Hey guys,
I’m excited to announce a new project
I’m going to do some mods so that I can play Overwatch, teh new game by Blizzard
Like any gamer, I have been following the development of Overwatch and finally got a chance to try it about two weeks ago. I paid for the basic version of the game for $40.
After one afternoon with the game, I was utterly enthralled. All reviews for this game have mentioned how it’s fun to play because of how polished it is. Saying so is a grand understatement. I believe what we have here is the result of what is probably one of the top five game companies in the world taking multiple threats to the market space it occupies quite seriously and purposefully investing what I’m guessing is a great deal of the company’s resources to make sure they get this game right. I have no doubt that this game and its team of designers’ work and budgets received top priority at Blizzard these past years.
The result is something I have only seen and experienced with one other franchise in all of my 35 years of gaming, league of legends of course. That is to say, a truly competitive experience that is so compelling as to warrant legitimate sporting competition is achieved in the same way it is with league of legends with accessibility such that folks with limited patience and substantial time contraints can participate. Bravo Blizzard, bravo
And, thank you.
While I have enjoyed many games in my life, including numerous single player campaigns, in the last 15 years I have increasingly become less able to enjoy games, whether they be single player campaigns or multiplayer online, if they don’t have this particular X factor of presenting a legitimate competitive experience that can be learned and enjoyed given my gaming schedule limitations.
This is not to say that anyone who finds enjoyment in other games is wrong. It’s just that I have done a pretty extensive exploration on this matter for my own needs, trying and making investments into many of the major offerings out there including Guild Wars 2, Eve Online, and a number of the other multiplayer FPS’s. For those who are interested in a pretty well informed opinion, I cannot more strongly recommend Overwatch in addition to League of Legends.
So, here’s what I found in getting started playing overwatch with the steam controller. In most ways, using the steam controller achieves the greatest balance between hand health/safety and performance. There are a few problems preventing me from being able to continue using the steam controller without modifications, one of which has to do with my physical limitations, and some of which have to do with… let’s just say design elements that I don’t agree with.
First of all, I injured my left thumb a few years ago by playing league of legends with an Xbox 360 controller in my left hand and a mouse in my right hand. Using my thumb to hit the d-pad on the Xbox controller resulted in an injury to the base thumb joint which caused inflammation and mild frequent pain. Discontinuing use of my left thumb for one full year allowed it to recover such that it no longer hurts at all on a daily basis.
However, I have found in bringing my left thumb out of retirement from gaming to use it on the left side trackpad of the steam controller with d-pad emulation (a particularly sloppy yet extremely low intensity method for WASD character movement – using the actual analog stick for WASD movement wasn’t even an option given the susceptability of my left thumb to probable reinjury), my injury will return. After one afternoon of using the left side trackpad for WASD movement, I experienced pain that lasted more than 24 hours in the original injury location. So, continuing to play the game in this way, despite how there is essentially zero actuation force required when just rubbing the left side trackpad around in a small area for WASD movement with my thumb, is simply not an option for me.
I therefore brainstormed and settled on a Sanwa JLF arcade stick with cherry switches for WASD movement which will distribute the workload over my entire left hand and wrist rather than having just my left thumb do all of that work. My control scheme will be the arcade stick in left hand, and steam controller in right hand.
(Arcade stick purchased from paradisearcade.com)
http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/levers-sanwa/1108-sanwa-jlf-cherry-mod.htmlI’m going to add 2 PS Vita analog sticks to the arcade stick. One will be situated so that I may lift my thumb off the yellow ball top and reach a short distance down and to the right where I will position an analog giving me 4 available commands there. The other analog will be positioned such that I may reach down with my middle finger to manipulate 4 additional commands. Having the analog sticks and the eight possible commands available will be important because when moving from using the left side of the steam controller to using the arcade stick, several available command buttons are lost (you can no longer use the steam analog stick, the trigger, the bumper, the backside paddle, or the edge of the left side trackpad). The placements for the analog sticks are depicted in the pic above with those red circles.
In my previous project, I already established that, for at least my usage, when using thumbs for action commands, PS Vita analog sticks are superior to using buttons such as on the steam controller or any other controller for that matter. Unless we’re talking about old-school beat-‘em-ups or fighters which sometimes require button combos wherein its necessary to hit two buttons at once with your thumb, PS Vita sticks are simply more comfortable and easier to actuate then buttons (actuation force required is super-low).
Additionally, finding a PS Vita stick with your thumb when it’s coming from performing some other task elsewhere, and then executing some command or commands with it, is easier simply because whether or not the user has found the stick is unmistakable as opposed to finding buttons (maybe your thumb has found a button amongst the four in the cluster, but it isn’t the one you thought it was). This is a pretty big issue for the steam controller button cluster because, as described in one of the YouTube reviews for that controller, the button cluster is in an unnatural feeling location requiring a lot of reaching, and in my experience, it is certainly a problem. Coming from the right side trackpad, the thumb has a pretty difficult time on its own determining which of the four buttons it has found in its tactile search for positioning on the cluster.
I will therefore add a PS Vita analog stick to the steam controller in the place of the button cluster and have conceived of adding a second analog stick as well (again, both depicted in the pic above with the red circles).
I have already opened the arcade stick and cut off about 30% of the spring in order to make it nice and easy to move. I have also ordered a mod that reduces the null zone down to practically nothing. As with all things control wise, I want to make this one effortless to use.
the nullzone mod:
https://www.focusattack.com/kowal-1mm-oversize-actuator-for-sanwa-jlf-series-joystick/A major piece of this project will be to figure out how to house the arcade stick in something that will allow it to be used sitting on the bed or my leg, depending on whether I am bed-gaming or zero gravity chair-gaming.
With a lot of brainstorming, I figured out the platform housing that I need to have made. And I’ve reached the point of needing to ask my friends here for guidance on what to use. I’ll need to have the platform made with a 3-D printer, and I need to ask you guys what program I should use to draw it.
An engineer friend of mine suggested a year or two back that I learn Autodesk for when I need these kinds of parts made. I have since heard that there are software applications that are likely much easier to use on tablets for non-design professionals like myself. Can somebody please suggest what I might use to get together a drawing without having to learn something as difficult as Autodesk? I don’t mean that I want to try to get this job done on my tablet - God no
But I’m really hoping there’s something you guys might know of on PC that is easier than Autodesk