PC mouse and keyboard controls

[wichat]

OK... I can accept that KB+M costumization must be so free and wide that it could take a serious time to do it and memorize it. Long enough for making journalists and blogers could lose a precious time instead playing... It's just my humble opinion. Just fo keep my faith aloft.....

 

[Scholdarr.452]

European journalists would have far less effort required to go and test the game at CDPR headquarters, or in local or regional events. Gamestar played with M/K, and it wasnt any kind of big event, so I'm cautiously optimistic about hearing more hands-on opinions with M/K.

It's actually pretty strange that the Gamestar guy was obviously allowed to play with M/K as he wished while the youtube crowd was told to just play with a gamepad although they visited the studio several week after him.

What does that mean? Does that mean that the M/K controls haven't improved since the Gamestar preview? Or are they even "worse" now so that you don't want to anybody to see and experience them before release?

I just don't get why CDPR didn't let the youtubers choose for themselves which control scheme they prefer and want to check out. What happened to CDPR's former sense of transparency and faith in their own product? Why doesn't that faith cover the M/K, obviously? So CDPR: Is it really so bad - at least compared to controller input - that you have to hide it just one month before release and after you already announced "gold status" for the game? Honestly, if that's not the point, what is it? You apparently told the youtubers that you were two days away from finishing the M/K controls. What does that mean? Are the M/K controls now 100% better than before and the perfect way to play the game? Why wasn't it possible to "finish" M/K controls until the day the youtubers played. I mean, which magic can be done in just TWO DAYS that couldn't have been done in the several weeks before?

And it's really disappointing to see that CDPR isn't really interested in silencing our concerns. On the opposite, reading their few comments on the topic gets me the feeling that they haven't even fully understood our worries, like @Geralt_of_bsas very correctly pointed out above. It's indeed not whether the M/K controls work at all but whether they work as good and intuitive as the controller inputs and whether it covers at least all the same functionalities. Any further day of silence is just indicating that there is something wrong with the M/K controls and that there must be "good reason" to hide it, no matter what PR you do to cover it. So for the love of GOD, CDPR: be transparent. Have faith in your product AND your fans. Tell us the truth and proof it. Simple words aren't enough, especially if they are so squishy like the ones we already read...

OK... I can accept that KB+M costumization must be so free and wide that it could take a serious time to do it and memorize it. Long enough for making journalists and blogers could lose a precious time instead playing... It's just my humble opinion. Just fo keep my faith aloft.....

Well, it's not like Witcher 3 is a completely new and innovative type of game. It's a "typcial" 3rd person action RPG/adventure type of game. A type of game very likely all of the youtubers had played before for a serious amount of time. Youtubers are people who play games for a living. They know what they like in terms of M/K controls. Honestly, it takes ME (as a hardcore PC player) less than 5 minutes to configure a game of that kind to my liking - controls included. It's really no big issue.

And after all, why were the youtubers there? I thought they should be able to "check out" the game and tell their fanbase about it. There are some youtubers with a big PC fanbase, people who want to know how the game play with mouse and keyboard. That's really one of the few things you can't really see in a video - at least you don't always get the right feeling from a video. So the youtubers can tell us now what we already know: the game will be great, combat will be great, graphics are great, quests will be good and so on. But they can't tell us how the game FEELS on PC with M/K because they weren't allowed to play the game like that. If they needed 1 hour to configure the controls to their liking it would be an information I personally value because it'd tell about the overall control scheme. There is really just one good reason why CDPR didn't want them to play with M/K: they had no faith in that control scheme and they considered it seriously sub-par compared to the controller scheme. And that's the really troubling news here...

 

[Riven-Twain]

Out of curiosity, I was browsing gaming mouse options, just now (I still use a basic five-button model), and I noticed there are up to 18 programmable buttons on some of these things. There are quite a few unusual mice out there; however, since I've always been content with a standard mouse, I wonder to what degree -- if any -- this complicates adapting full mouse support?

