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what's a good gamepad
ethion
Member UncommonPosts: 2,888
After thinking about keyboards I'm thinking that AoC would be best played with a gamepad. Question is does anyone know a good gamepad that would work well with AoC? I'm kinda wanting one that lets me assign sequences of keys to a button so I can create simple macros.
Anyone have any experience with a good gamepad that you think would work well with AoC and has some basic macro capabilities for maybe 8 buttons or so?
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Ethion
Comments
I havent been in AoC yet, but I play games often with my Logitech gamepad, which plays well, it has 10 configurable buttons and so far worked with everything I had.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Best bet is to get a 360 Controller. Make sure its the one labeled for PC.
Not only has it become a standard for "Games for Windows", which Age of Conan is, future development of the console version might leak some intuitiveness over to the PC version's controls as well.
No macros or anything though.
You can use any 360 controller all you have to do is get an update from the microsoft download page for it. Thats what I did.
I have been using a Nostromo n52 for about a decade and OH MY GODZ how did I ever play a game without it? I now use the N52TE and it is even nicer. http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=390404
I have a Fang-1000 and a Wolfking-something (blue one) that are now both relegated to dust collection systems. They are just not as comfortable, programable and my hand fits the Nostromo perfectly. I had evil parents and because of this I was forced to learn classical music and have played piano for about the last 20 years. Even with great typing skills and strong fingers the other gamepads seem less intuitive and functional.
I am going to purchase the Warrior XXtreme thing to try with Age of Conan... just because it looks really neato. http://www.directron.com/kbwolwxx2788bl.html I have no idea how it would work but it looks neat and has a large surface area to collect dust later.
I know it sounds crazy, but I have these two long legs that do nothing to aid my gaming skills... and when they are not tucked under my butt they are bored. Are there any programmable foot pedals? I think adding some fun shield macros on to them would be neat too.
OK, now for my obligatory rant...
I don't WANT a game that has been dumbed down to be played on a joystick!!!
I want more not less! I want options and functions and things to do with my fingers and toes!
Listen up you moronic computer designers, Don't you DARE ruin my computer games by turning them in to some Nintendo drivel for the kiddies! They have their stupid little joystick toys attached to the TV. Computers are better than those pieces of junk. Don't you dare write my computer games down to that level of pablum, with their lobotimized drool-proof joysticks!
Take your silly joysticks and go far away from my computer games! I have a g11 keyboard with 18 programmable hotkeys and all the bells and whistles, g9 mouse that really needs even more buttons to be better! and an N52TE that really rocks... and what am I wanting Morer More More!
By the time you read this I will have ordered a Warrior XXtreme and perhaps some foot-pedals and what do you idiots in the gaming industry doing? You are making the games for joysticks!!
"The reality of the poor in America isn't the difference between The Haves and The Have Nots, it is the difference between The Haves and The Have Lots."
Three niffty foot stompers
that I can use to beat the socks off of all of you in AoC
http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/fs-savant-elite.htm
Dat's dem up dere
Foot Pedals For The Win !
"The reality of the poor in America isn't the difference between The Haves and The Have Nots, it is the difference between The Haves and The Have Lots."
I am using the 360 controller with
Pinnacle Gamer Profiler
I have used it in WoW, Guild Wars, EQ2, Oblivion and so many others.
I have finite control over what each button does, how it is pressed, etc,
I see AoC as an excellent game for a joystick..and maybe the Nostromo as an addon for keypress actions.
Getting excited
That pinnacle software looks like the perfect ticket. Do you have any compatability issues with it? I'm looking at that wireless logitech gamepad www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/pc_gaming/gamepads/devices/264&cl=us,en. That has 10 extra buttons and I'm thinking I can use the pinnacle software to maybe setup shifted options for macros so I can put my special combo openers on buttons, use the direction pad for attacking, and then have a shift key where it makes the combo openers macros that automatically do the follow up attacks. This way I have the best of both worlds. I can manually do the attacks when I'm in a finesse situation and I can play the attacks via a macro when I'm wanting to save my fingers.
