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 The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You. 

Do you play Cortex Command with a gamepad?
Yes, I always use a gamepad to play Cortex Command. 12%  12%  [ 6 ]
Yes, when the mood strikes me. 10%  10%  [ 5 ]
Yes, but only when playing with friends. 33%  33%  [ 17 ]
No, even when playing with friends. 4%  4%  [ 2 ]
No, I never use a gamepad to play Cortex Command. 42%  42%  [ 22 ]
Total votes : 52

 The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You. 
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Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:18 pm
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Location: Sacramento, CA
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Post The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
Many people here whom play CC [many, not all] play the game using the keyboard and mouse setup. Some I could imagine have never had to use anything but the keyboard and mouse. Usually the scenario of having played with nothing except the keyboard and mouse is because they have not had the means to play using a gamepad, or have never been a guest on another person's computer for a game of Cortex Command. I had a good friend I played the game with about 5 times each week, every week, for three months, before he moved out to the east coast of the U.S. Every time we played whether it was just sandboxing, competing, dueling, or slaughtering the computer, I always ended up using the D-Pad. We tried the setup of 2 players on 1 keyboard, but having one player on a gamepad was far more reasonable.

So after sufficient play time with a gamepad I'd like to offer some feedback/opinion on this control setup, as well as suggest some things that would improve it.
I'll address these things either as a relation to a part of the gamepad directly, and to its function in the game.
However I will also take into consideration the use of a non-analog gamepad at various points.

The Joysticks
These control: mobility, aiming, map-movement, menu-wheel selection, and buy/build menu selection.
The gamepad in question:
http://www.mrgadget.com.au/catalog/images/logitech_dual_action_gamepad.gif

Mobility
This regards to the motion of an actor; steering a craft, making an troop crawl/duck/fly. The general control of motion.
At first, especially after mastering the keyboard controls, this can seem clumsy on the gamepad. This is especially true for flying rocket craft. But I found that all it really takes is practice, and getting use to the nuances of the analog controller. Eventually it is possible to move and control just as well as you could on the keyboard, so everything is okay in this department.

Aiming
The thing that first becomes apparent about this is that you do not have as much smoothness as a mouse would. I am assuming this is a hardware limitation on the gamepad's part. Rather than smoothly going up and down it goes up and down in short increments, which leaves out the minutes and seconds in between. However, similar to mobility, after some practice you'll be sharp-shooting in no time. A big help to aiming is also to just position your troop such that he can aim easily. It's an obviously sensible statement to make, but most give it passing-thought for just that reason.

Map-Movement
This is where the gamepad falls woefully short compared with the Keyboard and Mouse. While holding the button to switch between units and thus freely roaming around the map, you are most vulnerable. You cannot command your troops directly, making your base-defenses haphazard at best. Worst of all is how slowly you traverse the landscape; a soldier flying with his jet-pack (from a basic thrust, not any tap-thrusting involved) can move faster than the D-Pad in this respect. This is not an exaggeration.

Map-mobility is extremely important to being successful in a game of CC. Want to mount an assault on your opponent's base? Got a valuable squad that's pinned down and you want to send reinforcements? Want to peer over at your enemy and see what they're scheming? And what if you have to manage between those while they're all occurring simultaneously? You have to be able to move on the map.

[I would also like to say this restraint of movement on the gamepad is where I got the idea of Command Presence which I used in my last informal review/feedback; the idea that you can only order as far as your presence on the battlefield extends.]

Now one may argue that map mobility is no problem if you've got units positioned at each location you wish to jump to; just hit the switch-unit button and you're across the map. You could drop an empty drop-crate at the edge of the map and have instant mobility, however doing that is just a make-shift solution to a permanent problem. You may even say, "Oh, well, use a setup with two keyboards and mouses." And what if I have 4 people wanting to play together? Again, a permanent solution is needed here.

So...
Recommendations:

    -Using the left joystick would allow for "precision movement" as the gamepad moves now. Using the right joystick (while having the free-cursor enabled) would move the cursor rapidly (anywhere from three to four times the speed of precision movement).

    OR

    -Holding down one of the selection buttons [Previous Body, Next Body] would allow precision movement, and holding down both together would allow rapid movement. This setup would permit both analog and non-analog gamepads to have rapid movement.


Menu-Wheel Selection
No complaints here!


Buy/Build-Menu Selection
Minor thing here.

It can take precious seconds to cycle through every item on a list to get to one on the middle. Even when you're not in combat and you're just building a bunker having to repeatedly cycle through parts individually can be time consuming. So I'd like to make the same recommendation as map-movement: left analog stick goes through items one at a time [precision selection, and the right joystick cycles through around 5-6 items at a time [rapid selection]. I am not sure what could be done for non-analog gamepads though, as pressing any button (except the command-wheel button) takes you out of the buy menu. But pressing the command-wheel button while in the buy menu doesn't do anything, so perhaps that could be used to permit rapid selection for non-analog controllers.


