Time to vote: Redefine the default inventory key?

[Blockhead]

The current inventory key is "i". Please vote on what you think it should be, and leave a comment.

[ROllerozxa]

I always remap the inventory key to E (and move Aux1 to F), but I also use keybinds similar to those for the old WoM Minecraft Classic client for fly (Z), noclip (X) and fast (Ctrl) so I suppose I may be simply built different.

[lemonzest]

I is just too far away from WSAD that I need to take my hands off to use inventory

[repetitivestrain]

I. E is far too near W to be made to serve any other function than as aux1.

[Melkor]

I is just too far away from WSAD that I need to take my hands off to use inventory

I agree

[Boot]

For me it is the tab.

[Linuxdirk]

The key I is perfectly fine fo rme, because it makes sense (i = inventory), but since this is customizable by the player I honestly do not care at all about the default key and think that such a discussion is just bikeshedding.

[Astrobe]

"I" is fine. When you don't know where the key is, that's the first one you try, and is easy to remember. Users can always figure out how to rebind keys later.

Personally I don't really care because I am left-handed and azerty, so I have to rebind keys in nearly all games. But I think the current default is more friendly for absolute newbies, as it smooths a tiny bit the learning curve.

[Mantar]

I always remap it to F

[Bastrabun]

In my opinion it is a bad idea to remap one key each release. Please decide on a default keyboard layout ONCE, then stick with it.

[v-rob]

"Q". Who needs drop item on such an accessible key anyway?

[Chem871]

"Q". Who needs drop item on such an accessible key anyway?

I changed it to backspace years ago, much less chance of accidentally dropping anything.

[cx384]

I'm used to opening the inventory with "I". It is also common in other games besides Luanti.
To me, it doesn't matter if it is far away from WASD, because you don't have to hold it while moving like Aux1.
"Q" is a much bigger problem, because accidentally dropping your item may have severe consequences.

[YellowCreeper]

I have my inventory key as "E" due to my minecraft habits.
However, I think "R" would be the best key for inventory. A reason is that it eliminates the chances to wrongly open inventory while walking. And it's not as far as "I" from the left hand, easily accessible.
Another reason is specific to me, currently my 8th slot key is "R" and sometimes it makes me missclick "E" & that leads me to open inventory in unwanted situations and fall into PvP disadvantage.

[BuszmoPL]

Personally, I prefer E since it's closer to W than I, making opening the inventory easier.
And also I rebind Aux1 to L-Ctrl

[AtomicCheese]

i use Tab to open inventory, i think this is ultimately better than E as you dont need to change much at all (Tab is not assigned to anything iirc)

[TenPlus1]

Why not simply add definable keys for certain tasks, that way players can change it to their liking per game or globally.

[Twinsonian]

If I had to give my personal opinion, reaching to i is a little awkward but not the end of the world. Many players are used to keys like tab or e from many games instead of i.

Being able to alter the default keys in the game via modding (altering or overriding the minetest.conf) might be another solution.

Games that work on compatibility as a clone with a certain other game could easily mod the keybind this way, while the default could still be maintained etc.

[MXB]

Been mudding since 1992 and in them it's always been i. Also some other games I'm sure. Anything else but i is nonsense.

[Blockhead]

Been mudding since 1992 and in them it's always been i. Also some other games I'm sure. Anything else but i is nonsense.

MUDs and Roguelikes, you mean the genre where I'm told "Q stands for Quoff", as if that isn't working backwards from some obscure word to the key that drinking a potion ended up on? The genre that's usually completely turn based, and that has no use for the mouse at all, freeing the hands to both be on the keyboard all of the time? No, I don't think I am interested in what MUDs do at all as a guide to what an interactive, real time, potentially high-stakes PvP game wants as the inventory key.

[MXB]

Been mudding since 1992 and in them it's always been i. Also some other games I'm sure. Anything else but i is nonsense.

MUDs and Roguelikes, you mean the genre where I'm told "Q stands for Quoff", as if that isn't working backwards from some obscure word to the key that drinking a potion ended up on? The genre that's usually completely turn based, and that has no use for the mouse at all, freeing the hands to both be on the keyboard all of the time? No, I don't think I am interested in what MUDs do at all as a guide to what an interactive, real time, potentially high-stakes PvP game wants as the inventory key.

Wow, you actually know about Nethack/Moria and Q for Quaff potion. Quaff actually originated with the pencil and paper Dungeons & Dragons.

As for a real time game like this i is much more convenient than say e would be. i is much closer to the arrow keys than e is which one has to reach all the way across for. The less used keys should be on the left side furthest away from the cursor keys on the right.

