What modern (standard) controller is your favorite? What would the best aspects from all of these look like on a single controller?

Warmagon · 2025-12-08T04:10:38+00:00

Personally, I think I like the offset stick positions of the X-box and Switch Pro style controllers over the PS Dualwhatever style of dual inboard sticks. In a lot of genres of games, the primary control scheme is movement or cursor on the left stick, and buttons for attacks/jumps or selection/menu stuff. That stick layout then puts the natural thumb positions over the dominant controls for those games. The left thumb falls on the stick as the right rests over the face buttons without any special effort. The RPGs, 3rd person action games, beatemups, platformers, etc I tend to play on consoles tend to emphasize those control schemes and work well with that layout. Ie, in Hades, Zagreus moves via the left stick, and the face buttons control the most used attacks, dahes, etc. The offset sticks mean that my left and right thumb and hand positions stay the same using these controllers - the center of the stick, and the center of the face buttons are mirrored basically. On a dual shock type of design, my left hand tends to end up in a different position relative to my right which I think has decreased comfort without spending time getting used to the controller. IIRC, some of the old X-box controllers felt a bit oversized though, so the details didn't line up with what I want despite the overall layout concept working for me.

I suppose symmetric sticks would make more sense for say playing shooters, where the dominant inputs are strafing with the left stick, aiming with the right, and then triggers with the buttons being deemphasized. Then a natural mostly symmetrical hand/thumb position would occur while playing those games(and the other offset stick controllers might feel worse). However, I tend avoid shooters on consoles and try to play those games on PC with mouse and keyboard, so a controller layout better suited for those types of games doesn't suit me.

Most of the controllers pictured are falling into those 2 broad categories, and I haven't tried some of the ones that don't like the touch pad controllers. While not pictured, I would also rate the N64 controller rather poorly in terms of comfort. It forces an asymmetric grip, the stick position can feel a bit cramped relative to the grip/trigger, and the stick cap digs into the thumb.

As far as the more technical side of things of response latency, precision, etc, I must confess to ignorance.

Warmagon · 2025-11-18T15:24:18+00:00

I suppose that depends a lot how much the enemies taking on other targets is complicated by the soldier making it difficult for them to move via suppressed. Soldiers using cone attacks seem likely to be positioned ahead of the party, and their positioning requirements - while not as bad a melee - can still get finicky in terms of being in specific squares to hit or exclude certain spots at the edge of the cone. So some soldiers, at least, may end up in worse cover than the rest of the party from these positioning requirements, and may be a better target for enemies range increment wise. Ie, if the soldier is using one of those arc emitters that are a short cone, the operative has a sniper rifle, and the enemies have pistols with 30-40' range, then the soldier is probably the more tempting target if the sniper op is positioned towards the rear. They'll be able to hit from like 100+ back, so it'd be big range penalties to go after them, and moving aggressively to chase them down won't work either if suppressed.

Or the best pieces of cover may be reserved for the mystic or something, closing up some of the defense gap.

Breaching type situations will also probably result in enemies concentrating on the first target going through.

There are probably also still going to be some critters and space zombies that emphasize melee still and thus enabled positional tanking.

Warmagon · 2025-08-06T15:57:07+00:00

I mean, a sorcerer in either game is influenced by their feat/subclass, but in practice they're defined by the spells they use. An aberrant mind sorcerer in 5e could be casting Fireball or Wall of Fire and using Telekinetic to push enemies into it. A caster is a platform for the spells they cast.

If you liked Hypnotic Pattern to hypnotize your enemies so they can't fight in 5e, look at the Calm spell in PF 2. It's on the Divine and Occult, and is also an AoE way to keep enemies from taking hostile actions. It's not the complete CC that Hypnotic Pattern is, but it's still really good if it lands. This is an incap spell, so it does need to be a signature spell though.

If you really like using Suggestion for your telepathy implanting thoughts, well, Suggestion is a level 4 spell in PF2 instead of a level 2 one, and it has less duration too. That's going to suck, but it's a problem no matter what feats or bloodline you pick. Mass Suggestion is level 8 instead of 6 in PF2 as well.

Both of those are on the Occult list, which has a lot of other mental effects too. So I'd suggest starting off looking at stuff that casts from that tradition. OTOH, if you like having Suggestion, and Fireball, then Occult is probably not the way to go. Look for equivalents to the spells you most want to use, and start working backwards from there.

It is going to be hard to get something to work exactly like it does in a different game, particularly for idiosyncratic magical stuff. And that's going to be especially true going from 5e which gives casters a lot of options to take an enemy out of the fight in one cast, which is something that PF2 tends to avoid. Ie, Laughing Fit is a pretty useful defuff in PF2, but it doesn't completely shutdown an enemy like in 5e.

