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left/right arrows on main screen (& generally in menus)

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 11:13 pm
by filbo
Tiny feature request: when the vertical cursor isn't focused on Levelset, can you make it so left/right arrows still mean "down/up level#" except on the two (Info, Setup) which have right-arrow submenus?

Also noted, while getting the wording right for this:

It's inconsistent that right-arrow enters Info & Setup, and their submenus, but left-arrow doesn't exit them. There are again submenu items (Setup -> Game & Menu -> Team Mode, and many others) which consume left/right-arrow themselves; I think it'd be fine, reasonably consistent UI if those things did consume the arrows, but anything that didn't explicitly consume them, they act as 'enter' / 'leave' menu hierarchy keys. Even though that's inconsistent with what I came here to ask in the first place.

Combined request: on main menu, L/R = up/down level, except when R opens a submenu; on other menus, L/R exit/enter menu structure, except when consumed by the menu item itself. Wheeee! :)

Re: left/right arrows on main screen (& generally in menus)

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:56 am
by Holger
It's inconsistent that right-arrow enters Info & Setup, and their submenus, but left-arrow doesn't exit them.
I don't think so -- the "left/right arrow" shortcuts work exactly on those buttons that show a "left" or "right" arrow (to leave or enter a sub-menu). So, for leaving a menu, this would mean to vertically navigate to the "exit" menu entry with the button that shows a left-arrow, and then press "cursor left" to leave that sub-menu. Therefore, I think it's indeed pretty consistent behaviour.

That said, I highly sympathize with your request. Just yesterday, I did some quick tests where I repeatedly had to finish a level to check some highscore issues, which required to go back one level every time (because it was increased by one level after finishing the previous one), so I really wished I could do this by simply pressing "cursor left" (while the "start game" menu entry was marked).

So, even as I think it would maybe add some inconsistent/unexpected behaviour, I think I'll give it a try anyway... :-)

Re: left/right arrows on main screen (& generally in menus)

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 1:27 pm
by filbo
Sounds good :) Not everything must be pure.

In actual play, I almost always do:

1. Play level N, doing various sorts of retries etc. until I defeat it
2. RnD auto-increments me to level N+1
3. I hit back-arrow (then curse and use the mouse, if I'm not on the right line), return to level N
4. I hit '555' to replay what I did at warp speed: both to observe whether it is beautiful / elegant, and out of mistrust that the recording might not actually faithfully represent a win (hasn't happened in a long time, hangover from bad days of late 2000s or so)
5. I hit forward-arrow (or fumble around with mouse), return to level N+1
6. Play level N+1, etc.

So more universal acceptance of arrows would remove 2 cursepoints from this cycle. Removing or making optional the auto-increment would also be nice...

Re: left/right arrows on main screen (& generally in menus)

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2017 3:29 pm
by Holger
Combined request: on main menu, L/R = up/down level, except when R opens a submenu; on other menus, L/R exit/enter menu structure, except when consumed by the menu item itself. Wheeee! :)
Should now work just as you described it. (And it's definitely an improvement!)
Removing or making optional the auto-increment would also be nice...
Still have to add a new setup option like "auto-increment solved level: on/off" for that one...

Re: left/right arrows on main screen (& generally in menus)

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 9:31 am
by filbo
Works great!