Your opinion about mouse usage / accessibility

[Blackfield]

This comes actually from a bug one of my testers discovered:

Target selection "bug" (?) RPG Maker MV

Hi! One of my testers gave me feedback about a target selection bug I can hardly reproduce. At some random points in battles the selection doesn't work anymore. Before the bug, I can select every enemy or every party member (healing etc.). After the bug, only the first enemy or party member is...

forums.rpgmakerweb.com

Basically, whenever you hover over an enemy with the mouse in the battle screen it gets "locked" and you cannot choose any other target with the keyboard.

I've been thinking about looking for a plugin that disables mouse usage in general to avoid the bug. Then @FrigidGaze responded with something that made me rethink that idea: What about people that struggle with keyboards for any kind of reason?

Therefore I'm asking for your opinions on the below:
Do you plan your project with mouse usage? (I don't, since it wasn't supported back in rm2k days when I started)
Would you disable it to avoid this bug, knowing it might take away comfort for players that use the mouse?

 

[48Tentacles]

The more options you leave for players, the more options players will have to get the exact experience that's best for them.

Now, I'm not an expert but if you plan to go for different controls (Mouse, Keyboard, Xbox Controller...), at the very least you should be ready to act when bugs related to controls mess around. If I've found input bugs in VR buttons in games, I'm sure anyone will find input bugs in RPGMaker.

 

[ATT_Turan]

I have never used a mouse for this kind of game - I grew up playing JRPGs on console with a gamepad, then on PC emulators using keyboard.

When I started playtesting my RPG Maker game, I didn't see any benefit to the mouse - all of the menu options are in a short list you can scroll through with keys, there aren't screen elements apart from each other you would want to move your mouse to hit.

It's noteworthy that (presuming you confirm the issue in your other thread) that's really not a bug. It's how input is supposed to work - if you're mousing over a given target, it's what's currently being selected.

Most people who use keyboard to play will not want the mouse cursor in the way of their view, so they'll shove it to the side off the window, meaning it's only potentially a problem if you made your game the full size of a typical monitor.

If you do want to work around it, there are probably plugins to disable mouse input...you could ask the player when they're starting a new game to select what they want to use from a list.

 

[ZombieKidzRule]

People have different preferences. I am a long time mouse and keyboard player myself. I am just now getting into the whole controller experience since I started playing games on the OneXPlayer handheld.

Personally, I like having options. For me, some things are just easier and quicker when using a mouse versus the keyboard. Often, I will use a combination if that option is available and I don't really think too much about it.

I am also a laptop PC gamer so I use an external mouse since I can't stand the built-in track pad style mouses on laptops.

 

[ATT_Turan]

I expect there may be a bit of an age divide, also - younger gamers might never have played the traditional JRPGs RPG Maker is based on, so their experience with seeing "dude on a map" would be interfaces like Diablo 3, and they'd just be inclined to click.

 

[Hadria]

I think regardless of personal preferences, the more tools you give the player to play their way the more accessible your game will be to a wider array of players, as long as it doesn't compromises the design of your game.

Let me picture with an example, I played a bunch of top-view RPGs that have a click based movement, however by design they choose not to include WASD movement support, you have games like PoE, Diablo, Lost Ark, etc. They perfectly could implement it since they have already implemented 8-directional movement for controllers and you as a user can even work-around with third party tools to simulate WASD, however they for whatever reason choose not.

This alienates certain players which would not play the game because they don't like the controls, maybe not many, but certain for sure. At some point as designer you have to value if certain accessibility options compromise the design of your game, or if the effort is worth the amount of players it could potentially bring, and based on that you should set the bar for it.

 

[IschmarVI]

does this count as an answer?


More seriously. There is absolutely nothing wrong with mouse controls. On the opposite, it gives the player more options to control the game and that's a good thing. Howeeeeeeeever, the auto-pathing aspect of mouse controls does not go well with timing/rhythm based puzzles which is, why I deactivated it for my current project.

What I want to say is ... it really depends on the game, but imo there is nothing inherently wrong with mouse/touch controls.

 

[Milennin]

I think it's nice if a game is also playable with mouse, as long as the gameplay is made for it. It should be totally fine in a regular RPG, but in games with precision movement where auto pathing wouldn't work, it might be worth considering disabling the mouse.
But it also is not a dealbreaker to me if mouse controls aren't available in an RPG, as I usually play with keyboard anyway.

 

[sugarcr4sh]

Wait, how are you guys disabling mouse controls? Are you disabling them entirely or leaving an option to the player for accessibility? Autopath hasn't been working well with the puzzles in my game so I've been kind of concerned, apparently Galv made an MV plugin for disabling mouse https://galvs-scripts.com/2015/11/03/mv-disable-mouse-clicks/

 

[Zeriab]

I would make pressing a key on the keyboard hide "soft disable" the mouse and moving/clicking with the mouse enable it again.

While you are at it, please make a larger mouse icon with higher contrast and make it an option. Helpful for people with bad eyesight.

 

[woootbm]

@Blackfield Are you using Yanfly Battle Engine Core?


Definitely a QoL question since players can simply move the mouse into a corner and not hit this issue.

 

[Frostorm]

I mostly do my playtests with a controller/gamepad. Playing RM games with a mouse just feels clunky to me. Personally, I'd love to disable mouse functionality completely, but I'm sure there are people out there who prefer it. So for me, it's controller > keyboard > mouse.

 

[Blackfield]

@Blackfield Are you using Yanfly Battle Engine Core?
View attachment 230894

Definitely a QoL question since players can simply move the mouse into a corner and not hit this issue.

Thats very nice and helpful I think. Only disabling in battle screen is giving the player the chance to still use the mouse in all other aspects of the game and avoids that players "accidentially" select enemies with the mouse and get stuck in the selection.

 

[arsMori]

Typically, I just disable the mouse. The game I've been working on is a pretty standard (mechanics-wsie) RPG Maker game, so all that's needed is the Z/X/arrow keys.

The only situation I'd do otherwise if I'm developing something like a point and click game.