(Gamepad) grappling controls

[wjt]

I believe I originally suggested that, on a gamepad, the grappling hook should be aimed with the right stick. I think my theory was that you might want to aim in a different direction to where you were running. In practice I tend to always aim the same way that I walk, and it bothers me when the arrow points in the "wrong" direction when I'm walking without grappling.

I experimented with this change, to rebind the aiming to the left stick (same as movement) and throwing the grappling hook to L2 rather than R2. The conceptual theory then is that grappling is a kind of movement, and now all the movement is on the left hand: stick to move+aim, L1 to run, L2 to throw.

https://gist.github.com/wjt/0ba16e34b6ed040258b0c10802ac2f95

I found that this is even worse to control, because you can't keep still while aiming, so you have to keep adjusting the aim direction based on your movement. Experiment over.

However I think there could be some other improvements:

1. If we introduced a "keyboard-only" mode that you have to explicitly opt in to Add Control Setting for "keyboard only" or "keyboard + mouse" #2341 then:
   a. In joypad mode, we would completely hide the "aiming" arrow if the "move_*" input vector is zero
   b. In mouse mode, maybe we could also hide the "aiming" arrow and instead rely on the mouse pointer?
   c. Only in keyboard mode would we have to show the "aiming" arrow
2. As previously discussed in Grappling hook: Don't cancel all if missing a link #1956 I think the current way to disconnect when you're hooked through a needle (walk away) is a bit awkward. It would be better to have a button (Xbox B, don't know about keyboard) that cancels the last segment of the current grappling route, and to have the player be fixed in place while they are mid-grapple. We could also change it so that if you misfire, you don't lose the whole grapple so far. I think this would make the long routes like these more fair.

[manuq]

I believe I originally suggested that, on a gamepad, the grappling hook should be aimed with the right stick. I think my theory was that you might want to aim in a different direction to where you were running. In practice I tend to always aim the same way that I walk, and it bothers me when the arrow points in the "wrong" direction when I'm walking without grappling.

I experimented with this change, to rebind the aiming to the left stick (same as movement) and throwing the grappling hook to L2 rather than R2. The conceptual theory then is that grappling is a kind of movement, and now all the movement is on the left hand: stick to move+aim, L1 to run, L2 to throw.

https://gist.github.com/wjt/0ba16e34b6ed040258b0c10802ac2f95

I found that this is even worse to control, because you can't keep still while aiming, so you have to keep adjusting the aim direction based on your movement. Experiment over.

However I think there could be some other improvements:

1. If we introduced a "keyboard-only" mode that you have to explicitly opt in to Add Control Setting for "keyboard only" or "keyboard + mouse" #2341 then:
   a. In joypad mode, we would completely hide the "aiming" arrow if the "move_*" input vector is zero
   b. In mouse mode, maybe we could also hide the "aiming" arrow and instead rely on the mouse pointer?
   c. Only in keyboard mode would we have to show the "aiming" arrow

Yes! I agree with A and C. I wasn't that sure about B, but after some thinking it makes sense.

2. As previously discussed in Grappling hook: Don't cancel all if missing a link #1956 I think the current way to disconnect when you're hooked through a needle (walk away) is a bit awkward. It would be better to have a button (Xbox B, don't know about keyboard) that cancels the last segment of the current grappling route, and to have the player be fixed in place while they are mid-grapple. We could also change it so that if you misfire, you don't lose the whole grapple so far. I think this would make the long routes like these more fair.

Yes to all, I have updated the ticket description. I wonder if "Repel" could be overloaded to also cancel the hook, maybe in addition to Xbox B for the joypad? My hope is to keep the amount of input reduced so it doesn't become too complex. Using keyboard + mouse I find it nice that right-click repels + retreats the grapple one step. But the risk is to make it confusing!

[wjt]

If we overload the "repel" input to mean "cancel throw" then I am not sure it should also trigger a repel - we could update the input hint on screen to change "Repel" to "Unhook" or something