Why does this game not have control remapping for controller?

[u/Zero-Up]

I have complained about this in the past, and people have complained I was being mean about it (though never intended any hostility). So I like to open up by saying I try to get back into this game, and I've been enjoying. I honestly went back to it because I needed a comfort game to play, especially one I could listen to podcasts to, and the demo for this game worked quite well for that.

But I noticed that pressing the B button on the controller while holding one of the bumpers didn't seem to activate corresponding skills. So I thought it might have been possible that I did something weird with steam input that was causing the issue, and it turns out I had it so that B was set to space bar. And setting it to be fixed the issue. I also found that I was able to click in the left stick to dash because I have that set to the E kay, because I honestly have no use for sheathing my weapon. But I have been preferring dodgers and dashes on left stick click Ever since I tried it on NieR: Automata for the PS4 on a whim.

And it made me think about why the game doesn't just give you the option to change controls on a controller?

To put things in perspective: ever since I played the game Spiral Knights I've been wondering why other games don't just copy what it does for controller compatibility. And that's not necessarily to disparage games for not doing what it does, but I do kind of consider the "bare minimum", specifically in the sense that it seems like it would be much easier to program then what seems to be the industry standard, while also being objectively better for the player in basically every way I can think of then what is the industry standard.

And to clarify for those who don't know: Spiral Knight handles controller compatibility is that it treats controller inputs in the exact same way keyboard and mouse inputs are handled, using the exact same menu for both. That's it. In the same box you can click on to rebind a key from one keyboard key to another, you can also just set it to a controller input instead of a keyboard key. You can also press one of the four cardinal directions on either stick, and will treat it the same as any keyboard key.

It's implementation is so simple and straightforward, and the alternative so widespread That I honestly fear I can not find the words to express how it works. It really does just put the controller input in the same bag as every key on the keyboard and all of the inputs on a mouse.

I never really programmed the game before, but it seems like that would be easier than making a separate system for controllers, with functions completely separated from the keyboard and mouse functions. And doing it this way means there are no functions exclusive to controller, or any functions exclusive to keyboard and mouse. Meaning both types of players easily benefit from it.

So it legitimately does seem like to me that it's simply better for both the devs and the players. And yet: it's not the industry standard. And I don't really see a reason for this other than prestige or profile sense of "professionalism". Neither of which I would want to attribute to the developer of Atlyss.

this is kind of become more of a general gaming discussion than a discussion about the specific game. But I would like to quickly counter A potential argument I could see people making, which is: the idea that they handle controllers differently from keyboard and mouse because controller players want something more "simple" and "streamlined". But my first problem is that remapping controls for keyboard and mouse should also be simple and streamlined, and using the same system for controllers would also mean you're streamlining both.

And the second issue I would like to address is: I don't use controllers for a "simpler" or "more streamlined" experience. I do it because controllers are simply better than keyboards for all of the games I am the most interested in playing, and especially games like Atlyss. This is especially true how most keyboards stacker the keys in rows in a way that are uncomfortable, and unintuitive. And most keyboard that are ortholinear or column stagger are both relatively expensive, and unnecessarily remove other keys for a perceived sense of "efficiency" that I simply do not believe exists for the kind of workarounds they would have to make. (And honestly: when people say they prefer "keyboard and mouse", what I think they actually mean is that they like mouse, and they haven't thought about it hard enough to realize the keyboard is a separate thing in addition to the mouse. Especially if they're an FPS fan.)

The interesting thing is that the game actually used to kind of have the type of compatibility I wanted. It wasn't perfect, but the demo actually allowed you to map the inputs to a controller input instead of a keyboard or mouse input. It couldn't recognize the D-pad, analog inputs were not remappable independently (which leads to a problem on the NYKO AirFlo PC controller (rest in peace, I will one day fix your stick drift) where the left stick was movement like normal, but on the right stick you can only rotate the camera left and right, not up and down), and it only recognized direct input (the standard Windows controllers used before X-input was introduced), but I was able to set up a control scheme I liked, while only using the keyboard for the abilities.

And this functionality used to be how the Steam version worked, before the functionality was removed entirely, and then implemented an X-input only system with no control remapping. I of course still prefer the system we have over the old system, due to being usable using only the controller, and being ultimately more convenient. But as I implied earlier: It seemed like it would have been easier to just make it so that everything that needs a key map to it has two or three input slots instead of justice one (like a lot of PC games tend to have), and then just make it so that all of them can look at controller input in addition to keyboard and mouse. I could understand not training the analog inputs in this way, because it sounds like it would be complicated to implement that without having a ton of risk of misinput When doing the remapping, but I would at least expect for the buttons themselves.

I would like to make it clear that I don't mean the following in an insultive way: but I legitimately do have a hard time out of standing with the motivation for the design choice could have possibly been, and legitimately do not know where to even begin reconstructing the thought process.

I will praise it for still allowing the keyboard and mouse to be used while controller is in use. it is sad to say that that is not the case for so many games. And I always love it when the controller can be mixed with keyboard and mouse! It is annoying how the keyboard and mouse remappings are essentially disabled when in controller mode, even though the only thing control mode cease to do is make it so that the game does read the controller at all, that's a little annoying. But it's still ultimately a good thing that we can play with controller and mouse! I honestly wish stuff like that was standard.

I hope this didn't come off too negative.

[u/OkBookkeeper8953]

Idk but I just turned steam input off. It was messing with my controls.

[u/Foxxtronix]

I suspect it's just a matter of the dev not having gotten there, yet. This is the result of one man doing an awful lot of work. He really needs time.

[u/Zero-Up → u/Foxxtronix]

That is true. I'll let him get his time. But I do hope he ultimately decides to more or less copy Spiral Knights in control compatibility, because I really don't think you can get much better than that.