I feel like button bloat could be be addressed by opening up more combo keybinds to make hitting the keys easier even if you can’t reach part of the keyboard.
Right now you can only bind multiple keys when using CTRL, ALT, or Shift as a modifier - but what if you could bind a combination like W+F or C+S? Or perhaps even Shift+W+F? I feel like this would open up many more keybinds. Might make pressing them easier too since those keys are closer together.
If I have W bound to an ability, F bound to an ability, and W+F bound to a different ability, how does the game differentiate between me hitting W/F with the intention of hitting them together?
Same way they differentiate Alt vs Alt-F I’d imagine - hitting at the exact same time makes the combo keybind, hitting them not the exact same time doesn’t. I bring this example up because Alt is actually a default keybind om its own (to self target). So you’d have to hit W and F at the exact same time for the combo keybind, but if you hit W then F they’re separate.
Hitting at the exact same time might be a tricky thing to figure out from a hardware standpoint. How much delay does the game/keyboard give you before it registers a W as opposed to W+F? It’s not a bad idea, but I think with shift, ctrl, and alt you can cover nearly all of the keybinds required of each class. Even in the current iteration of the game, button bloat doesn’t feel that bad. There’s also using help/harm mouseover macros to cut down on the keybinds required as well.
As an aside you can get a USB footpedal for around 20 dollars (or 3 pedals for 40) and bind shift/ctrl/alt to it. Got one recently and it really opens up keybinds.
I can promise you it’s no different than hitting Alt&F at the exact same time! Again, Alt is quite literally a keybind on its own. You can bind Shift by itself. You can bind Ctrl by itself. It’s really the same idea as using Shift-F as a keybind. Just with more keys opened up.
Also, no CTRL and ALT don’t work when you’re not able to reach them. I cannot reach CTRL, ALT, or numbers from WASD. I can reach Shift, C, W, or F as examples. This forces me to play many classes in OBR, just to reduce keybinds I need to bind.
(ETA: I only have about 14 keybinds I can reach without lifting my hand off the keyboard. Being able to bind together multiple lettera would massively increase that.)
Can’t you already do this using a remap tool, like the one that comes with Microsoft PowerToys?
I’d like to not have to remap my keyboard every single time I use the computer, since slow typing is OK for most things but not at all in WoW. Also would have to map ctrl or alt into a letter to be able to reach it.
Careful. At the rate things are going they will ban key binds and force you to click so no one feels left out
Then they could get sued in court, since keybinds are an accessibility feature. Lol.
ETA: to be clear, I would not sue. But they’ve admitted to addon devs (specifically the screen reader one) that they need to build some things into WoW to avoid lawsuits. I really doubt they’d remove keybinds themselves if they’re worried about suits from screen reader support being messed.
Then tough luck I guess, since no game out there that I know of supports using regular keys as mod keys.
You might have to write an addon for that.
I’d pay someone to write that, tbh. I unfortunately can’t code, but I would very gladly pay someone to do that.
Addons are also an accessibility feature, they don’t seem to care
I bring this up because they acknowledged this exact issue to the screen reader add on dev when they said they were adjusting screen reader stuff to compensate for add on removal in combat.
They actually have to build in screen reader support because they could get sued if they don’t. Admitted it to the devs of the screen reader add on.
Try opening an issue (feature request) on the clicked addon:
I guess they’d do it for you if you’d pay for it.
I already use clicked for universal (account-wide) keybinds outside of Blizzard scope, like Fishing, Warband Bank, some macros etc. to save action bar space
a video game doesn’t have a legal requirement to be accessible to all. A moral requirement if we want to be optimistic but if we are being realistic its more accessible = more players = more money. its one of the few mutually beneficial parts of capitalism (all money is good money)
Eh… they did previously have the feature. Which I believe is the basis. I’m not threatening to sue, to be clear - I’m repeating the information I’ve seen from them directly admitting this to an add-on dev. BlindSlash discord if you’re interested in seeing for yourself. I apologize for being unclear. I just don’t think they’d ever remove keybinds if thet worry about lawsuits over screen readers.
Thank you! I don’t have a git account, I’ll look at making one.