Finally, controller support is (almost) here!

Greetings everyone,

I have been spending the past week working on a controller profile for Starbound using Pinnacle Game Profiler and am pleased to say that it's nearly ready for prime time and will be released within the week. What's that? How does it work? Glad you asked. As an overall design philosophy I don't think of the game interface in terms of 1 = slot 1, I tend to think of the controller first and what I would like each button to do then I assign it/slot it accordingly. I hate the L/R hotkeys so I don't use them, what I do instead is all keys to the left of the L hotkey will be assigned to the left hand when selected and all the keys to the right of the R hotkey will be assigned to the right hand when selected. It works splendidly.

Additionally, I use press/press and hold button assignments meaning that a button press results in A and pressing and holding the same button results in B. This allows me to assign two commands per button and provides maximum control over your character. Using Pinnacle also allows for button macros which allows you to do things Chucklefish haven't implemented. For example, to use a health kit (which is usually done under duress) you need to press the hotkey, click the appropriate mouse button, then switch back to your weapon all while running for your life. With my profile one button press selects and uses the health kit then switches you back to your main weapon, it's much more efficient.

Here's a brief rundown of the controls (keep in mind that these are all subject to change throughout play testing):

Left Stick: Movement
Right Stick: Aiming (think dual stick shooter style)
Left Trigger: Jump
Right Trigger: LMB
Left Bumper: RMB
Right Bumper: Bandage
Left Stick Button: Melee Weapon and Torch
Right Stick Button: Ranged Weapon
A: Interact/Close Open Windows
B: Construction Block
X: currently unassigned
Y: Flashlight
Dpad Left: Pickaxe
Dpad Right: Axe
Dpad Up: currently unassigned
Dpad Down: Mining/Building Mode
Start: currently unassigned
Select: currently unassigned
Guide Button: currently unassigned

As it stands now crafting, cooking, and smelting is still best handled with a keyboard and mouse but I have some tricks up my sleeve that should allow these things to be done easily with the controller also.

Is there anyone here that already uses Pinnacle that would like to help me play test my build? If so please PM me and I'll send it your way. To the more seasoned Starbounders, is there any functionality that you feel would be beneficial or anything you feel would benefit from being hotkeyed that isn't already?

To close it out I'd like to say that I can't wait to get this out to you guys and gals and I'd also like to congratulate Chucklefish on making a game that even in beta form feels quite polished.

 

I think it WOULD make more sense to have L1 and R1 as left/right hotbar action, and maybe L2/R2+Left/Right DPAD to switch selected items in the hotbar.

 

Watching this thread. When its released, if you could resurrect this thread, would appreciate.

Impossible (for me) to critique a controller layout until I feel it.

I know eventually this will have official controller support (ok I assume, since this is coming out on consoles too) but that is most likely way way far away as the console beta won't be anything like the PC beta.

As simple as DL'ing Pinnacle, then downloading your mod when its available?

 

There's a couple reasons I don't configure the left and right triggers to the L/R hotkeys.

Number one is that you want to have all of your most essential functions immediately at your fingertips, particularly during combat, those being movement, aiming, jumping, attacking, access to your favorite weapons. Once you play it you get it, but essentially with my settings you can do all these things without moving your fingers and thumbs from their "home" positions. You don't have to sacrifice doing one for the other, they're all right there. I find it easiest to not even consider the hotkeys, I think about what I feel the controller should do when pressing a particular button then make that button do that by assigning that action/item to a hotkey. Pretty soon you start thinking about it as slots one and two are your "weapon" slots, three through five are the "tools" slots and on and on.

Number two is that I just don't like them. I tried playing with a keyboard and mouse for a while to get a feel for them and how they worked and just could never get the feel for it. Between assigning things to different hands, swapping hands and configurations it seemed like I was always looking at it to see what was equipped in those slots. To me they added complexity where there didn't need to be any so I decided not to use them. In my configuration pressing Y will always bring up my flashlight, it's not dependent on which hand it's in.

 

Pretty much. You'll download my profile and Pinnacle and import the former into the latter. Then you just launch the game from Pinnacle.

