[Suggestion] Attack Interface Adjustment

General discussion about the game.
MikeC2103
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 6:30 am

[Suggestion] Attack Interface Adjustment

Postby MikeC2103 » Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:40 am

I've put in a good 30 hours on FTL since I bought it. I haven't had so much fun in a Roguelike since Alphaman! Great work!

There's really only one thing that still seems awkward to me. That would be the interface for firing weapons and targeting. Especially once I need to use beam weapons in precise attacks, it seems to push me to use the pause button more than I would like.

I'd like to see it setup in this way.

Left-Click on Weapon icon:
  • Fires the Weapon if charged and has a target selected.
  • Powers and unpowers the weapon if it has no Target selected.

Right-Click on Weapon Icon:
  • Enable/Disable targeting selection for that weapon. Targets don't reset after every shot as if it was on autofire.

Shift Left-Click on Weapon Icon
  • Sets that specific weapon to auto-fire, and the button glows gold.

This would allow for pre-selecting targets. Then when weapons are charged, firing them in the order the player wishes, with only a left-click on each weapon. Not having to re-target the same area over and over again will also be a huge plus. I think this would make battles smoother, without the need for so many pauses.

Anyways, thanks for the great game! :D
alextfish
Posts: 184
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:24 pm

Re: [Suggestion] Attack Interface Adjustment

Postby alextfish » Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:39 pm

Mm, yes. With most weapons it's fine to either leave them on autofire or quickly right-click to select/deselect firing. But that's not the case with beam weapons because they have so many targeting options. I love getting to exercise spatial planning and working out what routes will graze the corners of as many enemy systems as possible, but that does mean the routes need pixel-perfect planning; which is fine if you're only firing the beam once, or if you're leaving it on autofire... but if you're syncing up the beam to fire immediately after a burst weapon takes down the shields, say, then it's somewhat irritating re-drawing the route every time, when it usually takes several tries.
Many years ago I created the FTL Starcraft mod: 18 new challenging ships to fly through the FTL universe!, and wrote a tutorial on creating your own FTL ships. They haven't been updated for AE though.
AngleWyrm
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 12:46 am

Re: [Suggestion] Attack Interface Adjustment

Postby AngleWyrm » Sun Sep 30, 2012 11:10 pm

An improvement to autofire : Weapon Linking
Tie weapons together, and they fire at the same time (slowest cooldown in the set)