after playing through a ton of blobbers i don't think mouse-controls add absolutely anything to the experience.
i believe the most efficient way to have blobber navigation is to use step-grid movement and instead of mouse-look for pixel-hunting to utilize a "Search" key that searches either the a) tile the party is standing on, or b) the direction the party is facing. it accomplishes the same thing as utilizing the mouse for pixel-hunting inside a tile.
Turn-based grognard detected.
What you're advocating is the abandonment of any real-time elements in blobbers for the return to the tried and tested turn-based controls - that the game sits there idling while waiting for you to input a command that it executes like a faithful dog.
While turn-based gameplay has its place, the primary reason that it was used in role-playing games is because of technical limitations - real-time role-playing simply wasn't possible except in a very limited capacity until about 1990. Looking over the evolution of role-playing, guess what is THE number one element of role-playing games (and strategy games, come to think of it) that was abandoned with technological advancement?
Your comment that mouse controls don't add anything to the experience - you're wrong. When you're playing [Insert turn-based RPG of choice here] and tell your party to 'Search' for secret doors, you are instructing your party to do the job for you while you sit back and wait. When you're clicking on the walls to find the secret button, it's YOU doing it, YOU are directly involved. It's a case of immersion, and it's one of the biggest reasons why blobbers like Dungeon Master and EotB became the big hits that they were.
and yes I do have wrist problems (like probably the majority of the posters here) and i prefer to play keyboard based games that don't have a needless and unnecessary use for the mouse (such as pixel-hunting). I make some exceptions of course when the game itself is designed around mouse use such as a Fallout game, for example, but there is absolutely no reason why a traditional step-grid tile-based blobber needs mouse-look.
even non-turn based blobbers such as EotB can and should simply utilize hotkeys for activating a party member's primary attack. I've heard a very silly argument before that doing that would eliminate a big part of the challenge and fun of the games combat, so i simply ask you this, non-turn based blobber lovers:
...is waiting for a cool-down bar to fill up and mousing over to the sword icon and clicking it REAAAAAAALLY that much different than waiting for a cool-down bar to fill up and moving your finger over to a hotkey and tapping it?
i am 100% pro-PC master race but mouse-controls should not necessarily be the default answer. the more blobbers i play the more i realize that a good, solid keyboard is all a game really needs.
Ah. Now I see the core of your argument. You're a crippled old man who can't keep up with the young whipper-snappers that can use the mouse effectively, therefore you build the ludicrious argument that 'probably the majority of the posters here' suffer from the same condition you do in order to make yourself appear (and feel) on equal terms with everyone.
Let me give you my perspective - I don't use WASD-controls on the keyboard, instead I use the numeric keypad. And I have the mouse on the left-hand side of the keyboard. I use this for every game I play (except the ones that don't require a mouse, obviously). As a result I'm called a 'freak' or a 'cripple'. Right here, on the Codex. The only thing I need from a game in order to make my 'freakiness' work is for the game to allow me to customize my controls, and I have raged and ranted when a game doesn't allow me to do so (because the option to customize a game's controls goes back to the mid-1980s). But that's where I stop. You take this one step further and give us a "computer mice are dead"-esque statement because you can't keep up with them, you're stating that games are better off regressing and de-evolving rather than you admitting your place.
As for your argument...a keyboard is a very versatile input device but a non-intuitive one, and most certainly an immersion-breaking one. It doesn't feel like it's an extension of yourself...which is precisely the case with the mouse. It moves with your hand and fits snugly in it. The keyboard is designed to be immobile, which immediately breaks a 'connection' between the game and the player. Same thing with a trackball. And any keyboard-based control scheme that requires that the player removes his hands from one set of keys to another, also breaks the 'player-game' contact. Modern-day console controllers, while lacking the versatility of a keyboard, are smaller and lighter and were specifically designed for our hands and can move with them, and then the Wii controller takes this a step further with the motion tracker.
You want to stay in 1987 with your turn-based role-playing games? Then be my guest, but keep in mind that you're in an ever-dwindling minority with an outdated point of view.
yourself dickhead.
