UI and Xbox Controls

[Natsu_T]

The people I've played with so far all agree that the controls for this game need a complete overhaul.  There are so many small details that make everything more cumbersome than it needs to be, and this on top of cumbersome building controls (things won't place where you want them or expect them to) makes for a very frustrating experience. It's one of the only major complaints I have with the game so far.

1. Sprint is obnoxious to use on controller. There is toggle sprint and hold sprint. Hold sprint is something that makes sense on keyboard where you just hold down shift with your pinky, but it really isn't much of an option on controller. It's very tiresome to hold down the thumbstick in a forward direction. The toggle sprint in this game is very different from toggle sprint in pretty much any other 1st person game. In any other game, you push the stick forwards while clicking it in to sprint. To stop sprinting (important in a survival game with a stamina meter), most people typically release the stick back to neutral and then push it forwards again to walk. This is such an ingrained, subconscious thing that is punished in Grounded because it seems you need to be stopped for a full second before it decides to "un-sprint" you. This is also problematic because many players also have a tendency to repeatedly mash the sprint click of the thumbstick to make sure they are sprinting. This is especially useful when being chased, to make sure you buffer the sprint properly and don't suffer due to being at a wrong angle or bad geometry to begin a sprint. But in Grounded, this basically keeps you at a walking pace and you kind of need to trust that your one and only click will work properly. I think the way sprint works in Grounded was done to allow you to sprint sideways and backwards, but it would be nice to have the option to do away with that style of sprinting.

2. Hot Pouch is very slow and unwieldy. You know there's a problem when your game is clunkier than Sea of Thieves. Let's compare: In Grounded, you must press LB, then press the stick in the direction of your item, and then press the A button. That's essentially a left finger motion followed by two back-to-back right thumb motions (I play claw so this is way easier on me than the average player, but in my case it's a right thumb followed by right index). In Sea of Thieves' radial menu, you press and hold LB and then push the right stick in the direction of your item. Then you simply let go of both and the item is selected. It ends up being a quick one-two punch feeling of left index and right thumb. It flows very seamlessly.

 

That's one option, another is to make the hot pouch cycle how it looks like it should on the bottom of the screen. This can be done with the D-pad left and right, moving emotes and everything else onto a chain of radial commands on a different button. This brings me to the next point:

3. Buttons are not utilized efficiently. For instance, flavorful things like emotes and stock chat options are on two different D-Pad buttons. You could easily stack radials onto just one button. Pressing one button could open a radial that has a left and right option of Chat<---->Emote. You select there and then it brings up the list of 8 commands on a new radial. The face buttons have very few uses as well. A is jump and X is action, but B is reserved for cancelling builds, which could potentially have another contextual use, and Y is almost never pressed. The option to remove HUD markers seems like something that could be toggled in the menus, the face buttons are should be reserved for the most common button presses usually. I'm not sure if there just aren't that many commands planned for the game, but I'm sure there are some filler commands that could work in that spot, such as a quick resurface button while underwater.

[sauna]

Good suggestions! 

Regarding Sprint. I use Mouse & Keyboard on the Xbox Series X and I can't Sprint like my mate that's on PC, just hold down Shift and release like you said.  Toggle Sprint is always on even though I set it to off. And it can't be toggled off with the same key. Only way to stop Sprinting is to duck. Heh. 

Which isn't an option when diving. So if chased is really easy to lose all stamina. I've died so many times by depleting my Stamina at the wrong moment to do so while fighting, missed crucial jumps because I have no idea if I'm Sprinting or not. It's so weird and clunky. 

So yeah, I agree competent that they need to look at this. 

 

Regarding Hotpouch, Inputs and Radials. Yup, I was surprised Grounded didn't have the Key Go-to-Select method. Quite standard option to have if you want to Click or Let Go.

I hate radials myself and I have friends that play with controllers and can't get into Grounded because of the radial and item selection system. But if I were to use radial I ate your suggestion is much better. Also agree to the LB+<- -> D-Padas an alternative. 

 

However for those that don't want to use radial or hotbars there should either be more inputs allowed, like Button+Button = New Button (in Warframe for examplewe use RB+XYBA for skills etc) or more choices to customise assigned items.

 

Like If I had been using a controller I'd like there to be "assign slot to Tools" and if I use the bind for Tools multiple times it would rotate between them all. 

All tools on one bind, done. 

Then for Weapons I'd like:

"Assign slot to melee weapons" (the clunkier setup but gets the job done for those that dont care to go into detail)

"Assign slot to one handed melee (button bind rotates right hand melees while keeping shield or torch up)

"Assign slot to two handed melee"

"Assign slot to ranged projectile weapon"

"Assign slot to ranged area of effect weapon" (then I could have, for example RB+Y = 2h melee, RB+X = 1h melee, RB+A = ranged projectile, RB+B = ranged area of effect) 

This takes care of all weapons on RB. And again, same button just rotates within the same category. 

 

Then LB+XYBA could be done similarly with heals, buffs and food/water. If they added all these customizing options a lot of people wouldn't get frustrated or dismayed within the first hour. Which would mean gaining lots of player retention. 

Yeah, it's like everything is just thrown in without a second thought how to streamline and effectivize which leads to a tremendous increase in quality of life for the end user, a. k. a. us the players. Such way of adding features and UI elements reminds me of how programmer's work and think. Add feature, done. Understand feature...meh. Hehe!

There is really no reason for how it currently is, at least imo. 

 

But maybe they'll read this and work on it a bit. I hope so! 

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by sauna