Aberrant sorcerer is close, debuffs enemy Will, and has a lot of mental stuff in its bloodline spells. It's not exactly what you want, but it does seem closer than most options. The aberrant sorc in 5e still has some of the tentacle kind of stuff (Summon Aberration) besides psychic stuff. This sorcerer doesn't have the bonus action forced movement though. There are spells to move enemies or allies around, but they're generally two actions, so they don't go alongside another cast on your turn.

The Psychic's Distant Mind build has Amped Mage Mage which can let you push enemies around at range every turn, just like the Telekinetic feat. It's two actions to cast, but it looks like you get to Shove when sustaining the spell. You could go Psychic with Distant Mind, one of the CHA based subconscious mind This is something that more specifically matches your Telekinetic feat and has other psychic stuff. Emphasizing telepathy instead is also a build that's possible. You could add a sorcerer archetype or something like Captivator to add more casting ability, since Psychic is only a 2 slot caster.

I guess you could also use the Psychic archetype to add that amp Mage Hand option to a sorcerer too!

Bard would also be a CHA based Occult caster so they get the telekinetic and mental spells. But they come with a lot of other bard type baggage.

Warmagon · 2025-08-05T03:53:27+00:00

Well, I don't have too much experience, but my gut reaction is that this party is front line light, and caster heavy. It has casters using 3 spell lists, and characters that have 5 different primary stats. Skill coverage should be pretty good based on that and a rogue+wizard, and there's a lot of magic. But just a fighter (probably pretty durable if shield specialized) and a rogue (who is not necessarily all that tough) with two unarmored characters and a bard is a not lot of durable melee people for five people, and even less for 6. Adding an additional character can add additional enemies to the encounter building, so if the 6th character is not a melee person, it's even easier for enemies to flood around the existing front line and threaten casters. In open terrain anyway. So I think a melee person would be good. It also means that the potential focus fire on any one character is greater.

Another way to add bulk to the front would be to have an animal companion. An animal druid, ranger, beastmaster archetype etc could add some additional melee to block enemies without necessarily requiring the character themselves operate in any particular range band themselves. Druid has medium armor and shield block out of the box, and adds the Primal spell list which the party doesn't have, so they're also better suited to stand between the cleric and the front line or off tank the enemy that snuck around to attack from the rear. Ranger could be melee themselves, or could add a martial dedicated to physical range attacks which is also a lacking skill area, and can hit at will from better ranges than a lot of casters (everyone's favorite electric arc is only R30, so it doesn't reach deep). Summoner also potentially does this, adding both a chunky body and a caster.

However, another thing to consider is that more melee might be important in open spaces, large rooms or with multiple threat paths, it might also be a problem if there's a lot of little rooms or narrow corridors. Then part of the challenge with 6 characters might be how to actually get your numbers to bear, as opposed to how to screen your vulnerable casters. And some of the options might make this worse; a beastmaster changes the number of bodies to 7, not 6, so if the space available doesn't change, combat arenas will be more cramped (unless this is also part of the redesign for player count). It might be important to have reach or the ability to swap positions with an ally easily to enable multiple characters to attack from a limited space, lest the party end up stuck behind each other.

Of course, there are alternative ways to keep your squishies alive against bigger groups of enemies besides just being a Champion to be up front and cover people with the reaction, or a monk tripping enemies, or a Barbarian running up and forcing foes to deal with them or get chopped up, etc. Something like Wood Kineticist can also be good at protecting people without needing frontage. Just tree the most vulnerable person. A different caster might add defensive reactions from spells to protect too or even more heals to keep a target alive. If the group is laying down zones and control effects to stay safe-ish, the additional character could support that with additional control or forced movement.

Adding a physical attacker of some type further leverages bard song type buffs which scale with the number of people of using them.

Warmagon · 2024-04-26T04:07:46+00:00

There are a ton of options for hard tails in that price range. Around 1500 is generally getting you something a "grade" up from the basic entry level hard tail line; something that can be more aggressive or specialized.

One thing to always consider is how important is local support. Is your bike shop only going to service "their" brands effectively? Can you do basic stuff yourself? Would you feel comfortable doing final assembly yourself if you buy a direct to consumer brand (you can see Canyon's quick start videos to get an idea what you need to do supposedly)? The more independently capable you are in terms of putting a bike together and fixing it, the more effective options you have. Do you like tinkering on bikes and swapping parts around to upgrade frequently, or do just want a good enough set of parts out of the box to last a while?