 

[McGregg]

Out of curiosity, I was browsing gaming mouse options, just now (I still use a basic five-button model), and I noticed there are up to 18 programmable buttons on some of these things. There are quite a few unusual mice out there; however, since I've always been content with a standard mouse, I wonder to what degree -- if any -- this complicates adapting full mouse support?

I think you nailed the real issue.... it just takes moooore time to fine tune/code etc all the mice out there...

 

[Scholdarr.452]

I think you nailed the real issue.... it just takes moooore time to fine tune/code etc all the mice out there...

Bollocks. The usual way to cope with that is to just make a "standard control scheme" for a three-button mouse. Everyone who has a mouse with more buttons should just be able to remap the additional buttons to anything that is mapped to keyboard buttons in the standard control scheme. That's pretty standard stuff in the PC game development world every half-decent developer should be able to do...

 

[Riven-Twain]

As usual, I'm not trying for an argument, @Scholdarr.452, but, as a genuine question, what variety of mouse do you use to play?

 

[McGregg]

Bollocks. The usual way to cope with that is to just make a "standard control scheme" for a three-button mouse. Everyone who has a mouse with more buttons should just be able to remap the additional buttons to anything that is mapped to keyboard buttons in the standard control scheme. That's pretty standard stuff in the PC game development world every half-decent developer should be able to do...

I don't know what to say to you Scholdarr. You seem to be obsessed with this issue. And if it so easy as you just said why you're so worried about it?

 

[Riven-Twain]

In silence and darkness, the dread spectre of doubt preys upon the mind, and contorts uncertainties into leering, ominous fears.

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

It's actually pretty strange that the Gamestar guy was obviously allowed to play with M/K as he wished while the youtube crowd was told to just play with a gamepad although they visited the studio several week after him.

What does that mean? Does that mean that the M/K controls haven't improved since the Gamestar preview? Or are they even "worse" now so that you don't want to anybody to see and experience them before release?

If my memory is correct, during all this time TW3 has been openly in development, Gamestar has had some pretty unique coverage, not only because it seems to be more in depth with details than other sites, but also because its concretely focused in the technical aspects of the game.

Based on this, I suspect Gamestar simply has some kind of beneficial relationship with CDPR or TW3, whether its because they have a german programmer in the core engine CDPR team (like hungarian game sites do to get more info), or some other german dev there, or they have story with the studio, or CDPR simply looks at their work and consider them cautious enough to show them more fresh and new unoptimized content, this isnt just some strange example. Gamestar gets a different kind of coverage.

 

[Scholdarr.452]

As usual, I'm not trying for an argument, @Scholdarr.452, but, as a genuine question, what variety of mouse do you use to play?

My 1st priority gaming mouse right now:
Logitech G700s

My backup:
Logitech MX518

---------- Updated at 12:20 AM ----------

I don't know what to say to you Scholdarr. You seem to be obsessed with this issue. And if it so easy as you just said why you're so worried about it?

That's not what I'm worried about.

 

[lord_blex]

It's actually pretty strange that the Gamestar guy was obviously allowed to play with M/K as he wished while the youtube crowd was told to just play with a gamepad although they visited the studio several week after him.

What does that mean? Does that mean that the M/K controls haven't improved since the Gamestar preview? Or are they even "worse" now so that you don't want to anybody to see and experience them before release?

I just don't get why CDPR didn't let the youtubers choose for themselves which control scheme they prefer and want to check out. [...]

gamestar had their hands-on earlier than the youtubers, so the mouse&keyboard stuff not being up to par was justifiable back then. also, I think they trusted a single site not to drum up the issue as much as 20 youtubers (don't know how many actually were there) potentially could.
but as we know, for whatever reason they did not play the final build, so who knows, the m/kb controls might be much better already. lack of clear, straight forward communication doesn't really mean anything, the reds hang around this forum but don't respond to everything at length.
worst case scenario we will know for sure when the reviews come out a week before release.

 

[Scholdarr.452]

There are only two possible reasons imho: either lack of faith in their own product (excusable) or lack of functionality (not excusable)...

 

[Phalzyr]

There are only two possible reasons imho: either lack of faith in their own product (excusable) or lack of functionality (not excusable)...

or that the build the youtubers are playing on has bad controls that are already fixed and they didn't want false doubts spread... Though why they didn't update those machines to GOLD build is another issue lol...

$100 or $173 for a mouse man those put my three button cheap mouse to shame

 

[Scholdarr.452]

or that the build the youtubers are playing on has bad controls that are already fixed and they didn't want false doubts spread... Though why they didn't update those machines to GOLD build is another issue lol...

$100 or $173 for a mouse man those put my three button cheap mouse to shame

Hehe, only the best for me.

 

[Scryar]

If my memory is correct, during all this time TW3 has been openly in development, Gamestar has had some pretty unique coverage, not only because it seems to be more in depth with details than other sites, but also because its concretely focused in the technical aspects of the game.

Based on this, I suspect Gamestar simply has some kind of beneficial relationship with CDPR or TW3, whether its because they have a german programmer in the core engine CDPR team (like hungarian game sites do to get more info), or some other german dev there, or they have story with the studio, or CDPR simply looks at their work and consider them cautious enough to show them more fresh and new unoptimized content, this isnt just some strange example. Gamestar gets a different kind of coverage.

There was certainly somekiind of cooperation. This advertising was shown in the last 4-5 weeks on one of the biggest german tv station. Usually only games with a huge marketing budget like GTA, COD or Fifa show advertising on that tv station, so it has to be pretty expensive

 

[Scholdarr.452]

First ever video/screenshot with PC prompts on screen:

View attachment 13021

 

[Alozaps]

First ever video/screenshot with PC prompts on screen:

You know, when you think about it, it's pretty remarkable that this is the first glimpse we've had of the mouse and keyboard scheme, albeit brief and not even in english. All the gameplay clips, HUD screenshots, etc. they've shown over the past six months have been controller based. I know this has been said many times before, but it's pretty clear that they have designed the interfaces and controls with a controller in mind first and foremost. That doesn't mean the mouse and keyboard scheme will be bad -- I'm sure it will be fine, but will it be excellent? Likely not, which is disappointing. I'll still play with M&K though because it allows so much more flexibility and precision. I just hope that they do it better than BioWare did with DAI and utilize the power of the mouse other than just for point-and-click.

 

[lord_blex]

just to talk about something other than the mouse-keyboard controls being potentially unfinished:

View attachment 13056
I find the "call horse - press twice X" a bit worrying. when I have a 100 buttons I really should not have to double press any of them to do something (unless I want to). I hope that's not a secondary use of one of the actions that can't be put on a different key.
at the same time, I prefer dodging by double pressing the directional keys. so let's hope that's an option as well

edit: hmm, at an other point in the video calling the horse is just a single press of X, but when it changes from the controller layout it still says double press for a short time. where I took the screenshot the layout only changed for half a second so maybe it didn't have enough time to update it properly. so double press X is probably not a thing.

 

[ChrisStayler]

I think they didn't let the youtubers use the PC controls because they were not optimized yet and they didn't want us to know that and cause some sort of scandal. But am i crazy for thinking that they already should have the PC controls ready. The console control's are already ready. I mean this is not like any other company in which everything PC related is left just as a second thought. And it's not like it's a huge budget constraint to optimize PC controls. How is it that it's not ready yet. I thought CDPR loved PC so i would assume the PC controls would have the time it needed to to be ready by now. And let's say it is ready when it went gold and the version they were playing was not the newest version. Still... it's kind of late to be ready with the PC controls in the last mouth of the development cycle.

 

[JasonShepard]

I'm honestly surprised M+K isn't optimized yet. I don't think that this will mean that they'll be horrible, but it's not even a month before release. Controls seems like something that should have been optimized awhile ago.