 

Nope. I wouldn't give it its own hotkey because it's only used in the first half an hour of the game, tops.

Those, building, and general inventory management will be your biggest obstacles I think.

 

That's good to know, thanks for the input.

Inventory management I think I can work out, building on the other hand will be challenging and might be able to be done, but I still feel it will be better suited to the mouse. We shall see.

 

Are you familiar with what Terraria on the Xbox did for buiilding? Worked quite well. A downclick of the right stick entered a precision mode, where the right stick controlled the cursor like a mouse would (only within your range, though). Downclicking it again had it go back to "normal" twin stick behavior.

I don't know if that is possible with the mapper you use, but it worked very well for Terraria.

 

Done and done. I even have it worked out so that when you move your cursor around the area you are trying to mine/build it mines/builds just by moving the stick, no button presses necessary.

 

can't wait. Currently I use pinnacle with an xbox controller but only use the left stick and triggers for movement, jumping, and quick item selections. the rest I use on my adjusted 5-button mouse. controller in one hand and mouse in the other. actually works pretty good. used to play half-life like that.

 

I threw together a 360 controller setup for Starbound in xpadder. It's not comprehensive but it works well enough. Holding the left bumper (L1) switches to a fixed shot mode or a fine cursor movement mode, depending on what you're using it for.

Been getting some thanks for it on Steam so might as well post it here too. It's not perfect so any improvements or feedback is welcome.

http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/02KR0WG4/Starbound_xpadder_concept.zip_links

 

I'm an avid gamepad user, so I'd be happy to try out any profiles people want feedback on. Just let me know via PM!

 

Shame on you controller users! For shame! Nah, happy for you all...even though you're lesser gamers

 

I've actually started working on my own Starbound profile in Pinnacle, and it still needs some tweaking, but I think I've gotten a fairly good start on it. I'll likely share it once I get further into it, but a fair warning, it uses mousespring and it IS designed around a 1920x1080 (1080p) resolution. It will likely have to be tweaked after being downloaded if you intend to use it yourself. That said, here's what it does.

For those who don't know, Mousespring is where the mouse returns to the center of your screen when you release the stick.

Left Stick-Moves your character with very slight mousespring movements. Designed for two purposes: One is for easy mining. Simply hold a direction while swinging your pickaxe to mine whatever's in front of the direction you press! You'll also face the direction you run, so backpedalling with a weapon isn't possible unless you use one of the alt cursor modes (Discussed below)

Right Stick-Long range mousespring plus ctrl. This is primarily used to look around, and when you release the stick, ctrl will automatically be released and re-tapped to center your view!

Click Right Stick-Switches to Free Cursor Mode. In this mouse the left stick will not affect the mouse (You'll still move though) and the right stick will move your mouse cursor freely, and not re-center when you release the stick. Click again to return to normal mode.

Click Left Stick-Alt Key (highlight stuff, show hunger meter)

A-Jump (Spacebar)

B-Use (E Key)

X/RT-Left Mouse Button

Y/RB-Right Mouse Button

LB-Shift key (Walk/single block placement)

LT-Hold to enter Aiming Mode. Disables mouse-spring effect of left stick and looking around function of right stick (might enable look function after I fiddle with this some more) to make it easier to aim freely while moving. Only downside is no easy way to jump while aiming with right stick.

Select-Inventory (I key)

Start-Esc Menu

DPad-Left and right emulate mousewheel for item selection, up uses X key (hands) and down opens crafting menu.

I'm toying with the idea of having LT have other shift functions while held, like being able to use LT+B as an emergency teleport (This would involve placing the mouse over the teleport icon, waiting 0.1 seconds, and generating a mouseclick).

 

A shame I'm horribly at controlling a cursor with a controller. Would be darn comfortable.

 

I actually do a lot of PC gaming via my TV these days, so controller support is a big plus for me. It's easier to kick back and put one's feet up on an ottoman when using a controller as opposed to a mouse (which means elevating my wrist, which is bad). That's the big reason I try to find ways to make a controller work with things.