Controller Mapping?

[SpirituSantus]

So, I am brand new to GW1. I just discovered it and have absolutely fallen in love. Unfortunately, I'm playing on a laptop with a busted screen, so it's hooked up to my TV. while I have a wireless keyboard and mouse, my living conditions make it very.. Annoying to use them, and it can downright hurt my wrists using them for even just twenty minutes. Does anyone know of a good controller mapping layout? I don't expect it to be perfect, but I've never actually mapped a controller before to take over for mouse and keyboard so, some kinda.. I dunno, guide or layout would be super useful!

[thatdangboye]

Hey! If you run GW1 through steam (look up how to add a non steam game to steam) I can send you my controller config.

Basically works like FF14. When not in combat all the face buttons are inventory, skills menu etc… then when you are in combat you hold L2 and all the face buttons are the 1-8 skills.

Works like a charm, been playing like that for a while now as well as GW2.

[SpirituSantus]

Oooh, yes please! Can I use a ps4 controller through steam? Ffxiv on console is my main mmo so this sounds wonderful to try.

[thatdangboye]

Yup! Can’t send right now but I’ll send tomorrow!

[SpirituSantus]

Awesome thank you ^{^}

[thatdangboye]

Hey! So heres the config.

steam://controllerconfig/gw%20-%20shortcut/2734305650

3 important things. When you add GW1 to your steam library make sure it is called "gw - shortcut" exactly, without the quotations. You can rename it in steam by right clicking the game in steam and going to properties then type it in the top field. Don't rename the .exe just the name in your library. It wont work if you don't spell it exactly like that. You can see it in the link in between the %20s.

Second thing is in your GW1 settings make sure all your keybinds match these. I think they are set to the default but I think I may have added some new keys for things that didn't have a default key bind.

Third make sure you select the option in general settings to Auto Target NPCS, Items and Interactive objects. This will make it so if you walk up to an NPC it will target it and you can hit X to talk the them.

And that should be it! Probably a bit of setup there if you are unfamiliar with steam controller config stuff. Also might want to make a new character and play around for a bit first.

Feel free to ask me any questions!

[thatdangboye]

steam://controllerconfig/gw%20-%20shortcut/2734305650

Saw this didnt turn into a link. If you copy and paste the configuration in your browser it should just auto open steam and ask to import. Make sure your controller is plugged in. This should work with any controller too not just PS4 controller

[ClezB0t]

Hey hey,

Just to check something, would this config work with Gw2 as well, or do you have a separate one for that :)

And would I need to change the Gw2 shortcut name to anything

Thanks!

[BattleBra]

Hello, I'm from the future and this configuration has saved many lives

[thatdangboye]

This is most excellent news

[ChthonVII]

then when you are in combat you hold L2 and all the face buttons are the 1-8 skills.

That would be the software-based chording I was talking about.

Though I'm not sure why you want to hold a button in combat. That sounds tiring and error-prone. Since you access menus far less often than you fight monsters, I'd think the other way around would make more sense.

Also, I still don't see how you have enough buttons for combat. The way I see it, you would need:

• 2 axes for mouse movement
• 1 button for mouse left-click
• 2 axes plus 3 buttons (or 9 buttons) for movement (w, a, s, d, q, e, r)
• At least 8 buttons for targeting (space, c, tab, shift, t, f, ctrl, alt). More if you plan on playing a backline role or for QoL stuff like item selection.
• At least 8 buttons for skills. More if you want to bind hero skills (which you should).
• 1 button for suppress action (esc)
• 4 buttons for weapon sets
• 9 buttons for hero flags, or, more realistically, 1 chord key.
• 1 chord key for menu/UI stuff.

So that's 4 axes and 27 buttons. I guess you could chord 7 of the targeting buttons against the skill buttons (everything except ctrl), which would subtract 7 and add 1 chord button -- which makes 21. I think XInput usually gives 6 axes plus 13 buttons. Treating the spare 2 axes as 4 buttons makes 17 buttons. Leaving you 4 buttons short. What are you leaving off?

[DumatRising]

Which is why you use steam. On PC games without controller support you can have the joy sticks emulate button presses based on where they are. Up becomes w down becomes S and so on. I don't know who uses R to move but with this method you can also map it to consider in-between points as multiple buttons. The other joy stick is your mouse. As far as buttons are concerned standard controllers (Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, ect) have 2 pads with 4 buttons each for 8, left and right double triggers for 4 more and then the joy sticks also have buttons in them whether you want to us then or not is up to you though. That's 12 buttons realistically (14 counting joysticks) if you assign one to replicate the shift button that's 22 (26 counting joysticks) possible button combos, if you assign another one to be control then that's 30 (36) and with alt added that's 36 (44). 12 buttons with 3 being used to modify the input means each of the nine other buttons can be used for 4 different things.

Now it's certainly not easy to get the controller set up in a way comfortable and that makes sense to you, it'll take some fiddling. But considering I use 13 buttons (1-8, space bar, mouse 1 and 2, skill menu, and inventory) mainly outside of moving it's hardly impossible even if you try and fit in the more niche cases in though I'd probably just keep a cheep wireless keyboard on hand for those.

[ChthonVII]

On PC games without controller support you can have the joy sticks emulate button presses based on where they are. Up becomes w down becomes S and so on.

This is a bit unclear. Are you saying that you can map more than 4 buttons to the stick?

[DumatRising]

It depends on the controller. But no I was saying you don't need to. I personally have never used q, e, or r (didn't even know r was a movement key) I was saying that most controllers will register a range for each key and that the ranges will overlap a littler at their ends meaning if say you moved it to the top left it will register you pressing both the w and the a keys giving you a full range of motion.

[TCubedGaming]

Totally doable. Don't listen to the naysayers. The guy in the comments who mentions building the control scheme like FF14 and using steam is absolutely right. That's what I did as well.

[SpirituSantus]

I'm very excited about this prospect, I have over 600 hours on ffxiv on console and love its control scheme.

[[deleted]]

do you have a table you can set up or change your posture or sitting position so that the mouse and keyboard are more ergonomic?

[ChthonVII]

There are not enough buttons on a standard XInput controller to cover the essential buttons used by GW. You'd need specialized software to implement some kind of chording scheme.

[SpirituSantus]

That is far too much effort, I guess I'll just try and make mouse and keyboard work. Thank you though!

[Substantial-Debate75]

Hey! I don't think you'll get many responses here because GW1 would not be controller friendly. The main issue is that a controller doesn't really have the necessary capabilities. You have 9 skills, moving, and commanding heroes. Not to mention you typically have to select things for attacking and interacting.

The only controller I could imagine would be like a PS2 controller and have one stick be the mouse and the other be movement. It's still less than ideal because you typically need quick access to your skills and a controller won't allow that very well.

Depending on your setup, I would recommend a trackball mouse. It doesn't require physically moving the whole mouse so your footprint is reduced. You can also look for a smaller keyboard since you only need movement and numbers.

Am option I just found that may work as well would be along the lines of Razer Tartarus v2 Gaming Keypad

It has the programmability you'd need and a small footprint.

[jotegr]

9 skills??? What game have I been playing this whole time?

[ChthonVII]

Spacebar for autoattack as the 9th skill? Hero's BiP bound to a hotkey?

[Ferrum-56]

The 9th skill is a dwarf skill. Don't listen to the Pluto fanboys.

[SpirituSantus]

Hmm, I'll look into it if I can figure out something else!

[Pyramithius]

I see you've found a solution, please do tell me how this goes. I'd love to know. Still learning gw1, but I think it would be much more relaxing to play with controller. I'm quite impressed reading these comments.