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Awkward to play on a controller
Quizzical
Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
With Kritika down yesterday, I decided to give this game a shot. I had avoided it years ago because click to move is usually death to controllers. I use a controller because heavy mouse usage is just asking for repetitive strain injuries. But someone on this forum recently insisted that the game is perfectly fine on a controller, so I decided to give it a shot.
Movement is decidedly awkward. It's a click to move game, and playing it on a controller felt like click to move always does on a controller: really awkward. It didn't get me killed, as you don't need to move much during combat at the low levels. I'm not sure if that's just because the low levels are easy, or if the whole game is built around standing there and blasting away, and only moving either to flee or to go to the next battle.
Attacking was less bad than I expected, but still far from good. Mobs basically just stand there and attack, letting you blast away in return. I'm not sure if that's again just a case of the low levels being easy, or if the whole game is like that. If mobs want to run around a lot, they could be very, very difficult to beat with a controller.
The boxes to click on to attack a mob are fairly large, which helps. But if you click and miss, then instead of attacking, you run to the spot you clicked. I'm aware that you can assign a button to shift to stop moving, but that uses a scarce button. I'm not sure if you need quick access to all of the skill slots, but it sure looks like you do for all five flask slots.
The lack of control configuration options was definitely a disappointment. The game doesn't let you assign skills to combinations of keys, which means that you've got however many buttons you've got and that's it. Logitech's software does let me assign one button to toggle between two independent mappings of all other buttons, and without that, the game would be unplayable. But that's something that ought to be built into games rather than relying on external software, and Logitech's software limits that effect to just one button. Also problematic is that it is hard-coded and unchangeable that your base attack must be mouse left click.
I'm not actually worried about the inventory tetris side of things. I could see that being a huge problem if you try to play exclusively on a controller, such as on a game console. But I have no problem with using a mouse now and then. The problem is aggressive mouse usage for an hour at a time, which is why I want to use a controller for most of the game.
The game itself didn't seem bad. If easy, precise controls of movement and/or attacking become important at higher levels, then the game will become very awkward to play on a controller. And if not, then the combat will get highly repetitive and boring.
Ultimately, Kritika is back up today, so I'm back to playing that. I'm not sure if I'll ever give Path of Exile another shot. I certainly would if the controls were more comfortable. Is there anything that I missed to make the game more controller-friendly? For example, a way to switch to WASD movement? I see that there's an Xbox One version and a PS4 version coming, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to play those if it's as awkward as using a controller on the PC version--and without the option to grab a keyboard or mouse now and then when you really need to.
Movement is decidedly awkward. It's a click to move game, and playing it on a controller felt like click to move always does on a controller: really awkward. It didn't get me killed, as you don't need to move much during combat at the low levels. I'm not sure if that's just because the low levels are easy, or if the whole game is built around standing there and blasting away, and only moving either to flee or to go to the next battle.
Attacking was less bad than I expected, but still far from good. Mobs basically just stand there and attack, letting you blast away in return. I'm not sure if that's again just a case of the low levels being easy, or if the whole game is like that. If mobs want to run around a lot, they could be very, very difficult to beat with a controller.
The boxes to click on to attack a mob are fairly large, which helps. But if you click and miss, then instead of attacking, you run to the spot you clicked. I'm aware that you can assign a button to shift to stop moving, but that uses a scarce button. I'm not sure if you need quick access to all of the skill slots, but it sure looks like you do for all five flask slots.
The lack of control configuration options was definitely a disappointment. The game doesn't let you assign skills to combinations of keys, which means that you've got however many buttons you've got and that's it. Logitech's software does let me assign one button to toggle between two independent mappings of all other buttons, and without that, the game would be unplayable. But that's something that ought to be built into games rather than relying on external software, and Logitech's software limits that effect to just one button. Also problematic is that it is hard-coded and unchangeable that your base attack must be mouse left click.
I'm not actually worried about the inventory tetris side of things. I could see that being a huge problem if you try to play exclusively on a controller, such as on a game console. But I have no problem with using a mouse now and then. The problem is aggressive mouse usage for an hour at a time, which is why I want to use a controller for most of the game.
The game itself didn't seem bad. If easy, precise controls of movement and/or attacking become important at higher levels, then the game will become very awkward to play on a controller. And if not, then the combat will get highly repetitive and boring.
Ultimately, Kritika is back up today, so I'm back to playing that. I'm not sure if I'll ever give Path of Exile another shot. I certainly would if the controls were more comfortable. Is there anything that I missed to make the game more controller-friendly? For example, a way to switch to WASD movement? I see that there's an Xbox One version and a PS4 version coming, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to play those if it's as awkward as using a controller on the PC version--and without the option to grab a keyboard or mouse now and then when you really need to.
Comments
Diablo 1 and 3 (console version), Marvel Heroes (both PC and console versions), Brotherhood of Steel (PS2), Torchlight (XB360)and many more played really well with a controller.
If they just remap WASD or point and drag to a controller scheme then it will be a mess. I stopped using XPadder because not all games feel right with it. They have to design gameplay using the controller like the games i mentioned above.
