Option for consistent mouse operations

A mod? It was a UI option from the very start in TA!

I didn't see too much "passive" in it

Well I agree for consistent option.
I always **** up for 1 minute in trying to link teleporters.

I didn't see too much aggressive in there. He's just a good writer using standard techniques.

"Active defensive post" (10x worse then passive aggressive =P)

Maybe, but it read like standard opinion writing.

I was obviously half-jocking, but with regard to standard opinion writing: it's frown upon to state your opinion as an absolute rather then present context, proof and/or logical backing for your position (any combination will do). Well, at least in the circles I frequent that's the case. In the absence of that you can just have things like "I think the sun is blue!" and similar "writing of one's opinion," which maybe they are true, but what are you doing exactly "writing to yourself" ?

Opinion writing/persuasive writing.


He presented a logical argument backed up by examples?

Play around on your desktop. Left click selects everything you click on (including nothing). Right click provides a menu of contextual commands. Left click selects those contextual commands. Right click provides the list of contextual commands again.

The right click function in PA is more sophisticated, in that it gives you the most relevant contextual command, rather than bringing up a menu which is already present on the UI.

If you then want to perform another function, you left click the menu to select that command. And then contextually, the most common function you then want to perform is to cancel that command and select a different contextual command.

It's very logical.

I've never played TA at all. All of the RTS games I've played have used left-click to select things, and right-click to issue contextual commands (like 'move' or 'move attack' for units, setting rally points for buildings etc). Issuing a command you've selected from the UI with the left makes sense - as much as selecting a building from the UI and placing it on the map to be built with the left mouse button.

From the replies I'm gathering that TA was the only RTS to implement a different control scheme (correct me if I'm wrong, my RTS library isn't vast). So how does fitting in with a lot of other titles' control schemes become a negative point?

A lot of early RTS used left to issue move orders instead of right. Go check out OpenRA for example. Not sure if this was because of some of the abominations at the time, eg



...or other reasons.

Good to know. Still, seems the trend that modern RTS games use the same control scheme as PA.

And.. Yeah. I'm glad that mouse died alright.

Man I wish The Elder Scrolls still used dice roll combat....

Thinking back I recall that even before TA, I believe C&C used the left-click to do scheme, and that later C&C games actually have an option to revert to this scheme.

As for why they did, I think a more interesting question is why later ones do not. The right-mouse button isn't used this way in other programs, why did RTSs changes from the button which is used to do stuff in most software, to the one which is used to open menus? There must be some reason, but I'm damned if I know what it is.

Because it's damn annoying, when you have units selected, and your left click which is giving movement commands, when you're just trying to add another unit to your selection, or deselect a unit you don't want without deselecting the entire selection?

Why are you operating on mice?

If I can but bottle their cuteness I can retire.

But it is. Right click opens the context menu usually. PA and other RTS just get rid of the slow to use menu and give one context action. Obviously if you select a specific command the context changes and that's about it.
Has been like that in all RTS I ever played, with the exception of TA. And that had an option to make it work right click based, which was a life saver to me.

But you don't perform the context action with the right-mouse button in those apps, so for it to make sense if you remove the menu (as there's only one action) then you'd use the left-mouse button. And incidentally that's exactly how things like web pages, or even the rest of PA, works. I don't use a right-click to select a building on a menu for example, even though that is a context sensitive action.

My point is that while these defaults make perfect sense to us, it's because we've been playing RTS games for ages. They don't make sense in a wider software application sense, which is why I'd like an option. Just like the C&C series has.

Eh, I got used to it pretty fast when I first started playing SupCom. Gamers have the mental flexibility to deal with new control schemes unless they're completely ridiculous like Mouse1 to sprint, or L2 (on a dualshock) to pause.

Glad that it isn't just me that have some problems with it. I still trying to figuring which mouse button send the nuke attack!