My solution to Path Of Exile on PS4 (Controller Support)

[Andrew]

So I started typing what was going to be a short comment on another user's discussion which quickly turned into a few paragraphs. For that reason I will essentially repost all of what I said here.

Originally posted by rakisak:

I just think that this game would do good there. Then add in cross play and triple the size

I really like this game and I really like the PS4, however, when this topic comes up a few issues come to mind right away. This is something I would like to see in the future so i will also try and offer suggestions of how these issues could be subverted.

Expectations: Right off the bat it is worth noting that these two different "pools" of players have different expectations. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but the standard set by the games available to each pool has in a way shaped the expectations of said pool of players. It is generally a lot easier to develop a game on PC and right off the bat you are then making your game available to a larger audience then you would be on say a console. for this reason we get a lot more games on PC though, consequently, sometimes these games don't run as good as we may hope. For this reason PC gamers are (for the most part) more tolerant when it comes to a games ability to run which is why we don't mind things like desync when it comes to PoE. On console players get outraged if a game doesn't run perfectly right out the gate so this would put a lot of pressure on GGG. In the future when they have things running more smoothly perhaps this issue can be overcome.

Hot keys: Just for fun (misery) try playing PoE without using any hot keys. Players would expect 5 hotkeys for different attacks on the console. All of the buttons on the controller exist in groupings of four so right away we know there's no ergonomic way of doing this. To be fair most builds on PoE only use 1-2 different attacks anyways so I feel like this is somewhat of a non-issue so long as GGG could convince players that this is a non-issue. Alternatively I do have what I feel could be a solution to this.

Here's my example of a potential layout for the controls:
D-Pad 4 flasks

Left Joystick This would be for moving around and would essentially replace your left click

Right Joystick This one would be a little trickier, but I think it would be cool if we were given the option to map a movement skill to this joystick

Face Buttons (excluding X) + L2 these would essentially replace your QWERT keys (I know we're missing one hold on) which are used to map skills to.

R2 would be Right Click

X this is the key that would be prompted when we come into contact with things we can interact with like stash and loot.

*This is where things get interesting*

L1 (hold) + D-Pad Holding L1 could open a small menu with 4 different menu options to choose from (ie. Inventory, Skill Tree, Auction House?, Social).

Options this could bring up a larger menu of all the menus not mentioned above.

R1 (hold) + D-Pad This would open a menu similar to the one regarding L1 except this is where our aura's are stored. $ different auras will satisfy most builds and swapping them out then applying new ones would work for support and low life builds since you have to do this on the pc version anyways.

Touch pad This would open the map

Trade on Console: PoE trading is not perfect atm and is due to undergo some sort of revamping.One suggestion being made quite often is an auction house. This is not the most popular solution, but it is about the only one that would work well on console. Players on console need things to be more streamlined and typing out messages and trying to configure PoE chat using a controller is not going to satisfy those standards.


*Conclusion* All in all I think some things would feel more clunky on the console whereas other things may feel way more comfortable. I know my ideas aren't perfect and I'm open to suggestions In the comment section below.

tl;dr It could potentially be done in the future, some things will feel more clunky on the console than on pc, but other things would feel way better.

[Battleseed]

Thread title is a bit odd since it presumes there is a problem that needs solving, when there isn't. Could care less about a PS4 version so not going to read a wall of text.
Cross platform? No thank you. This game thrives because of the community.

[Andrew]

Originally posted by Battleseed:

Thread title is a bit odd since it presumes there is a problem that needs solving, when there isn't. Could care less about a PS4 version so not going to read a wall of text.
Cross platform? No thank you. This game thrives because of the community.

The thread doesn't presume there's any problem what so ever. People who strictly like console would like to play this game. You have no interest in it coming to console so you clicked on this thread to do what exactly?

[Battleseed]

Originally posted by X902BOSS | Mayor:

The thread doesn't presume there's any problem what so ever.

