Cursor Position Should Move When Mouse-Dragging

General Discussion
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I think a small change should be made, or at least an option should be added, to alter the way mouse-dragging works in SC2. I’ve searched a little to find a setting I might be missing, or some kind of work around, but surprisingly have found nothing mentioning the issue I’m noticing. I’m wondering if anyone else feels the current mouse-drag feels a little off and if this change might be an improvement.

The way mouse-drag currently works, you press middle-mouse to grab and drag the view. When you let go of middle-mouse, the cursor is where you started, but your hand is not. When you reset your hand, unless you lift the mouse high enough, you’re going to send the cursor further toward the edge of the screen. If you try to use the mouse-drag as a primary method of scrolling, it’s a lot of extra movement and the cursor usually ends up moving a bit anyway.

Instead, the mouse cursor should move with the mouse, so when you middle-mouse in the center of the screen, move your hand away from its neutral position and release middle-mouse, you can easily and comfortably slide the mouse back, without lifting your hand, and the cursor will return to the middle of the screen. This allows you to do quick little back-and-forth/circles to rapidly move the view across the map. An example of this can be found in Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition (and likely any of the “enhanced” Infinity Engine games).

The current mouse-drag implementation is counterintuitive for me and I don’t see any benefit gained by detaching the mouse and cursor positions in such a way, which is why I think it should be changed, or an option to change it should be added. What do you think? If you use mouse-drag often, do you find benefit in the way it works, or are you just used to lifting the mouse up? And if there is a way to do this already, please tell me how!

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Not sure if this is trolling or not, but not having the cursor move during dragging is precisely the point of mouse-dragging. This way your cursor stays next to the center of the screen, where your units and buildings are if you positioned your camera correctly.
So in a way, your request looks like asking if the increase volume button could lower it. :relieved:

As for having the mouse shoot upwards when coming back, I must confess I never had the problem, and mouse-dragging has been my primary (or even sole) camera moving tool since years. But I use a rather high mouse sensitivity, and even higher mouse dragging configuration.

In the event this would be a serious post, it’d look to me as if your setup was adjusted for someone making great amplitude mouse movements (which would favor the regular screen moving cursor). If you wanna switch to mouse dragging, I’d suggest increasing the setting for the mouse-dragging in SC2 options. That limits how large your mouse movement will be when dragging, and thus avoid it landing too far from your initial pad position. :white_check_mark:

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No, I understand what he says. After the drag-scroll your cursor is in the center, but because you drag scroll your physical mouse is not in the center on the pad and you need to move it back to the center of the pad to match the position on the screen. He wants that the cursor after the drag scroll went to position where it would be, if he just moved the mouse.

I personally think that this would not be added, because it is not that simple to code into the game.

Because of exactly that reason, I use inverted drag scroll (there is an option for that), so I place the mouse in the corner and move it to the center, so it works perfectly.

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Trias, I assure you I am not trolling. Although, after re-reading my OP, I realized I made a mistake describing the issue by saying “middle-mouse in the center of the screen” and “the cursor will return to the middle of the screen.” Perhaps that added to the confusion and I’ll try to clarify in this post.

My mouse sensitivity is high enough that I can cover the entire screen without lifting my mouse from the desk. However, the current mouse-drag forces me to lift my mouse in order to reset my hand/mouse to a neutral/starting position, rather than being able to just release middle-mouse and return my hand to starting position (or alternatively, depending on drag method used, release middle-mouse with my hand and cursor at starting position/center screen). It doesn’t matter whether you use the option inverted as Farbros mentions, the problem occurs either way, only the map-view moves in opposite directions. Let me provide a more thorough explanation for anyone who may not understand what I mean:

Using inverted, I have my mouse in a comfortable starting position and the cursor is in the center of the screen. I middle-mouse and drag the mouse down, moving the view of the map up and release middle-mouse. My hand/mouse is now below neutral/starting position, but the cursor is still in the center of the screen. If I do not lift the mouse off the mouse-pad before returning the mouse to neutral/starting position, the cursor will move toward the top of the screen. Again, the problem is the same whether the option is inverted or not, only the map-view would move down along with the mouse, instead of up.

