I know many of the PC Gamer Elite scoff at the idea, but there are times in most games where I want to simplify my control experience by using my trusty old wired Xbox 360 controller. I would never even consider using a controller for serious group or raid play, but for typical adventure grinding the experience can be even more mind numbingly simple when I have far fewer than ~100 keyboard keys to fumble around with. I have also noticed through googling for PC controller information there are a surprising amount of players who actually need alternate control schemes like controllers for various medical reasons. Someone always seems to end up sharing the files and information to set this up in most gaming communities, but I have not found any for Vanguard. There are many programs out to assist PC players with controller support in games. The program I feel is most flexible and easiest to use is Xpadder. Unfortunately, it isn't free. It is worth its $10 price tag if you enjoy using controllers in most games as I do. As of the initial posting of this thread I will only provide information/files to set up Xpadder, but I plan to check out the other free PC controller applications and also work on editing the user.ini for Vanguard as alternate solutions. Xpadder: www.xpadder.com When you install Xpadder it asks you to designate the locations you wish to save controller and game profiles in. I chose somewhere in the User/My Document/My Games directory. Place the following Xpadder file in whatever directory you chose. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7833481/Con...uardXpadder.rar Then just double click it and it should launch Xpadder with that profile loaded up. The profile controls assume the relevant keys are all the default game functions. This is what you should see: WASD = Left Stick Mouse Movement = Right Stick Numbers 1-4 (Actionbar) = AXYB The yellow highlight on those means I set them to "turbo" so holding the button spams the key. Purple highlight is rumble. Not sure if I'm going to leave rumble on yet. Various windows are mapped to the D-pad and back button such as the character sheet, bags, quest log, map, and social windows. Jump= Left Stick Click Tab Targetting = Right Stick Click Left and Right Click are currently mapped to their opposite triggers. Left Trigger = Right Click. Right Trigger = Left Click. That may be confusing to some, but my thinking is that right trigger is typically the primary trigger for shooting or other actions in games. It works with my brain, but it should be simple to swap those if your brain disagrees. Let me know also so I can know what the majority of players prefer. Currently, you need to hold the left trigger and move the right stick to turn your character. Vanguard has a way to Toggle Mouse Look which makes the camera control like a typical action game camera would, but the key was not consistently working when I set this up so I abandoned using it for now. CTRL and ALT = Left and Right Bumpers. You use these to modify which action bar your ABXY will choose from. By default, CTRL+1 executes the second bar's first button and ALT+1 executes the third bar's first button. This means you currently need to put all the skills you need for controller use in the first four keys of the first three bars. This gives a current maximum of 12 action bar buttons you have access to in this control scheme. That is not very much at all for an MMO, but a standard DPS skill rotation shouldn't need more than that. I'm still thinking of ways to get more action bar buttons squeezed in there somehow. I would like suggestions on how if anyone has an idea. This control scheme gives a very basic set of actions for an MMO, so having your keyboard nearby is still a necessity. For me, this at least gives me the option to sit on my bed or a couch instead of in my awful plastic lawn chair. With Free to Play coming soon(ish) perhaps there will be a fresh influx of players interested in controller play as well. I am getting sleepy, so I hope I did not leave anything out for the Xpadder setup. Again, I will be posting files/info for setting up the controller in other programs like JoytoKey or with Vanguard's own User.ini file. Please share your opinions on possible better control schemes or ideas for improvements. Let me know what controller programs you want to use too.
