Flying Enemies, Aerial Attacks And "the Sword Alone"

[Casardis]

Most likely, the controller set-up for Warframe would be like this: 

 

Bottom joystick: Movement + Sprint if Top joystick button is held down. 

Top joystick: Aiming movement + Shoot if Bottom joystick is held down or Melee Attack if Melee is equipped. 

Left Trigger: ADS

Right Trigger: Reload

Right Button: Jump + Wall-running

Left Button: Quick Melee Button

Arrow buttons: Powers

A, X, Y, B buttons: Channeling (either one) and Crouching (either one). 

 

So, we can add aerial attacks to the left button. 

 

I'll have to be honest, but this sounds extremely clunky. For one thing, sprinting should be the same button press as the movement joystick (since you're moving with that), as opposed to the aiming one. It's counter intuitive. Also, having to press the joystick to shoot is really not the best for dexterity, compared to the triggers/bumpers (which, again, is what most shooters do, and for good reasons). It's especially bad for fast firing semi-auto weapons. Reload should be among the face buttons too, if we follow the way many other TPS and FPS works.

 

Just like how you compared to fighting games, since Warframe is much more of a shooter than a melee-oriented games, I will say that through comparison with TPS and FPS, this setup doesn't work too well.

 

The changes I would make for that, based on hours of playing games like Uncharted, Mass Effect, Battlefield 3 and even CoD:

 

Bottom joystick (you meant right joystick?): Aiming + Crouching if joystick is held down (similar to some FPS and TPS)

Top joystick (you meant left joystick?): Movement + Sprint if Bottom joystick button is held down (similar to some FPS and TPS)

Left Trigger: ADS

Right Trigger: Shoot + Melee attacks if wielding melee

Right Button: Use current power (very important for targeting powers; making it set to D-pad will be much harder to do because you won't be able to do Movement with the same thumb and will be forced to stop moving)

Left Button: Quick Melee Button + aerial attacks if wielding melee

Arrow buttons: Gears

A, X, Y, B buttons: Jumping + Wallrunning, Channeling, Reload, next power

 

Bottom Line, Aerial attack can still be assigned, but I do question your button configuration heavily XD It also seems that, if buttons were to be assigned to be a bit more intuitive, we'll be missing a "previous power" button.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Casardis

[Renegade343]

I'll have to be honest, but this sounds extremely clunky. For one thing, sprinting should be the same button press as the movement joystick (since you're moving with that), as opposed to the aiming one. It's counter intuitive. Also, having to press the joystick to shoot is really not the best for dexterity, compared to the triggers/bumpers (which, again, is what most shooters do, and for good reasons). It's especially bad for fast firing semi-auto weapons. Reload should be among the face buttons too, if we follow the way many other TPS and FPS works.

I meant to swap them after I played around with the controller again, but forgot to do so. 

 

 

The changes I would make for that, based on hours of playing games like Uncharted, Mass Effect, Battlefield 3 and even CoD:

 

Bottom joystick (you meant right joystick?): Aiming + Crouching if joystick is held down (similar to some FPS and TPS)

Top joystick (you meant left joystick?): Movement + Sprint if Bottom joystick button is held down (similar to some FPS and TPS)

Left Trigger: ADS

Right Trigger: Shoot + Melee attacks if wielding melee

Right Button: Use current power (very important for targeting powers; making it set to D-pad will be much harder to do because you won't be able to do Movement with the same thumb and will be forced to stop moving)

Left Button: Quick Melee Button + aerial attacks if wielding melee

Arrow buttons: Gears

A, X, Y, B buttons: Jumping + Wallrunning, Channeling, Reload, next power

 

Bottom Line, Aerial attack can still be assigned, but I do question your button configuration heavily XD It also seems that, if buttons were to be assigned to be a bit more intuitive, we'll be missing a "previous power" button.

I think Crouching would be better assigned to the Right Button, and use powers would be to the Arrow buttons. The Right joystick would be for Movement/Sprinting when Right Joystick is held down, and Top joystick would be for Aiming/Shooting/Meleeing. 

[Casardis]

I think Crouching would be better assigned to the Right Button, and use powers would be to the Arrow buttons. The Right joystick would be for Movement/Sprinting when Right Joystick is held down, and Top joystick would be for Aiming/Shooting/Meleeing. 

 

The reason why Right Joystick is rarely, if ever, assigned by default as the movement/sprinting button in shooters is because the face buttons (A,X,Y,B) requires your right thumb. If you press reload with your right thumb, or anything on the face buttons really, you will stop moving altogether, since the movement joystick is the Right one in your button mapping. This scenario often means certain death in many games, even if it's a split second stop (even Warframe in certain areas of the game). Therefore, I can't agree with that at all.

 

As for using power to the arrow buttons, it's the same principle: arrow buttons are under the left joystick, meaning that you won't be able aim when you use a power since you need to let go of your left thumb, from the aiming joystick, to press a power. This will make abilities such as Soul Punch and EV extremely hard to pull effectively and intuitively, especially in the middle of movement.

 

That's why any buttons that TARGETS an enemy (shooting, singe-target powers), cannot be placed among the face buttons or D-pad. It has to be among the Left/Right triggers or bumpers if you aim to make gameplay responsive and fluid. If games like CoD did anything right, it's a responsive shooter, and their button mapping allows for an easy learning curve while preventing the players to use uncomfortable hand positioning to accomplish certain things.

 

Buttons that you won't be spamming often, but rather use as toggle or single-presses should be assigned to the joystick press, which is why both Sprint and Crouch should go there for better synergy in overall "movement."

Edited June 17, 2014 by Casardis

[Renegade343]

You use a thumb for face buttons? Does that actually feel better? 

 

Because I always use my right pinky to press all the buttons, and it feels better and more responsive than using a thumb. 

[Casardis]

Yeah I do, and most people I've seen playing does as well, which explains the default controls on many modern shooters. I feel that you specifically have a particular way of using the controller and didn't realize that you were pretty special XD

 

 

If someone's holding the controller in this "basic way," intuitively the thumb is the part that moves the most, since the fingers in the back (including the pinky) are holding the controller in place against the palm, while the index fingers are used for the back buttons. The thumb can simply move up (right thumb) to reach the face buttons quickly, or move down (left thumb) to reach the D-pad.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Casardis

[Renegade343]

Yeah I do, and most people I've seen playing does as well, which explains the default controls on many, many modern shooters. I feel that you specifically have a particular way of using the controller and didn't realize that you were pretty special XD

Maybe. 

[Naftal]

Yeah I do, and most people I've seen playing does as well, which explains the default controls on many modern shooters. I feel that you specifically have a particular way of using the controller and didn't realize that you were pretty special XD

 

 

If someone's holding the controller in this "basic way," intuitively the thumb is the part that moves the most, since the fingers in the back (including the pinky) are holding the controller in place against the palm, while the index fingers are used for the back buttons. The thumb can simply move up (right thumb) to reach the face buttons quickly, or move down (left thumb) to reach the D-pad.

This is what I hate about playing FP/TP games with controller. I want to be able to move and look around 100% of the time, meaning thumbs stay on sticks. Then there aren't nearly enough buttons left to bind and stick buttons are awkward to use precisely while using the sticks actively. :/

[Evernal_]

This is a good idea since it's kind of unfair certain combos (-Dragon or Regular- Nikana with Decisive Judgement has a -LMB LMB Block LMB LMB LMB- sequence that can hit drones flying overhead.