Read the thread title again and say that. The first two words to be exact.

Originally posted by X902BOSS | Mayor:

clicked on this thread to do what exactly?

Apparently it was not clear so here goes again. To say NO THANK YOU. Any more questions?

[Andrew]

Originally posted by Battleseed:

Originally posted by X902BOSS | Mayor:

The thread doesn't presume there's any problem what so ever.

Read the thread title again and say that. The first two words to be exact.

Originally posted by X902BOSS | Mayor:

clicked on this thread to do what exactly?

Apparently it was not clear so here goes again. To say NO THANK YOU. Any more questions?

Apparently I wasn't clear enough with you so maybe that is my fault. The thread doesn't presume anything because it is an answer to a problem that actually exists rather than being based on the possibility of a problem. The second part of my response that you wquoted was me simply pointing out that you're lack of interest in the topic is exactly why you don't belong here. You have no interest in playing Path Of Exile on PS4 so why even try and engage with an audience that is trying to do exactly that?

[Battleseed]

Guess you are a bit "special" and require some extra attention in having to repeat myself. Said I was against cross platform. Could care less about the rest.

The "problem" you have a solution for only exists in your head. You just made up a problem to justify your ideas. Perhaps you don't understand the word "Solution" and should look it up.

You posted in an open public forum. If you don't like when people object or disagree with your opinoins or thoughts, stick to private conversations.

[Andrew]

Originally posted by Battleseed:

Guess you are a bit "special" and require some extra attention. Said I was against cross platform. Could care less about the rest. The "problem" you have a solution for only exists in your head. You just made up a problem to justify your ideas.

You posted in an open public forum. If you don't like when people object or disagree with your opinoins or thoughts, stick to private converstions.

First off we are simply disagreeing about something, there is no need to resort to name calling it simply just makes you look immature. I never actually said I support cross-platform either I think it would be a terrible idea. This solution that you imply is to a problem in my head is actually a problem that is well documented if you took all of 5 seconds to research it. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me the only issue is when instead of offering a counter suggestion you simply attempt to disparage my solution based on the pretense that you have no interest in the outcome this solution attempts to solve. Please note I'm not trying to offend you I actually just want to hear more from you. You have a lot of time playing the game I was hoping you would have some helpful criticism.

[Padawan]

AH is a very bad idea imo and the way to use the controller is far from being the biggest concern when it comes to port a game to another platform.

Your solution is not for a PS4 port but more for a controller support.

[The_Driver]

- Netcode is a huge issue for console players: They often have poor LAN connections (WLAN is jittery)
- PS4 - afaik - isn't great at what PoE requires in hardware: single threaded performance

You talk about some problems in great detail that some PC players have as well: Using a controller. This is not a console problem, anyone who wants to use a steam or other controller has these problems. Because using the mouse and keyboard while on the couch to play on the big screen isn't too well when gaming on PC either (compared to PS/Xbox).

[Andrew]

Originally posted by The_Driver:

- Netcode is a huge issue for console players: They often have poor LAN connections (WLAN is jittery)
- PS4 - afaik - isn't great at what PoE requires in hardware: single threaded performance

You talk about some problems in great detail that some PC players have as well: Using a controller. This is not a console problem, anyone who wants to use a steam or other controller has these problems. Because using the mouse and keyboard while on the couch to play on the big screen isn't too well when gaming on PC either (compared to PS/Xbox).

Yeah I play with keyboard and mouse in my living room with my pc hooked up to the tv. If they could meet me half way and just add the controller support yo the pc version that would be fine :P

[Illumina]

No Auction House Allowed

[DeathWrench]

I've accepted the fact that there's no controller support. It plays better without it. You could use Xpadder to try and solve your issue, but a lot of the time mapping controllers for games that aren't meant for them provides iffy results.

What you're asking for likely won't happen, they'd have to make a different game.

