Tweak to the Crafting Menu when playing with Controller

[SpiegelZinker]

Introduction:

Since the new crafting menu has come out a lot of time has passed and I spent that time trying to adjust to the menu.

Before anyone says that I'm just hating on the new menu, I would like to say that, when playing with a keyboard and mouse, it's surprisingly decent. A lot of changes are of course directed to new players, but that's not a big issue.

What is an issue is how the new menu plays with a controller. I understand that Don't Starve isn't exactly developed with controllers in mind but it seems as if the new menu was only directed at keyboard and mouse players, with the controller support being added at the end. Why it feels that way I will explain now:

 

Seperation of Directions:

The old menu used to use the interface when pressing CAPS on a keyboard, meaning your character would stop and you'd control the menu with the left analogue stick. What I liked about this is that Up and Down controlled the tabs, while Left and Right controlled the selected item. It went together really well.

The new menu, of course, doesn't work that way, as both filters and items arent aligned in a line, but a grid, with two rows for the filters and X rows for items. That means that the seperation for filter and item is not present.

Actions while crafting + Stick Controls:

The new menu, with Keyboard and Mouse, gives the ability to do certain actions when its open. Like harvesting, digging, chopping and so on. On a controller you can't do any of this as the face buttons are used to do actions inside the menu. So far so good, as it's the same as in the old menu. What baffles me though is that walking isn't disabled. You can still walk with the left stick, which on paper doesn't sound bad, until you realise that it means you have to control the menu with the right stick. It feels awkward to use the right stick in one moment and then quickly switch to the face buttons to craft the item, unless you'd use your index finger to hit the button, which isn't possible with certain controllers like the Steam Controller. And if you want to change a skin, that's mapped to the D-Pad, also meaning you need to switch from Stick to Pad (though to be fair that was also mapped like this in the old menu).

The Pin-Bar, oh the Pin-Bar...

The Pin-Bar is, in my opinion, a great innovation with the new menu. While the menu is generally targeted at newer players, the Pin-Bar is great for something like a Boss Fight, where fast crafting is key to success. WIth a Mouse and Keyboard you can simply click on the item you want to craft. With a controller it's, of course, a different story. The Bar is basically attached to your inventory (Not visually but from a control perspective), as you control it with the right stick. So to access it you need to get your cursor to the leftest point of your inventory and then press up with the stick. Seeing as it's part of the inventory you do actions with the D-Pad. To craft an item you need to press down on the Pad. Sounds good right? Well by pressing either left or right you switch the page of the bar! I can't tell you how many times it has happened that I wanted to craft a torch and accidentaly switched pages to be attacked by Charlie. You could avoid this by just having one page, but it makes the Pin-Bar less useful. This is something that absolutely needs to be changed!

The Searchbar:

The Searchbar is pretty much useless. It takes ages to search anything with a controller, which just goes to show that this menu isn't optimized for controllers. Unless you have a keyboard attached this is way to clunky. And also, on Nintendo Switch typing takes you to a different screen, so you can't see the game while typing. When the update comes out there (I don't think Switch has got that version yet) and you want to play multiplayer anything could happen when typing! Darkness! Hounds! A fire! Perhaps you could implement an ingame search?

 

What to take from this:

An entirely new crafting menu isn't going to happen, understandibly. But I really want to see a specialized version of the current menu for Controllers. Something like the backpack, you know? The integrated backpack layout used to be only for controller players. But lots of people like it! And now you can use it with Keyboard and Mouse! And maybe something similar could be done with the crafting menu. Just a few tweaks to make it function better for Console Players and Controller Users.

Here are some ideas which I have:

• A Search Feature similar to how it was in the old PlayStation Store (See the screenshot), meaning that you got all the letters on one line and can choose them with up or down. Maybe also a convinience feature of skipping 3 letters by pressing the Stick?
• A Cross Filter-Item Option, to restore the seperation of Horizontal and Verical movement. (Filters are one direction, items are another)
• Maybe something like pinning items, but with filters! Let players choose certain filters they would use very often and make them function somewhat like the old tabs used to. You could access the filters pinned filters immediatley while still being able to open the menu with a different button.

 

If you read all of that, first off thank you, and secondly, feel free to post your opinion below.

Goodbye! - Spiez

[Martinarse]

Well written post, I play this on ps4 or I should say played. Since the crafting menu change I've given up on the game. Everyone said just give it time you'll find it better than the old one. I've tried multiple times over months  to get used to it but it's so slow. I die trying to make a torch like a noob. Even the pin menu, which in theory I see why it's a fresh idea and some like it but still find it useless. I end up making 75 percent of the items in a game anyway. Pinning a handful of items for me didn't make much difference.i check in once in awhile hoping for a change but I'm not holding my breath, as I loved this game and played frequently to not playing at all. Fingers crossed one day. Klei fixes it for us oldschool console players.