Keyboard mapping

[mumra]

Something I've been finding a bit tricky as I've progressed further in the game with a magic user, is managing the number of keys that diffierent spells are on. To play at any reasonable speed it's kind of essential to cast spells by their letter key, however the default assignation to alphabetical letters in no way corresponds to the actual layout of the keyboard! So I start reassigning letters so my left hand can reach the appropriate keys with ease. I usually put mid-level conjurations on x, c, v; and my buffs on s, d, f, g, etc. just so I can remember where they are.

Then what happens, is I forget the key that I've just assigned my newly-memorised spell to. So I type z? and see an alpabetically-ordered list of spells which in no way corresponds to the order in my head in which the spells reside.

My main suggestion here would be to (obviously only in Tiles version) actually display a diagram of the keyboard, with each spell's icon displayed on the key to which it's mapped. This kind of links to an item I read in the Usability Report where they pointed out how keyboards are laid out differently in various countries. By setting up this feature it could be used for all instances where keys need to be remapped.

My second suggestion (which I think less likely) would be to map spells automatically across the keyboard, instead of alphabetically, so asdfghjkl; for the first 10 spells, then either qwertyuiop or zxcvbnm for the next bunch. I don't think this is realistic because it'd obviously mess up keys that players might be used to.

[mumra]

Absolutely - it'd be hugely complex, especially taking into account varying international layouts (although I'm pretty sure there are existing APIs that could help, in fact I'm certain Windows has such support).

[7hm]

My second suggestion (which I think less likely) would be to map spells automatically across the keyboard, instead of alphabetically, so asdfghjkl; for the first 10 spells, then either qwertyuiop or zxcvbnm for the next bunch. I don't think this is realistic because it'd obviously mess up keys that players might be used to.

I like this suggestion. It makes more sense than going alphabetically (for spells only of course).

In most cases I'll remap the spells anyway.

[djnw]

First one must determine which keyboard layout the player is using. One man's "w" is not in the same place as another's.

[mumra]

First one must determine which keyboard layout the player is using. One man's "w" is not in the same place as another's.

That's why I mentioned international keyboard layouts As I said, such information might be already available from the OS (definitely in Windows, maybe with some 3rd-party library in Unix...)

[Twilight]

Does anyone else just map spellcasting to macros? I have my first four spells (a-d) set to F1-F4. Those also have a period at the end for selecting the target, so casting magic missile, or throw flame, etc, is simply a matter of pressing F1 to automatically target and cast the spell at the nearest target/last targeted monster, with just one keypress.
F5-F8 are set to spells that don't need targeting, like summoning, or Ozocubu's armor, and so forth, and then F9-F12 for less frequently used spells.

Not perfect, of course, but certainly easier (for me, at least), then trying to always remember all the different spell slots (Though I end up learning some of them each character anyway.)

P.S. Incidentally, auto-attack is also a great timesaver... Maybe someone should create a thread for handy things you didn't know about Crawl, just so other people could discover new things.