Make commands issued on mousepress

quote: Another thing that delays orders is that most of them are executed on mouse release rather than mouse press. Since we have line drawing, area commands and all that fancy stuff, orders need to be executed on mouse release rather than mouse press like in Starcraft for example. So first you press the mouse button and then you have to release it before the order is given. This makes it hard to target moving units accurately because you need to have both mouse press and mouse release on the target without moving the mouse too much because if you move the mouse too much, you will get an area command rather than single target command. I wrote some widgets to make it easier to target moving units. More on that here: https://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33287

- [Er0]Godde (source)

I'd like to propose changing right click commands to be issued instantly as the button is pressed down and updated as the mouse cursor is moved. That way you could still draw things like custom move formations or context specific area commands, but with the added benefit that units would start moving (and accelerate) earlier. Furthermore right clicking mobile units would be muuuch easier.

For times when it is crucial that all units start doing something at the same time the left mouse button can be used to draw custom move formations or other orders instead. This system would still work like the current one.

I would expect this change to slightly improve the reaction times of players' units in quick-time events, especially early raider wars. That could make the game feel much smoother and more responding. In the best case scenario this would improve ZK while not negatively impact players, as custom formations are probably drawn very quickly and in the first few hundred milliseconds units would still be slow and accelerate, or need to turn while moving anyway. Thus not much time is lost moving into (potentially) the wrong direction for a few units while a movement formation is drawn.

Anyway, that's mostly just random assumptions I have. I want to know what others expect to happen.
Any thoughts on this? Problems I didn't think of?

quote: For times when it is crucial that all units start doing something at the same time the left mouse button can be used to draw custom move formations or other orders instead. This system would still work like the current one.

quote: Line moves would be skewed towards one side.

Wouldn't using the "Wait" command help with this issue?

The biggest thing I see this idea benefiting is guard commands and target commands, especially with circle guard. As an aside, something I'm curious about with circle guard is whether it is possible for the unit-at-centre check to happen on mouse press, with the distance set at mouse release, in order to avoid the difficulties with circle-guarding moving units that GoogleFrog was talking about in the circle guard video.

That general system would probably work for any other group or circle orders, mouse down sets a central target (if applicable) and mouse release sets the full group. That means line move is the only order which would probably be best left to mouse release, though you are suggesting that the orders are given periodically while the line is being dragged, which becomes a network bandwidth question rather than a UI one.

An important aspect is that you need to be able to deselect current order or deselect units.

There exists 2 basic modes of order giving:
1. Context sensitive mouse with no command selected. Right click to give order. Left click to draw selection box and deselect currently selected units.
2. Command selected. Left click to give order. Right click to deselect order and go back to 1.
I think it is important that you are able to deselect a selected order. If both mouse buttons give the order at the same time you will run into problems. Pressed nuke command? You better fire that nuke now. :P

Options:
1a. Context sensitive commands are always executed on mouse press. This makes it easier to target moving units with repair and attack commands.
Exception:Guard command so that you can draw move line commands ontop of friendly units. The default guard command is pretty useless anyway.
1b. Context sensitive commands are single target if the target under the mouse cursor is the same both at mouse press and mouse release. This gives you the option to draw an area attack, area repair, area reclaim or area resurrect even without hitting a hotkey or clicking on the command menu. However with option 2a I think this is unnecessary.
2a. When a command is selected, with a hotkey or through the command menu, you get single target command if the target is the same both at mouse press and mouse release. If not: you get an area command or a line draw command.

quote: sometimes do use line draw move commands for single units. It is useful for manual pathing for example.

I use this all the time. Ensuring raiders avoid known defenses is quite simple and convenient with this. However, the first order in the line could be executed on mouse press without any issue, since the line would still be drawn and subsequent orders issued.

Shouldn't "deselect current order" and "deselect units" be bound to different buttons? "Escape" seems to be a good candidate for one of them...

The first single unit line move order is given as soon as the mouse is moved. This could be changed to give the order when the mouse is pressed.

Just like with the minimap the middle mouse button is already reserved for camera movement.

This is not the same as the LMB on minimap discussion because giving move orders on mouse press would impact an important feature which everyone uses. The UI cannot know whether you are going to drag a line after you right click.

That's what I initially suggested. The only (probably very minor) drawback is ~100 to 500ms of most (not all!) units moving towards slightly wrong locations. Well, that and perhaps slightly lower FPS because moar pathing.