Mouse vs Gamepad

[Train88]

From actually trying the game on the gamepad, i realise much of it is working as intended. The arrow keys and the other stuff to open the menu just are more natural than the mouse.

Which raises the issue of mouse users. Targetting is a nightmare and tabbing to select mobs just isn't working. Then there's the auto-lock feature in targetting which is just counter-intuitive to people comming from other well known mmorpg.

There's a mouse interface. It's there because if there wasn't you woudn't be able to use a mouse. I just think it could use some more polish. It's also the interface that 89% of PC users will naturally choose.

EDIT: What actually happens is if you're on top of the mob you can't click through yourself to target it and then you might die if the mob is aggro.

Or, you click the mob, run up to it then because you didn't click it twice before you can't click through yourself to engage the mob and you die if the mob is aggro.

Now that. Assuming you're new and you don't know about the target lock. You try to get off the mob to target/click it. But you die...
/EDIT

[SimonVDH]

I'm a PC player and I use gamepad regularly in various games. I play FFXIV with gamepad becouse I know it is designed to be played that way. I heaven't been playing to much so far, but gamepad seems to be working really good in this game. I still don't know how to do some things though;

How do I use items like potions and other, similar things?
How can I switch actionbars? (actionbar 1, 2, 3)
How do I put anything on those "Alt" and "Ctrl" actionbars that I can see when I hold certain buttons on gamepad?

I really don't know where to find answers to those questions, so if anybody could guide me I would be very thankfull.

I use standard PS3 gamepad.

[Ferth]

A fair chunk of players are coming to this game from FFXI, which had absolutely horrible mouse integration, those players(myself included) use strictly the keyboard, without bothering with the mouse at all.

That being said the game has been most optimized for gamepad, if you are comfortable using it, it's probably best to do so...

Some of us are still waiting for better keyboard optimization though...

I've not used the game pad myself so I'm not sure if the ctrl and alt action bars are a gamepad function or if you just mean the macro actions...

You access the macro palette via the config menu, there's a guide on lodestone for setting macros up Here.

[Velo_Vandore]

@ SimonVDH

Press up and down on D-pad to change actionbars. If this doesn't work check your button mapping matches the lodestone suggestion:

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...e/basis01.html

As Ferth points out, the alt and ctrl actionbars are for macros. I don't know of a way to open the bag of useable items without the mouse, but you can assign a macro to use a particular item. In the game, open the menu and go to Configuration>Macros. This is where you can assign actions to the alt and ctrl actionbars (left and right trigger on gamepad), using text commands such as /item "Salt Cod" <me> which would make your character eat a salt cod (provided you have one in your inventory). This way you can use your favorite items and potions with the gamepad. Macro are also great for changing equipment sets and skills without having to go through the menus each time you want to change class from gladiator to miner etc. For more details on text commands check the lodestone:

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...e/macro01.html

Macro's are tricky to learn but well worth looking into if you haven't already. There are plenty of introductions available online.

Hope this helps.

Vel

[Velo_Vandore]

I find the interface much easier to navigate with a gamepad and love using a pad with an MMO game, but agree with Train88 that the interface is not user friendly for mouse users. I think the problem comes when trying to compromise between a mouse controlled and gamepad controlled interface and feel the game really needs seperate interface functionality for each. An example would be when, instinctively, a mouse user tries to open the gear sub menu, but can't because they forgot to close the attributes sub-menu. This problem doesn't occur however for a gamepad user because the user is not moving the cursor around, but instead navigates within each menu/sub-menu and has a stronger sense of which menu is currently being selected/navigated.

Furthermore, the design of the interface, which works really nicely with a pad, feels cumbersome and tedious to mouse users in some areas. One example would be when a mouse user opens the inventory window and clicks a piece of gear. They now have the main menu, the inventory sub-menu and a small pop-out menu specific to the item clicked open at the same time. I found that if I wanted to inspect another piece of gear I would naturally try to click another item from the invetory sub-menu only to be confused when i couldn't select any other items, as though the mouse click was broken. After clicking around for a few seconds I would eventually realize I needed to click close within the little pop-out menu to close it first. I've repeated that process many times with frustration each time I remembered that i needed to close the little pop-menu before clicking the next item, making it really slow to look through gear.

Similarly, when using a mouse, if I was in the macro sub-menu, for example, and wanted to return to the game I would naturally try to click the x on the main menu, to find the clicks wouldn't work again, as if the mouse button had broken. Instead you have to close the sub-menu's in order, before having access to the main menu, even though it is unclear which menu is on top/in focus. This is horrible when an aggressive enemy is approaching and I'm fumbling to close the menu's. By the time i've clicked all over before desperately reaching for the escape key, it's too late.

As a mouse user used to, in other MMO's, having access to multiple menus simultaneously, drag and drop gear equipping and pop-out menu's mapped to the right click (as standard with most games/software), this interface feels unacceptable. Of course, the above features would be great for mouse users, but wouldn't work for pad users (unless they had to drag around the cursor with the d-pad, which would be slow, tricky and horrible). The current interface works well for gamepad users as they have a clear sense of which sub-menu is in focus, and always close sub-menus in the correct order by just hitting the cancel button multiple times. For this reason I really feel there needs to be seperate interface functionality for mouse users while retaining the gamepad control system.

I don't know how the code controlling interface navigation is laid out, but I imagine that to implement good mouse controls it would need to be restructured dramatically, becoming a messy and time consuming job for developers, perhaps requiring a lot of code to be re-written from scratch. So, if you mouse users agree that a compromised system based on gamepad functionality just won't do for you, let the developers know, or like this comment to raise awareness of the points here. Personally I love the gamepad and wouldn't switch back to mouse even if the controls were improved. I just remember the experience being a pain before switching to a gamepad, and know some players don't have or don't like gamepads.

I imagine all these points have been mentioned many times before, but felt it was relevant and worth a mention in this post.

Vel

[Frein]

As a player with FFXI experience, I never expected much from the mouse controls. As Ferth says, playing with the keyboard only tends to work much better, though right now the two main reasons for this are: 1) The fixed key setup is unsuitable for one-handed use (with the other hand operating the mouse), and 2) the camera stutters a lot when controlled with the mouse.

As far as your problem situations go, the "Nearest NPC" button really compliments TAB targeting a lot. My own setup mimics FFXI with F1 being target self, F2-F8 are for party members and F9 is closest NPC. Unfortunately, unlike in FFXI, the closest NPC command only targets enemies your character is facing, so you can't target an enemy that jumped your from behind without turning around first.