Hotkey inconsistencies

Suggestions
1

There’s an inconsistency in the modifiers for placing/moving/resizing objects that has been bothering me.

While placing an object:
Ctrl = Snap to Grid
Shift = Perfect shape( Maintain aspect ratio )

While moving an object:
Ctrl = Snap to Grid

While resizing an object
Ctrl = Maintain aspect ratio
Shift = Mirror transformation
Alt = Snap to Grid

I don’t really understand the need for this. Why are the modifiers for resizing not like this:
Ctrl = Snap to Grid
Shift = Maintain aspect ratio
Alt = Mirror transformation

Then it’s consistent with the other 2. The inconsistency for snapping to the grid between placing and resizing has been really frustrating

1 Like
2

The reason is historical - some of these weren’t added until later, and by then it would’ve messed up people’s habits to change the default shortcuts to be consistent.

In a way, they end up convenient - the most commonly needed action for most people is on Ctrl, and then features that one-two people asked for end up on the other keys.
I’d also like to see some consistency, but I hope you can see how the need for temporal/workflow consistency gets in the way.

I think a better solution might be to allow these modifiers to be remapped. This system could also be leveraged to make the default shortcuts better for new users, by saving the old users’ (old default) shortcuts when remapping is first implemented, and then adding new defaults later which won’t overwrite the saved ones.

3

Yeah that’s fair enough, I see the need to keep things consistent with previous versions and I agree that making them rebindable would be a good compromise

4

Thanks for bringing this up, Psyborg8. This is my number 1 nerve-breaking thing in TE. I’m happy to gather here more inconsistencies. Maybe we can work out here a suggestion for a solution or improvement. Of course the mapping of these controls need to become adaptable, but I guess there’s more to think of.

Here is more:

When is SHIFT and when is CTRL adding Tiles to a selection?

  • Within the Map, only SHIFT works for that.
  • Within a Tileset, CTRL works for that (SHIFT just makes the selection square).

And more:

While selecting Tiles with Rectangular Select:

  • Shift = Adding to selection
  • CTRL = Subtractign from selection (although in Tilesets it’s addign to selection)
  • Shift + Alt = Intersecting from selection