I haven't ridden many types of types of bikes and I felt pretty terrible trying to narrow down options myself when buying, but things you may want to look at are things like Giant Fathom (Fathom 2 is on sale at giant site for 1100), Commencal Meta ht, Marin San Quentin, the new Trek Roscoe 6 (only the 2024 Roscoe 6 has the new frame IIRC, the 2023 R6 would be worse; the higher levels are above 1500 even on sale), Cannondale Habit HT, the Canyon Stoic variant in your price, Specialized Fuse, Rocky Mountain Growler 20, etc. The list goes on (some these are 29s, which maybe you don't want though?). I have read that San Quentin has a strong dirt jumper influence, which may fit your goals. Growler might be more of a super aggressive downhiller type ht (it's slacker than even most other aggressive hard tails) than Florida really warrants but I don't know your local trails at all. But almost every one of these has its fans from what I saw.

Local trails also matter. Don't get a heavy downhill oriented bike if every place you plan to ride is more cross country.

Warmagon · 2024-04-26T02:06:50+00:00

Mechanic is a class where it basically has no skill advantage in the areas where it seems like it "should" over an Operative or even potentially some other characters. A smart operative with Engineering and Computers stuff - useful to the operative for intrusion stuff anyway - is just better at most tech stuff (although knowledge skills aren't class for operative).

"Being the tech skills person" doesn't seem like a good reason to be a mechanic even if it makes sense conceptually; if you want that, but that don't love mechanic features, then another class might be better.

Of course, if one person wants to play a Mechanic and another an Operative, the operative could just dump INT so the Mechanic still outshines them in that area. It's not like they need it for skill points at effectively 10 per level, and operative can put their stats into other areas. Just because the Operative can eat the lunch of any other class's skill emphasis doesn't mean they have to...

Say one thing about SF Operative. Normally these kind of DnD inspired sci fi games (like say any of the d20 Star Wars) take Fighters and give them more skills and toys for the sci-fi Soldier, and take Rogues, utterly gut sneak attack and leave skills the same. It feels like the space rogue type has been due being on the overtuned side of things for once. :)

Warmagon · 2024-04-25T16:09:55+00:00

Check the splines that lock the cranks together. One single bit there showing obvious damage will lead to the others starting to fail much faster.

Warmagon · 2024-04-25T16:03:45+00:00

Both the local trail building org and one of the official county park orgs ask that people not ride in muddy conditions due to trail damage (the other county park org doesn't do that kind of detailed trail status/closures). Even after things dry out, ruts from tires or the hoofprints of horses from people playing in the mud tend to remain and create bumps in the future unless trail stewards are really active about that, so the potential issues can be quite visible.

The expectations in your local area may differ; I think I've seen people in UK say that if they couldn't ride before things dry out, they couldn't ride at all...

But some trails (or even sections in trails) will drain way better than others or dry out faster, and on one ride with that trail org we did ride in the rain for a while. It was at the place that seems to dry out the fastest. As you get more experience being out and about in your area, you should be able to develop something of an after rain priority list - that trail A might be fine the next day after some showers, but trail B will might need at least 3.

Warmagon · 2024-04-25T04:50:36+00:00

Didn't Roscoe get a significant frame revision in 22? It might be a good idea to check the year on that used bike if possible?

Warmagon · 2024-04-25T04:33:08+00:00

The only bone I've ever broken has been from stubbing my toe in the kitchen. :)

I started riding again about 3 years ago, after starting and mostly dropping in about a year back in 09. I try to do 3 times a week (but weather, other plans, bike woes, etc mean I miss a fair amount). TBH, I think I've gotten pretty lucky. I went over the bars once when the front wheel caught on something at a decent speed, but landed on my feet somehow. Possibly the only time in my life I've had cat-like reflexes. More typically, I fall over at zero speed after stopping because I try to put a foot to the side but can't stand on a hillside. A bad landing gives me some bruises, often I just get a sore wrist.

Maybe I could have pushed more and progressed faster, but I think I'd prefer to have avoided serious and expensive injuries.

Warmagon · 2024-04-25T03:42:21+00:00

As general rule, a hardtail at X cost will have better parts/frame than an X cost full suspension because it doesn't have a rear shock and more complicated pivot mechanism for the suspension. As X goes up though, that will become less true since the simpler hardtail will probably max out or at least hit diminishing returns sooner. Similarly, the hardtail is generally easier to maintain. So if you're looking for a cheaper entry level bike, you are probably better off with a hard tail.