The reason I described the issue in a way that may have been confusing initially is because I do not start from center screen, which makes the issue more noticeable. If I want to move the map-view up with inverted (which is what I use), I’ll start with the mouse in starting position and the cursor in the center of the screen, then I bring the cursor slightly above center screen, middle-mouse and drag the mouse back to starting position and release. This leaves me with my hand/mouse in starting position, but the cursor is above center. Now I have to lift the mouse up, try to return it to the same position I started the drag, and then move the mouse/cursor back to center, effectively doing the same motion twice.

Farbros, I don’t think this would be difficult to implement, the cursor coordinates just need to match the mouse coordinates when doing mouse-drag (unless the drag would somehow mess up the cursors position in map coordinates). Of course, I could be wrong. However, I do think forcing this change would result in many/most/all of the players who’ve become accustomed to the current implementation having to break the muscle memory, which in all fairness, is what the game is currently asking me to do. That’s why I think an option for it would be great.

Also, Farbros, you say you know what I mean and it sounds like we use the inverted drag in the same way. You feel that solves the problem? After you drag the mouse to the center, isn’t the cursor still in the corner? That’s the change I’d like to see: the cursor and mouse moving together, back to center, after the map-view has been moved.

Another game that implements mouse-drag this way is RimWorld.

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There is no one left to program anything. There would be nothing, outside of changing some units values for the balance purposes once in few years. That’s why I suggest you to try inverted version of drag-scroll.

No, I put my mouse in the corner of the pad and move it to the center. The camera stays in the center, so I end up always in the middle of the pad, just as the cursor on the screen. It takes a bit of practice to learn how far you need to place your mouse from the center to end up in the center, but with time you get use to it.

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coming from DOTA and BAR i want this kind of mouse control. it should be easier to code in than the current setting which ignores mouse input for the cursor whilst middle mouse is held. played about 10 hours of starcraft and this setting is still pissing me off. ill come back when they allow the setting to be changed. thread is 3 years old though so rip maybe starcraft 3 will get it right

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The only thing that keeps me from playing StarCraft more often is the way the camera moves using mouse scroll drag. I wish the reason was my lack of skill, but unfortunately, it’s this control method. I’m a Dota player, so every time I launch StarCraft, I have to rewire my brain to a different camera control system, and it’s really frustrating.

I found this post and decided to respond because I want to play StarCraft with my Dota friends, but after our first session, they all said that mouse drag scroll feels unintuitive. League of Legends used to have the same issue—the same mouse drag system where the cursor doesn’t move along with my hand/mouse during a mouse drag. Even in a game as infamous and bad as League of Legends, the developers eventually added a mouse drag feature where the cursor moves together with your hand/mouse while holding the middle mouse button.

StarCraft is a better game than League of Legends, so please, devs, if the are any devs working on StarCraft, add a mouse drag option where, when I move my physical hand holding the mouse, the cursor on the screen moves in the same direction.

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there are no devs working on the game. the game has been out of developement since 2019. Stuff like this will not change anymore, or ever cause the game is the way its intended, and what all of you are asking for is the way it was intended and will not be changed because a few people dont like it, no game will ever do that.

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Hopefully this will get added at some point

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What is the added value in this? This thread is a 2022 post about camera/drag scroll behavior, and replying now just necro-bumps it like @CaptainJack told us on Reforged forum.

Sure since then, if there was a bug they updated it.
As far as I can tell the cursor position already behaves as intended.
Can you make a short video showing exactly what the issue is, so we can see it visually? Thanks!

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And what value does your 1st paragraph add? Why try to dm someone who doesnt even post on these forums? Why even mention them at all? And btw, the dm function for all blizzard forums is turned off, the @ doesnt do anything here. O.o
And you call out the necro, but then procede to participate in it? O.o

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