This game is amazingly fun on a controller. As a hardcore PC gamer that really prefers every other genre of game on the KB/Mouse, the controller input method is just better than click to move/target.
That said, there are two small improvements that would make it even better.
[ul]
Allow three action bars for controllers, each allows four abilities. Holding left trigger shows the second hotbar for four more abilities, holding right trigger shows the third hotbar for four more abilities. Letting go of a trigger always shows the first action bar. Pressing a/b/x/y uses the ability on the action bar that is currently displayed.[/ul]
Allow ointments and other non-player abilities to be bound to controller action bar. Can we please fix this bug?
This would allow for 12 active abilities / ointments, and still have potions. Auras and other toggle skills can be activated with a mouse/keyboard when you start a session or after you die.
And in reply to any xbox is coming blah blah. I don’t want to play on xbox, the controller support on GD with a PC is already fantastic and don’t see why we need to wait for a massive release on another console that will take many months and hasn’t even been announced.
Lets get some improvements before this un-announced release. Do we need to wait until 2018 for huge QOL improvements to controllers that are probably pretty small fixes (code-wise)?
It seems you’ll need to wait until they complete the port to the XBox One. No ETA is given, as is usual.
Edit: Though Crate does surprise us sometimes, so controller improvements could be deployed to the PC version sooner rather than later; but no mention of it yet.
Agreed. Combat and camera movement is excellent and feels very fluid… with some exceptions. Take skills like ABB, Blade Arc transmuted… etc. that you may potentially want as your main attack. On controller they simply fire… and then you wait for cooldown. No automatic default attack because it sees them as skillbar skills and not LMB/RMB skills which know to revert to default attacks during CD. That needs to be fixed.
Plus the UI mode of clicking on items on the ground and picking them up is broken and no longer works from what I can see. I currently have to map left mouse click to L3 with xpadder to give me back this function. The pickup button in controller mode (D-pad UP) is nice in some circumstances but it gets messy real quick when you have a ton of items before you and you want a particular one or two.
And then this is where we diverge on the issue.
I like the idea and at the same time I don’t. I actually much prefer binding my main attack skill to RT and whatever 2nd most important skill to LT. Feels alot better with them there to me as they are easier to hit when you’re moving your character (and potentially the camera) at the same time.
Regardless, we need another skillbar (I don’t know about 3 of them tho) and a solution is needed to handle ointments. I guess we’ll see how it happens.
Wrong answer and it greatly defeats the purpose of having full controller support. Some people don’t always game with a controller up next to their kbm and if you REALLY think about it, it’s kind of ridiculous to expect such a thing.
It would be nice for them to fix some of the more immediate issues ASAP but I, for one, still want all the handy UI improvements that would accompany the work that would happen for the port and thus be put into the PC version. Combat is great, mostly. The UI tho could be much better and improve the experience vastly if it was a touch more seamless.
Just an FYI, the controller support came because a dev took some extra time to do it as a side project to see if it was viable. It was never a planned feature.
If you can manually bind controller buttons that toggle the second and third action bar, you could set it up any way that you want.
If you are saying you need to have your toggleable skills on your controller, you will probably need more than 8 slots, I think 12 slots will work for almost any character build, even with lots of auras.
I think you are right that UI should be improved for people that won’t have a kb/mouse nearby, but those changes are much larger than what I’m proposing, and think they are only likely to come once they are further along on the xbox port. That said, it’s not ridiculous in my opinion to expect people to have a keyboard nearby. I play games on a pc with a mouse and a keyboard. I have a controller that plugs in with a usb port, just like those other input devices, what is so hard about having a controller at my desk? It’s really easy to have both. What is different about expecting a controller to be at your computer desk than expecting a keyboard to be there?
Another way to potentially approach the system would be to have a tiered button press system ie. Hold down X, which pops up a mini skill menu of 3 or 4 skills, push analog toward desired skill, release X, skill fires. Simply pressing and releasing will automatically fire whatever default skill.
Not sure how fluid such a system would be in an arpg where you need to fire certain skills rapidly but I think it has potential.
What is different about expecting a controller to be at your computer desk than expecting a keyboard to be there?
I usually game in my chair right in front of the computer but I’ve seen a number of posts of people who aren’t anywhere near their kbm and simply want to kick back on their chair/sofa. I don’t blame people for wanting to not have to worry about extraneous crap like that when they just want to relax.
Too slow and complex, IMO.
You need to press long enough to show a menu, then you have to select the skill, then you use it. And, when you select the skill, the menu should be spread enough to reduce risk to use the wrong skill, but it means you may have to have the joystick left for direction of the character, then right to select the power, then left again to aim (and not change the direction of the character).
I like OP solution better, but with 4 skillbars (default, left, right, both) of 4 skill each (A, B, X, Y) for up to 16 skills.
Then, either you set default A and default B to have the same behaviour as right & left clics, either you use RB/LB to select skillbar and use RT/LT for right/left clics (for up to 18 skills).
(with left joystick for direction, right for camera, d-pad for pots and map)
I never used controller on GD, so I don’t know how it is done for now. But I understand it will undergo many changes as having a mouse & keyboard available won’t be an option on X1.
Very great and informative thread. I don’t have much to add to the conversation since it honestly covers a lot of my thoughts, but I’m gonna give this thread a bump since I’d like to keep this topic relevant for others and the creators to take a look at.
This basically is what bothers me but the rest i can live with and i also wanted to say i appreciate the work and effort that was put in to implement the controller as an option to those of us who use it.
Hi, new player here, so let me start by saying I really enjoy this lovely game.
The reason I am late to the party is that controller support was late to the party.
powbam told me the story of how the current controller support was added (over at the Steam forums), Kudos to the Coder who did that, you sold the game to me.
As for improvements, I think one of the most urgent things would be auto-targeting. It`s ok-ish right now, but needs to be better for the Xbox release where the controls will compete with Diablo.
Mobs need to have priority over destructible objects like crates. Basicly the game needs a combat state where Loot-containers don`t get targeted.
Proximity of Mobs should be considered as well.
On to controller schemes, this is how I would try it:
Facebuttons (A,X,Y,B), Right Trigger, Right Bumper: Skills 1-6 (“A” =auto attack by default but can be re-assigned)
Left Trigger (Hold): Switch to Skills 7-12
Digipad Left/Right: Health/Energy Potion
Left Bumper (Hold): Popup Menu for Potions (other than health and energy)
Digipad Up: Open Loot Popup
(=List of Loot within range, sorted by color. “A” to pick up one, “X” to pick up all. “B” or Digipad Down to exit)
Right Stick (Press): Open Portal
Select (Back): open Menu Screen, starting with Inventory.
(Left/Right Bumper to switch through menu tabs like skills, devotions, Questlog etc.)
Digipad Down: open Map (“X” to switch map-mode, “Y” to directly switch from Map to Questlog)
Left Stick (Press): Whatever I forgot above
Not really controller related, but as I am on it already, imo the map could use an update.
By default it rotates, but unlike the mini-map it doesnt show a compass. It could be done with a semi-transparent overlay. Also, Id wish it could be zoomed out more and then display region-borders and region-names.
Anyway, I enjoy the game well enough as it is, very glad I noticed they added controller support. But at the same time I can`t wait to see a dedicated controller verison carry over to PC.
