I think we need to just keep stressing the point, over and over and over, until they actually deliver.
The game looks gorgeous, even running it on Low with my laptop, but the controls remain very cumbersome for me.
It's really hard to overstate how uncomfortable it is simply to explore the environments. It took me about an hour to finish the download, then mess with some settings, get rid of a mod I had downloaded re-verify files etc. But I was excited and I'm having more fun with the chromatic orb than I expected lol. I enjoy looking around to try and spot the new bits here and there, because the game really is beautiful. There are many things I love about it. But I must have tried to drag marque select like half of dozen times, same for ctrl+a to select all, or just pause by hitting spacebar, even though I know that doesn't work in this game. My muscle memory is way too engrained though, from like 20 some odd years of playing RPGs which used a more standard RTS control/select scheme. These are motions I make automatically. They are habitual and not something I can just undo with mindfulness at this point. When the controls don't work like my hands expect them to it is beyond frustrating, and it definitely pulls me out of the game.
The best analogy I can make, is Y axis inversion. If someone is used to playing with their Y Axis inverted, a game which doesn't accommodate that is essentially unplayable. Or to put it the other way round, if every game forced all players to use Y axis inversion when they are used to playing regular, half the audience would go instantly insane. This is what the current control scheme feels like to me.
I skateboard goofy. Its how I learned, and its how my whole sense of balance works. I could never just start skating regular at this point, it simply doesn't work that way. I would trip and fall constantly and probably just throw my board off a cliff, if for some reason I was forced to kick or plant with my other foot.
I write and draw and use scissors etc with my right hand. I cannot simply decide one day to start doing that with my left and expect satisfying results. That's not how it works. The current control scheme makes me think what it must have been like to be a left-handed person forced to write with their right hand by some cruel grade school teacher, despite all their instincts and natural inclinations and aptitudes telling them to favor the left. Controls in computer games I think are pretty similar.
I very much hope they take our feedback on this point into account, since its been pretty consistent from day 1. Many posts have expressed this same wish for them to accommodate us too. I would also like to see a driving cam WASD (with QE or mouse drag for rotation) for players who are more familiar with that mode of control as well.
Also, it's not exactly controls related, but the friendly body block is still another thing I wish they'd address. Being trapped in place by another party member happened to me couple times before even leaving the Nautiloid. I wish we could move through friendly space to reach a target without having to jump or do anything extra. Hurdling over a teammate like this is NBA Jams looks weirder to me than if they would just briefly step aside to let us pass, or if I could ghost through them.
Anyhow my main feedback for the basic movement controls remains basically the same here in patch 6. I'm sure it seems like a fixation to people for whom its not an issue, but it really is rough for me. I dont begrudge people who prefer the DOS scheme, but I do hope Larian will consider those of us here who find the current control system really counter intuitive and hard to get beyond in BG3.
Last edited by Black_Elk; 15/10/21 07:07 AM.
