I get WASD, though I prefer numpad myself, and I can live with cursor key movement, but why is there no strafe (slide sideways)? Q and E would normally do it. Cursor keys can't since you need 6 not 4, which is why I always preferred numpad, 7 and 9 or 4, 6 id you prefer, for strafe. Possible to add strafe keys maybe? Configurable movement keys, or better still configurable keys period would be better still.

Having fun so far. I was 30 when this came out and I played it for the first time :) Only chucked away all my old RPG maps a few years back. I had a few. Oh well, I like mapping :)

Configurable controls are always a bonus, in case someone doesn't like WASD for whatever reason. Q and E go up and down portals, so we'd need to remap those for your strafe controls to work. That being said, since it's not a first person shooter, and the combat is turned based as well, is there really a need to strafe?

I thought it was Q and Z for portals?

There's no 'need' per se, but the strafe keys have nothing to do with FPS or whether the combat is turn based or real time, no dancing around the mobs here a la Grimrock :) I ask purely for navigational reasons. It is easier to go from A to B if you can go sideways, rather than need to turn then move forward. One keypress vs two. I know you can portal around, and open walls to walk through, but my point is valid. One keypress beats two any day :) especially as the dungeons get more complex.

You're right; it is Q and Z for the portals. I messed that up.

I can see your point about ease of navigation. It's just when I think strafe, I think mostly FPS, although it certainly had a use in Grimrock.

If you could strafe then those rotating floors wouldn't be so incredibly annoying. Right now you can't move in the direction you want because the moment you turn around you direction is getting randomized again.

Not really sure what you mean here, spinners? Haven't really been playing enough or paying close enough attention to spinners and how they work, if that's what you mean. I would have guessed that the spin happened on entry, but that's a guess, no more and so fat at least (Catacombs Lev2 only) spinners are a non-event really, just walk around them. Of course, things may change, so... :P

If not, I guess I'll find out when I get the rotating floors.

If strafing interferes with a game mechanic, then so be it, but the point still stands, strafing makes movement easier, as it takes only half the key presses to go around a corner :) so if it doesn't interfere with an existing mechanic, then it should be here.

Yeah, spinners! That's the word. They trigger on turning too since the 1.07 update, very annoying.

Have to say I don't get the point of triggering on turn, since you can tell which way you are looking with MACO, though maybe later this won't work or something?. It was too long ago to remember how it worked originally, but just because that's how it was, doesn't mean that's how it has to be (think grouped inventory QOL improvement).

If there's a point to spinners triggering on turn, as well as on enter, I'm all for it, but at this stage at least, I can't see one.
If you walk into a spinner now, and you are facing the wrong way, you are facing the wrong way, and have to roll the dice to face the right way. Strafe doesn't change this. If you walk into a spinner now and you are facing the correct way, then strafe also doesn't change anything.

Or am I missing something obvious here. I am old, so I can just play that card if needed :P

The way that spinners "worked" in the original version was a bug. From the Patch 1.07 notes:
* Spinners work more like the original. Guarantee to spin you (random can't == 0), spin on turn as well as Move

So MACO will still tell you which way you're facing after being spun, and the minimap will also tell you if you've got MACO activated and you have a light spell active.

yup, and thus stafe doesn't change a thing

It does, because it would allow you to leave spinners in the direction you want to go.

Though as said, I'd consider that a good thing.

If you want/need to go east from a spinner square, in the current situation you have to keep turning until you end up facing east. With strafing, you just have to turn so you are not facing west (strafe would still not allow backing up), and strafe out toward the east. This is dramatically easier.

I'm not convinced it's a bad thing, because the annoyance of making spinners let me go where I want/need to go doesn't feel like an interesting challenge. It's just repeatedly rolling the dice until they come up in my favor. Which, granted, is a thing we do in the Bard's Tale trilogy, but generally if we have to roll the dice too many times it's a sign that we're some place we aren't supposed to be when our level is too low. With spinners it's just pure RNG.

doh!
You are right of course, with strafe, you now have TWO positive outcomes, not one. Stupid brain not thinking things through!

My bad.

STILL, I think strafe should be there, because it makes it easier to navigate through dungeons, spinners or no. As you say, spinners are hardly a 'challenge' to anything, so taking away something that is not really an issue anyway, seems like a positive not a negative.

THREE! ;-)

My brain stuggled to realise two, but three? That I don't get.

1. Facing the desired way, so FORWARD
2. Facing... ahh of course, I see.

I should think these things through a bit better. lol

Apparently my brain works better when I am putting pen to paper and listing the options. Oh well, I am old so I have an excuse. I'll shut up now, (but I'd still like strafe keys).