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Controls bloat - solution contextual controls
allmine444
If you've played a modpack with a number of mods in use you may have picked up on a problem of overlapping controls. For example, 'F' could be used to access a Traincraft controls overlay, switch modes on dark steel armour, switch modded tools etc. You can reconfigure these to avoid overlaps. Note if there are overlaps then they will be red in the controls screen and neither will function. You can do this a number of times but eventually you end up running out of available keys that aren't taken up by vanilla controls (WSAD, spacebar, E, 1-9) or you have so many keyboard commands it gets hard to remember them all.
A common solution to controls bloat in a lot of games is to have a few inputs that control levers, buttons, interaction etc. contextually. Take the RPG game Skyrim as an example. You have WSAD for movement (PC), P for the powers menu, I for inventory and E for interactions. In virtually every instance where a non-attack (LMB) interaction input is required, E is used. There's usually a tooltip but generally speaking it's easier to remember when this is the case with every interaction.
Adapting the same principles to modded Minecraft, when you're not in a Traincraft train engine there's no point in having F bound to that function unless you are sufficiently in range so it can be freed up for other mods. When in the train you cannot jump so the spacebar can be reused for, for example, the brakes. Similarly you won't be able to use jetpacks when in a train (well, not effectively anyway) so whichever controls for that are not needed. If I'm controlling a modded (sea) ship there's no point in having the train or jetpack controls enabled when those functions won't be available anyway so they are available for controlling the ship.
These are just a few examples I can think of right now but I think you get the idea. How this will be implemented is a different challenge. You would need a mod or feature that interacts with all the mods used and decides which are allocated controls at what point. Games like vanilla Skyrim, Witcher, Assassin's Creed with these reused controls are made by a single company and it's more difficult when mods are created by separate users.
Just something for consideration.
A common solution to controls bloat in a lot of games is to have a few inputs that control levers, buttons, interaction etc. contextually. Take the RPG game Skyrim as an example. You have WSAD for movement (PC), P for the powers menu, I for inventory and E for interactions. In virtually every instance where a non-attack (LMB) interaction input is required, E is used. There's usually a tooltip but generally speaking it's easier to remember when this is the case with every interaction.
Adapting the same principles to modded Minecraft, when you're not in a Traincraft train engine there's no point in having F bound to that function unless you are sufficiently in range so it can be freed up for other mods. When in the train you cannot jump so the spacebar can be reused for, for example, the brakes. Similarly you won't be able to use jetpacks when in a train (well, not effectively anyway) so whichever controls for that are not needed. If I'm controlling a modded (sea) ship there's no point in having the train or jetpack controls enabled when those functions won't be available anyway so they are available for controlling the ship.
These are just a few examples I can think of right now but I think you get the idea. How this will be implemented is a different challenge. You would need a mod or feature that interacts with all the mods used and decides which are allocated controls at what point. Games like vanilla Skyrim, Witcher, Assassin's Creed with these reused controls are made by a single company and it's more difficult when mods are created by separate users.
Just something for consideration.
