Controller support sucks and here's why

[elias.heyndrickx]

So I plugged in my old PS3 controller and managed to get it working, after playing the game for around 10 minutes I could not stand it anymore. The controls are just wonky at best. I will be using to X-BOX controller scheme because it's easier to talk about the controls.

I have to actually turn it on in the menu

Why? I just want to plug in my controller and play. I don't want change any settings. It should just be plug and play.

My keyboard stops working

You want to take a screenshot? Too bad, ♥♥♥ you. This obviously needs to be fixed. I want a usable keyboard if it's available.

The weapon binding hurts my fingers

Using R2 and L2 for the weapons is a horrible idea, it puts a lot of strain on my fingers. Most of the time I want to use 1 weapon not both. Y and B should be used for for the weapons. B for the main and Y for the secondary.

My characters direction does not match my joy stick direction

I'm not intending to do a 360 or anything. Just make them match. If I move my right Joy Stick to thr right want my character to look right and go there. It would also be neat if a characters moved faster or slower depending on how far you moved the joystick.

Weird camerva movement

Since unexplored has a square viewing field (which is great) the left joy stick should be used to move to camera forward (like the E key on keyboard) no need to map this to L1.

Do you want to drink this potion!? Yes you do!!

What happened to asking me if I was sure to read said scroll, drink said potion. My character just chugs it down.

No dedicated button to open backpack.

Atm it's pretty annoying to open my backpack. I can't even remember how. The X button would suit it the best. A button is great for actions.

Annoying enemy targetting system.

The right joystick being used to target monsters is very annoying, I have to be carefull to not move it around too much or i'll loose my lock on. I can't quite describe it but it's quite obnoxious. I think the R1 button would be an amazing fit for the targetting system. When you hold it it targets the enemies that is most close to the player and in addition rotate's the player towards said enemy. You can use the L1 button to cycle through all the enemies (second closest, third closest, ...) Once an enemy has been locked on it remains locked on until it's dead or the R1 button is released.

This system works amazing, I have been playing San Andreas with my controller for multiple days and I honestly can't complain. It's very intuitive.

Insufficient dropping system

Currently the player drops stuff under his feat, there is no way to throw stuff (as far as I'm aware). I use the throwing feature stuff quite often to triger traps, pressure plates, ... Instead of using R2 for a weapon it could be used to throw stuff in the direction the player is facing. The default drop action would be throwing it.

Annoying buttons

While buttons are a great interface for a mouse based system it's a pretty poor choice for a controller. I suggest gathering all the buttons in a menu. (Save & Quit, Discovered, ...) This menu would be triggered by pressing the Start button. The game will pause and bring up a transparent menu with a list of buttons. You can use the numpad to navigate and press the A button to select an Action/Button. If the player wishes to resume the game again he presses the Y Button or Start.

Bugs in current version

• The targetting animation is not centered.
  
• You can target fireflies with your weapons, this should only be possible if you are hplding an empty flask.

[jd]

Thanks for the feedback Elias, one of these days I will get back to the controller support.

[Koda]

why do you use be for primary wepon?! it should be x. unless your fingers are as short as baby carrots primary should be x. b should be backpack, im a console gamer too, and i could probably get the controls pretty good. cant you change the controls as well?