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Not sure if anybody else has this concern - I've historically had minor issues with isometric games that use WASD controls for movement (i.e. The Ascent) because the main movement directions are diagonal, which require two simultaneous key presses.

I am wondering whether POE2 is going to address this somehow - it wouldn't be a concern in most environments, but might be an issue in some environments where movement fidelity is important (i.e. sanctum / labyrinth). As far as I can tell from the demos so far, the main movement directions on maps are still in the diagonal directions.

This probably wouldn't be a concern on consoles since analog sticks are a thing.

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4 months ago - /u/Negitivefrags - Direct link

Originally posted by zilentworld

It's an option, it might become the optimal playstyle but who knows. I agree that Poe1 have been more diagonally laid out, seems poe2 too from what I see on some of the trailers, especially the mercenary.

Also from playing wasd I don't think I ever found myself having an issue of why am I pressing two keys. Might be an issue long term if I'm blasting but we have to see yet the end game of poe2

The reason you want a diagonal layout for artificial environments is because a lot of terrain features look bad when you have them in cardinal directions.

For example, we have a straight wall bit here that makes it hard to see that there is a door in it.

In this case we literally hung a lantern in it to attract your attention, and it's not so bad. We did discuss removing horozontal doors from this tileset entirely though.

Even in the other orientation though, I don't think you want to overuse it.

It makes for an interesting feature from time to time, but I don't think it's good to overuse.

We played around with other areas having other interesting rotations too..

Here is another one from that angle.

At first it seems pretty cool. There are actually a lot of things to like artistically about angles like this.

What I found though is that that there is something "fatiguing" about playing in an area with an off-axis rotation. It's kind of hard to describe why.

But after removing the angle offset you just kind of go "ahhh, that's better".