The unbalanced advantage of game controllers and how to make keyboard play better.

[Firesped]

I'm a keyboard player. To be more specific, I am a FFXI keyboard player. I have built my gameplay experience completely around using the keyboard for everything. numpad is used for movement, arrow keys control the camera. I used A, S, D, and X to control the menu movements. and I have two rows of action bars for doing stuff. I've been using macros to switch my primary action bar between 3 different bars on my lower row. I even have g-keys on my Logitech G-510s keyboard mapped out.

Even with all that it is not enough to compare to a game controller player.

Pros for game controller players.
1: each cross bar provides 24 actions that can be accessed. 8 active at a time, "on the fly" swappable.
2: game controllers are ergonomically comfortable to access controls.
3: able to still used the normal hot bars to build a UI.

Cons for keyboard players
1: action bars only have 12 actions, half the amount of the game controller player
2: action bars are not ergonomically as cross bars. realistically I only have comfortable access to half of the action bar.
3: have to use action bars to build UI elements I want quick access too.

The solution that I can think of is this.
add swappable action bars.
holding ctrl or alt will swap the action bars to an alternate version of that action bar. each key providing access to a different set.
This would triple the accessible action bar space.
settings in the action bar configuration could be added for if the player wants each action bar to swap when ctrl or alt is pressed.


The second upgrade that would be good, is allowing for direct key bind mapping of game keys on gaming keyboards. so they don't need to be set in the software to emulate other key presses, which can cause problems by triggering other keys. (alt-1 may trigger 1 sometimes.) Logitech keyboard g-keys or Razer Keyboard M-keys/T-keys for example.

[Claire_Pendragon]

Honestly, I have set my keyboard to mimic a controller as is. (You can even have keyboard buttons activate the controller UI as well)


My num pad is 0-9 + - enter . * /

Then I hold ALT for the same buttons again (for lesser used abilities)

Then i use the ins, home, page up, del, end, page down, for most of my main CDs.

(I made num lock the scroll lock, so i know if i accidentally hit it during combat, where before it was auto run, and suddenly abilities wernt working)

Also I have shift and CNTRL for more modifiers.

Q target left, E target right.
space is "X" target in front of me. (I press shift/space for my jump, since i hardly need it, which takes some time to get used to, but now i dont think about it anymore)

and R is up, and F is down on the cycle up/down on the UI.

lesser used UI targeting usually has me hodl down shift, alt, or cntrl, depending on what it is.

[ViDare]

Why not just play FFXIV with a controller on your PC? that's what i do

[Zorlinta]

On pc you have the advantage that you can use mouse easily to target, but with just controllers is a pain to select a desired target.

[Lisieta]

try playing 72-man PvP using controller to target... you cannot even use L1+up/down... fun xD

[Alistaire]

I'm a keyboard player. To be more specific, I am a FFXI keyboard player. I have built my gameplay experience completely around using the keyboard for everything. numpad is used for movement, arrow keys control the camera. I used A, S, D, and X to control the menu movements. and I have two rows of action bars for doing stuff. I've been using macros to switch my primary action bar between 3 different bars on my lower row. I even have g-keys on my Logitech G-510s keyboard mapped out.

Even with all that it is not enough to compare to a game controller player.

Advantages for game controller players.
1: each cross bar provides 24 actions that can be accessed. 8 active at a time, "on the fly" swappable.
2: game controllers are ergonomically comfortable to access controls.
3: able to still used the normal hot bars to build a UI.

You might need to look up what the word "advantage" means. None of those 3 things are done better on controller vs keyboard, and that's what advantage means.

[Laraul]

In all honesty both controller and keyboard have the same caveats... To many actions (31+)... not enough keys/buttons for them all to allow for speedy access.

On pc you have the advantage that you can use mouse easily to target, but with just controllers is a pain to select a desired target.

How much time have you spent playing the game w/ a controller? Or is this some "established fact" you believe? Like the "established fact" that it's not possible to browse web pages on a mobile phone's small screen?

[Zorlinta]

How much time have you spent playing the game w/ a controller? Or is this some "established fact" you believe? Like the "established fact" that it's not possible to browse web pages on a mobile phone's small screen?

Im play normally with ps4 (and been playing this game for year and half). Im have 2 sets of actions configured for each of the classes that i play and have no trouble with buttons, the big trouble are trying to select something smoothly and faster, it allways been a pain targeting with just the controllers.

I can play on pc but i dont do it normally because with my pc the rendering is slightly slow and get lagged a bit, but thats other issue. With keyboard and mouse is not troublesome play.

So i suggest you look better for your "established facts" ok

[Whiteroom]

This is the first time I have ever seen it argued that a controller gives an advantage over keyboard. Keyboard is so much better.

[Morbid]

The game does play very well with controller but only if you actually use the cross hotbar setting. Targeting can be a touchy sometimes but if you are accustomed to controllers it's not terribly bad.

People will just equate this with you giving some type of praise to consoles in turn making the PC crowd cling to the notion the k/b is absolute best when really controller does outshine it in areas.

That 72-man PvP point is so niche I'd barely consider it a real issue.. in the other 90% of content that people actually play the controller access to skills is nice.