I don’t own a gaming controller, I am thinking of getting one because the lack of WASD is f-ed. But before I go spend extra money just to play this game without a wrist that throbs after 30 minutes i wanted to ask a few questions.
Can i combine mouse and controller, like move on the controller but use my mouse keybinds to attack?
Can I use the controller in combat and the mouse in the menues?
Can I use a 3rd party program like xpadder to simulate a controller for some of its functionality and still use the mouse for its functionality?
I use my Xbox controller on PC. Less strain on the hands imo. Plus the horse controls are a bit more intuitive.
To answer your questions:
You use one control scheme at a time. If you’re using the controller and then you move your mouse, the control scheme will switch over to mouse/keyboard. Then when you move the joystick or press a button on the controller, it’ll switch back to controller again. I don’t think I’d recommend combining the two in combat.
Also don’t get a controller if you’re a metagamer, it’ll gimp you. You have to be willing to take a hit to the builds you can use (no movement skills) and have the occasional death to non responsive controls to use a controller in this game.
With that said, aside from those (fairly substantial) issues the game feels absolutely wonderful on controller. No RSI, feels natural. If they fix the becoming unresponsive bug and decide to allow movement skills for controller players it’ll be the clearly superior control scheme for this game.
D4 will auto-change inputs based on which had the last activity. So if you click the mouse, the KB/M UI comes up. If you touch the controller at all it switches to the controller interface. You cannot use both simultaneously. It’s possible to do in World of Warcraft using an external program to remap the controller while using the mouse to click - that’s how I’ve played for the last two decades (minus the UI causing coordination issues in the current DF client). Unfortunatley you cannot use a similar setup in D4 due to how the game handles input.
You can not interchange mouse and controller completely. But you can switch very seamlessly in play. For example if you go to town, you can easily switch to keyboard and mouse to sell items, manage inventory etc… You can not use both keyboard/mouse at the exact same time as controller, I mean you could but it switches the UI back and forth so it would not work well. Not like you are wanting. But get a controller, I use one and its great. I don’t understand how the mouse makes your wrist hurt more though? My keyboard hand is always hurting more then my mouse when I play games like POE or other ARPGs that are all click to move.
I suppose you could but it would probably be pretty clunky and it might have a small delay as it switches back and forth. Why not just use the controller buttons to attack? You don’t need your thumb on the right stick for anything so they are all easy to hit.
Yes you can do this. It switches back and forth seamlessly pretty much
More importantly doesn’t work. D4 detects the raw input and disables alternative input methods. I tried to map my controller stick to the mouse to be able to use movement skills and found that it would detect the stick movement and kill off the mouse.
That sucks mate, well I might suggest controller would be great for you then. I love it myself and I’ve always been controller person. Also I use The razer orbweaver keypad which is customizable , dunno if that would help but I hope you find a way that allows you to enjoy the game pain free my man.