Junior Member
Hey there,
tl;dr I hate how Guard Mode works with most controls for both keyboard and mouse (K&M) and controller, but I also dislike the camera movement for most controller setups. The steam controller I have can provide a solution to that, but the game doesn't allow for enough modification of the controls to make this work. Are there people familiar with using the steam controller that could perhaps help me? Otherwise, where do I go to ask for additional button mapping features?
Now the long version. When using K&M and entering guard mode, a mere jitter upwards can make you shift towards the upwards defensive position, even if you just made a massive move to the left. You then have to lift your mouse up, which causes for more jitter and random defense poses, place it down at the centre of your mousemat, and move left again, hoping that this time your movement will be precise enough. Simply put, I hate how inaccurate guard mode can be. Using the arrow keys would be preferred, but then you have no way of attacking. A mouse is really nice for looking around, though! Nothing beats a mouse for controlling the camera.
On the other hand, a controller would offer superior guard mode capabilities (simply press the joystick in the direction you want to guard in, 0 room for error), but joysticks leave you with poor camera movement capabilities.
In comes the steam controller. With two completely programmeable round touchpads it can emulate the functions of both mouse and joystick, and much more. Steam allows you to bind nearly any action to any output, meaning that I could have my mouse movement for the camera when not in guard mode, and a joystick output for guardmode itself. What this means is that I just have to touch the direction I want to block/attack in once, rather than swipe.
Except nothing is ever that easy. For Honor doesn't like it when you switch between keyboard and controller, as switching the buttons on screen causes the game to freeze for half a second or so. That means the controller should either output only controller values, or only emulate keyboard/mouse values.
I tried the controller setup first. The guard mode blocking was still really nice, a simple tap is all it took to change directions, but the camera was regulated through "joystick camera" mode, which is a lot harder to use than simple mouse mode. Furthermore, there were some issues with using the controller scheme that switched between outputting the values for guard mode and the normal mode, but more on that later.
I then tried the keyboard emulation setup. Camera was really nice, and I had the taps output keyboard arrow keys which I edited in the for honor keybinding menu to be blocking directions. Again, switching between guard mode output and normal mode output proved to be a big problem.
To change what the trackpad on the steam controller does, depending on whether one is in guard mode or not, different "layers" are used. In the default layer, the trackpad outputs values for easy accurate camera movement. In the guard layer, the trackpad outputs direction keys.You can choose how to switch between the layers, either by holding a button or as a toggle. Pressing means you lose one button at all times. Furthermore, not all buttons are as comfortable to keep pressed: in fact, only the triggers are useful, but they shouldn't be used for toggling between layers as soft presses and full presses interfere with each other. That leaves only toggle buttons to be useable.
What happens next is a disaster. Anything that will force me out of guard mode without me explicitly pressing a button to exit it, will leave my controller in the guard layer. That means that I am unable to control the camera. Toggling back to guard mode will also toggle the layer, rendering me practically unable to change position in guard mode.
Now, there are a ton of potential solutions but sadly none are implemented. Some are on the end of steam, but I feel like most are on the end of For Honor. Is it possible to get more options on how to controll guard mode? For example, having the direction change with the area of the screen in which the cursor is would be a useful addition for me. For example, if the cursor is in the lower right half of the screen, block right. If its in the upper part, block upwards. This is better than "resetting" the mouse position after every movement.
Another solution might be an obvious one: integration with steam. There are games that send output to the steam controller, for example when going into a menu, that allows for direct control over the layout. Is there perhaps such a thing that outputs something when the game is in Guard Mode? That would be amazing.
Other inventive solutions are also really welcome, but my demands are as follows: I want to use my steam controller, I want to be able to control the camera with the right trackpad, as well as change blocking directions with the right trackpad. Controlling the camera needs to be done in a mouselike manner. Controlling the blocking directions needs to be done with a simple tap. Lastly, no event should cause for a mismatch in controller output.
Thanks for your time!
Junior Member
