Not a huge fan of this one, the controls are quite the pain, and the customization isn't all that intuitive.
I love the idea of building a custom tank and doing a fight with it but it's so hard to turn or aim that it never feels fun to use.
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I really appreciate the honesty! I said in another comment, but I'm not really sure how you'd make good controls for this. Like I'm not saying I did a good job, but I genuinely don't know how you'd make good controls on a keyboard (less so on half a keyboard; I was hyper-fixated on implementing a local 2 player mode lol).
The customisation is pretty wonky tbh, especially if, like most people, you don't know much about tanks. If I could go back, I'd love to simplify it.
The controls were kinda ruined by my goal of "authenticity". Like I ruled out turning in place because "that's not how are WW2 tank works" (the game barely utilises the WW2 theme anyway; doubt you can even tell tbh).
So overall, I had some poor priorities i guess.
I'd say tank controls ironically enough just aren't great on keyboard in a top down game, it's a nice idea to go for but it doesn't really work too well in practice. I think leaning off the realism and either having turning on the spot, or just full on removing the tank controls and using traditional movement, would be ideal for improving the movement feel.
Same goes for the aiming, I feel like moving to something like mouse aim would feel best, and lead to a more fast paced gameplay style, otherwise having some aim guide would help a lot, since needing to watch the tank cannon makes it overly difficult to hit a distant small target.
I love your suggestions! I totally agree that ditching the realism makes the most sense. Besides going with some weird fantasy tanks is weirdly appealing to me.
I agree with your mouse suggestion as that is probably the only way to make keyboard controls semi-functional. But honestly at this point I'm kinda convinced that a GamePad is the only way to get good controls.
Idk food for thought ig; could be something worth developing in the future