Regarding my personal limitations and thus some insight into my perspective: I have a severe RSI disability in my right hand (most impacted are the non-thumb fingers and wrist, but it encompasses the whole arm… particularly when the digits themselves are overly-taxed) and have limited capabilities in my left.
My peripherals (all of which are used in overlapping/redundant combinations) are:
- Custom 8+ (depending on needs) button foot pedal setup that utilizes Xpadder’s system hooks and key press emulation. No macros or repeaters are used, just standard key presses. It’s a self-made rig that uses a simple “JUNAI multicade keyboard encoder” controller board and a bunch of resilient arcade buttons… all put onto a thin and slightly angled piece of wood. In other (typically retro) games I have had to use AutoHotKey’s abilities to rebind keys in a useable way (I never automate/macro/etc. anything with it because why even bother at that point), but thankfully I have not had to use it in Tower Unite
- Console controller. I swap between a variety of PS3, Xbox 360, and PC-specific controllers, though all are seen system-wise as 360 controllers for simplicity’s sake. I tend to favor the PS3 controller and use the Shibari/Fireshock/ViGEmBus method for emulation. No game put to the test has ever had an issue with this method
- Keyboard. An insane ergonomic monstrosity, but for system’s-sake it is just a regular keyboard
- Mouse. Mice, technically, but usually just a normal one. Sometimes a trackball if I can get my feet into the mood to not cramp and want an exercise in misery, but I try to avoid that most days
At the moment most of my foot pedal setup is dedicated to mouse clicks, spacebar, scrollwheel direction, or modifier keys (like shift, ctrl, etc)… basically: anything that needs to be held down or frequently pressed, especially if typically designated to the right arm. I constantly change these depending on my needs, however.
The primary problem I’ve found is that the console controller (which is hugely preferable to the mouse when possible, though anything using the controller triggers I move to the foot pedal setup) is not implemented well enough (or at all) in a ton of situations. The most obvious symptom of this is that the game is in no way possible to control solely from a controller. I’m not going to list every one of the issues because that kind of effort requires a spreadsheet and a paycheck, but here’s a quickie off-the-dome list related to Zombie Massacre, which just happens to be a mode I’ve dealt a lot with recently and been severely limited by:
- (controller-specific) The thumbstick aiming mechanics don’t work 9/10 times, and typically aim anywhere other than your intended direction. I’m talking full-on opposite directions, NO aiming whatsoever, etc etc.
- (controller-specific) If the stars align and your thumbstick corresponds correctly then you’ll find you won’t get precise angles. If a standard thumbstick (and the mouse angle in the mode) is 360 degrees of control, this is something like 16-32. These numbers are relative generalizations, obviously
- (controller-specific) The shoot trigger also picks up weapons when held down despite the KB+M setup not doing this
- There are tons of weapons you can’t just hold down a button to repeatedly use, forcing rapid and frequent repeat presses… exacerbating RSI/etc. issues with no reason balance-wise (since all these weapons have firing speed limitations built-in)
- There is no Accelerate-equivalent option to have a ‘toggle fire’ (ala ‘toggle accelerate’), despite the vast majority of your time in the mode being that of firing your weapon non-stop unless you’re just grinding skill-specific achievements solo
- Certain skills are on a timer and limit your ability to shoot while it is active. Some players have the luxury of just ‘testing’ when it expires by clicking rapidly, but I do not. There is a lack of consistent and obvious indication of these timers to prevent pointless presses, and there’s no reason that the shoot button can’t just continue to be held down during the skill’s usage (i.e. doing nothing in the background) and then resumed as an active action upon expiration of the timer
- etc.
Another big example that lacks controller support would be fishing. You can’t do the actual minigame aspect of it at all without a mouse, despite it being ripe for simple controller support. There are also some odd AFK timer issues with this activity, since the mouse alone doesn’t seem to reset it… and thus you’ll get flagged AFK if you play as not only intended, but required. You have to mash directional keys/etc. every minute or so to stay ‘active’, as it were.
I would get into how frustrating it is to try to decorate one’s condo but… yeah, I’d need a few weeks to fully articulate the problems.
There are a ton of other things I’d bring up, but the corrections and formatting I’ve had to make to this voice-to-text write-up is just too much for my hands/arms/feet at this point. I’m more than happy to answer specific questions if needed.
An option for reduce or disable would be really nice.