad or joystick is better than KB/M without the game designer handicaping the game in favour of the one with less amount of buttons.
Do you want examples of where gamepads are "the best" or simply "better than KB&M"? Because the latter has many obvious examples:
Fighting games (fight stick is better)
Driving games (wheel is best)
Most flight sims (probably joystick is best)
Almost all action platformers (really gamepads are usually pretty ideal for these)

The only real example of KB&M being "better" (not the best) is probably RTS type games or sims that just benefit from a fuckton of buttons (in the old days, text adventures would probably end up on the list as well, because, you know, "typing"). Shooters is actually dubious for a ton of reasons, the assumption is the accuracy makes it better, but a counter argument could easily be made that game designers have to introduce a lot of unrealism in the movement of the character, make the enemy AI behave like impossible, cracked out rabbits, weaken the power of weapons, and a host of other things to compensate for the unreality that mice introduce. Default shooter button mappings also introduce wrist strain, will prevent most people from doing something like selecting "Rocket Launcher" (8) while going into a crouch (hold Ctrl, or maybe just toggle it) because most people quite simply cannot reach both buttons at once AND keep using their movement.

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orcishgamer: a more optimized input (and there's plenty of these).
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Melnorme: Oh? Do tell.

Also, can you show me an example of a professional cyberathlete using one of these "optimized inputs" to play a competitive first person shooter?
Only in leagues where
1) They know they'll always be allowed
2) They know they'll always have access

Maybe if you're interested you can look it up.

Seriously, even the average Steelseries item will give you an advantage over your run-of-the-mill shit keyboard.

Hint, it's why your gaming mouse probably already has more than 2 buttons on it (it's been slightly optimized for gaming).

Keyboards are shit for everything but typing (and some people would argue they're not particularly good for that either, at least not the QWERTY most people use).
Post edited March 09, 2013 by orcishgamer
Stop derailing the thread, who cares about action games, platformers, flight or driving sims. This is a thread about a Kickstarter for an isometric RPG which will have 'point-and-click' mouse control.
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Crosmando: Stop derailing the thread, who cares about action games, platformers, flight or driving sims. This is a thread about a Kickstarter for an isometric RPG which will have 'point-and-click' mouse control.
So you got nothing?
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Crosmando: Stop derailing the thread, who cares about action games, platformers, flight or driving sims. This is a thread about a Kickstarter for an isometric RPG which will have 'point-and-click' mouse control.
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Antimateria: So you got nothing?
Nothing what?
Post edited March 09, 2013 by Crosmando
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Crosmando: Stop derailing the thread, who cares about action games, platformers, flight or driving sims. This is a thread about a Kickstarter for an isometric RPG which will have 'point-and-click' mouse control.
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Antimateria: So you got nothing?
His got a (hopefully) good RPG to pledge to, which will (hopefully) have a decent to good control scheme.

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Crosmando: Nothing what?
Nothing to say to the posts above about the control schemes.
Post edited March 09, 2013 by JMich
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Antimateria: So you got nothing?
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Crosmando: Nothing what?
I derail a a bit indeed.

Don't take these others too bad.
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Crosmando: Stop derailing the thread, who cares about action games, platformers, flight or driving sims. This is a thread about a Kickstarter for an isometric RPG which will have 'point-and-click' mouse control.
He asked, I pledged at a very high level, so far they've added no new updates for days, the talk is currently mental masturbation at this point whether it's on topic or not.

But really, none of those excuses matter because, "No" and because, "I don't really care."
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orcishgamer: so far they've added no new updates for days
Oy, they've had 1 update/day so far, but yes, it does seem as if the last update (#4) was posted a few days ago. But really, other than "We are so glad we got funded", how much stuff can they post at this point?
My two cents not related to kickstarter or any so-called 'computer rpg' : Descent (1 & 2) are best played with KB only, imho.

hmmmm ... no, I think that would be all.
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orcishgamer: so far they've added no new updates for days
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JMich: Oy, they've had 1 update/day so far, but yes, it does seem as if the last update (#4) was posted a few days ago. But really, other than "We are so glad we got funded", how much stuff can they post at this point?
Yeah, I'm not complaining about the lack of updates, I'm happy that they're probably working instead. I hated the Project Eternity update spam and still do. I'm just pointing out, with no new information that further discussion is akin to mental masturbation, it's not like anyone's trying to discuss some new development in the game or something, so crying about "derailing" is pretty silly at this juncture.

I suspect the next update will coincide with breaking the 2.5 million milestone.
Post edited March 09, 2013 by orcishgamer
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orcishgamer: ...
Well there have been arguments used against Crosmando. He usually trembles and falls when that happens.