PSVita Remote play issues

[Quiksloth]

The Playstation Vita via Remote play as an option to play FFXIV is a very enticing prospect. Video latency and control input are tolerable. However there are 2 primary issues that may need to be addressed either by Sony or Square Enix, or both.

1. Button mapping:
The current overlay mapping R2, R3, L2, L3 to the corners of the rear touchpad is not viable. They are hard to reliably input. An alternative layout should be provided as an option. A suggestion would be to use a similar layout to Bloodborne's remote play mapping. The rear touchpad is split to two halves, one for R2 and L2. R3 and L3 are assigned to the bottom corners of the touchscreen, and the Dual Shock 4 touchpad is set to the center area, not the entire screen.

2. Option to remove R/L+Dual Shock 4 touchpad shortcut to reassign skills:
This would be partially solved on the vita if the touchpad is assigned a smaller area on the touchscreen, but the option to switch off the shortcut should really be provided to avoid misclicks during gameplay, on PS4 and PSVita.

3. Keyboard input:
FFXIV being an online mmorpg benefits greatly from keyboard input. On the Playstation 4, a keyboard could be plugged in or connected via bluetooth. On the vita, it seems like a glaring omission not to include support for an onscreen keyboard. Text entry via the PS4's onscreen keyboard mechanic is extremely impractical, and the mobile playstation app requires frequent reconnection. I am not sure if the limitation for not including an onscreen keyboard comes from limitations in remote play capabilities, but the ability to use the vita's touchscreen for text entry would be a huge gain.

All in all, The Playstation Vita could be a very viable platform to play FFXIV via the Playstation 4, and these 3 issues in particular prevent the game from being played. I would like to inquire as to how these features could be suggested and followed in terms of implementation progress.

[VisRalis]

o/ Vita (1st gen) player by day (office) & PS4 by evening (home) here xD
I quite like it and have done all content up to before A1S on Vita remote play.
When wifi connections are good and working ofc.

Re: #1 The rear touch pad truly was the hardest bit to get used to but its worked around by remapping hotkeys on the crossbar so you don't have to use the touch pad as much (relatively) at first.
I ended up remapping L1/R1 to be both my the PSV's rightside R1 & touch R2 (now->L1).
It's quite easy now to access the entire cross bar with the PSV rear touch pad.
Also you do get used to sticking your finger out the same place every time and it's now not even a second thought accessing the right areas of the rear touch pad.

Re: #3 Its come down for me to use the dictionary memory to construct my sentences, still slow but short msgs work. Doesn't make the game unplayable or communication unworkable once enough text has been memorized.
Biggest issue is the auto-translate... since there's no TAB button I can't seem to figure out how to use auto-translate with the on-screen keyboard.

The PSV is a working platform for FFXIV by remote imho.
(Assuming if your wifi & LAN connection to your home PS4 is fast & stable)

The PSV is limited with text entry primarily but I've not faced any problems playing FFXIV doing solo/group content.

Having to hold the large (I'm using the 1st gen PSV and it is chunky!) up for long periods of times may be uncomfortable (rest every 15 minutes rt? *cough* no?).

Biggest pain in the butt was redoing the HUD layout =.= and enlarging everything to 140% so I don't have to squint so much.

[Quiksloth]

First of all, thank you for the great feedback!
glad to know I'm not the only one interested/using this setup.

I apologise if I sound overbearing, as it seems that you have been using this setup for quite some time. I've just recently picked up a PSVita with remote play as a primary function so it may take some time for me to adapt, but that is exactly the issue. It is a working platform if you adapt to the way it currently functions and find workarounds for some of these limitations. However, that is not to say that it is the most optimal setup, and not exactly the kind of issues potential users of this setup should have to face. The target users for remote play are a subset of a subset of a subset. People who own a PS4, own FFXIV, own a PSVita and have a networking setup that happens to work well for remote play, be it on lan or over the internet at a remote location. It is not a majority share by any means, and remote play despite being a selling feature for the Vita to current ps4/ps3 owners is sometimes poorly implemented and often overlooked, and I highly doubt it would gain much attention as a pressing matter to address, be it by Sony or the game developer. If the mac port of FFXIV was released to market, pulled from the market due to bad performance and not referenced in any public statements by Square Enix for 6/7 months after a public apology, then I highly doubt improving remote play would be as important an issue. However the improvements that could be made are relatively simple and do make the value proposition of using a PSVita to remote play FFXIV far more enticing to potential customers.

I believe you can agree that playing the game on a handheld console does have a particularly nice feeling to it, otherwise you wouldn't have responded so positively ^.^

Lets keep this conversation going and see if there are other interested individuals and possible solutions that can be found.