Fight stick or controller? - newbie here

[ActnFly]

So, started playing MK11 recently and omg is it really hard to combo with a controller. Is it easier with a fight stick? seems like the joystick and dpad on controller dont register too good.

[Chunky Weapon]

The problem with the controller is that pretty much every D-pad is disc-based, meaning you're not just pressing one button but potentially several others, depending on where you press on the d-pad. This is fine for standard action adventure games, but not for fighters. With that in mind, your options are to either pay to have a controller customized with mechanical buttons, replace the buttons with a mechanical d-pad yourself, use an arcade stick, or look into something like the Razer Raiju/Hori Fighting Commander, which are game pads specifically designed for fighting games.

I personally switched to an arcade stick recently and, while it's been a learning curve, especially since the block button doesn't feel particularly *good* anywhere on my stick, my kombos have been far easier to string together and my inputs are far more precise.

As far as price is concerned, your cheapest option will be the Hori Fighting Commander or a similar product. Those run around $30 USD. I bought a cheap little arcade stick for about $60 USD, but high-end arcade sticks can go for hundreds of dollars USD.

Hope this was at least somewhat helpful.

[ActnFly]

Thanks! So, do you think the $60 one you purchased is any different from the really high end ones?

[Chunky Weapon]

I think when it comes to fight sticks the pricier ones tend to be more durable. If you're not a complete savage to your controllers like I am (I get really into it), they should last a decent while. My cheapo stick seems to be holding up fairly decently, but if you're worried about longevity, go for the higher-end ones.

[Yarizu]

Keyboard

[jaywolfenstien]

What controller are you using?

So Mortal Kombat has been designed with a controller in mind. It is possible to play it on an arcade stick. You do actually lose some things, but you might not care about it since neither are related directly to what you might consider the main modes of the game.

In the Krypt, you kinda need both analog sticks to navigate. One controls the camera (and also is how you turn), the other moves Krypt Guy around. You can get by with an arcade stick, but it's really awkward.

The other thing is consumables for Tower of Time fights as that's tied to the right analog stick. Technically, it is possible to use, but not practical.

I personally prefer game pad for Mortal Kombat because, as Chunky Weapon stated, Block feels weird no matter what button it's mapped to. On pad, it just feels natural on a shoulder button.

A $60 stick sounds like either a Qanba Drone or a Mayflash. I don't particularly care for Qanba Drones because they're so light they move around as I use them which makes playing awkward. Mayflash has a little more weight and stays in place better, and it's worked fine for me in games like Street Fighter and Soul Calibur. There might be others in the sub-$100 range, those are just the two that immediately spring to my mind.

The more expensive sticks are generally bigger and heavier and more customizable (and shiny lights!). The Qanba Dragon, for example, is basically the trunk of a small car with a joystick. It's almost big enough for me to store my laptop inside. More expensive sticks also have "Sanwa parts" which is the parts actual arcade cabinets used to use back in the day, and they have a specific sound and feel. But a cheap Mayflash can get the job done.

But really it's the size and weight and where the secondary buttons are and how they're laid out--how easy it is to blindly find the Start Button to get the menus, where the buttons are to reset Training Mode, things like that, where a lot of preferences lie. And you really can't get to that place until you try more than one stick.

If you want to dip your toes into the arcade stick world, a Mayflash (or even a Qanba Drone if the light weight won't bother you) is a perfectly fine place to start. If you like sticks, you might upgrade to a fancier one down the road. But if you're not sure you're going to like them at all, there's no point buying a $300 Qanba Dragon.

[Chunky Weapon]

Originally posted by jaywolfenstien:

A $60 stick sounds like either a Qanba Drone or a Mayflash.

Bingo. I don't mind its light weight because the mat that covers my computer desk keeps everything from slipping and sliding.

Also, how do you deal with long input strings? I was trying clear the advanced stages of the tutorial and I couldn't do it on a pad with my DS4, but I aced it in a couple of tries with my stick.

