New Controller Functionality Feedback

Grim Dawn Ideas and Feedback
1

Took me a few minutes to get the hang of, having used a controller to play this game for so long and the shortcuts being second nature. But as a whole, everything is positive save for one negative.

I will say, in general, everything is far more intuitive and “normal” to controller setups than they ever were before, with the virtual mouse and using “left clicks” and “right clicks”. This is helped by the big floating ‘A’ over everything. Now it feels more like it could be on a console. RT/LT to switch between menu windows is cool - might I suggest RB/LB to switch between skill sub-windows? (Ie, Mastery 1, Devotion, Mastery 2)

Inventory buttons for quick-equipping will make my life much easier. Frankly I switched to mouse for inventory management most of the time. I still might, however. The item and skill menus would still benefit massively from a “snap-to” cursor. Virtual mouse is still fiddlesome, but scrolling with the right analog is far smoother and easier than the d-pad, making it easier overall than before to not use a mouse.

Not having to use the virtual mouse for dialogue selection is a small, but much appreciated improvement. This kind of thing is a big step in the right direction.

Freeing up two extra buttons for skills by no longer needing “pick up item” and “interact” buttons is priceless. Vastly superior just for that.

Floating target indicators are great. A+. Targeting also seems to be far more precise? I’ve had problems targeting at range before especially, with it seeming to just target whichever is closest - troublesome for many AOE occultist abilities. Massive improvement.

I was a bit disappointed at first by the loss of the menu shortcuts. But I quickly got used to it for the most part. Having the log window on the left however is a massive improvement. The one thing I can’t get used to is pressing three buttons (back, RT, RT) to check the map. I check the map frequently, so this is a tiny bit annoying. The fix I’ll suggest would benefit both controller and mouse users: add a toggle-able transparent map overlay. No more NEEDING to stop to check the map.

Big ups on these upgrades, nice work and thanks for caring about us controller plebs.

2

Tried it for about half an hour, but it just feels unnatual.
The controller UI looks too stuffed and the navigation feels sluggish.
I tried to remap some things, like Pickup, Riftportal and some Quickslots, but the way the UI works and the interactions with the buttons right now just don’t feel right.
The “A”-button popups over npcs look out of place.

I really enjoyed playing Grim Dawn with a controller as it broke the mold of ARPGs like Diablo or Path of Exile. Playing Grim Dawn with a controller felt like being more in controll of the character (no click-to-go-there).

As far as I’m concerned, I do not think the changes made were necessary nor are they in any way good.

Personally, I would welcome the option to turn the controller functionality and the contoller UI back to the way it was before the patch as it made more sense to me.

PS.: I know that I suck at explaining things but it won’t get any better.

3

Try D-Pad down :wink:

Unless you’ve re-mapped it.

Edit… Thank you Crate for making it a single button toggle.

4

now that I can use my steam controller (thanks Crate, for the quick fix), I have gotten around to trying this new setup

I really like what you have done with the menus and the ‘click A functionality’
on a side note, a funny thing is that just as I was doing a farming run to get the hang of it, I got into my first ever Koopa encounter, making me revert to using mouse and keyboard…
the interface reminds me of how the controller in van helsing works, which I really liked
I do dislike having to still use the mousepad from time to time, but I’m assuming that will have to be gone before the game truly goes to console

one small request: on my mouse and keyboard setup I use a macro for picking up loot, that way I can keep a button pressed to pick up everything
would it be possible to make it so that keeping A pressed will do that as well?
I think that would be a QOL feature for a lot of players, and perhaps even an incentive to play with a controller

great job Crate!!

5

To start with, Kudos to the Devs … this is a great first step towards full controller support. Also, I like all the suggestions made here so far.

While I am kinda bursting with feedback of my own, I think Ill hold it back for now because I am not sure about the state of the implementation. (?) If you look at it in a "ready for console launch" way, Id say this is maybe 20% of the work done.

I dont know what Crate have planned, but imo the target has to be "no mouse cursor anywhere". This would still require massive changes to the whole UI, I dont envy the designer tasked with this job.
The core gameplay already feels very functional though.

I`d be happy to throw in my feedback once we know what the Davs want to achieve.