Why isn't spacebar the key to advance NPC dialogue?

Okay, I understand that spacebar is for jump, and Y/Triangle on the controller is for jump, but that doesn't mean that the two of them have to have the same function in a different context.

In almost every PC game on the planet in the last 15 years has either E, F, R, or Spacebar to "interact", "advance dialogue", etc. As long as it is a button easily reachable from the left hand without leaving WASD and without the right hand leaving the mouse.

Keeping my left hand on the keyboard is more comfortable than keeping my right hand on the mouse to click for every dialogue because the keyboard allows me more hand positions.

I can understand why E, R, and F would not be good fits for default keys because the WASD keys do not control the UI cursor anywhere in the game, so that leaves spacebar as the remaining logical keybind by default for advancing dialogue for quick and easy access. Why would someone need quick and easy access to a toggle for auto-advance anyway?

Here's my proposed solution:

• Add an 8th tab to the Keybind window (2 rows of 4 tabs) for NPC dialogue.
• Decouple the Confirm keybind from the NPC dialogue advance functionality.
• Make a new keybind in the NPC dialogue tab for "Advance dialogue" and allow duplicate keys to be set to any keybinds in this tab.
• For the auto-advance functionality allow this to be set separately as well. I don't care what the default is.
• Bonus points for adding a small, themed button to the NPC dialogue bubble at the bottom of the screen that can be clicked to toggle auto-advance on and off.

Please keep option not having to use a mouse or controller to toggle auto advance. Space bar is pleasantly far away from the num pad, so I don't hit it accidentally when confirming dialogue advancement.

Btw, thank you for the extensive keybind options which allowed me to rebind the game close to FFXI's awesome keyboard-only controls moving all movement related controls (camera, character, menus) to the numpad keeping my left hand free for action controls.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ilisidi

Please keep option not having to use a mouse or controller to toggle auto advance. Space bar is pleasantly far away from the num pad, so I don't hit it accidentally when confirming dialogue advancement.

Btw, thank you for the extensive keybind options which allowed me to rebind the game close to FFXI's awesome keyboard-only controls moving all movement related controls (camera, character, menus) to the numpad keeping my left hand free for action controls.

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Full agreement from me. I could have made that more clear. I love that keyboard-only is an option. I've even considered using it before.

I was just suggesting adding a clickable button for toggling auto-advance because, if spacebar wasn't for auto-advance, then any other keybind would have been far more difficult for a new player to stumble upon from casual experimentation.

Another thing for me is that I don't have a keyboard with a numpad on it. I only buy 10-keyless keyboards because I like to keep my mouse closer to the home row of keys for easier switching back and forth between typing and using a mouse. So, the default keybinds for "confirm" are inaccessible to me.