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Then change it so those functions are activated when you hold them as 'weapons' and left click/right click depending on what it is.

This would only be true if throwing was a major gameplay mechanic you do constantly (which I don't think is really the case for this game), and the timing wasn't tuned to be reasonable (a setting in the options menu to manually tweak it would help with this).

And it wouldn't have to be a hold input specifically. Maybe a charge-and-release input. so if you tap left click you basically just drop the item, but if you hold it down and release you throw it depending on how long you charged it. Something like that.

Or scrap the hold input idea and just make left click throw like in HL2.

EDIT: Thinking about it, just making left click throw physics objects would make things a lot simpler and straightforward overall, and not require the addition of a whole new game setting.

Why are you bringing up graphics? It has nothing to do with my argument. There are hundreds of games with deliberately retro graphics and modern controls. Why can't VotV be one of them?

Also, why are you bringing up Half-Life 1? It doesn't use the Source Engine. It uses GoldSrc, a modified version of the Quake Engine. I know that Half-Life recently got an update for its anniversary that tweaked a bunch of stuff to make it more authentic to the original release, including removing the 'fast weapon switch' option, but I think that change makes the game worse and I honestly have no idea why it hasn't been re-added yet. I have to use scripts to get around having to deal with the slow, clunky default weapon switching.

Gmod is is less of a game and more of a creation tool. It needs more complex controls to allow players to manipulate objects in all the various possible ways they can be manipulated. But, because you don't have god tools in an actual game, all that complexity isn't needed. For example, in TTT, to pick up a weapon you look at it and press the use key. To drop it you press the 'drop weapon' key. Easy as that.

If Voices of the Void had more streamlined, intuitive controls, how would that hurt the game experience?

Like, say, Half-Life 2? Or Portal? Or Left 4 Dead? Which have super smooth, fluid and intuitive control schemes that set the standard still used in first-person shooters to this very day?

It's meant to mimic those Source games?

Okay, maybe you're talking about something more cryptic like EYE Divine Cybermancy. TBF, in EYE, in order to select a weapon you do have to press its numkey... once. Or use the scroll wheel.

And in order to use an object you have to... press the use key without needing to fiddle with a menu. Granted if you want to hack something you DO need to use the quick menu and select the 'hack' option, but it only comes up when you manually activate that menu to not make just using an object clunky, since you'll be doing that all the time.

Unless Voices of the Void has hacking, it doesn't need such a menu. (Even if it does it could be handled with a 'hacking device' item or a hack button in the computer UI like in Deus Ex or what have you.) And since you'll be picking up and using items all the time in this game, why shouldn't that action be quick and fluid?

I heard about this game quite recently and I was intrigued about the premise, but when I started it up and went through the tutorial I was confronted with an awkward, clunky control scheme that's honestly kind of put me off from playing any further (that, and the whole Early Access/pre-alpha thing). I've seen other item-management first person games handle this sort of stuff in smoother ways, so I'm gonna propose a list of changes that could be made to alleviate my issues with the controls and make them more intuitive.

1. The first thing that confused me was the throwing controls. Having a modifier key to avoid accidental throwing of items is a nice idea, but it makes it awkward for when you do want to throw stuff. Relatedly, having a menu to choose whether to 'grab' or 'hold' something is confusing too. Those words are synonyms of the same action, which makes knowing which action does what hard to intuit.

Proposed Fixes:

- Remove the item menu, and the modifier key (for this action, at least), and do something similar to what Gloomwood does for managing items.

- - Tap use to pick up something as a 'weapon', and you can press left click (or maybe hold and release to avoid accidents) to throw items whose purpose is to be thrown, like bottles.
- - Hold use to hold an item as a physics object, where you can press left click to throw it, regardless of what it is.

- Add an 'Auto Crouch Jump' option, for those who want it.

2. I would assume a 'drop item' key would drop your held item onto the floor, but instead it puts it away into your inventory. To actually drop the item you need to hold the modifier key, then press 'drop item' (another mark against the seperate modifier key). To take the item back out again you have to press whichever numkey it's assigned to. Twice. Pressing it once just, like, highlights it, a function I don't see the point of. I got confused when I tried to pick something up while already holding something and it told me my arm was busy, until I realised there was a seperate 'collect' command. I don't know why they need to be seperate.

Proposed Fixes:

- Have one of your inventory slots always be highlighted like in Deus Ex. The scroll wheel changes which slot is highlighted.

- Add a 'Take Out/Put Away Item' key that takes out/puts away the currently highlighted item.

- Have pressing a numkey highlight and take out its associated item. Maybe put it away if you press it again?

- Have the 'Drop Item' key just drop your currently held item without needing any modifier.

- If you're holding something, picking stuff up automatically puts it into your inventory. (No seperate 'hold' and 'collect' actions, it's all merged. Complements point 1. Maybe there can be a menu option for whether you want to hold a newly picked up item or not?)

3. Interacting with objects can be kind of awkward in various ways.

Proposed Fixes:

- Drone Control Panel: Using it while it's closed opens the door, using the opened panel uses it, using the open door closes the door. No menu.

- Drive Box: Remove having to take off and put back on the lid. Just click on the box while holding a drive to put it in, and have hoverover text show how many drives are in it (or maybe give it flaps for a lid and have it stay open until you mail it so the lid isn't a seperate object). Click on it empty-handed to take the drives back out.

- Computer: Use the monitor to interact with the computer, and use the actual PC to turn it on/off. Space them out a bit maybe to help differentiating the two. (Or, just have the PC automatically turn on when you sit down at the monitor, and turn off when you leave.) No menu.

- General: I noticed that you can't take out items if you're hovering over an interactable, so fix that too.

Those are my thoughts. 

In any case, have a good one!