I bought Thief for my buddy who is a lifelong console gamer. We like to do Saturday gaming sessions when we can, so I thought it would be fun to hook up his netbook (don't worry, the game runs fine on it) to the TV and play with a gamepad, since crouching around a tiny laptop for four hours sounds awful, and he isn't really comfortable with WASD anyway.

So I have two questions.

1.) has anyone tried to sync up a gamepad to Thief? I'd imagine it would work excellently with the bumpers set to lean, the D-pad set to scroll through items, and another button set to scroll through the weapons, etc. but I'm curious what anyone who's tried it has to say.

2.) Does anyone have a controller they'd recommend? I'll also be using it for console ports like Dead Space that I bought on Steam and hated the mouse/keyboard setup. I realize that I'll have to use something like Xpadder to make it work with older games.

If it doesn't work, I've always got an extra copy of Deadly Shadows for X-Box laying around, but I'd MUCH rather play Thief Gold.

You'd need a controller with a lot of buttons, Thief uses a lot of the keyboard. even if you don't use specific items/weapons keys. There's also two different "go forward" keys iirc, which could make life interesting.

Alright, if anyone is curious, I got the game working BEAUTIFULLY on a TV using an X-box 360 controller and Xpadder. There are a couple things I can't do (mainly lean forward) but for the most part it plays as though it was meant for this controller.

I'll post the configuration in the next week or so because it really is that great.The files are all on my friend's netbook or I would post it now.

I am making a xpadder profile but doesn't work. I mean, no one of the buttons or sticks works once i am ingame, it's very weird...

Any idea? Thank you.

I've been using my PS3 controller for Thief, thanks to MotioninJoy (and Xpadder to simulate mouse looking on the right joystick). I've got to say, it kicks the crap out of the keyboard and mouse.

While the mouse is obviously a better choice for aiming and camera control, I've ALWAYS thought a joystick is better than a keyboard for movement, since the keyboard is actually nothing but a d-pad that you need four fingers to use. The controller joystick gives smooth, 360-degree movement in a 3D environment. Thief, however, has an extra benefit to using the joystick: speed control.

There are three separate movement speeds in Thief: run, walk and sneak. With the default control setting, you have separate run and walk buttons, and you hold Shift to sneak. You can optionally set it up to be the standard WASD control scheme, with W being run, holding Shift being walk, and holding Shift and another button to sneak. Tell me all that doesn't sound like carpal tunnel.

With a controller, you have the joystick, which means push it barely at all to sneak, a little bit to walk, and all the way to run. I cannot stress how much better Thief is with a controller instead of a keyboard. And of all games, too -- It's always been a PC exclusive, and I swear it was MEANT to be played this way.


My exact control scheme is as follows:

LEFT JOYSTICK -- MOVE
RIGHT JOYSTICK -- LOOK (Xpadder)
D-PAD UP/DOWN -- PREVIOUS/NEXT ITEM
D-PAD LEFT/RIGHT -- PREVIOUS/NEXT WEAPON
L1 -- USE ITEM
R1 -- MOUSE 1 ATTACK (also assigned through Xpadder, to navigate menus and still be able to click)
L2/R2 -- LEAN LEFT/RIGHT
R3 -- BLOCK
X -- JUMP
O -- CROUCH TOGGLE
SELECT -- MAP
START -- ESC MENU (Xpadder)


I only started playing Thief for the first time about a week ago, and I'm still stunned at how excellent the controller support is, and that's just what's built into the game itself. Combine it with a few functions in Xpadder, and you'll never want to go back. Sure the aiming is a bit slower, since a mouse always trumps a joystick in that regard. But in every other aspect, movement most of all, you'll see how much better of a choice a controller really is.

Someone should make an analog-stick controller for the left hand only, so instead of mouse-keyboard we can play with mouse-analog stick. We'd get both great aiming and better movement control. In fact, the best design might look a lot like the throttle control from an aircraft... i.e. a stick you hold with your whole left hand and which has extra buttons for the other game functions. Except instead of only moving forwards and backwards it would move in all directions.

I agree that the analog input for movement is pretty cool, but I usually prefer mouse-keyboard because I care much more about precise aiming and looking. Also remember that with mouselook the mouse is also how you turn; turning is much clunkier with a stick. WASD is certainly limiting and requires other keys for speed toggles, but currently it's the only option to use with a mouse. Some sort of left-hand stick could be pretty cool as an alternative. Anyone know if something like that exists?

I just hold my gamepad in the left hand for analog movement, and use mouse in the right hand. It works fine, they are not that heavy to hold with one hand. Using Xpadder (5.3 is freeware) as well, you get 8-9 buttons on one-half of a gamepad, which is plenty sufficient for most games. (I'm not aware of any specific one-handed controllers)

I second everything pedrovay2003 said though - analog movement just feels way more natural than using keyboard controls.

I made an account just to post in this thread and ask, where are the xpadder configuration files for Thief? I'd love to have them. I, too, want to experience the game on my TV with a 360 controller. If you could upload them, that would be awesome.

I made a file myself. This is for the Xbox 360 controller. [url=Here it is]http://www.mediafire.com/?zfw1i9y7h36hoa1[/url].

A - Jump/Block
B - Crouch
X - Put away weapon
Y + LS - Lean left and right
LB + LS - Weapons 1-4
LB + D-Pad - Weapons 5-8
D-Pad Down - Weapon 9
RB - Jump/Block
LT - Use Item
RT - Use weapon
Select - Map
Start - Menu
D-Pad Left and Right - Previous and Next items

Would you be able to repost that file, It's coming up as a 404 error page.

The file's good, the link was improperly formatted. Here: http://www.mediafire.com/?zfw1i9y7h36hoa1

This was my problem exactly! Thank you for the quick and easy solution. :)

Hello all. Picked up Wing Commander 4 and Thief 3/Deadly Shadows.
Been having trouble getting either to recognize my controller. Would this Xpadder application fix that?

Also, when running Thief, when I attempt to change any of the commands (Interact, Jump, etc.), as soon as I click on a command, it crashes back to the desktop. Any idea what that's about?

I'm using a laptop, don't currently have a mouse - it's barely playable with a touchpad, but holy carpal, Batman.

Don't know if it matters, but the controller I'm trying to use is a PowerA Fus1on, for Xbox360.

I remember Thief II being one of my favorite games... I'd really like to experience this one properly :)

Thanks for any help!

E

HERESY!

May the Builder smite you with his optical 7 button hammer.