[Ferendial]

Hey everyone,

Back when I played Final Fantasy XI I only used the keyboard- the mouse was extremely awkward getting used to for some reason and I never thought about getting a gamepad (I don't think I even knew they existed when I first bought the game). With Final Fantasy 14 coming soon, I'm considering getting a gamepad to use, and just using the keyboard for typing and whatnot. My question is, how do you guys set up your macros and such on your gamepads? I know 14's going to be different and all but I just want to get some different layout ideas on how to set up my controls and such when the time comes.

[Corrderio]

The trigger buttons (R1/L1/etc.) were used to bring up macros in XI IIRC.

Also don't buy an expensive pad. Do yourself a favor and get a USB converter for a PS2 controller or buy a PS3 controller and you're gold.

[Kenshiro]

Any cheapo playstation gamepad knockoff works great with all games that support a gamepad.

[Ferendial]

Corrderio, on 16 July 2010 - 02:38 PM, said:

The trigger buttons (R1/L1/etc.) were used to bring up macros in XI IIRC.

Also don't buy an expensive pad. Do yourself a favor and get a USB converter for a PS2 controller or buy a PS3 controller and you're gold.

So would you hold down the trigger and cycle through skills using left and right? I'll look up USB converters, I've got a few PS2 controllers laying around.

[Vigilous]

You played with a keyboard? You must love pain or something.

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Also don't buy an expensive pad. Do yourself a favor and get a USB converter for a PS2 controller or buy a PS3 controller and you're gold.

If you have a 360, Microsoft also makes a converter for 360 controllers. Be warned, though, I have hear of numerous people have issues getting it to even work.

[Ferendial]

Vigilous, on 16 July 2010 - 08:02 PM, said:

You played with a keyboard? You must love pain or something.


If you have a 360, Microsoft also makes a converter for 360 controllers. Be warned, though, I have hear of numerous people have issues getting it to even work.

XD it's really that weird? I always thought using just the keyboard was what most people did. The mouse would always make my camera go all over the place whenever I touched it, so using only a keyboard was the only thing I ever really tried since I played, and considering FFXI was the first MMO I really got into I didn't have any other real PC controls to base it off of. I guess that helped hehe.

And I do have 360 controllers, but they're both wireless- I'm assuming these wouldn't work with a converter?

[Corrderio]

Ferendial, on 16 July 2010 - 04:21 PM, said:

So would you hold down the trigger and cycle through skills using left and right? I'll look up USB converters, I've got a few PS2 controllers laying around.

It works similar to using a keyboard to bring up macros. L and R will will bring up the macro bar, Up/Down will change the page, and Left and Right will go through 1-0 on the bar.

EDIT: This is what I use to hook my PS2 controller up to my PC. It worked like a charm: http://www.amazon.co...79355428&sr=8-2

[Vigilous]

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XD it's really that weird? I always thought using just the keyboard was what most people did. The mouse would always make my camera go all over the place whenever I touched it, so using only a keyboard was the only thing I ever really tried since I played, and considering FFXI was the first MMO I really got into I didn't have any other real PC controls to base it off of. I guess that helped hehe.

And I do have 360 controllers, but they're both wireless- I'm assuming these wouldn't work with a converter?

FFXI was designed for the PS2. Not PC. That's why it's so awkward to use the mouse/keyboard combo. Everyone who's played FFXI on a PC has been playing with a control pad. So yes, it's weird for someone to not use a game pad.

Microsoft actually designed the converters to run with the wireless pads. I'm actually not sure about wired, though.

[Ferendial]

Vigilous, on 17 July 2010 - 05:56 AM, said:

FFXI was designed for the PS2. Not PC. That's why it's so awkward to use the mouse/keyboard combo. Everyone who's played FFXI on a PC has been playing with a control pad. So yes, it's weird for someone to not use a game pad.

Microsoft actually designed the converters to run with the wireless pads. I'm actually not sure about wired, though.

Oh, interesting. I'll probably stick to using a PS2 controller for FFXIV anyways but it's nice to have options

[Corrderio]

Oh, and one thing to point out about that adaptor URL I posted.

