hud_fastswitch 1 is basically a requirement to play the game effectively, and it's silly that it doesn't default that way. The default system makes it very difficult for new players to learn things like Leap/Bite. The only problem with default fastswitch is that new players won't get the information on their weapon slots unless they know how to turn it off, and thus my suggestion:

Create a new variable called hud_weaponinfo, defaulting to 1. When fastswitch is enabled, this variable causes the weapon information sprites to still be displayed; the only difference is that they don't require a confirmation click, but instead will disappear either after 3-4 seconds or when you attack, whichever comes first. This way new players can browse through the weapon descriptions like now, but can just ignore them when they're actually fighting.

I fail to see fault with this otherwise very helpful idea.

Agreed.

sounds good

This will definately help those new players.

*thumbs up*

This will definately hurt new players. They need to know which ability they have selected, and what it does. With hud_fastswitch 1, you don't know, until you actually fire, or if you know the crosshairs. I think that any experienced player can just set fastswitch once and won't think about it again. It doesn't inconvience them at all. Once a player gets experience, they will find out about fastswitch themselves, or find it in the menu.

Think about what happens with a new player who goes fade. They are scrolling through their weapons, seeing what they do. They come upon meta and use it. If they have full life, they will think it does NOTHING. Even worse, if they don't have full energy, and full life, they will think all it does is replenish energy and will never ever use it, because that would be a really crappy ability. Think about what happens when a skulk uses parasite. If they don't know what's going on, they think it is a really crappy ranged ability, because it can't kill anything. Newbie gorges won't know what healing spray does, or that bile bomb won't hurt players. Lerks won't know what spore and umbra are, and which one is which.

Did you actually read what he said?? Weapon info would stay shown, but you wouldn't need to click to cofirm your choice, so in essence it would be identical to now, without the click.

Sorry, that's what I get for skimming the post.

thumbs up for waramps.

Another suggestion for this idea: tie the weapon info to cl_autohelp! If cl_autohelp is on, you see the weapon info, if it's set to 0, you don't.

Hudfastswitch 0 should remain by default. If you highlight the weapon boxes with fastswitch 0 you get a nice little description of the weapon and how much damage it does, something I remember being PARAMOUNT to my understanding of the game when I first started playing, expecially with the alien players. What I think we should do with that is include at the end of those diolouges something along the lines of "when you are confortable with the weapons and thier functions, switch hudfastswitch to 1 for much faster response times" And then add fastswitch to the options menu the way it should be.

[edit] it works better if fastswitch remains off by default because you see the picture of the weapon in question in corrispondence with the description. Expecially important for alien attacks which tend to be glitchy and unreliable in terms of weapon display at best.

Well cl_autohelp 1 is on initially when you first start NS.

You can just have it pop up to tell players to type hud_fastswitch 0/1.

Like, if it starts at 1, tell them if they want to read the descriptions they can turn it to 0.

If it starts at 0, have it tell players to use 1 to make it easier for them to play.

You could just turn hud_fastswitch to 1 and then add a function to cl_autohelp (turned on by default) where it gave you all the info every time unless help was off.

Speaking of that... does anyone else have problems with help defaulting to on every time you run the game? Maybe it's just that I'm running as user....

take it out of your userconfig or change your userconfig or make one with it set to 0.

yar

agreed, since most n00bs use the standard switch for like 10 rounds, then they know the weapons, and they have to fastswitch or suffer. And for people who dont play many online steam games, this may be a little new.