Author Topic: Autofire mode is missing, making the game a perfect recipe for getting RSI  (Read 11298 times)

Mithaldu

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RSI is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury

It's caused in this day and age primarly by computer use with a lot of repetitive actions. Due to the way Hammerwatch works the most successful way of playing is to hammer the attack key as fast as possible. This makes it an excellent cause for RSI.

If you're younger, or of excellent health you may not notice it, but for me the game is literally unplayable, as the pain in my fingers is unbearable by the time i've played 15 minutes.

I really love almost all aspects of the game, the graphics, the design and gameplay. However as long as input remains as broken as it currently is, the only thing i can do is warn my friends from buying it.

00cpxxx

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Thumbs up for an autofire function, the first time I played I had to stop due to that. Fortunately now I have a gamepad with autofire functions.

Bobert

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This is a great idea that should be added in! I have to admit that even though I havn't had a pain from firing yet, it does get kind of repetitive just smashing the up arrow.
Progress Ingame: Act II 2/3 Switches Activated on Medium

risbolla

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The lack of an autofire is my biggest gripe with the game. It's a shame too since it's a solid game for the most part, but playing it the way it is at the moment would be downright self destructive. I'm not sure what the thought behind making button mashing an element of the base gameplay was, but it's definitely not healthy for people who are going to be playing the game. I realize it's late in the development cycle, but I would love to give the game another go if this option were implemented.

This reminds me a lot about the stick spinning games in Mario Party, except it's the entire game instead of just a mini game. I'm sure people may have unpleasant memories about this. If it's any consolation Nintendo was eventually sued for this health hazard and this control scheme has fortunately not been seen in any Nintendo titles released after Mario Party.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXs0YeCdgrE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXs0YeCdgrE</a>

Spyd

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I want this, too. I bought the game today (4 copies) and played for a while until the finger I used in the fire button started to hurt.
The game is awesome, but I don't want to break my fingers to play.

Ziggurat

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I also think that auto fire should be added.
Id also like if you have a gamepad, that the right analog stick should be the way you fire as well as auto fire, this would make it much easier to control the character instead of using the strafe button.

NekoBaron

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auto fire mode will never work satisfactory since you need to be able to move and attack at different speeds, if you theoretically could attack constantly your character would stop moving and you'd die.

And adding twin stick would just make the entire game laughably easy, I find using a controller makes it too easy by default due to being able to move and shoot in more than the standard 8 directions.

clo

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Thumbs up for this. I don't see the issue with allowing a button to be held down for firing instead of repetitive tapping. Just a bother and it feels like I am raping my keyboard.

Myran

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Okay, so I worked on a autofire setting today, and it should be in the next patch. What I did is I added a modifier button, so when you hold it down autofire is on, there is also an option to invert it so that autofire is on by default and off when you hold the button. It works alright, but it's a bit tricky to keep switching between the normal and autofire modes.

Mithaldu

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I didn't expect this to get any attention whatsoever, so to see a developer posting about actually having worked on this makes me really happy. Thanks Myran, even if it doesn't work out, i appreciate you giving it a shot. :D

Eldur

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Sounds great. Thanks for the update :)