Gamepad Advice

[Doug1492]

Hi All, being a noob (mature, family with kids though) to the game (I have played D&D on and off over many years) and suffering from RSI I'm looking at using a gamepad to play the game. I've checked through the threads and there are a few people using them, I'm just not sure on a couple of things.

Can you use PS2 gamepads with DDO?

Specifically I've seen a gamepad with a built in QWERTY keyboard for the PS2 which would be ideal for me to use, no need to swap between keyboard and gamepad so often and I wouldn't have to fiddle around with complicated setups on the gamepad (the link to it is here on amazon, not trying to advertise by the way - http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=NYKO+ITYPE+2+JOYPAD+WITH+CHATPAD+KEYBOARD&x=12&y=14).

If you can, has anyone tried playing with this gamepad? If yes was there much work involved getting it to work (i.e. extra bits of hardware for connections or extra software on the PC)?

If no but you think it could work any advise before I go ahead and purchase it?

Thanks for any help.

Doug

[Jayfunked]

i'm pretty sure is a no for PS2 pads

Ps3 and Xbox 360 have USB connections so they work fine.

[Jayfunked]

Theres a thread somewhere with different set-ups. Here is mine which only needs a keyboard or mouse when i'm organising.

My X-box controller set up

soft lock is important in this set-up and needs to be on.

Shift is my friend

L trigger - shift (when held = in brackets) ...............R Trigger- Attack (use orb)
L bumper - strafe ..............................................R Bumper - Strafe

L analogue stick - Move.............................................R stick - mouse
L stick button- jump (LMB).....................................R stick button - shield (RMB)


D-pad
.............................Up Next party member (hotbar 2)
L- 'Self' (hotbar 1) .........................................R- Next Item (Hotbar 3)
...............................Down Next Monster (Hotbar 4)


Back button Map open/shut (Mouselook on/off).................Start button [see below action button grouping AB XY]

X - item 1 (item 6)
Y - item 2 (item 7)
B - item 3 (item 8)
A - item 4 (item 9)
Start - item 5 (item 10)

So 4 hotbars are directly accessible and I have them grouped on each bar per type.
Melee skills and healing bar 1
Thief skills/Spells etc bar 2
Weapon sets Bar 3
Life savers (potions/clickies) on 4

Bar 5, 6 and 7 hold all my change of items for different situations (haggle/traps/buff clickies) bar 5 is my perfect set up for quickly getting back to optimum gear.

Bar 8 and 9 = Resistance potions/stat modifiers cats grace etc and other utility potions/scrolls/abilities/ and spell ingredients/arrows/toolkits for # count

Bars 5-9 are less heat of the moment so i can afford to use the slower xbox mouse mode or the actual mouse to do this without worrying about dying.

[vyedma]

I use a mouse and this gaming pad.. .works great

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/5123&cl=us,en

[Doug1492]

How do you actually set up the controller, i.e. is there any software that you have to use on your PC to map the keys (for your various PC/PS3/XBox controllers)? Or is it all handled in game?

I've also brought that controller to test it out. The keyboard is on a USB adaptor so should hopefully work and if it does I'll get myself a PS/PS2 to USB adaptor for the game controller part of this set up which should allow me to play it on the PC.

If it all works out as I hope (though I do expect this experiment to come a cropper at some point) I'll let everyone know as I'd be well happy to play this game using a game controller with built in keyboard.

Thanks for the input so far :)

[JakLee7]

Yes you can use a gamepad - no I wouldn't do it
Yes you can manually set keys - dang that took along time

They make some different game pads & such that are designed to work with these types of games, but I have found that a mouse & keyboard are the best soultions for most people. If you are set on using a game pad just a few words of warning
1. it will be glitchy - it is on M&K, but it is harder to recover with a pad
2. It will take some time - if you are set on it, be willing to spend the time to tweak it, it will be awhile before it is comfortable
3. Don't feel bad if you quit & got back to M&K - I did and it works much better for me (of course I used different controller than the one you are showing, though I think the tiny keys that look like a smartphone key wouldn't be ideal for playing either, LOL).
4. Backup your keymaps, sometimes they will get erased for no reason I can tell for the gamepad only -
5. No special software is needed, but if you find some you like, use it, sometimes is makes all the difference.

[Kraki]

I'm a dyed in the wool keyboard/mouse player myself, but we have a couple guys who use controllers in our guild. They seem to do fine but I see two main limitations to using them, limited number of buttons for movement/actions and a serious trade off on cursor speed vs. accuracy.

Interestingly enough, I almost bought one of these http://www.alphagrips.com/ some time ago but the entry price was a bit steep. I don't know anyone who has one but the concept seemed pretty neat. The idea of a full keyboard on a controller sounded nifty (I'd carry it into work just to be THAT guy.) :D

I'm not sold on the whole trackball under the thumb design though, seems like it could just be yet another source of stress for small repetitive motions.

In any case, good luck!

Kraki

[Doug1492]

Hi Guys, thanks for the input.

The big reason why I'm using a controller is I work in IT and have RSI so all that extra mouse/keyboard work just aggravates the condition (mouse and keyboard is the best though I do agree with that), so I want to play but if I can avoid using M/K then it will help.

Last night I did two things, I brought myself a Saitek controller and programmed it in (crudely, needs some tweeking) and that worked a treat, 3 hours on and I left the PC for the night with little extra pain :), so a gamepad is the way to go for me.

Secondly I did buy that gamepad with the qwerty keyboard (only cost me £9), plugged the USB keyboard into the PC and got it connected ok and it was usable, it's small yes, but I think I could get used to that (by the way it wasn't so small as the controller is a pretty chunky afair).

Next thing I did was put an order in for a Playstation 2 to USB converter, so all things being equal in a couple of days I'll be able to test out this gamepad and see if it'll work for this game, if it does I'll be pretty pleased with it.