A Guide to Using a Gamepad w/ DDO

[sephiroth1084]

I've used Logitech gamepads with DDO for more than a year and had no issues.

Some seem to be heavier duty than others.

I've got 3 of the Rumble Gamepad that feel solid and have held up well. 4.5 star rating at Amazon.

I have 1 of the Dual Action gamepads. It feels cheap. Gave it to my kid who doesn't play very often. 3 star rating at Amazon.

That's fair. I didn't bother with the rumble version since none of the games I was buying a controller for had a rumble feature (DDO, SNES and NES ROMs).

After some testing, it seems that the connection where the cord meets the controller gets loosened inside or something--maybe worn out from extended use/movement--and causes the connection to the computer to drop as you move your hands.

When I posted here even small movements were causing problems. For the time being (until I can afford a new controller), I've looped the cord around the center of the controller twice. This takes the pressure off of the joining point and acts as a pretty substantial buffer. It works, but makes reaching across to the Start and Select keys a little cumbersome and reduces the amount of distance I can pull the controller back to me, so I find myself sitting up more often than reclining (though that may also be an indicator that I need a new glasses prescription as well).

[PwnHammer40K]

I love using gamepads on the PC, and playing doing Slayer runs in the Wilderness zones with a gamepad is a great way to chill with DDO and play it like an arcade game for a while

Thanks for this thread.

[dethstrike]

Could anyone point me in the direction of an xpadder profile to use with my PS3 controller?

I'd like to save the time of building from scratch if at all possible since game time is short enough as it is...

Thanks in advance of any help!

[donfilibuster]

What I use: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS GAMEPAD! I'M LEAVING THE INFO UP HERE UNTIL I FIND ANOTHER SUITABLE CONTROLLER, BUT THE THING HAS CONNECTIVITY ISSUES THAT CREEP UP. MY FIRST ONE WENT SOUTH AFTER 2 YEARS OR SO, AND MY CURRENT ONE HAS LASTED MAYBE A YEAR. Looked around a bit, and apparently this is a rather common issue.

2 years! I never got them to last beyond three months :/
I somehow worn off the L and R buttons and the directional pad on three pads so far.
L for heal on my fvs or wall of fire on the wiz and R for blocking.
So far the fourth and current one is logitech and outlasted the others altough the forward button is getting weak.

[silvermesh]

Edited to update a few things. Broke down and got an older free version of XPadder. Made the L1 button "ctrl" so i can fit a ton more stuff in, as well XPadder allowed me to disable diagonals on my dpad(which makes it a lot less touchy in deciding what im trying to do)

I use an Afterglow PS3 controller. I actually like it better than the regular PS3 controller because they have the left stick and D-Pad locations switched and most games have stick based movement nowadays.

I hooked it up to play DDO one day when my wireless keyboard took a dump, and I haven't looked back.

control scheme is as such:
(edited to update)

L2- shift key
L1- ctrl 


R2- Attack
+L2- Interact
+L1- Hireling 1 Button 6(attack/interact)
R1- Next weapon set
+L2- Previous weapon set
+L1- Block

Left Stick- move forward/back, strafe left/right
+L2- Navigate menu choices(conversations, quest reward lists, etc)
L3- Charge/Fire Rune Arm
+L2- Accept menu choice

Right Stick- turn left/right rotate camera up/down
+L2 rotate camera right/left zoom in/out
+L1- (up/down) next/previous hotbar
R3- Jump
+L1- Hireling 1(pet) Button 2 (come here)

Triangle- Hotbar 1 Slot 1
+L2- Hotbar 1 Slot 6
+L1- Active Hotbar Slot 1
+L1+L2- Active Hotbar Slot 6
Square- Hotbar 1 Slot 2
+L2- Hotbar 1 Slot 7
+L1- Active Hotbar Slot 2
+L1+L2- Active Hotbar Slot 7
X- Hotbar 1 Slot 3
+L2- Hotbar 1 Slot 8
+L1- Active Hotbar Slot 3
+L1+L2- Active Hotbar Slot 8
Circle- Hotbar 1 Slot 4
+L2- Hotbar 1 Slot 9
+L1- Active Hotbar Slot 4
+L1+L2- Active Hotbar Slot 9

Start- Hotbar 1 Slot 5
+L2- Hotbar 1 Slot 10
+L1- Active Hotbar Slot 5
+L1+L2- Active Hotbar Slot 10
Select- Target Next Enemy
+L2- Target Next Interactable
PS Home- toggle mouselook
+L2- loot all(chest)

Up(D-Pad)- Esc(Clear Target)
+L2- Target Self
+L1- Target my Pet
Left- Target Party 1
+L2- Target Party 4
+L1- Target Party 7
+L1+L2- Target Party 10
Down- Target Party 2
+L2- Target Party 5
+L1- Target Party 8
+L1+L2- Target Party 11
Right- Target Party 3
+L2- Target Party 6
+L1- Target Party 9

The real keys to me are targeting and interacting. don't try to use the special function interacts (like MMO interact), because they all will not do what you want them to in the heat of combat(which is when you cant just grab your mouse and DO it). The Interact function is one of the keys to this game whether you use a gamepad or not. say goodbye to headaches trying to pick up collectable bags, open doors, throw switches, etc. I use party targeting a lot in pugs with my cleric, but since i can only fit a normal party size it won't be much use in raids(hope your tank is one of the first six, hehe). Just make sure not to leave your mouse cursor hovering over anything or you will not be able to attack or interact with ANYTHING. This is why I typically play 90% of the game in mouselook. if i need to mess with menus or inventory I just hit my home button and grab the mouse.