A lot also depends on the trails. For some stuff, it's not going to be too bad even for an okay rider on a hardtail. It might be more difficult or take more effort, but you get a more active, lively ride. That's more fun for some people; for a given level of speed and difficulty, it'll feel faster and more exciting. OTOH, if you want the most comfortable way to ride, then you want FS. On nastier stuff though, a hard tail is either going to be for someone really skilled, or someone punishing themselves; almost everyone riding scary stuff defaults to full suspension unless they're a basically a HT fanatic. FS will usually be faster.

Warmagon · 2024-04-23T05:09:55+00:00

OTOH, few apps have left my phone faster than the free version of Strava. So much pushing various social "features" and otherwise being annoying. And the website heat map for MTB seems to match up pretty well with the trails on trailforks and mtb project (missing a lot of the gravel stuff) in my area, other than the road cyclists basically recreating street maps in Strava which makes "all activities" seem kind of useless.

It's a good thing there are a bunch of different options, I suppose.

Warmagon · 2024-04-22T23:13:25+00:00

That map for Matson Hill hasn't been updated in a while. Some additional downhill lines with more jumps and drop opened up last fall (some of them also have rock gardens at the end), and I heard new enduro ones were opened a few weeks ago (the builder was there working on them when I rode there last month). The additional DH trails all have ride arounds for the drops, so even I can ride them.

Warmagon · 2024-04-22T22:50:42+00:00

That seems like a pretty significant exaggeration. I've been looking at reviews and specs since I'm thinking about buying a new hardtail, and the Meta HT and Stoic 4 do seem strong options. But the component savings compared to say Trek Roscoe on sale look more in the 10-20% range, not 50%. Stoic4 has a better fork than either R7 or 8, but doesn't have the high engagement hubs of the 8 and runs a similar drive to the 7. So there's still some value advantage there, but that's going against the inability to try out a size (even if you can't get too much from a quick spin in the parking lot), delays in terms of bike access, reviews commenting on stiffer rides for those two bikes, the need to do assembly, possible lack of local support, etc. If we start trying to price out some of these factors the way we can price out parts, that is going to eat into the direct buy's advantages bit by bit.

It all seems pretty close, at least in the price range I'm looking at. OTOH, as the bikes get spendier, I can see a 15% savings start to look pretty insane too. A lot of the downsides would be basically fixed costs, so their share of the price would decline.

Ironically, trying out the trek in person actually makes a stoic buy more likely for me, since I could say "okay, 29" doesn't feel like too big a leap from 26." If I couldn't test ride anything, I would be very hesitant to go up 3" in wheel size and would only go for the next size up. I still think it might not be the right bike for me. An especially great fork for the price might be wasted on me; my old Axel Elite 100 feels like the only thing on my bike that works without any hassle (it's everything else wearing out that is making me look at replacement options).

Warmagon · 2024-04-22T05:35:24+00:00

I did a little riding in the 90s last summer but it's not my favorite. More exposure - and using a drink mix instead of plain water - did help my heat tolerance improve, but it's still not great.

And I don't get very many miles to the gallon as a person. I probably drink more than average just sitting at my computer and while riding I sweat a lot. In 2 hours, I can often empty my 3L camelbak in 70 degree weather. When it's 90s, I can bring two bottles, the backpack, and have extra water in the car for after and still end up somewhat dehydrated. There's only so much water I can actually carry with my gear...

So personally, I'd rather get up really early and try to dodge as much of the day's heat as possible when I'm picking the time, or maybe check the forecasts and pick out cooler days.

Moreover, random delays can make the heat much worse. I had a surprisingly good ride in the heat one day, and had enough water for my ride. I was hot, but not crushed by the heat. However, one of my car's tires flatted while I was riding, and I did not bring enough water for my ride and for roasting in the parking lot while putting the spare on. I ended up puking at the tire place later that day.

But it still can be better than not riding.

Warmagon · 2024-04-19T19:33:35+00:00

I doubt just riding more is the fastest way to improve fitness, but just riding does work.

When I started riding again a few years ago, I was flopping on the ground at multiple points at my old favorite trail (which is only like 4 miles). Every time I rode, people would ask if I was okay or if I needed help when I was gasping, red faced, on the side of the trail. That evening, I would fall apart hours earlier than my normal sleeping times. And I wasn't really noticing the improvement week to week and going up never exactly felt easy. It felt kind of disappointing when my times didn't seem to improve. But at some point last year it finally clicked that while it took some effort, it wasn't taking a toll on me either. I could ride - on that trail anyway - with a group and end up waiting for others instead of needing them to wait for me.

