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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Controller Support
BembridgeScholars
Member
Hello 
I hope you will consider adding controller support to expand accessibility. While some players prefer mouse and keyboard, controllers allow more people to enjoy the game comfortably, including those with disabilities.
Controller support is now standard in many PC games and MMOs. It would be inclusive to implement such an option from the start, rather than trying to haphazardly add it later. Millions of PC gamers use controllers from PlayStation and Xbox on a regular basis.
By supporting different control schemes, you have the opportunity to welcome more types of players into your community. This can help the long-term health and growth of the game. I encourage taking the time to ensure your gameplay is accessible and enjoyable for people of all abilities. An open, diverse player base is beneficial for everyone.
Please take this positive feedback and make the game available to the widest audience possible for everyone to enjoy how they like. Controller compatibility from the start is a small investment that could pay off significantly in goodwill and new players.
I hope you will consider adding controller support to expand accessibility. While some players prefer mouse and keyboard, controllers allow more people to enjoy the game comfortably, including those with disabilities.Controller support is now standard in many PC games and MMOs. It would be inclusive to implement such an option from the start, rather than trying to haphazardly add it later. Millions of PC gamers use controllers from PlayStation and Xbox on a regular basis.
By supporting different control schemes, you have the opportunity to welcome more types of players into your community. This can help the long-term health and growth of the game. I encourage taking the time to ensure your gameplay is accessible and enjoyable for people of all abilities. An open, diverse player base is beneficial for everyone.
Please take this positive feedback and make the game available to the widest audience possible for everyone to enjoy how they like. Controller compatibility from the start is a small investment that could pay off significantly in goodwill and new players.
1
Comments
Ff14 doesnt have PvP (just an afterthought added years later). Ff14 doesnt require re-action or judgement. Every class has ONE rotation of skills which players have performed 10k times on a mostly static boss, and all they have to do is walk out of the incoming aoe dmg zones.
It's a very static game which allows for the slow usage of combination buttons on a controller. Another bad example of an mmo.
FFXIV absolutely has PvP. It doesn't matter if it was in at launch or not. PvP is PvP. It also 100% requires reactions and judgement lol what an ignorant post.
Ok....
So here we have an mmo, ff14, which was designed for PvE, with the boring static rotation based gameplay and controller support from day 1 and no PvP in the horizon
and you want IS, which is the opposite to design AoC with controller support in mind?
No to controllers.
They lower the design quality of combat to fit with their limiting function.
I wandered into the FFXIV Subreddit and did a Subreddit search on "What is PvP like?"
The top result with the most upvotes said:
It exists. Population waxes and wanes. Don't get into this game for the pvp, though. It has other strengths, and pvp is kinda just a side thing.
If you can avoid being triggered by George's abrasive spirit, it looks like he has a point.
Getting back to the topic, though, controller support is going to be additional scope creep that Intrepid doesn't have time for.
After launch? Maybe. If the issues mentioned by the above replies can be overcome.
So while I get why some people would wish for it, this doesn't seem like a huge technical addition to the development, that Intrepid cannot afford (at least for now) because it is out of scope and the time line is already stretched and kinda messy.
I agree that they should not design the combat specifically around controllers.
What makes you think they would have to in order to add basic controller support though?
I don't think that adding controller support is particularly time consuming. UE supports controllers out of the box. Most of the work would be deciding on default keybinds and making a couple of UI-elements for indicating things like which button you have selected or which hotbar you have active assuming they go with hotbar-swapping like FF14.
I'd also like to add that hotbar-swapping isn't the only solution, you could also take a trick from fighting games and allow for binding sequences of buttons to abilities.
"Controller support will likely be something we work on closer to launch.[4] – Steven Sharif"
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/59622/controller-support-ideas
Imo it's silly to play with controller. Lots of time and money wasted to adapt the game for controller. It will impact the game for Mouse + Keyboard users. At the end no one will be happy and your inclusive will be exlusive.
It would work fine lol in fact if Intrepid doesn't add controller support (which it sounds like they will be) then I would be willing to bet that within a few weeks of full release that people will be using controllers perfectly fine through one method or another, just like with almost every game that exists that doesn't have native controller support
They wouldn't have to change the design of anything to add controller support, it's just dumb "elitist" crap lol
It’s very possible and has been done many times 🙂
It works well in other mmos they simply only need to try. And it lets people know they do care about not only one type of playstyle
Correct and There’s other mmos and also rpg who’ve done the same they only need try . Being able to have your game accessible to more people and play styles is always a plus in my opinion 🙂
That’s just selfish basically it has been done before and for many games. It does not diminish a game to have it be able to be enjoyed by people with different playstyles
I don’t understand the elitist stuff why do people want to gatekeep games that can be shared and played by people who prefer a different method of interacting with them it’s very sad
They would have to simplify combat for all of us to accomodate controllers. Would you still be happy?
These people keep repeating "it worked on other mmos". They dont listen to the facts:
Other mmos have small hotbars (eso nw)
Other mmos have slow combat (ff14).
Elitist and gatekeeping? You dont see me complaining about console games not being available on PC. Why? Because they are designed for consoles and preserve their quality.
Any ports are an afterthought, without changes to the design. To PRESERVE quality.
Stop being a victim while at the same time you demand a "yes" to everything you ask...
Okay, let's take a look outside of the MMO genre then if you need more examples. Fighting games have extremely fast-paced reaction-based combat with sometimes hundreds of different moves and they work just fine on any input device you can think of.
Got it....
Too many moves. I just managed to count to 4.
All you do is change the sequence and the fighter changes move sets. Can you do that in an mmo hotbar? No.
Let me give you a better example.
Age of empires 4 recently introduced controller support and made 0 changes to the games design.
Any match against a controller player (you can see it with an icon) is an auto-win.
To give controllers a fair chance against PC players (in a game made for pc), age of empires would have to be simplified
Or create a dedicated controller only queue. IS cant do any of that for AoC.
I played DS and Elden Ring on PC. I have the disadvantage against controller enemies. I dont demand changes to those games to accomodate me.
Same for racing games vs controllers or steering wheels.
Same for fighting games. I wanna start tekken 7 and 8 on my PC but right I cant be bothered. When I do I will get a controller, which I havent done for DS and Elden Ring.
Studios like amszon and bethesda got greedy, ruined their games for larger customer base.
Square enix just makes ff games. Mmo combat wasnt the experience that drew you to that game. And so a lower quality combat and no pvp at launch meant you could enable controller support.
I am done talking about controllers for mmos with proper hotbars and manuevarable/higly mobile ability combat.
There's a character in Tekken 8 that has 197 moves and the lowest move-count character is still at 77.
No, that's not how it works in any fighting game. A sequence of buttons is tied to a single move. This is an alternative design to FF14's implementation of hotbar swapping.
That's fine. I'm not advocating for controller players to be on an even playing field. I just want people to have the option. Besides, the skill gap between keyboard and controller for an RTS is massive compared to an MMO like AoC where you control 1 character and can make a build that primarily uses tab-target spells. Even if controller is far too unviable in PvP or the open world, why not let people who want to hang out in a tavern and chat with guild mates for 3 hours do it from their couch?
You don't need to worry. Steven's indicated that it'll be in-game. George isn't in charge, you're all good.