[Andrew]

Originally posted by DeathWrench:

I've accepted the fact that there's no controller support. It plays better without it. You could use Xpadder to try and solve your issue, but a lot of the time mapping controllers for games that aren't meant for them provides iffy results.

What you're asking for likely won't happen, they'd have to make a different game.

The main issue with using Xpadder for this game is the movement. You need to be able to move fluently with the left joystick and being able to open up quick menues with R1 and L1 (basically everything I mentioned in the OP).

If they were to do it I wou8ld actually prefer there not be any cross play, therefore, I wouldn't mind it being a new game.

[The_Driver]

Originally posted by X902BOSS | Mayor:

Originally posted by DeathWrench:

I've accepted the fact that there's no controller support. It plays better without it. You could use Xpadder to try and solve your issue, but a lot of the time mapping controllers for games that aren't meant for them provides iffy results.

What you're asking for likely won't happen, they'd have to make a different game.

The main issue with using Xpadder for this game is the movement. You need to be able to move fluently with the left joystick and being able to open up quick menues with R1 and L1 (basically everything I mentioned in the OP).

That may be an xpadder issue, other software to map controls might not have such a problem, or you might be overthinking some aspects. Basically your idea about a menu probably comes with too strong of a notion of clicking that, when there's really no need to. Sure, you might want to display bindings (like an overlay graphics) when that modifier key is pressed, but the secondary button alone would trigger the menu, leaving the cursor still positionable and the LMB bound key still working for LMB to move. So you still have movement controll while opening a menu.

That of course doesn't change the movement from indirect to direct though, which is what many people would find weird on a stick-based controller.

[Andrew]

Originally posted by The_Driver:

Originally posted by X902BOSS | Mayor:

The main issue with using Xpadder for this game is the movement. You need to be able to move fluently with the left joystick and being able to open up quick menues with R1 and L1 (basically everything I mentioned in the OP).

That may be an xpadder issue, other software to map controls might not have such a problem, or you might be overthinking some aspects. Basically your idea about a menu probably comes with too strong of a notion of clicking that, when there's really no need to. Sure, you might want to display bindings (like an overlay graphics) when that modifier key is pressed, but the secondary button alone would trigger the menu, leaving the cursor still positionable and the LMB bound key still working for LMB to move. So you still have movement controll while opening a menu.

That of course doesn't change the movement from indirect to direct though, which is what many people would find weird on a stick-based controller.

What I was hoping with using L1 as a modifier is to make the game more streamlined, I'm trying to get away from looking at this as a PoE player on PC transitioning to PS4 and more as a player who only does console and therefore expects games to be more streamlined like other console games. The modifier needs to happen because I have the secondary button (the D-Paf) binded to other controls without it. The moving around would be more similar to how D3 works on console which I only played the demo of, but I feel like I would prefer the movement that way.

[DeathWrench]

Originally posted by X902BOSS | Mayor:

I'm trying to get away from looking at this as a PoE player on PC transitioning to PS4 and more as a player who only does console

This isn't a console game, it's a free to play PC game, porting takes a lot of money to do. Sometimes the makers of a game will pay a company to port their game to console, maybe if you make a company, and gave GGG a really low offer to port it for them, you could do it yourself, or maybe you could just get used to using a mouse and keyboard.

Diablo 3 was made with both PC and console players in mind, this game wasn't. Do you see a Runescape port? What about a WoW port? League of Legends? Maple Story? All Points Bulletin? Dota 2? There's a reason why these games aren't on the console. It's either because consoles can't run them, the controls wouldn't work, or sometimes it's just because it costs too much to have the game ported.

As for minimal controller support, it could probably be a thing, but a console port probably won't happen.

Originally posted by X902BOSS | Mayor:

If they were to do it I wou8ld actually prefer there not be any cross play, therefore, I wouldn't mind it being a new game.

By cross play, do you mean PC players playing with PS4 players? Cause that's not actually a thing yet.