If you had WASD movement, then you could easily map that to a D-pad on a controller and movement would be fine. Having to click on mobs to attack them would still be awkward, but attacking in whatever direction you're facing would work fine. That works great in Tree of Savior, for example. That's simply not how the Path of Exile is designed, though.
But if the game isn't supposed to be played using a controller, then why is there a console version of it?
A lot of PC games work fine with a controller, including Kritika Online, which is what I've been playing lately.
For the first time ever I tried Tree of Saviour and that game was quite fun and playable with a controller. I don't see why games like path of exiles couldn't work when they have the same camera angle and being both action games.
1) That functionality to use a thumbstick to mimic WASD movement in a game that doesn't support WASD movement relies on particular controller software for a particular controller that I don't have.
2) If the mouse pointer is tied to the thumbstick position, then you can't click on things that aren't right next to you. That would work fine for movement in an empty world, but ranged attacks would become impossible.
3) Path of Exile has hard-coded into the game that the button you click to move and the button for your basic attack must both be the left mouse button. Some control options can be changed, but those two things are hard-coded in and cannot be changed. That would mean that if you're trying to move past a mob, you'll instead stop to attack it.
That's not how ARPGs play on console and the PC versions that do have native controller support either. You attack in the direction you are facing, there is no cursor in game. The entire gameplay is redesigned to play on a controller if you chose that option, not an imitation of mouse/kb usage.
Before Marvel Heroes added gamepad support i had the same problem you have with moving a cursor with a stick using Xpadder. That is indeed awkward, until they added native controller support and removed cursor gameplay when the controller was chosen. And MH didn't have WASD support.
TLDR; devs have to redesign gameplay to use a controller (everyone has done this), not remap mouse/kb to it.
EDIT: if you play Van Helsing or Victor Vran on PC using a controller, that's how ARPGs play on console and on PC with native controller support as well.
A lot of PC games nominally have controller support. In some cases, it's mainly so that they can claim that they have controller support, and not actually intended to be useful to anyone. In other cases, it almost works except for this or that little problem. Maybe it does work out of the box on the one controller that the developers used for testing, but that's about it. Regardless, it's always preferable to just disable the built-in controller support and use external software.
And in a lot of games, that works very well. That includes Kritika Online, which is what I'm playing now. It includes Tree of Savior, as Bloodaxes mentioned above. Spiral Knights, Elsword, and Hyper Universe are probably easier to play with a controller than keyboard+mouse. Champions Online and Trove are very controller-friendly, too. Even games like Guild Wars 2 and Neverwinter that are kind of awkward are still very playable with a controller.
It probably wouldn't be very hard to make Path of Exile pretty controller-friendly, too. Add WASD movement as an option rather than requiring click to move, allow mapping functions to combinations of buttons, allow mapping your main attack to something other than the left mouse button, and that's it. None of those are difficult to do. Presumably Grinding Gear Games wants people who use controllers not to play their game. Which makes it baffling that they'd put in the effort to port it to consoles.
One of the controls in Path of Exile that is readily available via keyboard is the ability to prevent your avatar from moving by the use of the Shift key. If a controller doesn't present the easy ability to not move your avatar in PoE then that is a significant game changer.
I can see where Quzzical is having difficulty using a controller with Path of Exile. Issue one is a much slower cursor movement combined with the inherent poor accuracy of a controller. Issue two is the inability to prevent your avatar from moving when you don't want it to move.
Edit: Bah, I never can get it to play at the location I want. Skip to 4:38 for the demonstration.
I know you were asking about controller usability in https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/comment/7411947#Comment_7411947. As I said in that thread: "While the movement is a bit more natural (in my opinion) on console, the inventory management is more of a pain." So, where you gain in the removal of click-to-move, you lose in other areas of usability.
For me, the game was enjoyable using either (PC) kb+mouse or (console) controller, but that's really just a matter of personal taste and I can see where either would be a turn-off for other people. Sorry to hear it didn't click (no pun intended) for you, but glad a game you sound like you enjoy is back up today.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
Is there some reason why the developers refuse to do this? I've seen a number of threads where people asked for WASD movement and were told, stop asking, they're not going to do that. But it would seem like telling lots of customers who weren't causing any trouble to just quit the game isn't a good way to make a profit.
I was just trying to speak to where the controller option shines (not PC) and hopefully I didn't come across as defending the lack of WASD option on PC. While the current PC controls are not a deal-breaker for me, I would likely enjoy it more with the WASD option (or at least, controller behavior that is comparable to console)
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
By WASD movement, I didn't mean it had to be those particular keys. It could be home, hyphen, comma, and delete for all I care. Just some four keys that can be remapped to the D-pad on a gamepad.
And yeah, I get your point about alternate keys. I was thinking too literally about "WASD."
I was trying to think of other reasons to not implement this sort of thing and all I can come up with is that someone at GGG did a cost/benefit analysis and decided the effort wasn't worth it (at this time at least) when weighed against other priorities they may have. It's not a great answer, but seems like the simplest one.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence