GamePad Blues

[Alweth]

I've recently been playing coop Magicka on a single machine, which is great, but I find the gamepad controls to be fairly ineffective compared to the keyboard and mouse. Specifically, choosing elements is at least twice as slow because you have to press two directions to get one element, and you're stuck with your thumb doing all the work. I feel like I spend way too much time prepping spells and running for my life and not enough time actually casting spells (that being the whole point of Magicka).

I was wondering if anyone has any experience or suggestions on how to make the gamepad controls more efficient. Ideally, I'd be able to queue each element with the press of one button.

 

[zenstar]

There were a good couple of discussion threads about gamepads and better ways to set them up in this forum somewhere.
All sorts of suggestions and ideas were bandied about by people who liked using the controller.

I suggest using the search and seeing what you can turn up. I'm not sure what the final verdicts were.

But you're right that the keyboard is far more competent at lining up elements. Just make sure that you know how to cast revive on the controller and then take the "healer" role ^_^ much more relaxed beaming friends with green beams while they circlestrafe the enemy.

 

[unmerged(275236)]

Hi Alweth
Also one quite comprehensive post on this subject over at steam. Really good stuff from member Emencie.

Magicka Gampad control Script and Instructions
Provided by Emencie
Also X-box controls, PS3 and Wii Classic with contributions from Neoraistlin , kragol and TriMat

 

[tului]

I can't wait to see what possibilities the Kinect for PC brings about. I picture actually "casting" my spells by wiggling my fingers and stuff.

 

[Alweth]

Thanks for the info. The developers should think about adding an alternate control scheme option.

 

[metatoaster]

I think the single best and easiest improvement to gamepad controls would be to add a "repeat last element" button, bound by default to the currently unused L button. When playing on keyboard I usually use Arcane + fill up with fire or frost when in a panic (which in Magicka is: most of the time ), or even just fill up with one element, and this new button would allow me to cast this almost at the same speed on gamepad.

Edit: I really hope Magicka devs eventually add fully customizable controls for keyboard and gamepads, with the option of assigning elements to single buttons/combination of buttons. The Steam forums thread mentioned above seems to have great info, but getting that setup to work requires installing an unsigned driver and starting Windows in Test Mode every time, which is a definite security issue, not to mention a big hassle.
Also, multi-keyboard and mouse support like Trine and Shadowgrounds would definitely be awesome.

 

[unmerged(275236)]

One could also argue that the security settings in Windows 7 are shooting well above it's target. Any security that makes the "using" close to impossible will be lowered or worse, deactivated. Thus rendering the user with close to no security. But that's for another forum.

If you want to be able to "use" your Win-7 computer. "Solution number 2" in this post should work, and you will still be able to go back to using full "security".

 

[metatoaster]

Windows 7's security model works perfect for me without any tweaks, thanks. I find it an excellent compromise between the "always admin" Windows XP and the constant password prompts of Linux to alter system files. It may not be great for small developers looking to get their drivers signed, but the overall approach is good.

Thanks for the link, but I probably won't do what you suggest. Deeply altering your system using third-party tools just to configure controls for one game that should include configurable controls in the first place is just ridiculous. And what do I do after getting used to those controls, when I go at a friend's house and we want to play coop on his laptop? Start editing his Windows system files?