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I just discovered, completely by accident, that you can change forms instantly by pushing the number keys. It made my life so much easier that I just had to go post on a message board about it.
Cheerio! :hector_bird:
Yep. You can also cast Shield and Bind with 9 and 0, respectively.
Ooh, I knew about the forms, but now I can easily cast spells
Yeah, it kinda feels like cheating
Yet, at the same time, against some of those bosses it seems almost impossible to sing fast enough. So, it's more like mandatory cheating.
Then again, I probably could sing faster if I wasn't using a touch pad.
If you're using a touchpad laptop, using the form keys is almost necessary for some of the later bosses cough
Spoiler
Octopus Prime
cough. That said, even with a mouse you may need the shortcuts as well.
Hey, new challenge idea: Try to beat (insert boss here) without using the shortcuts, only singing! It'd make an interesting challenge.
@soitbegins, on Nov 16 2008, 02:56 PM, said in OMG! Keyboard shortcuts for changing forms!:
that is how I felt when I went back and played the game... won it a bunch of times with shortcuts, but then went back and did it with the mouse... wow... quite the experience. almost broke my mouse a dozen times.
insert snobbish voice... "oh, you won aquaria... have you won it WITHOUT shortcuts???"
Pah! Real players do it with the mouse only. This is precisely what I did. On my first run. Because I'm MEAN!
Okay, I admit: this is only because I did not realise this until late in my game, and when I discovered it, I thought I might as well do without it. Plus, for some spells I am really faster using the mouse than typing a key (case in point: shield; I can raise it in the time it takes a fast shot to reach me). So this is definitely doable, though I definitely understand you folks who use touchpads, I can't begin to imagine playing like this on my laptop without my trusty (shall I admit it?) Microsoft USB blue optical mouse.
This post has been edited by Zacha Pedro : 17 November 2008 - 03:03 PM
@zacha-pedro, on Nov 17 2008, 12:58 PM, said in OMG! Keyboard shortcuts for changing forms!:
Okay, I admit: this is only because I did not realise this until late in my game, and when I discover it, I thought I might as well do without it. Plus, for some spells I am really faster using the mouse than typing a key.
I'm that way with Bind. So much practice hitting those three notes in a row that it's easier to do that than reach for the 0 with my left hand.
Trouble is, some bosses seem designed with the shortcut keys in mind. Take the Sun Worm, for instance. You need energy form to damage it, but it frequently generates a current to try and suck you in for a cheapshot. You need to switch to beast form to swim away, but without the shortcut keys it's impossible to switch in time.
I fought that boss before I knew about the keys. I used a lot of health items in that fight.
Wait, you swam away from the Sun Worm when it did the current thing? I just went with it, hitting it as hard as I could.
Come on, folks, are you saying that the best way to escape a planet with gravity in Nova (or, for the real old-schoolers among you, a vortex in Maelstrom) is simply to trust away from it? Tsk, I thought you had more faith in orbital mechanicsďż˝
Note: this doesn't apply to
Mithalas because you will hit it if you try going around the sucking point, but for the Sun Temple Worm Boss it works beautifully. Another technique, but which only buys time, is to try and be out of the water by the time it sucks you in.
@zacha-pedro, on Nov 17 2008, 01:58 PM, said in OMG! Keyboard shortcuts for changing forms!:
So this is definitely doable, though I definitely understand you folks who use touchpads, I can't begin to imagine playing like this on my laptop without my trusty (shall I admit it?) Microsoft USB blue optical mouse.
Let me just say I'm glad there's keyboard controls for moving Naija around. My main complaint is that energy form, nature form, and
dual form
still requires a mouse to aim. Oddly, beast form you can aim with a keyboard.
I wasn't aware the energy form required aiming, even if it did require the mouse to do so...
It's true that your energy missiles seek the target. However, the targeter chooses the target closest to your mouse cursor (assuming you haven't put a lock on a specific enemy by right-clicking it). It also initially fires in the direction you're pointing, which often lets you shoot around corners (so to speak) and hit your enemies from the safety of cover.
This post has been edited by cheleball : 18 November 2008 - 01:53 AM
@shenlon, on Nov 17 2008, 11:43 PM, said in OMG! Keyboard shortcuts for changing forms!:
It does, just not a whole lot as chele said. I eventually just stuck the cursor at about Naija's middle, which caused her to shoot the opposite direction I was traveling.
@soitbegins, on Nov 16 2008, 11:56 AM, said in OMG! Keyboard shortcuts for changing forms!:
cough.
Wimp. Although, I suppose if you haven't been using an Apple trackpad exclusively for almost a decade, you might have an excuse for not being able to sing faster than you can move your hand to hit a key.
On the other hand, I did end up thoroughly cheating at the aforementioned boss. You see, if you have enough special cakes, you don't actually need to switch forms at all...
My only complaint about the form-switching setup is that right-clicking on yourself turns you back, so if you tend to keep the cursor close to yourself, you end up randomly switching back to normal form in the middle of attempting to unload a million shots at something- very annoying when it only has a vulnerable window of a few seconds.
- Edwards
Quote
I got my laptop 3 years ago, but it doesn't matter-- even with a mouse the keyboard is faster.
This is Octopus Prime you're talking about, right? Where you have to keep switching to Sun Form whenever it darkens the playfield?
When you right-click on yourself? That's odd, I thought you had to click with both buttons at the same time.
@soitbegins, on Nov 23 2008, 11:55 AM, said in OMG! Keyboard shortcuts for changing forms!:
All right, I just tried it, and I'll admit that the keyboard is faster once you know which button is which (come on, letting you go directly between any two forms? That's just cheating). I maintain that it's not essential with a trackpad, though.
Yep. It's a bit of a bug, but
if you cling to the wall just in front of its mouth, it can't grab you with its tentacle, so all you need to do is stay in energy form and pound away blindly. You take impressive amounts of damage, but I only needed to use three special cakes before it died.
Ah, so that's what it is. All I know is that I regularly end up unexpectedly back in normal form when I'm fighting things.
I beat the sing along boss, the fallen god, the hell monster god, the nautilus, mother nature, and the mermog boss without shortcuts and without a mouse on a laptop. For the latter two, I used only one health item each (no, not
an arcane poultice or hot borscht
but a +2 healer. Is that unusual?
@oryhara, on Jan 17 2009, 07:18 AM, said in OMG! Keyboard shortcuts for changing forms!:
You do know that those aren't the best recipes in the game, don't you? Although the former is very helpful.
While we're talking about awesome stuff,
the spirit form can absorb energy bolts, even giving health for every 5 absorbed. Note that you have to fire it's little mechanism to "absorb" them, not run into them, because that can deal damage.
I learned that when playing the last boss, and it only helped me out on his 5th form. Which makes me happy and unhappy, I could have used that at any point in the game...