Why is 'Left Stick to Sprint' so unpleasant in games? | Hacker News Reader

Why is 'Left Stick to Sprint' so unpleasant in games?

aria.dog

29 pointstodsacerdoti26 comments

I can't stand when buttons are mapped to physically clicking the analogue sticks down. Trying to press the button always messed up the direction I'm trying to hold on the stick. It's terrible design, akin to putting the safety switch of a pistol inside the trigger so that you have to squeeze the trigger part-way to engage the safety.

Input elements should be single purpose and simple, accurate, reliable, and tactile. Clickable analogue sticks (along with a clickable mouse wheel on a mouse) are none of these.

I'm fine with clickable mouse wheels, but clickable analog sticks can go to hell. I get it, I'm not everyone: I'm the adult American male for whom the "Duke" Xbox controller was designed. Which means that almost every game controller I've held since the age of 14 was too small.

Not clicking an analog stick is harder than not making it move when intentionally clicking it, for me.

Thanks for sharing. Curious to see if Xbox and PS5 controllers use the same analog stick hardware.

The issue with L3 as Sprint is that a button is so much easier to press and hold than a joystick (as mentioned in the article). Even worse is when games use L3 as Sprint but also configure the analog stick to perform some other action, in which case you can perform actions you don't mean to perform.

> to press and hold

To be clear, in games that use L3 for sprinting, you usually don’t need to hold L3, it’s a toggle. I guess there are exceptions of course but THAT would be bad design.

Holding L3 to sprint is not uncommon in my experience, I've actually never played a game where it's a toggle (but I don't play much).

For example, in Fortnite you have to hold L3 to sprint. This causes other issues as well. If you drive a car in the game for example, and use the analog stick to steer, accidentally clicking L3 will cause the car to turbo boost. If you're driving around a corner and have L3 moved all the way in one direction, accidentally clicking L3 is a given which causes an accidental turbo boost.

Well said - this is one of the best reasons to add rear buttons to controllers imho, removing that goddamn L3 for running. This is literally the first thing I remap to rear buttons, modding every controller since ps4 to do so, and gaming with steam/proton now under linux, using the 8bitdo pro2 as well.

Unfortunately SCUF managed to acquire a patent for rear buttons, and they successfully defended it in court when Valve put them on the Steam Controller without licensing it. That means rear buttons are unlikely to come to standard-issue controllers any time soon, only more expensive premium models, since SCUFs cut has to be factored into the price.

> patent for rear buttons

Being not familiar with games joysticks area (a keyboard user) this reads as mad as it can. Feels it's like a minefield. Is there anything from this area left not patented yet?

At least Nintendo's D-Pad patent expired. All other console manufacturers had to come up with workarounds for a long time, and sometimes they were bad (e.g. the Xbox 360 solid circle D-Pad).

I do this on my Steam Deck. I love how it has so many buttons on the back.

I have been begging for a good controller for a while.

I like the Xbox controllers in terms of stick position, so the ps5 is a no. The new dpad though is terrible, i preferred the cross with directions clearly separated, but now they are back to joined dpad.

Then there is stick drift, sticky buttons and buttons that don't register inputs anymore every now and then.

The elite controllers apparently are garbage qc, even though they would be ok. oh, the gyro, back buttons and a way to have touchpads like the steam deck would be ideal. I'm so hoping valve releases a controller that's the pc companion of a steam deck.

I almost forgot, it is possible to have sticks with no deadzones, i would love to have a controller with those.

Why it's so hard to buy replacement parts for controllers?

The steam controller that the steam deck was based on can still be found. I bought a few of them when they had their final sale.

I have an elite controller and it is great

I actually love the L3 toggle for sprinting. I think the first game I played that used L3 for that was Horizon, and the intuitiveness of the control just blew my mind. It seems to become a convention across games and I’m all for it.

It’s not so bad when there’s at least sprint toggling (often an option in gameplay settings). Having to hold it down continuously can be a bit much, especially in games where you basically want to sprint 90%+ of the time.

I suspect because it kills creativity. It's the same in the software industry because engineering has a big component of creativity but organizations structure themselves in a way that minimizes this creativity and maximizes managerial control. I'm not saying having an army of managers is necessarily bad, but it does tend to create bad software because engineers are heavily constrained in this structure.

I’ve never found it to be unpleasant. L stick is usually movement, so it makes sense clicking it would toggle movement (sneak is another good use)

R stick is usually camera, so it makes sense clicking it would toggle vision (or zoom)

I actually enjoy it. Adds to the feeling of running (pressing, direction wobbling...). Would never add side buttons to "cheat" this.

Persona 3 Reload maps the journal to the stick click, and I keep pressing it at worst moments while maneuvering to ambush an enemy, getting ambushed myself instead.

Sprinting is unpleasant in real life too!

Most games should just have faster movement speed and do away with sprinting.

I don't always want to move quickly (and I don't mean because of in-game stealth or something). Sometimes I would like to slow down either to appreciate scenery, engage in role playing, enhance immersion, etc.

For example entering a new area in Elden Ring, I rarely wanted to just gallop in but instead would prefer slowly walking and looking around as I go, taking my time.

I do agree in most cases it's good to be able to pick the default though.

What I'd really enjoy would be movement speed being a configuration setting I can adjust dynamically in real time with a small slider or touch interface (think AirPods Pro volume adjustment via the stem) on the back of the controller.

I think in Shadow of the Colossus, Agrob would trot by default and you'd have to hit the button a few times to get her galloping. That's an easier way to do it for horses

This, isnt the point of analog input that the input isnt binary on/off. Seems like mario 64 was ahead of time. The whole sprint button seems like workaround for bad analog sticks / wear with non hall effect controllers.

Fun fact: sometimes the sprint button doesn't actually make you go any faster, it just changes the cameras field of view to make it feel like you're going faster.

https://www.eurogamer.net/mass-effects-sprinting-was-an-illu...

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