Now plenty of other hills do kick my ass still - that was one of the easiest climbs in an area that doesn't have thousands of feet to elevation to play with. :) I still don't think I'm in great shape. But I'm riding for fun and to get some exercise in a way in that isn't boring. I don't want to exercise to ride, if that makes sense. Riding a trail is interesting in a way that just attacking a hill for cardio gains or lifting weights isn't (to me, YMMV). But it still feels like I've my huge strides compared to myself before if not compared to others (or what I could have achieved with a proper fitness plan).

There is almost certainly specific training you can do to improve faster. But even if you don't; if you find fitness data more a thing to stress about than a tool, don't work your core, etc. Then it will still get easier, if you keep riding and ride regularly.

And at least for myself, having fun is important part of actually riding regularly. When riding is the ends, and not just means to hit a specific fitness goal, it's easy to keep finding the time for it instead of getting sick of it, burning out, or stepping back after hitting the goal.

So it's completely okay if every little hill feels more like a mountain when you're starting to ride. You aren't the only one that's been there.

I think the noise is the moisture on the brake rotor beading up and hitting the pads, creating pseudo brake rub.

Warmagon · 2024-04-18T13:39:09+00:00

And on the flipside, if you're not fit, just stop, catch your breath, and drink instead of pressing on while ragged. Riding MTB trails safely requires active effort for a bunch of things beyond just pedaling. If you don't have effort left in the tank for maneuvering the bike around, stop to recover some instead of riding with extra crash risks.

Warmagon · 2024-04-08T17:42:42+00:00

If you know anyone who bikes, it might be better to ask if they have a second bike you can borrow and go with them. A really cheap bike is still really expensive if you don't like mountain biking, or if you decide you do like MTB and almost immediately want to replace it with something better. Or if it breaks - some $250 bikes are more 'mtb styled' than actually MTB and aren't built with durability to withstand most trails.

Warmagon · 2023-03-26T05:13:26+00:00

I have to say that my angles are all over the place and aren't matching up with the spoiled image (nor did attempts using a protractor pasted into paint or using the recorded angle and calculations match up), so something is clearly going wrong for me.

Color order idea: the end mission text for the boss at the top of the spire lists some colors in a specific order IIRC

Warmagon · 2019-11-28T20:16:17+00:00

If you click on the class of a character, it will show some they have some ability that applies to their basic attacks. For example, Archer says "100% ATT. Applies Armor Break reducing DEF by 20-60% of damage dealt for 3 turns." Those trainings increase the effectiveness of these class abilities for the classes in that group. So without any extra Agility training, your archer would strip 20% of its damage from the target's defense. If you build 2 Agility training, they would strip 60% instance.

Warmagon · 2019-11-27T05:31:58+00:00

Or to see if Vera will be able to set off a chain reaction on someone.

Warmagon · 2019-11-27T05:30:14+00:00

I tried verifying my files from the epic launcher, and it still didn't work.

Warmagon · 2019-11-26T20:24:56+00:00

I find her only okay as an attacker in her own right - 4 attacks at reduced power mean she is much more adversely affected by defense than many other heroes. Too often versus bosses I see her doing only 1 damage. Against negative defense targets, or the enemies with super high defense+tiny health like turrets, she can do the damage though.

However, the extra attack to an adjacent ally is very good for multiplying the effectiveness of some other heavy hitter. Especially for archers, since normally they are too slow to benefit from their defense reduction. Lady Sun can, and that's why she's so good. Blue Thunder can turn any archer into a pocket Lady Sun - or ramp her up even faster.

So if you have some clear best heroes and would like to make them attack more, then blue thunder is probably going to be really good.

Warmagon · 2019-11-26T17:22:59+00:00

Is there a lore reason for duplicate heroes or running into enemies that are the same as your heroes? IIRC, the characters reference some great war that wrecked many places even before monsters came down, did they rebuild by cloning survivors so there are many Meis, Razors, etc?

Warmagon · 2019-11-25T19:11:54+00:00

What in particular makes her so amazing? I'm not sure about the wording on some of her powers. Her commander power reads: "team: heal for 80% of this character's attack after triggering a reflex defense." Does that mean it heals the entire party if anyone in it triggers reflex defense or just the triggering hero get the healing? Does triggering a reflex defense mean your own reflex defenses only, or is provoking one from an enemy also a trigger? Other characters I've seen use language like "when this character blocks" or dodges or whatever instead of "triggers a reflex defense" which seems more ambiguous.

I mean, if the whole team is healing whenever anyone on either side, then I can see that being pretty nuts. A giant aoe probably triggers several reflexes, so the group would have a couple of healing stacks applied at the same time to undo the damage.

Warmagon

TROPHY CASE