Limit Theory Forums

Generally having a single button perform multiple, unrelated actions is going to be awkward. I can't think of any specific games or situations where that is common. For a concrete case where it's helpful to eat actions imagine Up, Down, Left, and Right are bound to moving focus in the UI. Then you focus a horizontal slider. The slider can add bindings to Left and Right and have them move the slider value instead of moving focus.

AdamByrd wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:18 pm

Generally having a single button perform multiple, unrelated actions is going to be awkward. I can't think of any specific games or situations where that is common.

Any and all context sensitive actions in games.

Menu confirm/abort/panel switch that i use for something else when not in menus (X, O, R1,L1in all playstation games)

Cornflakes_91 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 29, 2018 6:30 am

AdamByrd wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:18 pm

Generally having a single button perform multiple, unrelated actions is going to be awkward. I can't think of any specific games or situations where that is common.

Any and all context sensitive actions in games.

Menu confirm/abort/panel switch that i use for something else when not in menus (X, O, R1,L1in all playstation games)

That's not quite the situation Joker described and Adam commented on, though.

In both cases there are multiple unrelated verbs bound to a single input control. But in your example, each separate verb is activated deliberately by the player, who chooses the context -- Joker's example was multiple unrelated verbs that are (potentially) all activated by a single player input action.

What you described happens all the time, certainly.

What Joker described... I also can't think of any games that support this kind of automatic chaining (in what order?) of gameplay verbs from a single player input action.

There is a difference between the raw button press (be it a console, keyboard or mouse-button) that has a binary input (down or up) and an action input.

Many games use the same button at the same gameplay-mode for triggering different actions.
A typical example would be a double-jump, grenade throw (power) etc, side-dash.
The player can use the same button to either make a short click, hold it, or double (multi) click a button, and of course using a second button (like shift) too.
The way a button is used here can trigger different action (verbs), even when the context (gameplay situation) is the same.

The advantage for mapping different actions to the same button is simply a better ergonomy. Better that a game that spreads out its actions all over the keyboard.