Controller Doomers - how's it going?

[PsychoGoatee]

I've been getting used to Doom on a controller recently, feels pretty good in gzDoom. I'm gaming on my couch for a few reasons lately, some keyboard and desk ergonomic (rsi) issues last year etc.

 

Plus reading how they've been adding mods like Back to Saturn X to the console versions inspired me a bit. If people are playing Doom maps on Switch, I'm sure I can get used to a controller. Though tough to top the godlike accuracy and quickness of mouse.

 

So anybody been Dooming on a controller, any tips, settings, etc? Have you managed some of the tougher recent user maps? I do tend to lower the difficulty or use some custom difficulty level tweaks (cheats) to make up for my lumbering controller Doomguy. But still, fun to be getting back into it.

[Pokemanic33]

Never played on a controller but I had Prboom+ on my 3DS and it played like a dream. Movement and turning on the circlepad, strafe on L and R, weapon switch on ZL and ZR, and everything else on the face buttons. I've been meaning to try that out in a PC source port with a real controller.

[PsychoGoatee]

Right on, Doom on everything as they say. And I love the Lupin avatar! Funnily enough, earlier today somebody gave me props for a Lupin avatar I have on discord. Mine was Green Jacket for the record.

[Pokemanic33]

17 minutes ago, PsychoGoatee said:

Right on, Doom on everything as they say. And I love the Lupin avatar! Funnily enough, earlier today somebody gave me props for a Lupin avatar I have on discord. Mine was Green Jacket for the record.

Ayyy, it's rare to find someone who recognizes the character let alone is familiar with the series. Green jacket is definitely my favorite series but I also love the Pilot Film, plus it's just a good facial expression/pose. Funnily enough the Pilot Film also has my favorite color scheme: red jacket, black shirt, white tie and pants in a soft palette (as opposed to the more common vivid red/navy blue/white colors, which I find to be much worse).

 

Shit, we got off topic. You may now continue talking about playing Doom with a controller

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

I always use a controller for gzdoom, kb&m makes my hands cramp, I have problems with my hands. Doom works great with a controller because of its simple controls, and great precision isn't needed to aim. I can finish Scythe 2 on UV with it, so it works good enough.

 

 

 

(and yes, my e-peen did grow by ten inches when I beat Sycthe)

Edited September 29, 2020 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[Castelia]

Doom actually works pretty well on a controller. The Switch port was my first time playing it, so I got used to it pretty quickly. It also helps that there's no vertical aiming, meaning that's one less thing I have to be accurate with on the right stick.

 

Though I've been playing Doom 64 on its original console, and the lack of a second stick makes it an interesting experience. Holding Down-C to activate strafing is a little strange, but fun.

[Gifty]

I played with arrow keys + CTRL for years, so a controller feels very homey and familiar to me in Doom. I almost never play without a mouse these days, but I feel like a controller restores a lot of the old challenge to those original IWAD episodes.

[OliveTree]

By this point in time the only functioning controller I own is a Steam controller (sad, ik) so some of the inherit assumptions underlying this question dont appy to me. I did own and completed the Doom 3 BFG Edition versions of Doom 1 and 2 on the 360 back in the day and I've also beaten Doom 64 with the steam controller. All very favorable experiences honestly.

[unerxai]

It's rare but sometimes I play with a controller on Delta Touch. I never play FPS on consoles so I'm pretty bad at it, but there's something fun about using a trigger to shoot.

 

Would you say using a controller is overall healthier for your hands than using m+kb?

[AinuTheTaken]

I prefer to play Quake with a controller - kinda. But not Doom.

[ZeroTheEro]

I play Doom stuff on Switch, so that's the only one I play with a controller on.

Just fine I guess.

[scalliano]

3 hours ago, AinuTheTaken said:

I prefer to play Quake with a controller - kinda. But not Doom.

Quake II is a console shooter on PC, change my mind.

 

I game primarily on the sofa, regardless of platform, so KBM can be a bit unwieldy in a pinch. Thank goodness for Steam's extended controller support. I even got my Dualshock4 working with vanilla Doom 3 and it's surprisingly intuitive.

 

@Castelia: There's only one control method for OG D64: left hand on the D-pad to move, right hand on the stick to aim, Z to fire, L to use and B & A to change weapons. Also works in Quake i & II.

