PS4 Controller Attack-Move?

Grim Dawn General Discussion
1

I just tried setting up the PS4 controller for the game and I really like it except for one thing. I’m playing a melee Warder and when I use an attack, I stand in place like I’m holding down SHIFT on the keyboard instead of walking up to the monster and attacking like I would if I clicked and held the mouse button.

What ends up happening is that I’m just swinging my axe NEAR the monster but not actually hitting it a lot of the time, until I realize and then I have to let go of the button, move closer, then push the button again. How do I adjust this so pushing a button doesn’t behave like I’m holding down SHIFT?

Thanks!

2

I am also playing with controller. It’s odd at first, but you get used to switching between moving and attacking after some time. I guess the devs want to avoid that the game plays almost by itself.

3

I did get used to it and I understand about the game playing itself (though with a gun class it pretty much behaves this way). I just wish it was a bit more forgiving if you’re very close but JUST out of range. With all the explosions and stuff on screen, it’s hard to see exactly where I am and if I’m hitting or swinging air!

4

There are a few solutions, of course:

One is to install JoyToKey and map your stick directions to Keyboard2, Switch depending on Analogue input, 1 >> 2 >> 3, and fill in the box between 1 and 2 with 99 and the one between 2 and 3 with100. Then make input 2 and 3 the Number 1 instead of Disabled. (You may also want to go into Steam controller configuration and remove much if not all of the deadzone on your analogue stick.)

What this effectively means is that as long as JoyToKey is active, moving your analogue stick to full extremity will cause your character to perform the 1st action slot, IE your auto attack. It takes a little getting used to, but it feels natural after awhile. (You could also try it inverted where you attack any time you’re holding less than 96 or 97* [*detection is less sensitive at the upper end, in my experience.] and do nothing at 97 and above, which would mean you would only move when pressing the stick all the way; Whichever feels best to you.) There’s some fine tuning you can do in advanced settings for your analogue stick in Steam like changing your dead zone shape, response curve and adjusting your Outer Ring Binding Radius, etc. Those are worth fiddling with to get just the right behavior for you.

I’ve also discovered when implementing this that it’s helpful to dedicate your other analogue stick strictly to movement as an emergency backup, in case you need to move right away and can’t afford the risk of attacking on accident. It’s also nice for some of those lulls where there’s nothing to fight. If you choose to do this, you can also dedicate your first stick entirely to attacking. That’s another way of going about it, if you like that better.

The way I prefer to do this is set my Outer Ring Binding Radius down to about a third of what it starts at, set my dead zone to a speck, set my dead zone shape to circle and then make anything over 98 press Number 1. This gives me enough ability to move and attack as I wish with only my left stick so that I only need my right stick when there’s a really fine movement I need to perform.

Just a couple things more to consider: Also be wary if you use a thumbpad on your analogue stick like I do; It might off-center your thumb position enough that one direction feels like it hits 100% instantly. If that’s the case, you might have to take it off when doing this. You might also want to try this setup on a few different controllers and see how they behave; Depending on the tolerances from-factory on the analogue stick, a particular controller may or may not decide to play nice with this configuration.

The other solution would be to make a button a toggle for Number 1 in JoyToKey so you can just toggle your auto attack on and off. I tried this with Action Layers in Steam controller configuration and it was clumsy because it has a built-in script that either takes a moment or waits for the last button press to complete before switching Action Layers, causing a slight delay. The delay using JoyToKey is much less noticeable.

Hope this helps! ^ ^