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Sorry I don't want to cater to any side BUT having something simple to be able to control by more complex periphery is easy without changing its core function, other way not so much.

 

Lets take example from cars

 

You can control car with automatic shifting almost same in car with 3 pedals. Try drive manual shifting car with only brake and accelerator...

 

The problem with the analogy is that as I understand it, you have to have a clutch on a gear shift and you have to have a gear shift to to be a manual shifting car. 

 

You can drive a manual with two pedals (with either what volkswagen called the autostick system where moving the stick triggered a solenoid to disengage the clutch or with a product like the Duck Clutch where you press a button on your stick to disengage the clutch) but you're really just moving the clutch somewhere else than the floor and so I'm not really sure that the analogy works when comparing to video games.

I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot! ~ Ro-Man

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Game consoles are bad for games where aiming in real-time is important, games where the player types, or games where the player presses an infinite number of keys an infinite number of times per planck time. I can definitely see the dumbing-down arguments for those games.

 

Not for Pillars of Eternity though. Such games are well suited to game consoles as they're very slow paced; You are supposed to pause the game and issue commands while paused and so on. That does not require an interface with a dozen shortcut keys. That's nice to have but not necessary. Many RTwP games can be played entirely or almost entirely with a mouse.

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Sorry I don't want to cater to any side BUT having something simple to be able to control by more complex periphery is easy without changing its core function, other way not so much.

 

Lets take example from cars

 

You can control car with automatic shifting almost same in car with 3 pedals. Try drive manual shifting car with only brake and accelerator...

 

The problem with the analogy is that as I understand it, you have to have a clutch on a gear shift and you have to have a gear shift to to be a manual shifting car. 

 

You can drive a manual with two pedals (with either what volkswagen called the autostick system where moving the stick triggered a solenoid to disengage the clutch or with a product like the Duck Clutch where you press a button on your stick to disengage the clutch) but you're really just moving the clutch somewhere else than the floor and so I'm not really sure that the analogy works when comparing to video games.

 

I am not saying its impossible. I am saying that you will not have same 'fun' from driving it if you enjoy using clutch to reduce or increase torque. I am sure you know what I mean. To each his own I say

I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech, and freedom of choice. I'm the kinda guy that likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side-order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol! I wanna eat bacon, and butter, and buckets of cheese, okay?! I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section! I wanna run naked through the street, with green Jell-O all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly may feel the need to, okay, pal? I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiene"

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You can totally use a keyboard with all modern consoles. If a specific game doesn't support it, then that's on the developer of that game (or whichever company they used to handle the porting) because the infrastructure support is there.

L I E S T R O N G
L I V E W R O N G

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Sorry I don't want to cater to any side BUT having something simple to be able to control by more complex periphery is easy without changing its core function, other way not so much.

 

Lets take example from cars

 

You can control car with automatic shifting almost same in car with 3 pedals. Try drive manual shifting car with only brake and accelerator...

Try playing a videogame on a device designed for inefficient typewriting.

 

... Oh, wait.

 

Seriously tho, unless the game you're developing is highly specialized, when you need more than 14 buttons and 2 analogue sticks for anything other than shortcut keys you should rethink your design.

 

That happens to be further reinforced by the fact that I have managed to bind controls of majority of old PC games to a pad and, while some of them were a bit clunky, most were perfectly playable. A well designed game just doesn't tend to need all that many control keys to be played.

Edited by Fenixp
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The main issue I still have with controller vs. mouse/KB is the potential difference in inventory management systems.

 

I can't stand giant scrolling lists where I scroll and scroll to get to the one item I'm looking for (and if you exit the list and go back you have to rescroll again) and using the sticks etc. to move items from square to square to storage to square etc. is usually a much bigger chore/more time consuming than it is with a mouse, even with some one-button fast-transfer controller options. (edit - altho this is in part because I'm super-picky about inventory management...)

 

Although the point regarding fast paced/precise aiming etc. is also still true. Ppl good with controllers can be very good utilizing them but still can't beat the mouse for such.

