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[Morwen Lagann]

As I was saying in OOC earlier, there are two big flaws with the idea that this is going to be groundbreaking or game-changing in any significant fashion.

1) The aforementioned one-second server ticks. I don't know how twitchy the movement will actually be until I get a chance to play with it on Sisi, but my suspicion is that however twitchy it is, that tick is going to screw with a lot of the 'finesse' piloting that works with mouseclicks.
2) The EVE client only accepts (and maps) input through two sources: keypresses, and mouseclicks. You aren't going to be doing anything fancy like assigning a joystick axis to a range of directions like you would in a flight simulator; you're going to be assigning a simple on/off keybind to WASD or whatever you prefer. That means that CCP is going to have to determine a "keyboard turn rate" for each ship based on various stats, and that is the ONLY speed your ship will turn when you press the appropriate button. There won't be slight jinks or hard turns - you will be changing direction at one rate no matter which direction or how hard you push down on that key. The only thing that'll change that is how long you hold the key down. Pres butan, turn ship. Let go of butan, stop turning. That is the only control you'll have, and it's not as much as I think people are expecting it to be.

I'm expecting it's actually going to work better not for small things like frigates, but for cruisers and up, based on these limitations.

In the end, it's cute, but it's a gimmick that is likely intended to stave off the whiny "b-b-b-but I don't wanna click to do things" people leaving the game after 5 minutes. Arguably, if those people used the movement control scheme as a reason to stop playing, odds are they weren't going to stick around very long anyway even if it ceases being an issue.

Edit: Played with it a bit. See the above (unchanged) post for my review of the feature.

[Esna Pitoojee]

There's an additional factor present in that while the ship models will physically turn immediately on a button being pressed, their actual flight direction is still controlled by the game's vector-based engine (AKA, 'submarine space physics'). As a result, it is entirely possible to get a ship to drift sideways or even backwards relative to the model's 'front'. It looks cool a some points, but having it happen all the time...?

[Ché Biko]

Hmm. The way Morgen described it was not how I imagined it would be, and I guess I don't like that. I was hoping it was working more like: point camera, press forward butan, ship turns to camera's viewing direction.
Don't like the fact that you need to hold the key to complete the turn. Seems very...un-EVE-like to me.
Time to provide some feedback on a feature I have not used yet?   <---And what is the proper use of this...emoticon anyway?

[Halcyon]

If it becomes popular perhaps there'll be a second arc below the speed window for speed of turning, thus allowing you to select speed of ship and also a turning speed. A little clunky perhaps but who said flying internet spaceships should be easy?

[Silas Vitalia]

It seems this will be mostly gimmicky unless they decide to introduce skill-based shooting, which they can't under current game/server architecture.

As long as all your weapons are still dice rolls auto locked on targets the maneuvering thing will be fun for just a few people. 

I foresee much rage for smaller ship pilots trying to pull off precise things for ranges of kiting and tackling and being flummoxed by the 1 sec delays.

Then again not having to click like mad in empty space and just turn in the direction you want might be very nice *shrug*


 

[Esna Pitoojee]

The biggest practical use I see for this right now is making bumping a moving target somewhat easier.

[Karmilla Strife]

One reason WASD works in STO is the relatively slow velocity and turning speed of the ships in that game. Trying to manually pilot with just those keys at MWD speed is going to be pretty difficult in any kind of combat situation. I think it will have a few niche uses that people have already mentioned, but for the most part will only be useful when just flying around "for fun."

[Morwen Lagann]

One reason WASD works in STO is the relatively slow velocity and turning speed of the ships in that game. Trying to manually pilot with just those keys at MWD speed is going to be pretty difficult in any kind of combat situation. I think it will have a few niche uses that people have already mentioned, but for the most part will only be useful when just flying around "for fun."

Ding!

[Alain Colcer]

i thought the idea was to have fun in this game, or i'm in the wrong game?

[Halcyon]

Apparently

[Silas Vitalia]

i thought the idea was to have fun in this game, or i'm in the wrong game?

Patch Notes:

The manual flight controls have been updated to only function if you make spaceship noises out loud while using the WASD keys.

WOOOOOOOSH
PEW PEW PEW PEW

[youcancallmesir]

As long as they let me keep navigating via clicks, I'm all for it. Most of my friends who have tried the game say that the biggest hurdle for them was the flight style. A few unsubbed specifically for that reason.

I think that as pilots gain more experience they will learn which situations are better suited for what flight styles. I could never fly my Garmur via keypresses, but it's a great way for a newbie in his/her first Kestrel to have one less step to overcome.

Also the uses stated above.

[Cmdr Baxter]

One reason WASD works in STO is the relatively slow velocity and turning speed of the ships in that game. Trying to manually pilot with just those keys at MWD speed is going to be pretty difficult in any kind of combat situation. I think it will have a few niche uses that people have already mentioned, but for the most part will only be useful when just flying around "for fun."

Speaking as an on-again/off-again STO player particularly adept in keeping his Excelsior-class alive against Borg cubes, WASD is incredibly useful in STO because you're dealing with four shield grids (bow, stern, port, starboard). You turn the ship in order to keep hostile fire away from shield grids about to fail, giving yourself time to repair. In EVE, there's no such utility purpose since we have "one" shield grid. So yeah, I agree that it's entirely intended "for fun."