[jaywolfenstien]

Originally posted by Chunky Weapon:

Originally posted by jaywolfenstien:

A $60 stick sounds like either a Qanba Drone or a Mayflash.

Bingo. I don't mind its light weight because the mat that covers my computer desk keeps everything from slipping and sliding.

Also, how do you deal with long input strings? I was trying clear the advanced stages of the tutorial and I couldn't do it on a pad with my DS4, but I aced it in a couple of tries with my stick.

Yeah, that's another preference thing. Desks are typically too high for me. I mean, i can still do combos and stuff, but its not as comfortable especially if I'm playing for long periods of time.

What specific part of the tutorial are you referring to? I've never found an input string to be difficult because it's long unless it's a juggle (in which case it's the timing that's the problem.)

Another point of failure is "release check." If the wrong special move is coming out, that's a release check problem. Basically, the game lets you perform a special move by letting go of a button. So what happens is you push 12 qcb3, but you don't let go of 2 fast enough, so 12 qcb2 comes out. You might be holding buttons down longer with your thumb on pad than you do with your fingers on stick. You can try to come off the buttons faster, you can continue holding the offending button down until it's safe. Or you can go into options and turn release check off.

Some strings are only special cancellable during specific windows. Kitana's back 213 into fan lift, for example. You can do fan lift too early and it won't come out. You can do it too late and it won't come out. You just have to find a visual cue, a specific animation, to do the fan lift (after the sweep, Kitana swipes up with each fan. That's when you input fanlift.) What might have happened was you were doing something too early on pad, on stick it takes you a hair longer because the joystick has to travel farther and that slight delay happened to put you in the right window to cancel into a special move.

But anyway, that's just speculation. If you can give me a specific exercise and a specific lesson, I'll take a look when I get off work.

[Rocko_01]

I've spent ~1.600 hours in MK11 with XBox One controller's d-pad. It worked very well. The dpad "cliks" a little bit that helps your brain to register the input. Down-back-forvard moves were easy tiűo input after a couple of hours of practise. This move was impossible for me on tha analog stick. BUT if you fingers are to big there could be difficulties. (I was lucky I think.) So after ~1.600 hours I switched to PS4 dual shock controllers. I started with the dpad I did not try the analog stick. Tha dpad was different to the XBox dpad. Bigger buttons, longer range between the move-buttons. It works fine too. The back-forward moves and the up-forward jumps need ptactice...

[keihtg]

The Hori Fighting Commander is a great controller (bigger d-pad and buttons, better triggers and bumpers), except they stopped making them, so instead of $30-40, they're now upwards of $80+, lol. I think they're going to make a new series for the new gen consoles? Dunno, but anyway, I think those are no longer in the conversation.

For a stick, I've had my cheapy "starter stick" (the Qanba Drone) for years and it's been great. I got it for $40 on sale, but I think it's normally $60-70. I think any stick should be fine to start, so long as you don't get a mini stick. I would also steer away from Mad Katz products...don't have any experience with their sticks, but I've had a few controllers from them in the past and they have been straight-up T-R-A-S-H.

[keihtg]

And as others have said, the block button on a stick is kinda hard to get used to. That's the biggest hurdle. In my opinion, that makes the controller easier to use. Also, with a controller, you can just drag your fingers across the buttons for many combos, which is a horrible habit to develop, but makes inputs super easy.

[Sir Fitzgerald]

This game isn't really arcade stick friendly, could have been different if the devs gave the same amount of keybind customisation the keyboard has to fight sticks but naaaaaaa.

[{QFTF}Serious Ste]

I have problems with the joypad. back forward commands are unreliable. I still have fun and I like to play on the tv but the both the stick and the pad on my joy pad are unreliable (keyboard is more precise but I want to play on the tv also block and special commands are not as comfortable). ihave no issue in practice but when I play online, with both ping and pressure, I feel back forward inputs are way too unreliablr