[wheresthebeef]

I actually think Doom lends itself to using a controller perfectly just because of the lack of Z-axis aiming. The only times theres an aiming issue is when you have to quickly turn around.

 

Some of the console ports fixed this by letting you hold down the run button to also make turning faster. IIRC, the newest Bethesda console ports don't have this feature though unfortunately. I know the OG Xbox Doom 3 had this but BFG Edition didn't.

[Spie812]

I recently gave the new releases on Steam a whirl with a controller since I hadn't played like that in quite a while. After a little time adjusting, I was able to push through a few of the later Kama Sutra maps without too much hassle. Not my preferred playstyle but something I could definitely get used to were it necessary for some reason.

[M_W]

I did some testing using controller on some multiplayer ports so a friend of mine who as issues with pain on KBAM can play coop with me, ZDaemon didn't have any support I could discern, Odamex had the issues a lot of games have where the triggers are detected as a new axis that cannot be bound to actions. Turning with the thumbstick feels pretty nice, but I got better results emulating the mouse with the Steam controller API and adjusting the curve to be pretty steep. It would be convenient to just do everything using keyboard + mouse emulation, but I have to admit having analog control for running and strafing feels REALLY nice.

[Chip]

I play console, and when I tried DOOM at a friends house with mouse, it just felt odd. I really like controller.

[PsychoGoatee]

Good to hear, everybody!

 

 

20 hours ago, unerxai said:

It's rare but sometimes I play with a controller on Delta Touch. I never play FPS on consoles so I'm pretty bad at it, but there's something fun about using a trigger to shoot.

 

Would you say using a controller is overall healthier for your hands than using m+kb?

 

I can't say in general, for me though it is. And you can get worn out by repetitively using a controller too, or even smartphones. But for me controller is better now, since I've gotten some issues in particular from keyboard use. And even stuff like resting your elbows on chair armrests for example can cause an issue in your nerve going to your hand (ulnar nerve), etc. Just a few things to keep an eye on. WASDing (or arrow keys etc) in particular I just had to stop using. My hand would start tingling etc. Rotating my thumbs and wiggling my fingers via a controller is the way to go apparently.

[ZeroTheEro]

I forgot my mouse when I brought my laptop to the office. Luckily I have an XB360 controller in the bag everytime.

Running on default mapping with the Unity-wrapped Doom feels... quite nice to be honest.

[hybridial]

Yeah, confirmed controller user here, for a long time. 

 

Specifically because of health issues, long term nerve pain etc. I was only doing the Keyboard playing thing for 2-3 years before it started causing me pain. Then about 6 years ago, I started suffering chronic pain that has never gone away. To be honest I even think that has impact on me coming into these old school FPSes so much, because I used to play a lot of fighting games, action hack and slash games etc. and by comparison I can play something like Doom a lot without really hurting my hands but most other genres especially intense ones are kind of out of the question mostly now. 

 

I'll tell you this, years of generally needing controller solutions for PC games where before antimicro/Xpadder etc. became viable solutions made me seriously wish I could explode heads through the internet from dealing with a lot of the M&KB elitistism posts. I do have a bit of a temper and have shown it here sometimes, but I had to just ignore them because nothing else ever made me that angry at times :P  

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

1 hour ago, hybridial said:

Yeah, confirmed controller user here, for a long time. 

 

Specifically because of health issues, long term nerve pain etc. I was only doing the Keyboard playing thing for 2-3 years before it started causing me pain. Then about 6 years ago, I started suffering chronic pain that has never gone away. To be honest I even think that has impact on me coming into these old school FPSes so much, because I used to play a lot of fighting games, action hack and slash games etc. and by comparison I can play something like Doom a lot without really hurting my hands but most other genres especially intense ones are kind of out of the question mostly now. 

 

I'll tell you this, years of generally needing controller solutions for PC games where before antimicro/Xpadder etc. became viable solutions made me seriously wish I could explode heads through the internet from dealing with a lot of the M&KB elitistism posts. I do have a bit of a temper and have shown it here sometimes, but I had to just ignore them because nothing else ever made me that angry at times :P  

I know the pain, asking on Steam about using a controller on any PC game, especially an FPS, is a sure-fire way to bait out the most elite of the elitists. They're so elite that if you give one of them a controller, their k/d ratio in the newest, hottest Call of Duty game that their parents bought for them drops from a self-reported 7.5 down to 0.05. A true sign of being able to adapt to any situation!

