Changing beacon grid spot on observatory to guard against accidental beacons

ydy · March 2016

Is there a reason beyond inertia not to change the beacon grid spot on the observatory from 5 (default key S) to 9 (default key X)? Using shift+WASD to pan it's only a matter of time before you miskey it. It'd better for a small and simple mistake like this not to have to hurt your team so bad.

radionaut · March 2016

accidental beacons seem to me like an unnecessary rite of passage for newer commanders, and yet it happens to even the most experienced of comms. since a beacon can't be cancelled, they have the potential to cause a snowball effect for the marines.

ydy's suggestion is a good one to help prevent them, and definitely worth exploring. i wonder if using a different icon (perhaps rotating the beacon symbol to more resemble an exclamation point?

or even adding a cautionary style to the button would help.

for example:

Yojimbo · March 2016

I never quite understood why the default bounds for structure upgrades are the same as your camera movement keys, it's clunky, inefficient and has accident prone written all over it IMO.

ydy · March 2016

Either of spot 7 (F) or 9 (X) would be a big improvement. 8 (C/G mess) is available but I'd avoid it. Let's fast-track this into 293 gogogo

ydy · April 2016

radionaut wrote: »

adding a cautionary style to the button would help

A visual change wouldn't help anything for miskeys but yeah that'd be good overall

ydy · April 2016

I was hoping to make a client-side-only mod so that people could opt into this change immediately but apparently the grid spot mappings are kept in a Lua file and no mod can touch any Lua file unless it's running on the server. So forward-thinking server ops, check out Steam Workshop: Beacon on X. The source for it is tiny.

To support for vanilla go vote at feedback.userreport.com: Move beacon grid spot on observatory from 5 (default key S) to 9 (default key X).

Failing that, at least vote to make the grid spot mappings client-side-moddable: feedback.userreport.com: Move commander interface grid spot mappings out of Lua space.

knoxaf · April 2016

I misclicked it once but it was because my brain told me push S for scan.

Please change it per ydy's suggestion.

Deck_ · April 2016

Please change this as suggested in the OP. If you make this happen, it fixes an issue. The community will be happy, and it's a good idea.

MOMOhandset · April 2016

definitely an annoying feature. beaconing marines when trying to scan and medpack at the same time is something all commanders cringe about. this is also the only thing i genuinely get upset at in this game

Aeglos · April 2016

While I agree that the position of the grid spot should be changed to prevent accidents, I don't get this hand wringing over scans and meds. Do you guys actually select the obs to scan? That just seems odd.

Foxy · April 2016

Aeglos wrote: »

While I agree that the position of the grid spot should be changed to prevent accidents, I don't get this hand wringing over scans and meds. Do you guys actually select the obs to scan? That just seems odd.

This.

Kaneh · April 2016

because you hotkey the obs for when you DO want to beacon quickly

Aeglos · April 2016

Yes, but you don't usually scan with your obs selected as scans are available in the same menu as meds, which was my point.

ydy · May 2016

Still happens all the time

Deck_ · August 2016

I think it's time to bring up this idea again. Ydy brings up a good point. This has happened too many times over the course of this game for this to be ignored. It might seem like a simple thing, but I think it's a very important change to make. It's game ruining when this happens and it's a trap that can happen to any commander. I think this is a great time to make this change with the upcoming commander tutorial. Thoughts?

Kasharic · August 2016

Or... you could just add a button to cancel the beacon... maybe just make it so that when you recycle it cancels, like when you recycle a phasegate it no longer functions... and recycling can be cancelled too.

Deck_ · August 2016

^The problem with that is aliens react to the beacon to make big plays on a phase gate/decision to do something on the map. If you could fake out an alien team with a beacon, I think it makes for worse game-play. I think it just needs to be tougher to beacon by mistake. Seems to fix the issue and not cause a big fake out problem.

Aeglos · August 2016

I'm sure you are all better players (and commanders) than me, but the only time I ever select my obs is to hotkey it, to research phase gates and finally to beacon. I don't get why this is such an issue.

I mean, it seems a fairly simple change with only benefits and inconsequential downsides, but why are you guys specifically bringing it up? I mean, it seems more of a rookie trap than something veterans are susceptible to. Much less competitive players like yourselves.

Deck_ · August 2016

^This is to help out all commanders. Even if this just helped new commanders, that's a good thing. Why can't I bring up an idea that makes the game better?

Aeglos · August 2016

Because it is very unlikely to occur to yourselves? I mean people don't usually think about it unless it has happened to them, whether on the field or as commander. I can count on both my hands that it has happened to me or my commander in the maybe 1000 hours I spent as a marine. And I'm not particularly skilled, nor are the majority of my commanders. Any benefit is better than none, and I support the change, but what has me perplexed is why has this became such an issue that you have to advocate for a change, especially when you should be seeing the least of it.

radionaut · August 2016

Aeglos, what is with all this frivolous nitpicking about the reasons for a change that you clearly support? it has grown tiresome.

.trixX. · August 2016

It only loosely ties here, but sometimes when I'm medding, I somehow trigger the beacon despite I havent selected the hotkey for it.
Has anyone bumped into this, or is it only my user error?

Aeglos · August 2016

radionaut wrote: »

Aeglos, what is with all this frivolous nitpicking about the reasons for a change that you clearly support? it has grown tiresome.

Genuine confusion? What is this defensiveness?

Handschuh · August 2016

Playing regularly the past week I've seen unintentional at least once per day.. probably even more... mostly by less experienced commanders, but even to experienced commanders it happens and it really screws up the game...

This has great benefits with comparatively little effort.. so please do something about it

Yojimbo · August 2016

All that needs to be done is have the beacon hotkey moved further away from phasegate research and also moved from the movement binds as they are too close to each other for an accidental press, other researchable tech can get away with this as you can simply cancel the request and have your resources refunded.

Beaconing on the other hand often has disastrous consequences and is non refundable.

Case solved.

Deck_ · August 2016

Case solved, but is it solved? UWE confirmation?

.trixX. · August 2016

Cancelable beacon can be used to scare away base rushing aliens...
Onos on the powernode?
BEEP-BEEP *onos retreats* BEEP-BE *beacon canceled*

Not saying that it's definitely bad thing, just has to be considered.
I could also image a button for it which has to be pressed twice (dblclicked/tapped) to do it's job

Yojimbo · August 2016

.trixX. wrote: »

Cancelable beacon can be used to scare away base rushing aliens...
Onos on the powernode?
BEEP-BEEP *onos retreats* BEEP-BE *beacon canceled*

Not saying that it's definitely bad thing, just has to be considered.
I could also image a button for it which has to be pressed twice (dblclicked/tapped) to do it's job

I can imagine double pressing a key would lead to another "hidden mechanic", since no other mechanic requires you to double press?

.trixX. · August 2016

Right... scrap the last sentence

Maybe move it to a submenu then? Like dropping equipment

Handschuh · August 2016

Yesterday again 3 failbeacons...

Yojimbo · August 2016

Don't suppose we can get an update of this idea? @remi It's a pretty good one

Changing beacon grid spot on observatory to guard against accidental beacons

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