If you do get it your analong won't be automaticly on like it would on your PS2. So in order to use the analong sticks/L3/R3 buttons make sure you press your analong button for the PC to read it.

[Ferendial]

Corrderio, on 17 July 2010 - 08:20 PM, said:

Oh, and one thing to point out about that adaptor URL I posted.

If you do get it your analong won't be automaticly on like it would on your PS2. So in order to use the analong sticks/L3/R3 buttons make sure you press your analong button for the PC to read it.

Sweet thanks a lot- that probably just saved me hours of frustration xD

[Corrderio]

Yeah I was flipping out to when I couldn't configure my analong/analong buttons, then I noticed the analong light on the gamepad wasn't on xD

[Chocoburger]

Hi, I'm mainly a console gamer (bought XI first on PS2 and eventually got a copy from S-E for free on PC--now I play mostly on PC since my PS2's HDD is almost dead), and I almost always prefer controllers over M/KB. But I'm really picky about my controllers and such, so here's my personal experiences with controllers and FFXI:

Got a Logitech controller rip-off the Dual Shock 2. I liked it for awhile, but the analog sticks were surrounded by square boxes (as opposed to circle boxes for all console controllers) which was horrible so I didn't want to use it anymore.

I tried using a wired Xbox 360 controller, but the Microsoft drivers are 100% lazily made garbage. MS's drivers have the Analog triggers (i.e. macro buttons) not count as actual buttons and FFXI won't register with triggers.

You can download much superior drivers called XBCD (XBox Controller Drivers--just google XBCD) downloading that and small profile file will allow you to make FFXI (or any game I suppose) read the Xbox 360 controller triggers as just standard buttons.

However, eventually I got sick of using a wired controller even though my PC's USB port is only 2 feet away from my controller. I wanted to use wireless so I bought a wireless Xbox 360 controller PC set (which is the basic controller that works on the console but also a USB device that reads the wireless signal from the controller).

Unfortunately those drivers were the same as the wired ones (i.e. garbage) and XBCD drivers will NOT work with wireless controllers. I had already bought this wireless set when I realized I was screwed. I did a lot of research reading on internet forums and with a stroke of luck I found an American forum talking about how some Japanese guy created drivers for the wireless Xbox 360 controllers. He also created a translated version of the drivers (though not perfect, it's still manageable) and after like 8 installs and uninstalls, I finally got it to work.

So now I'm happily using an Xbox 360 wireless controller on my PC for FFXI and eventually FFXIV (assuming my PC can even run FFXIV...), and it was quite an adventure getting it all to work in the end.

This is the forum thread I found the drivers (it's a long thread, the drivers are near the end or so you should probably read some of it to get a good understanding of what you're getting into)
http://redcl0ud.1.fo...topic=1513&st=0

Here's a direct link to the JP drivers:
http://www.katch.ne....60wc/index.html

NOTE: As stated above I had to install and uninstall the drivers multiple times to get it to work, I don't know why it was like that for me, but you may have similar issues.

Now if only the 360 controller had a better D-pad I would be so happy... sigh can't win 'em all, huh?

Wait, is it possible to use a PS3 controller on my PC via bluetooth if I have a bluetooth hub? My logitech keyboard/mouse uses bluetooth and they say the connector that comes with it can be used as a hub device. The adventure continues!

This post has been edited by Chocoburger: 19 July 2010 - 06:47 PM

[Vigilous]

You'd still need a plug-in or software that would allow the PS3 pad to work with the PC.

[SilentHolocaust]

Vigilous, on 16 July 2010 - 08:02 PM, said:

You played with a keyboard? You must love pain or something.


If you have a 360, Microsoft also makes a converter for 360 controllers. Be warned, though, I have hear of numerous people have issues getting it to even work.

They are the tiny minority i use a 360 controller and have not issues or at least unable to play issues. My only problem is that my Triggers don't work as they count as throttles in windows. IF you are using wired just plug it in and if you are using wireless you'll need an adapter as stated above.

[Inuyasa]

Logitech USB gamepad. Wireless is around 50-60 bucks. wired is around 20. PS2 setup, L2/R2 to bring up macro palette.