Regarding the Psi Amp hotkeys

[6646b9057955eZylonBane]

When the Psi Amp is equipped, by default the F1 - F5 keys cycle through all the owned psi powers in the corresponding tiers, and F6 - F12 can be assigned as hotkeys for specific psi powers by pressing Shift + function key.

But you're actually allowed to set F1 - F5 as hotkeys as well, and if you do this, you permanently lose the ability to use that key to cycle tier powers. I'm wondering if maybe it would be a good idea to remove the binds that allow this in the GOG/Steam/SS2Tool builds.

Surprisingly, the use of the function keys to select psi powers isn't mentioned anywhere in the manual.

[6646b90579988RoSoDude]

Huh? You can easily reset any of the F1-12 keys. You just press Shift+F[N] while hovering your mouse cursor over the icon of the power you want to hotkey in the MFD window. If you hover over the icons for Tiers 1-5, you can reset the F1-F5 hotkeys to cycle through those tiers.

You must be confused by the fact that you can also set the hotkeys by pressing Shift+F[N] outside the MFD window to set the hotkey to the currently equipped psi power.

Don't remove anything, please.

[6646b90579d27sarge945]

Are you meaning removing the 1-5 settable keys for individual powers, or removing the 1-5 tier select on the F1-F5 keys by default?

I actually really like these keys (and a lot of others probably do too), and I consider them useful enough (since there are WAY more than enough useful psi skills to use all the buttons) that it's better to explain them to new players than it is to get rid of anything

[6646b9057a0f8AT]

RoSoDude
Never knew that and being left handed I always found it near-insulting how almost every single game out there compromised my ability to fully mirror the binds to the other side of the keyboard.

Logitech's G13 gameboard was a game-changer in that regard – overriding hardcoded limitations for pretty much any game.

Hardcoded F-key PSI aside also, LGS were pretty much the only studio whose games never had any issues recognising obscure keys on that OTHER side of the keyboard.

[6646b9057a288Nameless Voice]

On my insane pacifist run, I wasn't using any powers from Tier 4, so I bound F4 to a specific power instead.  I wouldn't want to remove the ability to do things like this.

Like RosoDude said, you can always re-bind the cycle-powers-in-tier functionality by binding a hotkey to the psi tier itself, even though that's not really explained anywhere.

[6646b9057a3d9ZylonBane]

Fun Fact: Even though Irrational wrote infocomp help text for binding psi hotkeys, it isn't used in the game. So the ability to use and bind psi hotkeys is literally not explained anywhere. It doesn't even show up on the keybinds screen. Which means the only way to learn about it is by word of mouth.

We should probably do something about this... somehow.

[6646b9057a506sarge945]

If it's already in the game, but unused, a new infocomp terminal makes sense.

That said, most people who have already finished the game before will probably skip the tutorials and thus not get the infocomps, but at least newer players will slowly learn about it and the information will proliferate

[6646b9057a68dZylonBane]

The problem is that there are already 25 infocomps in the Med/Sci levels. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting an infocomp. Probably why Irrational cut four of them (Repairing and Modifying Items, Chemicals, Psi Hotkeys, and Maintaining Weapons).

Well, maybe it would be a good idea to restore them in SCP. We could cram them in somewhere.

Speaking of the infocomps, the Help section of the PDA only displays entries for the infocomps you've clicked on. If you miss clicking on any infocomps, their information won't show up in the PDA. I guess this makes sense from a certain perspective, but objectively it's an awful design decision to gate a game's help system behind finding and clicking dozens of scattered terminals.

[6646b9057a804sarge945]

Replace all Hybrids with infocomps, then the information will come to you

Seriously though, how hard is it to fill out the entire help PDA when the player reaches engineering?

The actual issue though is that people aren't going to read help, even if it's there.

The modern gamer has been conditioned to modern game design trends, in which you teach a mechanic by forcing the player to use it, and put a big prompt on the screen saying PRESS X TO USE THIS MECHANIC!

So even if SCP added this information, I doubt many people would actually read it.

[6646b9057a9bfVegoraptor]

Would it be a terrible idea to add an item (e.g. one of the software-USB-thingies) to the bunk beds you land at when going to engineering titled "Engineers' Manual" or something that unlocks all this info in the PDA?
Sounds elegant and immersion-friendly to me.

[6646b9057ab83ZylonBane]

The entire help system is inherently a fourth wall break.

I'd be more inclined to enable every help topic in the PDA by default. Then the infocomps would just serve the purpose of training players to be aware that the help system exists.