Arrow key in spell target mode casts the spell adjacent to you

[NQNStudios]

So if you're casting Fireball.... you've just pressed one button (probably thinking it would move the camera) and possibly killed your caster.

[CelticMinstrel]

Using the arrow key for targeting is intended behaviour though. I suppose it's unfortunate that you can accidentally hit yourself when doing so, but I'm not really convinced it counts as a bug.

[NQNStudios]

Yeah, well I’ve observed that there are multiple contexts where you’re in a targeting mode and in some of them you’d want the arrow keys to target next to you, while in others you’d want the camera to move. Sometimes it would be impossible for us to programmatically tell the difference, i.e. in look mode it’s very convenient to target next to you for searching things, but the player could just as easily be using look mode to see farther away, and they’d want camera movement instead. When targeting ranged, you’d almost never want to target adjacent to you. Maybe the main point here is that there’s *no* keyboard input way to move the camera while targeting.

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On Sat, Nov 23, 2024 at 1:00 PM Celtic Minstrel ***@***.***> wrote: Using the arrow key for targeting is intended behaviour though. I suppose it's unfortunate that you can accidentally hit yourself when doing so, but I'm not really convinced it counts as a bug. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#482 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AATXBKLAA4V7JSCGFMOLFQ32CDGFLAVCNFSM6AAAAABSHYSRNCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDIOJVGYZDEMJTGY> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[NQNStudios]

I made an issue on my fork's tracker that's for quality-of-life improvements, some of which might change the experience so you might not want them in the upstream (I'll still PR and you can decide individually). Here it is: NQNStudios#16

If you consider this issue to fall into that category, we can close it here and move it onto my QOL checklist.

[CelticMinstrel]

I don't see anything unreasonable on that list, so feel free to open each of those as an issue over here if you want. I wouldn't say I'm on-board with everything on that list, but I could probably be convinced for most of them. The one that seems the most dubious is skill training everywhere…

Back on-topic, I can see your point about not having a way to move the camera with the keyboard. That's also true in look mode, though. I also see your point that it would be very unusual to want to cast a ranged spell, especially an area-of-effect spell, on an adjacent target. But actually changing how this works would probably be quite difficult, as the arrow keys are simply mapped to be equivalent to a keypress on the adjacent space.

So, I'm not sure what's the best thing to do here.

[NQNStudios]

Are there any Mage/Priest spells that can only target an adjacent space? I think if the arrow key shortcut doesn't cover every meaningful input in the spellcasting context, we should just turn it off for spellcast targeting.

[CelticMinstrel]

Good examples of spells where you'd want to use an arrow key for targeting are unlock or move mountains. Though those are cast in town generally. (Not sure if they're available in combat.)