Important controller fix for PS4 version of POE.

[(PSN)Stealth_Cobra]

I'll make this quick.

Currently, with the PS4 version, the touchpad has alot of restrictions with what functions a player can bind to it. The biggest offender is the fact the player cannot bind the gear wheel to the touchpad (neither touchpad press or touchpad swipe is possible). This forces player to bind the gear wheel to Dpad, face buttons or on joystick presses.

With POE comes a greater emphasis on Operator switching.. Meaning a player will want operator activation to be bound to a key that's easy to hit. What I'm getting at is that while it was fine to bind operator mode to the touchpad press in the past, now it will be tedious to hit that every time you switch during operator combat.

So can you plz enable more varied bindings on the touchpad to free up other keys for operator change form.

[(PSN)Stealth_Cobra]

TLDR version : Since you can't keybind the gear wheel to the touchpad, it restricts your possible keybinds.

Since POE has you constantly switching from operator to frame, we need the ability to bind gear wheel to touch screen (as it will free up one important key to put operator on).

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Analysis of why the issue exists:

Let's look at warframe's controls (Note: We're talking about setups witout the Powers Menu here, as this frees many keys with the tradeoff or requiring numerous button presses to activate abiltities).

* L1-L2-R1-R2 are occupied by Aiming / Shooting / Quick Melee and Sliding... Can't put operator there... Obviously, as those are your "triggers".

* Face buttons (Triangle Square X O) These buttons are your other "important buttons", usually where most users will put stuff that's key ,but doesn't required to be pressed constantly... Things like jumping, swapping weapons , context sensitve actions/reload and another free slot that can be used for something (FREE SLOT 1)

Dpad - Four buttons, four abilties... Seems like a perfect match. Sure, you can bind something else there, but I found it's the best , most logical setup, especially since many abilities requires pressure sensitive keys (Ivara's quivers, Vauban's mines, etc)... You need four pressure sensitive keys for your abilities, and these are the best slots for that.

Touchpad - Here we have five keys... By default, abilities are often bound there, but most people will agree it's a bad spot to bind warframe abilties because touchpad swipes are not really precise and it's impossible to do "held" abilities on (see point above about using the d pad). As such , I will consider these keys as free slots for now... Free to bind other stuff (But as you'll see, most of the stuff won't be possible to bind there for some reason).

Options and Start - Cannot rebind these.

Joystics R3 and L3 - One of them will usually get the run toggle ,while the other is usually a free slot (FREE SLOT 2)

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Now that we've established the basics, let's look at what's left to keybind, and why this becomes a problem.

- Secondary fire - This is a somewhat important key to keybind, ideally you would want to keybind it to a proper button you can press (not touchpad swipe)... You also don't want to keep pressing the Touchpad down everytime you fire... As such it has no choice to be placed in "FREE SLOT 1 (Joystick)" or "FREE SLOT 2 (Let's say Square button)"

- Operator Mode - Another function that needs to be put into a key that's easy to hit multiple times, especially with the new operator rework. Ideally, the best keybind would probably be "FREE SLOT 1 (Joystick)", as pressing a joystick in the middle of combat is easy and it's perfect in terms of ergonomics.

- Gear wheel - Another mandatory feature... This is where it gets complicated. You cannot currently bind the gear wheel to the touchpad (even touchpad press). This sucks , because it means you're stuck keybinding it to "FREE SLOT 1" or "FREE SLOT 2"... Which in turns means you'll have to put either secondary fire or operator change on Touchpad Press.. Both rather inconvenient. Binding the gear wheel on the the Joystick Press is very annoying , as you often hit it by mistake while moving camera and you can trigger unwanted dance emotes and gear wasting"... Likewise, binding Gear Wheel to the Face buttons also kinda suck, as you're putting a menu key on a part of the controller usually used for actions, not menus.

- Other useful features - Stuff like "Show Map" , "Map Markers", "Show Teammates", "Show Progress", "Gear Shortcuts (Example Shorctcut or an energy pizza or a synthesis scanner) can easily be put on the touchpad... But sadly, gear wheel cannot for some reason....

 

Here's an image of my ideal controller setup (not possible currently due to touchpad restrictions on what you can keybind on touchpad).

Spoiler

https://s1.postimg.org/33glaz728f/Ideal_Keybinds_Currently_not_possible.jpg

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by (PS4)Stealth_Cobra

[krc473]

1 minute ago, (PS4)Stealth_Cobra said:

TLDR version : Since you can't keybind the gear wheel to the touchpad, it restricts your possible keybinds.

I currently play PoE on PC using an old XBOX controller. So, my comments may not be relevant, but putting it out there anyway.

The only way to switch to the operator is by D-pad section. I run with D-L, D-R to scroll through my abilities, then a second button (RB) to trigger them. While a dedicated button would perhaps be better for switching, I do not have any issues with the current system. For me, it works fine. 

In saying that, I have never tested it with a PS4 controller. 

This is the easiest solution I have. But, it is how I have always played, so, it works fine for me.

[(PSN)Stealth_Cobra]

24 minutes ago, krc473 said:

I currently play PoE on PC using an old XBOX controller. So, my comments may not be relevant, but putting it out there anyway.

The only way to switch to the operator is by D-pad section. I run with D-L, D-R to scroll through my abilities, then a second button (RB) to trigger them. While a dedicated button would perhaps be better for switching, I do not have any issues with the current system. For me, it works fine. 

In saying that, I have never tested it with a PS4 controller. 

This is the easiest solution I have. But, it is how I have always played, so, it works fine for me.

For pc, I use the following setup with an Xbox 360 style controller (pretty much identical to my ideal PS4 setup, but gear wheel on the share button instead of on touch pad since an Xbox controller doesn't have a touchpad... :

Basically, the only important features I'm missing are the "Open map" and "Mark Map" functions... Which are not frequent key anyways. Feel it's about as good as I can get the control scheme on and it's really cool to be one key press away from all your abilities.

Edited October 28, 2017 by (PS4)Stealth_Cobra

[krc473]

17 minutes ago, (PS4)Stealth_Cobra said:

~~snip~~

I have done a little playing around. There is (at least post-PoE) and option in the key bindings for "FOCUS AND TRANSFERENCE". This can be bound to any button. As such, your operator can be just a button push away. (New feature for me, have not touched my keybindings in over a year)

 

Are you able to rebind the keys so that you run a left/right scroll though of the abilities, with a push to activate selected ability? (slightly slower than on demand buttons, but frees up some buttons). This is what I had to do to maintain the ability to use all the buttons I wanted - the controller has less buttons than the game has functions I consider essential. So, I had to shift the powers away from the push to power, and over to the scroll to select system. Would this be a viable temporary solution? Yes, it would be nice to be able to bind the gear wheel to the touch pad, but I do not know how long that would take to implement. I have it on D-down.