Steam Deck Controls for Sunless Skies

A guide for playing Sunless Skies on Steam Deck.

Controller Support on Steam Deck

Thank's to Sunless Skies' controller support, the game runs beautifully on Steam Deck, however there are two caveats:

• Gamepads must be activated via the Controls menu
  
• The Steam Deck's virtual keyboard must be used when prompted to enter text

Activating gamepads in-game

Controllers don't work out of the box on Sunless Skies, they need to be activated within game. Using the Steam Deck's touchscreen, you'll first need to activate a gamepad in the Controls menu before you're able to play Skies with gamepad controls On Steam Deck. To do this take the following steps:

1. Load Sunless Skies on Steam Deck
   
2. On the title screen select Options > Controls
   
3. Tick the Use Gamepad checkbox
   
4. Select Apply Changes

From this point on, everything in the game can be controlled with gamepad buttons. Press B twice to back out to the title screen and start a new game (or alternatively load an existing save if you have one sync'd in the cloud).

Virtual Keyboard

Since the PC version of Skies does not have a virtual keyboard, you'll need to use the Steam Deck's OS keyboard when you are prompted to enter text. There are two places in Skies where you'll need to do this:

• Your captain's name during character creation
  
• Your locomotive's name when purchasing a new one at an engineyard

To enter text into these fields take the following steps:

Captain's Name

1. On the fourth panel of the character creation screen, highlight the Name field
   
2. Press the Steam and X buttons together to open the virtual keyboard
   
3. Enter a name for your captain
   
4. Press the Enter button on the virtual keyboard, or R2

N.B. Ensure you press Enter on the virtual keyboard or R2 to confirm your name, as this will place the focus onto the element below the name field once the keyboard closes. If you instead close the keyboard using the hide keyboard icon, or Steam+X, then focus will remain in the text field and you cannot navigate the UI with gamepad controls. If this happens, either reopen the virtual keyboard or press R1 to move onto the next panel.


Locomotive Name

1. On purchasing a new locomotive, the Name Your Locomotive pop-up will open with the focus on Random Name - press Up on the D-Pad or LS to to focus on the text field
   
2. Press the Steam and X buttons together to open the virtual keyboard
   
3. Enter a name for your new locomotive
   
4. Press the Enter button on the virtual keyboard, or R2

N.B. Ensure you press either Enter on the virtual keyboard or R2 to confirm your locomotive's name, as this will place the focus onto the Confirm button once the keyboard closes. If you close the keyboard using the hide keyboard icon, or Steam+X, then focus will remain in the text field and you cannot navigate the UI with gamepad controls. If you find yourself in this situation you'll need to reopen the virtual keyboard again.

Reporting a bug via Steam Deck

The Report a Bug button on the pause menu cannot be selected with a gamepad. If you wish to report a bug when playing on Steam Deck then there are two options:

Connect a keyboard

You need to connect a keyboard to the Deck via a USB-C hub. Once connected, press F8 to open the bug reporting interface. Enter details about the bug in the text field and then use the touchscreen to press the Submit button.

Deactivate gamepad controls

1. Open the pause menu in-game
   
2. Select Options > Controls
   
3. Untick the Use Gamepad checkbox
   
4. Select Apply Changes to restore touchscreen functionality
   
5. Select Done to close the Controls menu
   
6. Select Back > Report a Bug (F8) - the bug reporting interface will open
   
7. Press the Quick Access button on the Deck
   
8. Press the keyboard icon to open the Deck's virtual keyboard
   
9. Enter details about the bug in the text field
   
10. Close the virtual keyboard
    
11. Press the Submit button
    
12. Go back to Options > Controls
    
13. Tick the Use Gamepad checkbox and press Apply Changes to reactive the controller

[[SQ]Noname]

Smashing! Can't wait to try it out once I get my Deck.

[Wrzlprnft]

There is a hotkey combination to bring up the SteamDeck's virtual keyboard: Steamkey+x