[Video] More FIRE buttons are almost a must, especially if you load more than 2 weapon types

I've got 4 weapon types loaded on my battle Python. I think it's a good loadout with 2xAPAs, 1xMC, 1xCannon, and 1xHammer. It held up well against a Cmdr's Anaconda. But...

Switching fire groups is seriously a pain.

Please FD, give us a minimum of 4 fire buttons (7 would be best for the bigger ships) all of which can be set on a joystick.

[video=youtube_share;97kgFaiBWwQ]https://youtu.be/97kgFaiBWwQ[/video]
 
I agree.

FD have said a few times they don't want to do this though. Not sure 100% on their resonaing, but I think parity between control systems was one thing that they mentioned.

But yep... I would like the pphilosophy that, if you can use it, it should have it's own binding available.
 
Unfortunately FD has gone on record stating that they think that restricting fire buttons creates more "challenge" and they even tried to compare the need to frequently switch between fire groups as an intentional design choice similar to a "button combo" in Street Fighter. Which is literally the worst example I can think of and if I didn't see the quotes myself I wouldn't have thought it was stated by an actual game designer. Unless they've reconsidered how ridiculous this idea is we won't be getting more fire buttons in the near future.
 
I'd like to see it too.

But in some weird way, people will complain and say that HOTAS has some type of advantage over M/KB or Controller...
 
Can they at least unlock the "quick slots" for single players? When they initially announced the addition of the 2 quick slots, I incorrectly assumed it would be accessible for solo pilots as well, but it's actually a function that is only available to multicrew gunners, which is probably the area where it's least useful. As it stands this is a near-useless feature, but it would gain so much utility if it were available to solo players.

For those that aren't aware: when 2.3 launched, Frontier added 2 additional trigger buttons for "quick-slots," which could be assigned in the firegroups panel, but each slot could be connected to ONE module ONLY. This seems like the perfect compromise because if you need a spare button for the one weird weapon you're carrying, or for activating an SCB, or chaff, or whatever, you have the option to do that; but at the same time it doesn't completely overthrow the basic "2 firing modes per firegroup" limitation that the game is balanced around.

But then they made this feature accessible to multicrew gunners only, which makes no sense to me. Gunners never have control over enough modules to justify the need for quick-slots anyway.
 
I'd like to see it too.

But in some weird way, people will complain and say that HOTAS has some type of advantage over M/KB or Controller...

Yeah! So!

Those people can go out and buy themselves a HOTAS and then enjoy the benefits themselves.

And if they can't afford it?

Sucks to be them. Maybe they've taken up the wrong hobby.
 
Totally agree. Having only two fire buttons makes it needlessly tedious to carry several different types of weapon on a single ship.

Maybe this will be another entry on the list of post-2.4 QoL features.
 
Sadly joypads have only a limited amount of buttons and since the entire UI system is based upon console functionality we won't see anything more than 2 fire buttons.
 
I'd like to see it too.

But in some weird way, people will complain and say that HOTAS has some type of advantage over M/KB or Controller...

I think it's more the controller guys who would complain — it's pretty standard for mice to have 5+ buttons nowadays. (Even non-gaming mice)
 
You just need to get creative with fire-groups IMO.

Set up fire-groups that enable different combo's of weapons depending on the situation and you're all set.
 
Eh, I'm good either way.

On the one hand, it does make it a bit more challenging to have to manage fire groups.

On the other hand, my current (and failing badly) HOTAS has eight triggers between throttle and stick, and the new and improved HOTAS I ordered has seven and more hats. It feels wrong to have that many triggers, and not use them for weapons. :D
 
Wasn't it stated previously that the big factor in limiting our buttons was balance/compatablilty with console? Sure XB1 sucks being so limited to what hardware can plug into it, but even tehy have a hotas now. AND PS4 can use any controller, so isn't it time to review that and release fire buttons 3 4 & 5? I mean its not like us PC/PS4 guys will gain a combat advantage over our XB1 associates, we cannot exactly go and exterminate them with our 4th fire button when we play in separate shards of the galaxy and there is no way to link them. On another note, PC gamers typically spend more on their PC before games than a XB1 with games costs, so even if we did get an advantage out of it, we are playing the game, to quote Nvidia, "the way its meant to be played".

TLDR - I also support more fore buttons being made available for weapons, remind me how many buttons are on a keyboard again?
 
I'm okay with it so long as I only have to switch between 3 groups, which tends to be multi-canon and laser as primary, seeker missiles as secondary, and then misc stuff, eg scanners, but I agree, it's seems a sadist worked on controls, not only having to manually switch weapons, but also manage the distributor, then there's silly things like having to go to a panel and it's tabs to request docking, seems control systems took a giant leap back after 3300, hell, I can verbally tell my home computer what to do.
 

Rafe Zetter

Banned
Unfortunately FD has gone on record stating that they think that restricting fire buttons creates more "challenge" and they even tried to compare the need to frequently switch between fire groups as an intentional design choice similar to a "button combo" in Street Fighter. Which is literally the worst example I can think of and if I didn't see the quotes myself I wouldn't have thought it was stated by an actual game designer. Unless they've reconsidered how ridiculous this idea is we won't be getting more fire buttons in the near future.

This.

Clearly FDev don't know how to or the UI code is so badly thrown together to "make it work, regardless of how sloppy it is"; because multi fire buttons has been around for..... I have no idea it's been that long. 20 years?

But then this has all the hallmarks of "nerf the weapon coz we didn't create damage / resistance tables" durr.

Can you imagine now a modern jet fighter like the A-10 loaded with different ordnance having to do what you do in 3303? Christ it's beyond ridiculous, they could have voice activated munitions and a host of other stuff in 3303.

If you can drive a wheeled mobility scooter RIGHT NOW in 2017 WITH YOUR MIND (yes that's really a thing) , oh and lets not forget speach to text software, why the hell do you have to go through this ridiculous rigmarole just to change the active weapon?

It's a joke, an insulting pathetic piece of coding laziness.

This really really REALLY aggravates me, because DB had the reputation of squeezing a large game into a small amount of space by very clever uses of optimized code plus wizardry and then throws out this garbage to the players who paid for him to make it.

Maybe we went with the wrong Mr B and we should have backed Ian Bell instead.....
 
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