[Unanimous]

My laptop died a few weeks ago so im stuck playing Doom on my consoles. It's not super bad unless I play with a joycon. I know on PS4 I can use a mouse and for a while I was but my PS4 for some reason started reading mice as keyboards so I can't use it for Doom anymore. Besides that, controller is fine but I much prefer mouse aim and moving with the keyboard. One thing I love about the new ports is they made the dpad a weapon quickswap so you dont have to use L1 and R1 to scroll through your weapons. Really useful.

[spineapple tea]

I've been wanting to try a controller only run of Doom recently. Never even played Doom with a controller before, might be more comfortable on my hands.

[VoanHead]

Watch out, GmanLives might come out to get y’all for playing DOOM w/ controllers.

iF yOu UsE A COntRolLeR yOU’rE dEAd tO mE-GmanLives aka Mr. DOOM-is-meant-to-played-on-UV-yet-I-can’t-beat-Sigil-on-UV-so-it’s-a-terrible-wad.

[M_W]

I realize controllers users represent a small number of players, but I'd like to see more quality controller support in Doom ports. Didn't realize what a problem it was until I started playing with a friend who has chronic pain. We've had to skip ZDaemon entirely because it's controller support is still on par with whatever old ZDoom version it's based on.

I tried putting together a profile in antimicro that controls WASD with the left stick, and engages the shift key after reaching a certain threshold, but it still feels like shit compared to actual joystick control.

I won't be switching to controller any time soon, but if I'm honest, running and strafing feels really nice on an analog stick.

[Chip]

I don't know why people think mouse and keyboard is the only good way to play DOOM. Controller feels great, and strafing is very easy. All the buttons are within finger reach, while the keyboard requires constant movement of both hands. They are both good ways to play. Keyboard only is bad, though. The DOSbox on Chromebook doesn't support mouse, so when I played DOOM's Shareware episode, I could only play on keyboard, and that was a total pain. turning feels so weird, and shooting feels weirder. 

[CyberDreams]

It's definitely harder for me to play with a controller than a keyboard/mouse but it's also very doable at the same time. Changing weapons is slower, even with weapon shortcuts (a controller can't fit them all) and aiming isn't as accurate but i just either strafe more or just play on a lower difficulty than i normally would. It's def not as bad as something such as SNES or PlayStation Doom though. Having joysticks helps a ton! Also, the fact that you only aim horizontally and have auto-aim helps a bit too ;)

 

If my GPU had two HDMI outputs i'd def have my PC hooked up to my TV and play via GZDoom since i might be able to bind my buttons better but since it only has one, to my monitor it stays lol. The damn thing has like 3 display port outs which are of absolutely no use to me and since DVI/VGA doesn't carry sound (and i don't have any extra 3.5mm ports on my PC to carry the sound) that's a no go as well.

 

For now i just play Doom/Doom II via my Xbox One. I even have Doom 64, Doom 3, Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal on it as well and they all play fine.

[braders1986]

I switch between the two with no issues. Grew up with both PC and consoles so I've always felt comfortable with either method. Only thing I hate is triggers, but that goes for every FPS game I play. They have always been shit, so I only use L1/R1 LB/RB. 

 

Just waiting on Crispy Doom to recognise my DualShock 4 or XBoxe One controller would be nice.

[Lobo]

For the last month I've been playing with a ps2 controller and my pc hooked up to my TV. Edge and some GZDoom mainly.

Couch controller play for the win! Never really liked Kb+mouse. Don't know why I never did this sooner.

[Immorpher]

It is awesome that ports will typically recognize controller and mouse input simultaneously. This has allowed me to do analog stick movement plus mouse turning :) . I use a Doom eternal FPS pad with an analog stick made for the PS4 and a razer basilisk mouse. And I play from the couch as well using one of those reading boards. Some may find it a strange hybrid set up, but it is pretty comfortable for me!

[ChopBlock223]

Cool setup, I also play FPS using Analog Stick + Mouse when I can, I use one of these, along with a generic wireless mouse.

I think a lot of people aren't willing to consider just how smooth and flexible this kind of combination can be.