Controller Support/Optimization

[Jussatoon]

Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together are PC games first and foremost, and therefore primarily uses keyboard and mouse for gameplay. Controller support was added later, but it was more of an afterthought, and that combined with Klei's likely limited knowledge on controller gameplay at the time made for a pretty bad experience. 

However, Rotwood is proof of Klei having a better understanding of controller gameplay nowadays. The additional controller schemes they provided to Don't Starve Together had potential, but they didn't commit to being more customizable with button combinations. 

It'll be a long while before Don't Starve Elsewhere fully releases, and a bit longer afterwards before it arrives on consoles; even so, there is still the PC controller playstyle to think about. 

My hope is that, since this is a new game, and Klei presumably has a better understanding of controllers, the game ends up being more controller-friendly out the gate, and can work towards being improved if neccessary. 

[Kwaik]

I absolutely agree. As there is still specific functions/characters (cough cough Wortox) that stink on a controller 

 

But Rotwood is an entirely different genre. With an incredibly simple gameplay loop 

[Jussatoon]

2 minutes ago, Kwaik said:

But Rotwood is an entirely different genre. With an incredibly simple gameplay loop 

True, but like I said, the additional controller schemes showed potential, as button combinations could prove to be a solution for more complex gameplay; they just didn't commit enough. 

[hhh2]

6 hours ago, Jussatoon said:

True, but like I said, the additional controller schemes showed potential, as button combinations could prove to be a solution for more complex gameplay; they just didn't commit enough. 

Button chords are the only solution, because Don't Starve is sufficiently complex.  controllers only have around 22 unique inputs, where a keyboard has 80 or more.  A keyboard is like a whole pad for your fingers to stretch with the muscles in the palm and press many buttons.

 

Button chords are kind of hardcore.  You almost never see them for regular actions in games.

7 hours ago, Jussatoon said:

My hope is that, since this is a new game, and Klei presumably has a better understanding of controllers,

My hope is that Klei engineers build the game with the Steam Input API, so I can play it with the new Steam Controller's trackpads and gyroscope, and it can all have the right glyphs, and the community can craft the perfect controller layout.

I have this crazy controller layout where I control the inventory bar with R1 and R2 and Y and B and A to activate items.  It means that you can do all actions and navigate the inventory with only one hand.  And L1 and L2 turn the camera left and right. 

It's super counter intuitive, but it is far superior to the default control scheme.

[Mike23Ua]

4 minutes ago, hhh2 said:

Button chords are the only solution, because Don't Starve is sufficiently complex.  controllers only have around 22 unique inputs, where a keyboard has 80 or more.  A keyboard is like a whole pad for your fingers to stretch with the muscles in the palm and press many buttons.

 

Button chords are kind of hardcore.  You almost never see them for regular actions in games.

My hope is that Klei engineers build the game with the Steam Input API, so I can play it with the new Steam Controller's trackpads and gyroscope, and it can all have the right glyphs, and the community can craft the perfect controller layout.

Play BlazBlue Entropy Effect X on an Xbox then come back and tell me how many useable button inputs a controller has.

to put it as politely and as bluntly as I possibly can: Klei did not commit to it.