My movement is set up to feel more like a FPS where it's a breeze to circle strafe and look around. I always have one hotbar on screen with all of my weapon sets on it so I can see which one I'm on when hot switching back and forth. I only have one character who fills a bar, and my advice is to put your most used set in the MIDDLE, so it's easy to get back to it, and the more remote chance of using it the further away I put it.(and remember that the sets fill down in your inventory, so if you try and set up 1,2,3 accross it will leave blank spaces between all your sets that will put you unarmed), Just don't forget that you have to set up the sets again each time you want to change their order, because switching them on your hotbar will just confuse the hell outta you.

I tried mouse emulation on a stick at first but it's so slow it takes me less time to just grab my mouse and use it when I need to than using the stick.

After edit comments:
After adding the ctrl function to the L1 button I was able to streamline a lot of the functions and add the ability to target individuals in an entire raid group(which is even easier with the ability to disallow diagonals on the dpad, as it would be someone touchy trying to target specific PCs before) DPad is for friendly targeting. up is for me and my pet, and the clear button, the party target commands go accross the bottom of the dpad 1, 2, 3, shift 4, 5, 6, and so on.

the hotbar commands go around the 4 main function buttons, then over to the start button in order. I keep my five most important abilities on those first five buttons, then next most important on 6-0(by adding the L2 button), then my active hotbar can be switched from 2-whatever, depending on how much stuff i want to cram in there. the commands are the same as hotbar 1 commands, except adding the L1 to all. This means I can easily manage two hotbars at once, and the second one can be switched out easily for buffs, item clickies, what have you. where I was using the mouse for all these secondary functions before. frees up time as well as precious screen space.

[Veriden]

I saw reference to this thread in the general discussion of game pad settings. I don't have time right now to go into how what does what for my monk and favored soul but I use an xbox360 controller with general set up as

Left thumb stick: Move/strife
Right thumb stick: turn
A: Jump
B: hot bar 1 #3
Y: hot bar 1 #2
X: hot bar 1 #1
Left bumper: hot bar 1 #4
Right bumper: hot bar 1 #5
Left trigger: mod key 1
Right trigger mod key 2
D pad up: hot bar 2 #1
D pad right: hot bar 2 #2
D pad down: hot bar 2 #3
D pad left: hot bar 2 #4
Start: use
Back: mouse look toggle

Primary spells/ki strikes are keyed to the x,y, b buttons and their modifiers that is 9 total abilities for primary which is more than enough most of the time. For situational spells like remove curse I have them keyed to the number pad on the keyboard for easy access.

The d pad I use for mostly clickies and gear swaps

[sephiroth1084]

Thanks for posting, folks.

Always glad to see this up in front so more people interested in using a gamepad can find some suggestions to help them out.

[SouthernGenius]

Full controller setup.
100 shortcuts.
Mouse and Panel navigation.
Rune Arm and Pet Attack.
Too much to list.

My thread is a little long to copy over to this one (I don't want to feel like I'm hijacking Seph's great post). So, to see my 100 shortcut game controller setup, go to the following thread for full explanation on hotbar assignments & controller diagram, please refer to the original thread here:

SouthernGenius

[sephiroth1084]

Included link to your thread. I'll have to read that in more depth sometime soon, but on a quick glance, I found it hard to find where you are getting up to so many shortcuts.

Thanks for sharing here!

[Phemt81]

I am using a personal configuration since day 1 of playing.

The only thing i am curious about, and didn't set in my config, is the "shift" button.
Does it allow you to jump to the next hotbar? Cause i ve seen some people has set it to go to hotbar slot 5-6-etc. how is that done?

I am just asking what exactly does the shift command, so that i could use it on my configuration to improve it and use more hotbar slots. Then i could post my personal config to this thread.

Hope i explained decently! Thanks for replies.

[sephiroth1084]

The shift command is something you hold down while pressing your other buttons.

If you have button A that does 1 thing, holding shift and pressing button A will do something else.
You can assign shift to a button in the UI panel.

For example, button 1 on my gamepad is Attack, but Shift+Button 1 is Hotbar 1, spot 4 (smite evil on my paladin, Circle of Death of my wizard, etc..).

[Phemt81]

Thanks Sephiroth.

Is that called just "shift" on keymapping option window?