Keys can be redefined anyways (such as moving the movement keys to the cursor keys where they belong ) so the whole issue seems moot anyways.

[Blockhead]

As for a real time game like this i is much more convenient than say e would be. i is much closer to the arrow keys than e is which one has to reach all the way across for. The less used keys should be on the left side furthest away from the cursor keys on the right.

There's another sign that you're old school (and also not a vim user): Thinking about the cursor keys as the main movement keys. WASD has been an established standard for some time. When I was a proper young kid, the cursor (or I would say arrow) keys made sense because they were straightforward***, and I wasn't playing anything too advanced. But when I started to play a game with WASD and nearby keys, I realised my other options were a lot more easily accessible.

Defaults can't be highly customised and specialised for a task, but let's talk for a bit about people who play a lot of games and speedruns* and how they will deliberately craft their setup to suit themselves, their keyboard, their hands, their common game tasks. And I'm talking about games with a lot of mouse movement too. Any key past 5 or definitely 6 on the number row is pretty much out of the question for the super common actions. Movement is on WASD or often better, ESDF (especially favoured by those with big hands I think); the modifier keys are often used as well (I wish Luanti had those available, Factorio's old default of Shift+1-5 for the 6th through 10th hotbar slots was a real eye-opener). The mouse used has a whole numpad on the side of it as well. Actions are bound to pretty much every key in the QWER-ASDF-ZXCV grid - in fact in MOBAs and Diablo clones, QWER is expected for the hero's 4 main abilities.

As for strategy games, and games with a lot of possible kinds of actions, and games with a lot of different GUI pages, an MMO mouse would still be a good option for the right-hand buttons. I find Civilization's key bindings rather awkward when I'm also busy a lot of the time moving the mouse around to move units and select city production.

What has any of this got to do with defaults, you might ask? I think the anecdata here show that clustering common actions around the left hand** WASD position is more important than mnemonics. What have the new minimap and camera mode keybinds got to do with their "names"? Well, C is for Camera, but V.. is for overView? They were both moved from the F-key row because that was an un-ergonomic, and people actually would often like to toggle those. C may be deliberate or it may be serendipitous, but V really is just the key to the right of that one, besides that M for Mute was already in place, so perhaps because M for Map just wasn't available, a better option was chosen.

Keys can be redefined anyways (such as moving the movement keys to the cursor keys where they belong ) so the whole issue seems moot anyways.

Well, we want people to have sensible defaults anyway. But if we can't reach a consensus, it should eventually be pushed to the game-specific side (MTG, Mineclonia, etc.) for their control - hopefully inheriting defaults from the engine though.

***I'd like to take this opportunity to reminisce that I was playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted and that arrow keys were fine for that, apart from that there were still a lot of options on the left hand like handbrake, nitrous and speedbreaker. Nowadays, like the weirdo and Commonwealth of Nations member that I am, I like to use IJKL for the steering and ZX for gear shifting, but anyhoo..
*no matter if you think speedruns are a waste of time or peak e-athleticism, the point should stand, because it's all about keyboard & mouse ergonomics
**I haven't even discussed left-handed gamers, who either put up with wrong-handing their mouse or go through the effort of custom binding for most games - the ideal would be a secondary control scheme they could easily apply, but, that's a level beyond where most will go, and liable to get thrown by the wayside with changes.

[Walker]

i selected "i" ... why?

pro i: i used "i" for years now ... its simple "muscle memory" ... also "i" for "inventory" just makes sence

con e: i already use "e" for fast/run (AUX1 in luanti) like in every game i play

[ShallowDweller]

I voted "I".
We can't walk while the inventory is open, so having to move my hand a couple inches away from WASD is no inconvenience to me. But if I had to vote on another key:
For.muscle memory reasons, I don't want the key to be "E". That's the default key for shooting grapling hooks in another game I play a lot and playing games where we use "E" for the inventory has mesed with my muscle memory before (I started using "Esc" or rebinding to "I" when possible to open inventory to prevent that kind of problem). It's also the key we currently use for sprinting in this engine (so we'd need to rebind more than just the inventory key).
(E = improved mobility)
Having.it change to "Q" would be interesting, since we can throw items away from the inventory screen and should also prevent accidental item discarding.
Another.key I'd consider interesting would be "B" (Bag), which you can hit by just sliding your thumb a bit from the space bar.

[RasPiManiac]

I discovered Luanti, then called Minetest (wow, it's been a little while!) when I was about 11 and I didn't even know you could change the keys :D I can't imagine it being anything else other than "I"