Yo been a minute! Killroy here!
Wanted to talk about somethings I still notice and some things that have apparently been altered that I don’t particularly like. So lets talk about button mapping for a moment.
Too many bindings not enough buttons:
I have been playing around for while now on how to adjust button mappings to be more fleshed out and smooth. The standard button scheme is kind of weird. Certain buttons and their placement prevent for fluid transitions and cause clunky play in my opinion. However, this would not be so bad if there were not so many inputs on the controller to begin with that prevent me from truly rearranging things like I would want. Here are some examples:
Vision and Thermal bound to D-pad Up and down:
This is slightly problematic as I have to take my thumb off the analog stick in order to toggle this on and off. I should be able to engage thermal and cloak on the move to conserve time. So I bound vision to the R3 button. While isolate is still on the D-Pad I normally use this while stationary anyways.
Weapon / Gear changing:
This is something I am really frustrated about. Weapon changing should feel comfortable and transition seamlessly. I should not be forced to stop movement or obscure my field of view to change weapons. Weapon changing may occur in the heat of battle. I.E. changing from a net gun to a plasma cast to a melee weapon. These quick changes are not fit for a weapon wheel and leave the predator stuck either hitting “last weapon” hoping to get what he wanted, or selecting the weapon wheel. I would rather run away and change weapons. Which again, forces me to break pressure on the fire team.
Now, I have seen there is a cycle gear button. For the life of me I don’t know why you all haven’t created a cycle weapon button. This would cut down on the number of Bindings significantly. The reason I say this, is the Weapon 1 button (Plasma Caster / Claws) is an all in one button. Activating the plasma caster automatically gives you the claws, and visa versa.
That said, Weapon 3 - 4 are the selectable weapons you bring with you. Weapons 1 - 2 (Plasma Caster / Claws) are simply worthless and redundant. If you had a button input that allowed you to cycle say Basic weapons (caster / melee) and another button to cycle your “advanced weapons” (sword / bow… etc.). You are essentially making the weapon wheel pointless. Yes would I have to alternate between the two. Sure, but that’s faster and less intrusive than forcing a giant weapon wheel on the screen.
Another Option is making the weapon wheel only for WEAPONS and not gear. This way when holding it you can simple click on the d-pad up down left or right. For those of us who want more control over their weapons and don’t like the idea of weapon swapping. Just leave cycle gear a thing and your good.
Swapping weapons in trees:
Now… I don’t know why this happened but I don’t like it. I should be able to change my weapons to anything I want in the trees. If I am priming to leap from the trees down on a target. I should not have to switch to a melee once I land. This takes the whole ambush idea and throws it in the trash. This forces me to use my plasma caster more because my transition from ranged to melee is seamless. I shoot, I leap, I land, I claw. Vs. the bow where: I shoot, I leap, I land, I switch, I slash. With the insanely slow weapon change animation this really puts me behind the clock and is entirely unnecessary!
The only reason I can think that justifies this choice is that people complained that they accidentally swap to the wrong weapon when trying to shoot ranged weapons. Leaving them exposed in the trees with a sword or something else in their hand. If you fix the button inputs and mapping issue this no long becomes a problem. Case in point my button mapping (without weapon wheel):
WEAPON 1 (Claw / Caster): Square
WEAPON 3 (Bow, etc.): Right D-pad
WEAPON 4 (Sword, etc): Left D-Pad
Cycle Gear: Down D-pad.
All my weapons I need. No issues of mis-selecting… no need to not be able to change weapons in trees. However, this is the best I can get because there are TOO MANY BUTTON INPUTS AND NOT ENOUGH BUTTONS.
Last but not least… FIX Tooltips:
For god sakes fix the tool tips to show the correct input. I rebound my “eat pork” button and now when I walk up to porky… it shows no associated input to press. It just says “eat”… Makes it hard to learn a new button scheme this way.
Anyways lemme know your thoughts!