Gamepad/SteamDeck/Console Feedback (Good and Bad) - Feel free to add input to consolidate

I just wanted to take a few minutes to congratulate GGG on the amazing progress they've made on gamepad input for POE2. It's a dramatic step forward from the control scheme on POE1. I believe Johnathan mentioned that they have a dedicated team working on the design and implementation of gamepad input for POE2 and it shows, but I'd like to offer my feedback (good and bad) on my experience playing POE2 on the SteamDeck.

The good:

Spoiler
* Being able to bind more keys (specifically adding L1/R1 and DPAD to the skill bar) is amazing. Being locked to basically only using the face buttons in ABXY in POE1 was awful.

* Being able to rebind the skill bar toggle was absolutely needed.

* Being able to toggle targeting modes is a game changer having this be a toggle that I can put on the hotbar was absolutely the right decision because it allows me to focus boss or rares on demand.

* Being able to change the interact button was absolutely needed and much appreciated.

* Having WASD in the original design made gamepad feel more like a first class citizen. Absolutely precise movement cannot be understated.

* Radial menus are amazing. It's so much quicker to get to submenus for the character.



The bad:
Spoiler
* Targeting is a mess right now. In both dynamic and locked mode, my character often targets mobs off-screen or even nothing when spamming a skill and I can't figure out why.

* Reactive spells like Cold Snap needing you to target and face the mob feels bad. Playing Frost Bolt and freezing a whole screen as I'm running and blasting and I've got to spin wiggle the stick to try to face the mobs to the left, right, or behind me spamming Cold Snap. Often I'm wasting mana while it casts with no valid target.

* Combos that require you to target a projectile or object from another skill are nearly impossible to use with gamepad because you can't target the projectile at all. The two skills that interact with Frost Bolt (I'm spacing on the names right now.) just don't feel good because it feels entirely random if it works. Most of the time it's cast at the player or a mob randomly instead of the projectile.

* Looting/Interacting while in combat is nearly impossible with gamepad. While I can target interactables or loot on the ground with the right stick sometimes, a lot of the time the interact indicator just won't show up and I have to wait until I've killed all the mobs on screen (and sometimes mobs off screen). Because we target with right stick I have to do this awful claw grip every time I want to loot or interact in target wiggle the joystick randomly and spam the interact button and often an unable to get the interact indicator to appear.

This is particularly devastating for game mechanics that require you to interact on the run like the Trial of the Sekhemas Escape rooms because it's nearly impossible to target the Death Crystals when there's even a single mob on the screen meaning you have to either overlevel and kill everything quickly or just accept that you're going to take a huge honor hit for the run if you're forced to pick one of these rooms.

* BUG: Stash with 'Y' button is missing from the Stash at the end of Trial of the Sekhemas and we can't drag things into it manually even. I'm not sure if this is a gamepad issue or an issue with the stash implementation in that location.

* Spell canceling (this may be non exclusive to gamepad). I often want to do something like drop a firewall and use a projectile skill right after. Because the first skill has a cast time (even a very short one), I often cancel the first skill with the second, making the game feel unresponsive leading me to spamming skills.

* POE1 right stick behavior in inventory is missing in POE2. We used to be able to jump to the left/right/top/bottom of inventory or jump between inventories using the right stick, but we're stuck moving one slot at a time in POE2 making inventory management even MORE cumbersome than before.

* Losing two skill hotbar slots to the bar switch and four to the different contextual interact buttons sucks.



Suggestions:

Spoiler

* Give us a separate button to interact with the closest non-mob interactable so we can loot and interact in combat.
* Also/Alternatively allow us to interact/loot with click to move with mouse (SteamDecks have trackpads).
* Re-implement the right stick inventory behavior from POE1.
* When using a currency orb let us use the right stick to jump between valid items in the inventory screen (they're already highlighted so I assumed this was how it would work, but alas).
* Make reactive skills target the closest valid target (i.e. Frozen mobs with Cold Snap) regardless of facing/targeting when in dynamic mode or change the dynamic mode logic to be smarter about selecting valid targets for reactive skills.
* Give us ICD style indicators on the hotbar when skills are casting so we can time followup skills better and not cancel them or allow us to turn off spell canceling for specific spells.
* Find a way for us to use the skill combos that target projectiles or objects. I have no good ideas for how to do this, but not having access to them sucks.


SteamDeck specific:
Spoiler

* Text on screen (like the NPC names or object names) is way too small on the SteamDeck screen and theres no way to scale it. Items on the ground likewise are too small, but this can be remediated with loot filters to a point.

* Item tooltips on the left of the screen cutoff sometimes (especially when viewing advanced info)

* Nice to have, L4/L5 R4/R5 native support via SteamInput API (I would replace the DPAD on the hotbar with these if I could because it's such a pain to reach). Obviously I can rebind these to DPAD already through SteamInput, but it would be nice if they were supported and could be bound to non-hotbar things.

* A lot of games detect the SteamDeck and have a lower graphics setting default for them. This would help a lot of new or non-computer savvy players. The defaults are really bad for SteamDeck.

* Disabling the mouse in gamepad mode is unfortunate. I have a trackpad and can send ALT/CTRL, scroll, and other keystrokes from SteamInput. I'd really like to be able to interact in the PC way in the inventory screen.

* The sidebar that had a list of stash tabs was amazing for quickly navigating the stash on gamepad and I think it's missing in POE2 (I didn't see it.) I have 100+ stash tabs so getting to the end of them is going to be a huge pain.

* Let me just hit Enter and start typing. With gamepad mode, I have to hit Enter, then A, then type.

* Quest indicators (the red thing like in the Valley of Titans) are nearly invisible on the minmap)

Last edited by zzTest_#6310 on Dec 11, 2024, 11:11:52 AM
Last bumped on Dec 13, 2024, 10:55:28 AM
I feel you on Steam Deck. For the EA, I’m streaming to my living room Nvidia Shield with sunshine/moonlight at the moment.

I was pleasantly surprised how the EA runs on steam deck unoptimized. All targeting, aiming fixes that get patched in to PC will affect the Steam Deck. Once they get the PC kinks worked out, I expect GGG to optimize for the Deck.
"
I feel you on Steam Deck. For the EA, I’m streaming to my living room Nvidia Shield with sunshine/moonlight at the moment.

I was pleasantly surprised how the EA runs on steam deck unoptimized. All targeting, aiming fixes that get patched in to PC will affect the Steam Deck. Once they get the PC kinks worked out, I expect GGG to optimize for the Deck.


I was honestly surprised it runs so well too. I think part of the reason is that the pre-compiled and cloud synced shader cache is amazing for devices that have identical hardware. Steam is GOATed for this feature. Every relaunch of the client Steam synced more shaders and the game ran better and better.

I honestly think from a marketing perspective they absolutely should get SteamDeck Verified as soon as they can. There's still a lot of people I know with a SteamDeck that won't purchase or attempt to play any game that doesn't have the verified badge and the Steam Store opens to the "Great on Deck" category by default on the SteamDeck. There's a lot of "casual" gamers I know that _only_ play video games on SteamDeck that would absolutely play on the SteamDeck if it was verified.
Last edited by zzTest_#6310 on Dec 11, 2024, 11:10:32 AM
I play on Steam Deck and would really love a zoom feature. The game is fine without it, I just want to take a closer look at stuff.
Last edited by goldstarbrother#3532 on Dec 12, 2024, 5:27:42 PM
The SteamDeck has a built in magnifier. Hold down the Steam button and it will tell you all the shortcuts to use it.

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