Can you do all that with the pinnacle software? Also one thing I was also thinking was having a button that just kinda endlessly rotated through attacks. You know, press one button and it does 1 2 3 1 2 3 etc. Does the pinnacle software allow that kinda function?
I've never used a gamepad before to play a game like this. For people that have would you setup one joystick for mouselook and the other one for movement? Seems like movement would be best on the left and mouselook on the right so you could use the 4 buttons above mouselook for combos and the direction pad above the left joystick for the 5 direction attacks? Up left right and the lower left and right for the other two attacks?
any thoughts about that setup?
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Ethion
Oh yeah! 3 pedals for adjusting your shielding :P
Now the only question is can the pinnacle software work with multiple control devices like a gamepad and a set of foot pedals.
Now we need a device that can detect eye movement and eye blinks and we can be set for UBER control!
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Ethion
The settings are in depth for shifted keys, F keys.
What I did is treat the joystick like a mouse with keypad options. I could use the left stick for WASD, and then use a shoulder button to do right mouse and left mouse. then I set up the triggers to do TAB/Shift tab to move through targets...then my face buttons became things like inventory, map, etc...
As to your question of moving through skills, I could see this...if the game does it. Guild Wars had this feature where you could cycle through your skills...so, this has to be a game function. Example : Half Life 2 I used the pad control (the directional pad) to cycle through weapons...
Also note the buttons can be made as sensitive as you wish, so turning can be as fast or as slow as you want depending on how far you move the stick...
There is a lot it does...and it can be assigned to all games differently as it auto launches the games for you..
Yup...it is good stuff, and worth the price of admission
Good luck
I use a Nostromo N52 for my left hand. Works great for any game. A G5 Logitech mouse for my right.
SHOHADAKU
Like most people have said, the 360 controller, works for just about anything.
n52
n52te is cooler but razer sucked helping belkin, it's actually worse than the good ol n52.
n52 plus my 9 buttons mouse (G9) and you can throw me anything, that once I master the style nothing can stop me ^_^
I am going to agree with the xbox 360 controller. It's really comfortable and the driver can be DL from Microsoft's site.
I've never looked into a game pad for MMO style games before so my question is...
How does interacting with clickable things work? Like vendors, the bank and inventory... do you still use the mouse as usual, or can you hold a button on the controller and have mouse movement with one of the sticks on the controller?
Does the 360 controller really have the functionality? I mean I recall in WoW I had a solid 20 buttons hot keyed with shift this and ctrl that..
Do you assign say your left button and say left trigger to act as you shift and ctrl buttons thus giving the rest of your buttons different meaning? I assume so but just want to check.. that sounds badass and I'm unhappy I managed to not find this out sooner..
EDIT: Also.. I guess you would need a wired controller correct? There's no usb add on to keep it wireless is there?
It seems that the computer is able to handle multiple input devices without any problems. I have the n52 in my left hand, G9 mouse for the right, Wolfking Warrior above and to the right of the keyboard near my mouse. Everything works fine, even though I have the same commands and similar macros mapped to many of the devices and the G11 keyboard as well.
So I am guessing adding the foot peddals will not be a problem either.
"The reality of the poor in America isn't the difference between The Haves and The Have Nots, it is the difference between The Haves and The Have Lots."
There is a free program that may be an alternative to the above mentioned pinnacle software, it's called Joy2key and can be found here. I have not tested it yet myself, but I have heard good things about it ie it lets you freely map keyboard strokes and mouse functions to a controller (well up to 16 controllers actually).
PS. There is also a program called Switchblade, that should do the same thing (and I remember reading about it on wow forums), so that too may be worth checking out if you prefer the free alternatives.
Edit: the name of the program is JoyToKey not Joy2Key. That may make your googling a bit easier.
Now thats a cool idea. If they weren't so damn expensive I'd get the 3 pedal one right now. 3 pedals, 3 shields - coincidence? I think not.
you would need 4 pedals as there are 4 commands for shields