RE: [GD-Design] FPS console controls

[Tom F. <to...@mu...>]

For reference:

Halo & TS - one stick does look, the other does move. TS wasn't a great
implementation, Halo was. This is essentially the console equivalent of
mouse+WASD on the PC.

Metroid - the stick does move + turn, but press a button and it becomes
move+strafe, press another button and it becomes turn+look up/down. You
cannot look up and down and move at the same time.


Here's the problem.

Metroid has a great control scheme. It's well thought-out, people can pick
it up easily, etc. It's extremely friendly to the casual player.

BUT

If (like me) you are one of the people that has played Halo and become good
at the dual-stick controls, Metroid drives you bonkers. Once you've got the
hang of the dual-stick arrangement, evenrything else feels terrible. Having
to unlearn everything you knew about moving in an FPS environment is
incredibly painful. I almost stopped playing MP because of this, except that
every single other thing about the game was so brilliant that I kept
playing.

I'm now pretty good with the MP controls, and since the game difficulty and
levels are designed around the control scheme, they're not actually a
problem. But even now, it still feels very limiting compared to Halo - you
can't easily move in a different direction to the way you're going. You
can't look up and down and move at the same time. You have to precisely aim
at narrow doorways, or you hit them - you can't easily "wobble" yourself
with strafe to hit them. It's like walking around with your head in a vice -
you can do it, but it's not comfortable.

I don't think there is anyone who is used to both control sets that would
claim the dual-stick method is not superior. (note - MP's "lock-on" feature
is great, and as long as it doesn't ruin the game, should be added to any
dual-stick control scheme - that's a separate issue).

HOWEVER

The dual-stick control is a real pain for casual players to use. Halo helped
a lot by having a much smaller vertical scale than horizontal, which does
lessen the number of times new player end up looking at their feet or the
sky. But it's still trickier.

SO

I think games should do both, and let the user choose.

BUT

There's a problem in deathmatch, because anyone using the MP scheme is
almost certainly going to get their arse kicked.



Tom Forsyth - Muckyfoot bloke and Microsoft MVP.

This email is the product of your deranged imagination,
and does not in any way imply existence of the author.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Javier Arevalo [mailto:ja...@py...]
> Sent: 04 April 2003 15:48
> To: gam...@li...
> Subject: [GD-Design] FPS console controls
> 
> 
> The issue of FPS controls in console games just came up in 
> the algorithms
> list, but it seems more appropriate here. People mentioned Halo and
> Timesplitters as good examples (I personally disagree about 
> TS), and Metroid
> as a bad example. However, in Metroid the gameplay is well 
> adapted to the
> (limited) control scheme.
> 
> So, well, discuss...
> 
>   Javier Arevalo
>   Pyro Studios
> 
> 
> 
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