The Buttons
And not the shoulder-buttons mind you, but those 4 buttons on the right-face of the gamepad.
These control: nothing.

I hope that this may change in the future.
Perhaps they can be used to hot-key units, positions on the map, or for saved buy-menu orders. The buttons could very well be general hot-keys that can be interchanged between any of those features (units, map positions, saved orders). I think it would be highly beneficial to utilize these buttons since both analog and non-analog gamepads have them, and it would help to balance competition when playing against a player using a keyboard and mouse setup.


That's it!

Thanks for taking the time to read through this, if you have, and as always related thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. :wink:


Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:31 am
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Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:17 pm
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
Use an Xbox controller if you have a wired one, they will fit in your USB and are good gamepads. I might even buy a wireless receiver.


Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:41 am
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
I'm perfectly comfortable with mouse aiming, and never play multiplayer, so no.

Maybe I could accustom myself to another control method, but I never have been able to in previous attempts, and I see no advantages that outweigh the mouse's instantaneous speed, so I'll probably never bother.

Maybe if I end up getting a wired 360 controller I'll give it a shot though.


Wed Feb 17, 2010 3:41 am
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
I use a PS2 Guitar Hero III Guitar.

...But when I have friends over I use KB + Mouse and if it's one guy over probably he uses keyboard and if it's 3 or 4 then they all use PS2 controllers.


Wed Feb 17, 2010 3:51 am
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
I could use a PS2, PS3, Xbox360, or N64 controller but I prefer the keyboard and mouse combo myself.


Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:19 am
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
Might I direct your attention to the poll at the top? :P


Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:20 am
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
Polls are broken, remember?

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The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again.


Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:25 am
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
Oh...I did not even realize that. I've been out of the loop just a bit.

Otherwise, all I can to is encourage everybody to try out the game with a gamepad so you can share its pitfalls. :P


Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:24 pm
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
No gamepads, and mouse control just makes me vomit uncontrollably.
Keyboard all the way. 2 People can play well on a single one. Or two.


Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:30 pm
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
I normally play mouse+keyboard.
However, I often work a bit on getting familiar with keyboard-only controls, as my setup allows four people to use that layout at the same time (one computer, four keyboards, crazy layouts). But I don't play multi-player often, as this setup is pretty hard to get used to, and four people throwing heavy weapons around decimates levels.

Another way to play multi-keyboard I've tested is VNC-ing into the host computer, disabling screen and sound, and then just remote-keyboarding. This does not scale up though.

A tool like "Teleport" for the mac makes this kind of thing pretty easy.
(http://abyssoft.com/software/teleport/)


Wed Feb 17, 2010 6:48 pm
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
I use keyboard-only for playing with other people or myself, and keyboard + mouse for making sure my mods for for that control scheme. I don't like controlers because you can't quickly open up the FPS counter and MO/terrain viewer with it.


Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:55 pm
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
For the longest time, I used a PS2 gamepad exclusively. I have a few friends over to play often, so the gamepads are definitely handy. I've recently switched to keyboard + mouse for solo, thanks to the growing trend of additional actions mapped to keys, like melee and alt-fire in DarkStorm.

If there was an easy way to map to the unused buttons, the ones mentioned in the OP, I'd definitely switch back. While I do like the way that actors boost diagonally forward when aiming forward with keyboard(gives 'em character), the ability to control the jetpack independently of gun aim makes the gamepad's handling superior.


Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:35 pm
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Joined: Fri May 15, 2009 10:29 am
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
On the matter of gamepads, anyone know how to get ps3 controllers working in 64bit windows 7?


Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:10 am
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
Personally I either use a 360 controller or mouse+keyboard, but I prefer the controller, the pie menu is more intuitive for it.
Mirefrost00 wrote:
If there was an easy way to map to the unused buttons, the ones mentioned in the OP, I'd definitely switch back.

If you have cash to spare then Xpadder is rather excellent.
You can map mouse buttons and motions as well.

Get it here.

JoyToKey is a free alternative, though I can't vouch for it's quality or anything, but it should do what you need.
Here.


Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:43 pm
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Post Re: The Gamepad, Cortex Command, and You.
I use a wireless Xbox 360 controller (I don't even own an Xbox, but I really like the controller) Cortext Command play quite well with a dual joystick controller IMO, the controls are simple yet complete enough to use it well.

I find mouse aiming quite tedious in this game, so I only play with the controller.

Edit :
Petethegoat wrote:
JoyToKey is a free alternative, though I can't vouch for it's quality or anything, but it should do what you need.
Here.


JoyToKey works well once you figure out the button naming conventions. My suggestion is to assign letters and numbers to random stuff, then press and play with the controller with notepad open to figure what's doing what.
Program also lacks a few features like saving and copying a keymap. You have to make a new one from scratch every time.


Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:46 pm
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