Feature request: smart movement key interpretation

[Zababa]

I play Angabnd 3.1.1.1626 on a laptop (Win XP) with no numpad, which troubles me a lot. Luckily, I have found, that I can define a keypress delay, so that when I press two arrow keys (almost) simultaneously, @ moves into the resulting direction, e.g. right-arrow pressed with up-arrow has the same effect like the 9 on numpad. Forced to play on the four arrow keys I noticed one drawback which annoys me:

Because I almost never move by pressing the arrow keys alone but mostly hold Shift to them, @ keeps moving in the desired direction (intelligently crawling through corridors) as long as there is nothing disturbing (e.g. a monster, hunger, etc.) or there is but one choice of a progress direction. But this shift-aided movement works only for the four basic directions (left, right, up, down). Whenever I would like to start a shift-aided movement in one of the diagonal directions (by pressing two arrow keys simultaneously) it does not work. When I play on a external keyboard, pressing shift Num9 works exactly as would like shift up+right to work. But as for now I just can't move @ diagonally with shift pressed. Moving without shift I feel very unsafe, especially when I have to crawl through the chequered vaults or earthquake zones.

So my request is:

1. enable shift-aided diagonal movement when playing with the four basic arrow keys and keypress delay.

[fizzix]

Originally Posted by Zababa

I play Angabnd 3.1.1.1626 on a laptop (Win XP) with no numpad, which troubles me a lot. Luckily, I have found, that I can define a keypress delay, so that when I press two arrow keys (almost) simultaneously, @ moves into the resulting direction, e.g. right-arrow pressed with up-arrow has the same effect like the 9 on numpad. Forced to play on the four arrow keys I noticed one drawback which annoys me:

Because I almost never move by pressing the arrow keys alone but mostly hold Shift to them, @ keeps moving in the desired direction (intelligently crawling through corridors) as long as there is nothing disturbing (e.g. a monster, hunger, etc.) or there is but one choice of a progress direction. But this shift-aided movement works only for the four basic directions (left, right, up, down). Whenever I would like to start a shift-aided movement in one of the diagonal directions (by pressing two arrow keys simultaneously) it does not work. When I play on a external keyboard, pressing shift Num9 works exactly as would like shift up+right to work. But as for now I just can't move @ diagonally with shift pressed. Moving without shift I feel very unsafe, especially when I have to crawl through the chequered vaults or earthquake zones.

So my request is:

1. enable shift-aided diagonal movement when playing with the four basic arrow keys and keypress delay.

You can use .9 to run in the diagonal direction

I would instead request that shift+9 and control+9 work with the numbered keys as well as the arrow or numpad keys. I use the same setup, without a numpad and have no problems. Switching to roguelike setup is way too difficult at this point.

[Zababa]

Originally Posted by fizzix

You can use .9 to run in the diagonal direction

Well, yes, using "." instead of shift really allows me to press two arrows simultaneously, and @ goes diagonally until disturbed. Thanks for the suggestion. But two years I've been playing with shift and now I have a hard time to get used to play with "."

[SaThaRiel]

I think the "feature" you are looking for is the Roguelike keyset. When i started to play *Bands on a laptop i always immediatly switched to that layout.
I takes some time but now i only use it.

[Zababa]

Originally Posted by SaThaRiel

I think the "feature" you are looking for is the Roguelike keyset.

Thank you for the suggestion. It's true: for in rogue-like keys, shift and HJ, HK, JL, KL work exactly as I expect shift combined arrows to work. If it was possible to program this UI for the rogue-lie keyset I am sure it can be programmed for the modern one as well.

I would prefer to stick to the modern angband default keyset as I really would have a hard time to get used to another keys after about 10M moves on the default ones. Somehow I think the angband maintainers and programmers gave the new keyset a deep thought and concluded that it is superior to the roguelike and more easily memorizable, so they started using it. If the rogue-like keyset is so perfect, why isn't it default and why don't most players use it? (I just assume that they don't).

[Malatar]

I also always switch over to the roguelike keyset... It's probably just a familiarity issue, having played Rogue and other rogue-likes for so many years, but I can't seem to remember the newer keys when I'm playing.

[fph]

Originally Posted by Zababa

If the rogue-like keyset is so perfect, why isn't it default and why don't most players use it? (I just assume that they don't).

That's a question that bugged me too. I have played Angband with the default keyset for some years, and then I switched to the roguelike when I installed it on my laptop. In the end the new keyset took me less time to master than I thought.

I think that most newcomers would benefit from switching the default to the roguelike keyset (+numeric keypad working-as-usual, so if you don't like the VI keys for moving, just don't use them). Everything would work as before (with due changes), but, as a bonus, the game is playable on a laptop.
This change should not bother the old-time players, since they know how to change the keymap.
I've tried bringing the subject on on this forum, but without much success.

I must warn you that there is currently a problem with the roguelike keymap + inscriptions: inscriptions always assume the traditional keymap. It's easier to explain with an example:
-traditional keymap: if you inscribe an arrow @f1, then you can shoot it with f1.
-roguelike keymap: if you inscribe an arrow @f1 (not @t1 -- which would be more intuitive to me), then you can shoot it with t1.

(this is the only reason not to recommend the RL keyset as default, IMHO)