Cannot move diagonally

[Rafael Bertolucci Fiadi]

Movement played a great part on strategy in ADOM, being unable to move diagonally feels like a constraint.
It also make me think that 4 monster could trap you, if they are each at W, E, S and N.

[Krzysztof Dycha]

Well spotted! Huge change from ADOM, and this is by design. We’re looking closely at feedback about this.

[Kristian Randalu]

Would help if movement pointers were in Numbad, not at WASD. Also we can then use all other keybindings like original ADOM set was.

[Jochen Terstiege]

The lack of numpads on most notebooks was the main reason to try starting without diagonal movement.

[Kristian Randalu]

This is ULTIMATE nonsense, sorry. You people want to develop like a chess game and there is a chessboard, but moves are limited only to straight lines.

Some possible solutions: a) when numpad is not available, then display it like minimap and user can use mousepad or touch screen, b) if touchscreen is available, then user can press all available field and move there.

But yea, never seen any of notebook with my own eyes, so is there any keys at all?

peace

Ah, one more solution: let all keys be fully resetable, so one can use QEZC for diagonals and change E to R and so on. Diagonal moving is MAJOR need to develop turn based roguelike.

[Krzysztof Dycha]

First of all sounds like you care really deeply about this stuff, props for that and thanks for sticking with us. The part about major need caught my attention. I mean, I totally see where you’re coming from, a lot of roguelikes have this sort of movement. But common doesn’t equal necessary.
Why would you say it’s a need?

Note: ranged attacks, and other targeted abilities such as spells are not limited to just four directions. Just movement to greatly simplify input.

[Kristian Randalu]

Tnx for quick response.

Firstly i think this is about attack and retreat tactics. How one planning to enter a room with many monsters or when one need to start retreat or he/she will be late for that. Ability to move diagonally folds possibilities more than just 2x and via that, game becomes more playable.

Example: If i wanna attack neutral monster, then there is often situation, when i move up, monster moves same time down. Sometimes this happens many times in a row… when there be a clever AI, then i cannot never attack that monster and game just stalls.

Secondly, balancing. There is no logic, when i swing sword around, but can attack only 4 monsters. But then, if i have a firebolt, i can attack one monster first diagonally, then NPC moves one more time and i can sting second time in straight line. So magic is OP versus melee.

And finally this is not logical when you have that above named chessboard, but not used fully functionally.

[Rafael Bertolucci Fiadi]

I tried embracing the movement as it is and exploit the different tactics it allows, but for me it does not “flow”, if it makes sense. The feeling I have is more of a limitation rather than designed game-play.

I even see that as a possible corruption effect, or possibly a race that could only move like this.

Regarding the laptops having no numpads, I have been playing Adom for the last few years in a laptop without numpad, and I was very happy with the Adom release which allowed combining they arrow keys for diagonal movement. UP+LEFT, DOWN+RIGHT, etc. Moving this way becomes second nature surprisingly quick.

I will continue to try exploring this movement without diagonals, and see if it sinks in, but right now it is a game breaker for me, taking away great part of the joy in exploration/melee.

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[kirni]

I started playing ADOM last year an a notebook without numpad - still do today. When hitting UP + LEFT etc. I moved diagonally, which was very intuitive to me. Also for me it feels better to be able to move diagonal. Though it would be no dealbreaker since I am not that dogmatic. However I can imagine that some of the veterans would see this much more critical.

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[Jari nex]

With all due respect, this has also killed my interest in the game. I don’t understand why you would have something in a previous game removed like that.

I‘ll keep an eye on the game, as maybe there’s more to it, but as of right now im not impressed.

[Kristian Randalu]

Sorry to add - no point to testing it without full diagonal interactions. Let’s start over plz.

Lookin' closely some other roguelikes, like Stoneshard beta. They have limited diagonal moving when diagonal vector is open all around, but still they need to do L moves when some obstacles are in corners. Maybe there is some more logic, but cannot play this way. If we wanna add full realistic feel, then char can attack up to left corner diagonally when a melee weapon is on right hand? but yea, im not on Stoneshard forum atm Let’s start just on a diagonal moving, peace

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[Krzysztof Dycha]

Issue #199 was marked as a duplicate of this issue.