Originally posted by Moogie
And you\'ve thought of a brilliant way to do this, and are going to post it. Right?
Most likely he didn\'t, but I have thought about this a bit.
The main problem is that the movement is, by default, being done using these awkward and ill-suited \"WASD\" keys. The only reason one may want to do so is that, assuming the player is right-handed, which, granted, applies to the majority, makes using the mouse and the keyboard simultaneously easier.
However, you can almost always just move the keyboard just a bit to reach the arrow keys, which are not only more obvious of a choice, but also have the added benefit of being in a distinct location, enabling \"seek by tactile sense\" more readily.
However, these are also being used for the chat window, so they aren\'t really available as well. Looking further to the right there is the numeric pad, which ATM is devoid of function (though not present in a laptop environment).
They are what
I am using for movement, anyway.
If we use them for movement, they don\'t need to be grabbed by the chat window, making it possible to have it have the keyboard focus all the time. Similarly, all keys that are not used for typing (alphanumeric keys) and control of the chat (cursor keys, space, enter, CAPS / CAPS lock, del, backspace, home, end and possibly ALT as well) should also not go to the chat windows handler at all so they can be used as hotkeys. I am using the F keys for the hotkeys like inventory and such.
I devised this layout to counter the hotkey going off / random movement bug, but it it also would remove the need to actually unfocus the chat window at all.
The piping through the chat box handler could also be selected by the keys being assigned to hotkeys for the non-typing keys, enabling future use in chat possible. (I.e., if a key is not selected for a hotkey, it will be going to the chat windows handler, whereas if it is and it is selected as hotkey and not one of the necessary ones (alphanumeric / control keys), it would not go to the chat handler).
Another option (mainly for laptop use) is to pick a convenient key for the \"toggle chat\" key. CTRL would be good if WASD is to be kept, and also if the cursor keys are to be used.
Yet another option would be to bring the chat window to focus by simply hovering the mouse over it instead of requiring clicking, and doing the same for unfocusing it, because this will in almost all cases be equivalent anyway, and could be an option.
