Joystick support?

[Banjo]

I was wondering if anyone has seen how joystick support compares in this to MW5 mercs? Is it better? worse? the same? I found it very frustrating playing MW5 mercs with a joystick and the configuration process was hard, I was just kinda hoping to see if they put some TLC into making it feel good to use one, perhaps even having it feel like the definative experience again instead of just a worse option to keyboard/mouse.

[Alrik]

It's the same problem with Unreal 4/5 as with EA/DICEs Frostbite Engine*: they support only game controllers based on X-Box and PS5 patterns, joystick support isn't in the engine and each dev has to create their own tools for it.

[Reaver]

I dunno, I play MW5 Mercs with a T-16000m joystick and i get headshots at 1200 meters. It's easy really, you just let your target run into your reticle bullseye and time the shot.

MechWarrior 5 changed the axis layout. Change axis Yaw to stick left/right and torso-twist to stick twist or the RZ axis. Then you are piloting your mech like flying a plane. This is old-school set-up from MW 1 thru MW 4. Eleven years past till we got MW5 on PC and some things changed. I think old-school layout is best, but to each his own.

Russ wanted good joystick support for MW5 Mercs. Hopefully Clans is the same

[or10nsharkfin]

It's basically the same as MW5 Mercs only with support for more controller configs.

I have dual Virpil Constellation Alpha Primes on WarBRD-D bases and a set of Rudder Pedals. I'm currently working on getting my bindings set up but the menus are really fighting against me for some reason.

EDIT: While I'm still having problems with the menus for some reason glitching out when trying to select something, I can confirm that a major step up from Mercs is that the game allows dual-stage triggers.

[Kuro Houou]

I have noticed the same bug in the game menus where if you have controllers plugged in, they glitch out very bad and it makes it super hard to click buttons in ANY menu let alone the control config screen.. It even gets to the point where I can't push the escape button anymore to get back to the menu when playing the game. I have to ctrl-alt-del to exit the game!! They need to fix this ASAP, its a huge bug and I have no idea how this was not found in testing.

[rich0000]

Ugh, if the joystick is plugged in the menus don't work. If I remove it then it works fine with mouse+keyboard, but won't detect my game controller...

[Banjo]

Originally posted by rich0000:

Ugh, if the joystick is plugged in the menus don't work. If I remove it then it works fine with mouse+keyboard, but won't detect my game controller...

oh geeze that's frustrating

[Bosmang]

Yeah, HOTAS/Custom controller support is currently VERY BROKEN.

As far as controls in general. I think the best set up, if you're old school, is mouse & throttle.

Mouse to control top half/aim, throttle to do throttle stuff, hat switch to steer bottom half.
This works great. If you must play with a stick, crank up the aim-assist and deal... : (

[TheBeaminDemon]

Anyone have any idea on how to make the Throttle work? Everything else is functional from the get-go but my throttle stick doesn’t work for increasing speed, even though the rest of the throttle buttons work. And when I rebind the throttle to another key it suddenly works but it just doesn’t for forward movement.

[jan_hendrik_m]

In gameplay menu choose "classic" mech control then it works

[sluke]

It seems the joystick configuration has the same limitations on MW5:Mercs. You need to go to your C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\MW5Clans\Saved\SavedHOTAS folder and edit the HOTASmappings.remap file based on your joystic setup. Somehow I found out how to do this for MW5:Mercs a couple of years ago, and I just copied that same mapping file to the MW5:Clans and it is working well. I have two VKB joysticks (one setup as a throttle and one as a stick) and it works great so far. Still trying to figure out the best way to handle the star commands and the battle screen, but at least the fighting works well.

If you search for MW5:Mercs joystick support, you will probably find the details on how to edit the mapping file. The three keys aspects are:

1. Getting the device name and IDs correct (I don't remember where i found those).
2. List your buttons and map the windows button ID to (I think) whatever you want the button to be called in the game (you can find the windows button ID by opening the game controllers setting in windows and pressing your controllers buttons to see which ones light up)
3. List your axes and map the windows axis name to the name in the game, set deadzones, inversion, etc.

