So, I’m relatively new to the game and given the sheer amount of things that can (and to me at least should) be keybinded I was wondering if there was any support for emacs-like keybinds, leader keys at least.
In the same vein given the amount of possible filters and stuff to be searched is there any support for regular expressions?
Thanks for your attention.
Krishnack.
The End User License Agreement (EULA) section 6.A.3 says that you cannot use “macros” (emacs-like software, or hardware - programmable gaming pads for example). They will ban you for it. Basically, if we have to press 5 keys and 2 clicks to achieve something, you have to press the same. It’ a PVP game, supposed to be “fair.”
So,
you can combine Ctrl- Alt- Shift- combinations into a single key press, to avoid finger fatigue. A command like ctrl-shift-E (“drones engage my target”) is considered a single keypress / single command, and you can combine that into a mouse button click, if you have a programmable mouse.
you can replace a mouse click with a keyboard key and viceversa; some gaming mice have lots of extra programmable buttons.
you cannot send walls of text or multiple commands with a single key press. You cannot activate all your shield hardeners with a single click, or send a text advert in Jita local chat channel (with a single key press).
you cannot use any software script or features of a programmable keypad that offer time delays, auto-repeat, or any triggers based on what’s on screen (pixel detection, optical character recognition (OCR), etc.).
The game doesn’t allow interface add-ons (like, for example, World of Warcraft). It has very limited “programmability” in that you can:
“link” all your weapons in the fitting screen so they all fire at the same time if you press just one button (F1).
change any keyboard shortcuts that you want from the game’s control panel (Esc, Keybindings). Game can be controlled by keyboard only.
move the icons for any of the modules installed on the ship when you’re in-space. So if you move your shields to the top row, for example, then you just press F1-F4 to activate them.
put drones into “groups” (folders) and then the drone command keybinds will activate the whole folder (all 5 drones).
Would something such as a Steam Controller be permissible for use? Not saying it wouldn’t be inefficient in its own right without a F-key pad, but still. Steam controllers can only rebind to a single key press/combination per button, and you can’t bind H E Y Space J I T A to it like you can with a macro.
You can use anything, even programmable keyboard or mice, as long as you restrict yourself to the one-command-per-key-press rule. Steam Controller sounds ok, but for an official answer feel free to create a Support Ticket and have them give you an official ruling on it.
I’m using a programmable keypad. It does have multi-key and auto-repeat features, but I’m not using them.
Only combat commands are critical enough to require fast key-presses, everything else you can take your time and open from the toolbar on the left (which is customizable). And for combat commands, some of the bigger ships have 8,7,8 slots, but practical fittings for those ships only involve about 4-6 modules that need to be activated, really. Easy to put them on the numeric keypad, and just add a couple commands to order drones to attack and return to bay, and you’re set. You target by ctrl-clicking ships from the overview, you activate your weapons with F1 (because they’re grouped), etc. It’s not too bad actually.
Also, this is an MMO, not a twitch game. The server itself has 1-second “ticks” (rounds), and the internet adds 0.5 - 1 second to any command that your EVE client sends (and the server has to verify each request and send back a response). So you’re looking at 2 - 3 seconds “response time” for any click or keyboard command, really. It’s not twitch.
I realize that. I just like flying with joystick manual control. It’s more fun and immersive for me.
Sure, but it’s not a joystick game. There is a “cockpit” view, and I think you can change the wasd (up down left right) to the stick of a joystick, but the EVE ships are more like (naval) warships with turrets that can fire in all directions, and you’re very often going in one direction and shooting backwards or sideways, and the “cockpit” view limits your visibility in this scenario a lot.
But anyway, I think Steam Controller is fine, as you said it’s one-command-per-keypress.
See it this way: the captain of a RL battleship does not use a joystick to steer his boat. He issues commands to his navigator.
In space, orbital mechanics can be counterintuitive (or as Larry Niven put it: “East takes you out, out takes you west, west takes you in, in takes you east”) and so our ships have basic movements automated by computer, and overal strategy (align, orbit, keep range, etc…) decided by the pilot.
What I mean by emacs-like is not macros, but rather kind of leader keys. Take grepping something inside a project in projectile(a “mode” in emacs) for example(a project being the directories of a certain program source, and grep is a tool for searching) :
Then for a specific command it would be C-c p s g. It’s not about doing more with less keypresses, but about maximizing the specificity of the keybinds.
Thanks for your attention.
Krishnack.
The game isn’t a wall of text that needs to be edited with a mouseless editor, unfortunately.
The best I can explain it is the game is designed to function with just a mouse (no keyboard), but they allow keyboard also. But if you don’t have a mouse to point at the specific thing you want to select, then you have to use the Windows system not the Unix system, for navigating around the page. Edit/Notepad, not emacs. Tab tab tab downarrow downarrow shift-rightarrow-arrow-arrow-arrow ctrl-c.
There’s no support for emacs, or a different “shell” you can load that would provide support for it. The only thing you can do is change the keyboard shortcuts to different combinations of ctrl- alt- shift-, to something that suits you.
If you can get your controller or software so you can type Ccpsg1 and it sends to the game Ctrl-Shift-F1, then that’s fine. Not c t r l s h i f t f 1, but the Ctrl key, the Shift key and F1, all 3 at the same time.
Search boxes (for the market for example) are actually extremely basic, they don’t accept wildcards at all. Or acronyms. Or just the second and third word in a phrase, without the first word. The search boxes simply eliminate whatever item names do not begin with the few letters you’ve typed so far.
Great write-up and response, but I did notice one thing that could have been better said:
“link” all your weapons of the same type, loaded with the same ammo…
If you try hard enough everything is a wall of text.
Jokes aside, my questions have been answered.
Thanks for your attention.
Krishnack.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.