Question regarding phones for the badlanders

[Rizz]

Problem: Facing issues deciding how to go about phone control. 

My Options

• Disable in-game keys (like the tablet). Easiest solution, big change for players. Rizz happy. 
• Disable in-game keys only when an input is focused. The camera stays locked but can still move around. This is the current solution I have, but the final version of this is unfinished, and unknown if it can work correctly. Pain in the butt. Rizz not happy. 
• No mouse control is pretty much out of the question. There are too many features to account for. 

Technical: As most people have heard already, there is a new phone in the works. The idea is to have it fully feature packed, allowing 2-10x more features than the current phone. But, there's an issue. Today, for the last 4 years, all badlands players have been used to a default no mouse phone. This is highly limiting, not just with the features we can offer, but also text/form/field integration (ex - the text popup when you send messages). All of that silliness is because if no mouse is enabled, and action hotkeys are enabled (like walking WASD), then when you type inside of a input box on a UI, you will also move in-game. I'm sure all players have seen that happen a few times with different UI releases. The current solution I have is to create a smart system, that allows someone to use the mouse and walk around at the same time. This will perm lock the camera, and hot lock in-game controls when a text field is focused. However; this is not easy, and requires 100% accuracy or it will cause issues.  

TLDR:

My question to you guys is, are people willing to settle for a non hybrid mouse controlled phone? This means you can not walk around while using the phone. However, we also get lots of nice new features, and Rizz doesn't have to worry about extremely annoying keyboard control event handling

[Brendan Thomson]

I think I could settle for not being able to walk around while having the phone open, but we NEED to be able to walk around while being on a phone call. Perhaps minimising the phone and keeping a HUD element at the bottom of the screen with the call timer and who youre on the phone to?

 

Would be good to be able to take phone calls while being in the tablet too.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Brendan Thomson

[Rizz]

20 minutes ago, Brendan Thomson said:

I think I could settle for not being able to walk around while having the phone open, but we NEED to be able to walk around while being on a phone call. Perhaps minimising the phone and keeping a HUD element at the bottom of the screen with the call timer and who youre on the phone to?

 

Would be good to be able to take phone calls while being in the tablet too.

Yes one big improvement I plan to make is letting you do other things while on a call. 

[Sammi]

I've been using the mouse controlled phone for, well, as long as I can remember. Especially with the formating issues at the moment, if I had to spam click the down arrow key everytime I got a text, I'd go insane. 

Even outside of the formatting thing, I love the ease of use using the mouse. Major +1

[dmpca]

as long as when a call ends, i dont drive right into the wall because im not quick enough haha (i use mouse alrdy)

[sergei Kushnov]

I have only ever used mouse controll on my phone i havnt had any issues im down for improvement!

[dK_]

Aslong as I can check Twitter and drive at the same time 

[NewportReb]

Is there a way that we could see a youtube video or example of what the options are. Just ballpark ideas doesnt have to be final version? Personally I never used the non mouse controls for the phone but I think a vid or two might shed some light on the directions you are talking about. Nothing long but maybe a 30 second vid or something like that?

[Rizz]

3 hours ago, NewportReb said:

Is there a way that we could see a youtube video or example of what the options are. Just ballpark ideas doesnt have to be final version? Personally I never used the non mouse controls for the phone but I think a vid or two might shed some light on the directions you are talking about. Nothing long but maybe a 30 second vid or something like that?

Not this specific thing, but this concept is exactly the issue with non mouse enabled. It lacks the ability to do things you simply can't do with arrow keys, but from hearing feedback I may be able to put something together that works. 

[Ron]

@Rizz Will we keep the same # we have

 

[Rizz]

8 hours ago, Ron Johnson said:

@Rizz Will we keep the same # we have

 

Yes Ron. 

[Ari]

I like being able to move around and use my phone personally. But I'm also for solutions that are less hassle and provide more for folks in the long run.

[Logan Sanchez]

I've always used keyboard controls cause most the time I'm driving and wanna look at twitter or something but I can for sure settle for being mouse controlled. Also taking to account the what 6 apps we have now, if being mouse controlled means we can have more apps and more features I'm all for it.

[sergei Kushnov]

I have never used keyboard controlls im down for the mouse as long as i can still drive like i  can  now!

[Rizz]

Alright, we'll see what we can do. 

[Brak]

yea we have needed a new phone system forever and the old one has gotten really janky here in the last month or two..... being mouse controled would be good as long as you can atleast still drive..... and hey meby the live gps will work again