How do you set which hotbar number/slot it will trigger the associated button?

Sorry if my questions seem dumb...

[Calebro]

Thanks Sephiroth.

Is that called just "shift" on keymapping option window?

How do you set which hotbar number/slot it will trigger the associated button?

Sorry if my questions seem dumb...

It's called Modifier Key #1 (and Modifier Key #2) or some such.
You program it the same way that you would any other key. If you press a key that's mapped to a modifier first, it holds both of them coterminously.

Example (from a regular keyboard to explain):
Map Alt to a modifier.
Map Hotbar 2 slot 1 as Alt+1
Map Hotbar 2 slot 2 as Alt+2
etc

From a gamepad:
Map Mod1 to R3 and Mod2 to L3
(if Hotbar 1 slot 1 is X, then: )
Map Hotbar 2 slot 1 as L3+X
(if Hotbar 1 slot 9 is Dpad>, then: )
Map Hotbar 2 slot 9 as R3+Dpad>

It's simple once you understand how the modifiers work within the mapping.

[Phemt81]

It's called Modifier Key #1 (and Modifier Key #2) or some such.
You program it the same way that you would any other key. If you press a key that's mapped to a modifier first, it holds both of them coterminously.

Example (from a regular keyboard to explain):
Map Alt to a modifier.
Map Hotbar 2 slot 1 as Alt+1
Map Hotbar 2 slot 2 as Alt+2
etc

From a gamepad:
Map Mod1 to R3 and Mod2 to L3
(if Hotbar 1 slot 1 is X, then: )
Map Hotbar 2 slot 1 as L3+X
(if Hotbar 1 slot 9 is Dpad>, then: )
Map Hotbar 2 slot 9 as R3+Dpad>

It's simple once you understand how the modifiers work within the mapping.

Thanks, your explanation is quite good.

When i input a a key as a modifier, should it ask for an associated button?

[Calebro]

Thanks, your explanation is quite good.

When i input a a key as a modifier, should it ask for an associated button?

It asks you to associate a button during the mapping process. First you clear the default keybind (if there is one) by clicking the Clear button on the right of said keybind. Next you choose the function that you want to map by clicking it's name on the left. When you click that button a small pop-up will appear asking you to associate a button with that function. You then press the button of your choice and it will accept it and place it in the keybinds for you to see.
If that doesn't answer it for you then I am obviously misunderstanding the question.

edit:
Try it out on some function that you're not going to use to see how it works, and then clear that function again once you understand it. It will become quite obvious very quickly with a little toying around. But the toying should happen in non-essential and little (or never) used functions, just in case.

[Phemt81]

Thanks a lot Calebro! It is working now.

The only thing i didn't see is the mod 2 button.

+1 to everyone gave good advices here, when i can.

[axel15810]

Just bought this pad: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00_i00_details

Not bad, although I'm not a fan of the slanted RT and LT buttons. I'm going to play my melee with this pad until I get the hang of things. My main is a cleric though..which is why I have waited to buy a pad. I have no idea how I'm going to heal raids with this thing. I'll figure something out though.

[Zyerz]

I use my xbox controller to play my melee and my combat casters. But when playing healers, the controller is out of the question, targeting is simply too hard to pull off.

As for the layout, it's incredibly simple. I'd do a diagram and show you how I managed, but I don't have my computer atm.

DDO already has the movement settings, so I only needed to tweak the hotkeys.

L: Blocking/ runearm if needed

Left bumper: hotkey 1

D pad up: hotkey 2

D pad right: hotkey 3

D pad down: hotkey 4

D pad left: hotkey 5

R: Hotkey 6 (usually fists of light, combat feat, or healing)

Right bumper: Hotkey 7

Y: Hotkey 8

B: Hotkey 9

X: Attack

A: Jump

Select: Push to talk

Start: Mouselook

Left Joystick: Movement

Right joystick: Angle (without mouselook, it just moves the mouse cursor around)

Clicking right joystick: Select

Clicking left joystick: Use

(you have to play with mouselook on, for improved performance and movement)
(I left out hotkey 0, and I always have my keyboard and mouse with me, so in the end, it works great for melee and combat/nuke casters.

Before U13, I was able to do interact, select, and use (items, NPC's, etc) with the X button, but for some reason, I can't seem to do that anymore... :/

I saw someone play with a Wii controller once... Hehe It was great for mouselook, but it lacked buttons for all the hotkeys. (The guy played an AA, and turned off auto targetting, so he relied on his aiming skills... Pretty fun setup imo)

[axel15810]

i figured this thread would be a good place for this question:

Is there any way to toggle between 2 different key mappings? I use a gamepad for my melee toon but use my mouse and keyboard for my healer. Every time I have to reset I switch I have to reset my keymappings.

[sephiroth1084]

Each key assignment can receive 2 mappings. You could have Jump assigned to gamepad button 1 and Spacebar, for example. Not sure if that's what you're asking.