Here is an example of the mapping I created for one of my VKB joysticks (note that the axis stuff should be a single line for each axis):

START_BIND
NAME: VKBsim Gladiator EVO L
VID: 0x231D
PID: 0x0201

BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button1, OutButtons=Throttle_Button1
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button2, OutButtons=Throttle_Button2
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button3, OutButtons=Throttle_Button3
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button4, OutButtons=Throttle_Button4
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button5, OutButtons=Throttle_Button5
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button6, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad1_Up
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button7, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad1_Right
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button8, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad1_Down
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button9, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad1_Left
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button10, OutButtons=Throttle_Button10
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button11, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad2_Up
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button12, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad2_Right
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button13, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad2_Down
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button14, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad2_Left
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button15, OutButtons=Throttle_Button15
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button16, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad3_Up
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button17, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad3_Right
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button18, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad3_Down
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button19, OutButtons=Throttle_DPad3_Left
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button20, OutButtons=Throttle_Button20
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button21, OutButtons=Throttle_Button6
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button22, OutButtons=Throttle_Button7
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button23, OutButtons=Throttle_Button8
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button24, OutButtons=Throttle_Button9
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button25, OutButtons=Throttle_Button11
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button26, OutButtons=Throttle_Button12
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button27, OutButtons=Throttle_Button13
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button28, OutButtons=Throttle_Button14
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Button29, OutButtons=Throttle_Button16
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Hat1, OutButtons=Throttle_Hat_1
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Hat2, OutButtons=Throttle_Hat_2
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Hat3, OutButtons=Throttle_Hat_3
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Hat4, OutButtons=Throttle_Hat_4
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Hat5, OutButtons=Throttle_Hat_5
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Hat6, OutButtons=Throttle_Hat_6
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Hat7, OutButtons=Throttle_Hat_7
BUTTON: InButton=GenericUSBController_Hat8, OutButtons=Throttle_Hat_8

AXIS: InAxis=HOTAS_RZAxis, OutAxis=Throttle_Axis3, Invert=FALSE, Offset=-0.5, DeadZoneMin=-0.2, DeadZoneMax=0.2, MapToDeadZone=TRUE
AXIS: InAxis=HOTAS_YAxis, OutAxis=Throttle_Axis1, Invert=TRUE, Offset=0.5, DeadZoneMin=-0.2, DeadZoneMax=0.2, MapToDeadZone=TRUE
AXIS: InAxis=HOTAS_XAxis, OutAxis=Throttle_Axis2, Invert=FALSE, Offset=-0.5, DeadZoneMin=-0.2, DeadZoneMax=0.2, MapToDeadZone=TRUE
AXIS: InAxis=GenericUSBController_Axis6, OutAxis=Throttle_Axis4, Invert=FALSE, Offset=-0.5, DeadZoneMin=-0.2, DeadZoneMax=0.2, MapToDeadZone=TRUE
AXIS: InAxis=GenericUSBController_Axis5, OutAxis=Throttle_Axis5, Invert=FALSE, Offset=-0.5, DeadZoneMin=-0.2, DeadZoneMax=0.2, MapToDeadZone=TRUE

[Alrik]

Nexus Mod has in Mechwarrior 5 Merc in the utilities secton a tool to read joystick infos and to create the mapping file.

[Vorpal]

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[Westridge]

Originally posted by Kuro Houou:

... it makes it super hard to click buttons...

I downloaded the game last night (15 Nov 2024) thought I was going mad experiencing the same problem being unable to click menu buttons without multiple attempts. I had my X56 joystick and throttle plugged in. I'm pleased someone-else can verify this issue with mouse clicks.

I am *very* disappointed with the lack of joystick support. I hope some of these workarounds or sources will solve it.

[Thundercracker]

Originally posted by Westridge:

Originally posted by Kuro Houou:

... it makes it super hard to click buttons...

I downloaded the game last night (15 Nov 2024)

it wasent november last night. ;D

[Somali Pirate Radio]

Originally posted by Alrik:

Nexus Mod has in Mechwarrior 5 Merc in the utilities secton a tool to read joystick infos and to create the mapping file.

This is very good to know! Thank you!