Edited by LadyCrimson
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“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
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Seriously tho, unless the game you're developing is highly specialized, when you need more than 14 buttons and 2 analogue sticks for anything other than shortcut keys you should rethink your design.

 

It isn't just the number of buttons though, it also requires context. 'Console' fps typically lack leaning not because of an absolute lack of buttons, but because of a lack of contextual buttons- you have to use a left/ right button combo for left/ right leaning. Use those (shoulder, usually) buttons for something else and it's bye bye to leaning for no reason other than controller limitation.

 

OK, you don't need leaning in fps, but it is nice to have. Personally all my favourite fps have leaning, albeit I'm far from a fps fan ion general.

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It isn't just the number of buttons though, it also requires context. 'Console' fps typically lack leaning not because of an absolute lack of buttons, but because of a lack of contextual buttons- you have to use a left/ right button combo for left/ right leaning. Use those (shoulder, usually) buttons for something else and it's bye bye to leaning for no reason other than controller limitation.

There's both context-sensitive leaning in games like Wolfenstein: The New Order or Far Cry 3 and leaning activated via button combination like in Dishonored - with added benefit of having analogue controls, so you can manipulate exactly how much do you lean. It's all about smart design as opposed to brute force design. In the past, when FPS games on consoles were starting off and controls were absolutely abysmal and unintuitive in them I'd agree with you. At this point tho, FPS control schemes on a pad matured quite nicely and there's nothing you can't do that old games wouln't have, aside from weapon shortcuts. (yes, including multiple ammo types/weapon modes, 10+ different weapons, inventory with useable items - see Rage or Doom 2016)

 

Although the point regarding fast paced/precise aiming etc. is also still true. Ppl good with controllers can be very good utilizing them but still can't beat the mouse for such.

It's true, but also rather irrelevant - putting aside the fact pads have analogue elements like pressure-sensitive triggers / analogue sticks so it's not like they'd be strictly inferior, being objectively worse at playing a SP game doesn't really matter a whole lot, challenge is still relative to the game in question and control method used. 'sides, when asked whether I want to aim better or have healthier wrists, well... Not a difficult question to answer, really. Of course, competitive MP is a whole different matter.

 

As for inventory management, yeah, you're right. I still think good filters and sorting is more important than input method, but using a mouse for such UIs is more intuitive and unless you want to design two different inventory UIs, they'll be reduced to work with directional input as opposed to full mouse control.

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sorry, for me all that war controller vs KB/m ended when they tried to implement cross platform multiplayer in FPS (don't remember who tried that first)

Edited by Chilloutman
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I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech, and freedom of choice. I'm the kinda guy that likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side-order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol! I wanna eat bacon, and butter, and buckets of cheese, okay?! I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section! I wanna run naked through the street, with green Jell-O all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly may feel the need to, okay, pal? I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiene"

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Maybe I'm missing something, but somehow highlighting an area and going "click" doesn't feel like painting. Might have made more sense as photography. But it looks pretty and reminds me a bit of the old Myst/Riven concepts. Whether I'd like it or not depends on how well the exploration/crafting is handled. Is there enough to keep my attention or is it going to feel too empty for my liking etc. :)

“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
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sorry, for me all that war controller vs KB/m ended when they tried to implement cross platform multiplayer in FPS (don't remember who tried that first)

 

Wasnt that the Shadowrun game which tried it first?

Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. - H.L. Mencken

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sorry, for me all that war controller vs KB/m ended when they tried to implement cross platform multiplayer in FPS (don't remember who tried that first)

 

Wasnt that the Shadowrun game which tried it first?

 

I honestly don't know

I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech, and freedom of choice. I'm the kinda guy that likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side-order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol! I wanna eat bacon, and butter, and buckets of cheese, okay?! I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section! I wanna run naked through the street, with green Jell-O all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly may feel the need to, okay, pal? I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiene"

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