Controller Support

[LonePaladin]

I have a custom category in my Steam library called "Controller Friendly", and Cube World needs some adjusting before it'll qualify for that tag.

First, it is very difficult to use a controller exclusively for character creation. This is the only place in the game where the controller doesn't make the cursor snap to objects, so you have to do this back-and-forth until you get lucky enough to aim at one of the arrows. It would also make sense to allow the directional pad to control the cursor in menus.

Movement and camera control in-game work well, it feels nice and responsive. I like being able to click the right stick to select my secondary item, but the actual selection should also use that stick -- it feels more intuitive, and would let you change items while moving. I'm not sure what purpose the whistle serves, or why it's important enough to assign to clicking the left stick.

The button assignments seem a little odd. My first impulse on wanting to jump is to press the A button, but that's for interactions -- I have to use B to jump. That's okay, I can get used to that.

But fighting? All of your combat actions (except for your class-specific ability) are assigned to the triggers and shoulder buttons. Not a bad idea, except that your basic attacks (which would be both mouse-buttons) are on the same side. It'll be difficult to manage the one-two combo of basic attacks, as this would require holding down RB while pressing RT -- doable, but it makes it harder to also move and jump while trying to keep an enemy in view. Mouse-and-keyboard players will have a bit of an advantage here.

There are some issues with the interface. In the Main Menu, the Controls window doesn't show any controller button-mappings, so the only way to figure out what the buttons do is experimenting. Also, you can't scroll the control list with the controller; the most intuitive method would be to use the right stick, but that still pivots the camera. You might also expect to be able to use the directional pad to move around menus, but that still has its default functions -- scaling the map, turning on your lamp, and bringing up the World Map.

When you open your inventory (with the Back button), it shows both the Inventory screen and the Crafting screen. This is a good thing, especially if you're trying to compare recipes to your list of supplies. But it brings a couple problems.

First, having both lists on-screen at once obscures your stat list. So this might have to change to a stepped process (press Back once for inventory, a second time for crafting, and again to close it).

Second, whenever you have the cursor aimed at an item, a pop-up appears, below and to the left of the cursor, showing the item's description and stats. Problem is, when you're aiming at something that's on the left half of the display, the item pop-up goes off the edge of the screen so you can't read it. I've seen this with mouse-and-keyboard play as well.

Here's a screenshot showing both the item pop-up going off the side, and the screens blocking your stat list.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1871655330

The problem with the item pop-up should be easy to fix -- just have it where, if the cursor is far enough on the left side of the screen, the item pop-up shifts to the right of the cursor. Switching the inventory window to cyclical (as I said above) should also fix the stat-list visibility.

So far, it's a good start, considering the controllers in question didn't even exist when the game was first written. It just needs some adjustments to allow for 100% controller use.