One of the ideas I had on how the controls might be made better and that could be easy to program (which I didn't express here, but only on the Discord) was that due to the way the mouse controls worked, there'd be no real difference between the angles on the far edges of the usable mouse area (1024x1024), so wrapping the pointer between the edges might be a viable strategy - so that if you go off the right side of the screen, your (invisible) mouse goes to the left side, and so on for the other sides.
I tried implementing this, and the ZIP files beginning with "W" attached to this post are the result. (WLander.zip is a version of Lander that wraps the mouse along the edges, while WLanderPtr.zip is one that also forces the mouse pointer to be shown in-game, in addition to implementing the mouse-wrapping. As always, make sure you're using RISC OS to unzip these, otherwise you'll lose the filetypes.)
Unfortunately, I don't think this actually improves the gameplay that much - it's still way too easy to accidentally end up in a situation where the ship points straight down, because even if you do the obvious and keep pushing the mouse in one direction, it's too easy for your arm to steer the mouse off-course. In my view, the version that forces the mouse pointer on is easier to play.
So... I'm going to bite the bullet and actually try implementing relative mouse movement controls next, rather than this hack of a solution. That said, I'm curious to know what other people think of this version.
Oh, and for good measure, I've also built a version of the original game that forces the pointer on, but without the mouse-wrapping code, in case you just want to see how that goes. That version is attached as OLanderPtr.zip.
The source for WLanderPtr is available at https://github.com/Sophira/archimedes-l ... wrap-mouse . WLander is simply the same as that source but only using the "Wrap the mouse around the screen" commit, and OLanderPtr is that source but only using the "Show mouse pointer while playing" commit.
I tried implementing this, and the ZIP files beginning with "W" attached to this post are the result. (WLander.zip is a version of Lander that wraps the mouse along the edges, while WLanderPtr.zip is one that also forces the mouse pointer to be shown in-game, in addition to implementing the mouse-wrapping. As always, make sure you're using RISC OS to unzip these, otherwise you'll lose the filetypes.)
Unfortunately, I don't think this actually improves the gameplay that much - it's still way too easy to accidentally end up in a situation where the ship points straight down, because even if you do the obvious and keep pushing the mouse in one direction, it's too easy for your arm to steer the mouse off-course. In my view, the version that forces the mouse pointer on is easier to play.
So... I'm going to bite the bullet and actually try implementing relative mouse movement controls next, rather than this hack of a solution. That said, I'm curious to know what other people think of this version.
Oh, and for good measure, I've also built a version of the original game that forces the pointer on, but without the mouse-wrapping code, in case you just want to see how that goes. That version is attached as OLanderPtr.zip.
The source for WLanderPtr is available at https://github.com/Sophira/archimedes-l ... wrap-mouse . WLander is simply the same as that source but only using the "Wrap the mouse around the screen" commit, and OLanderPtr is that source but only using the "Show mouse pointer while playing" commit.
Statistics: Posted by Sophira — Thu Feb 29, 2024 1:43 pm
