I didn't have any issue with Origins or 2 but this is killing the game for me.

The camera movement on the mouse has no sensitivity options(only keyboard)
You can't run holding both mouse buttons like other Bioware games
No click to move or click to loot like previous DA games
The cursor is tiny and blends in with everything making it easy to lose on battles.
Tactical view is way too zoomed in and makes it harder to use and clunky.
Having to hold down R to basic attack sucks
Can't rebind mouse buttons
No walking, you can only run

I'm only 2 hours in and I'm getting really bummed out thinking of having to fight these terrible controls for 90 hours...why couldn't they leave it as it was in the other games?

Yeah if you're having trouble with that its pretty unfortunate. Hopefully they can address the issue with key binding in a patch. Probably the other option if you're open to doing this is to use a controller. There are times that I do prefer to play games on PC with the controller since I sometimes find it more comfortable to use than KB+M.

Plug in a controller. Problem solved.

Ya I've been having trouble with the controls as well. I've played about 3 hours now and things still aren't really coming together for me so I need to try using my 360 controller. Also it makes no sense why you can't bind to mouse buttons, it seems like such a silly thing to prohibit.

@darkecho117: I don't think they're prohibiting it but rather they just didn't have that option on there when they shipped/launched it. Hopefully they'll correct it in the soonest possible time.

I fought with the keyboard and mouse controls for about an hour before switching to the 360 controller. The controller is infinitely better.

Yesterday I was kinda going back and forth between controller and keyboard / mouse trying to figure out which one felt better on pc. Eventually I decided on the controller mainly cause the game feels more streamlined for controller support. You could play this game like the previous 2 Dragon Age games with a keyboard / mouse but I feel like you'd be at a real disadvantage if you did. Couple things I noticed is some of the things Rorie mentioned on the podcast was no fiddling with any of the mouse buttons except for giving you the ability to switch the left and right mouse buttons. Zooming out the farthest way possible gives you the tactical view option, which sometimes I didn't mean to get into but did by accident just cause I wanted to zoom out for a better view of the battlefield. If you do get this on PC I recommend playing it with gamepad support. I also gotta mention it kinda sucks that you can't switch on the fly between the two and gotta quit your game in order to enable it, I'm assuming they did that cause you do get different task bars depending on which controls you select.

@gaspower: Ya I really want to bind the search key to one of my mouse buttons as the default is not great when running around.

Wait you really have to keep pressing r the whole time to do basic attacks? That sounds horrible :(

Hold down it or the left mouse button, yeah.

@ateatree: fuck i thought you just select an enemy mmo-style and your character keeps attacking. I guess i'll use a controller since you already don't click-to-move and i don't see any advantage for using mouse and keyboard now :(

Oh wow, I might actually bite the bullet and get this for PS3 since my PC isn't good enough for it, plus all these mouse & keyboard issues.

You can use shift and mouse to move the camera, that helps.

On twitter one of the producers says they are monitoring the PC complains and are gonna look at them. Pretty sure they will patch that stuff. If they can increase the zoom out that would fix my main gripe.

By the way, I already have the game but I've been really busy lately to carve the time to play through it, what's the benefit of having to do the basic attacks constantly? Is there a benefit of timing the button presses/clicks when doing basic attacks like in an action game?

This is a console game not a PC game. Very much designed around a controller.

What a shame, guess I'll play with a Xbox controller then but I hope they fix these issues.

@gaspower: I'm a few hours in and haven't seen any timing bits to do x amount of more damage. You definitely have to be close and facing your enemy to have the damage hit them with melee attacks. There definitely feels like an extra amount of weight to the weapons themselves compared to previous games. You won't be quick swinging the heavy giant swords like Cloud Strife that's for sure. Basic attacks are there just to cause damage till the queve time on your other action abilities is up and you can use them again similar to the past dragon age games.

I read somewhere which had a great analogy when comparing the dragon age games. asically think of the difference between mass effect 1 to mass effect 2, now take out DA 2 and compare Dragon Age Origins to Dragon Age Inquisition and you basically got a sense of how this game feels.

Played for a couple hours last night and I had to turn it off. Even with the controller, it's still not as enjoyable as the first two games. The tactical combat was the strong part of the series and I don't even use it now because it's so poorly implemented. The game was clearly built for consoles, it feels like I'm playing a single player MMO.

I hope they can fix the combat, but I don't see it happening because the problems are far deeper then just remapping the keys.

@gaspower said:

No benefit to timing the auto-attacks that I've seen. Maybe with some of the special attacks? The rogue's Parry ability does appear to need some timing as you have to block at the right time and I occasionally knock enemies back if I use it at the right point. I don't know if the knock-back is actually good timing or if it's just some random stat-based proc on the ability though.

Ah okay. I'll probably use the Rogue now too just so I can test it out. Thanks!

I was wondering why I kept hitting mouse 1&2 when I wanted to walk. It's just one of those actions you do, expecting it to do something. Like the two finger swipe/tap on a laptop.

I really was not enjoying the combat; the camera's simply too zoomed in to play tactically, the auto-center on your selected guy is a pain, and I felt like everyone, including my selected character just attacked the closest target in a 45 cone in front of them.I have a 360 controller. So it's no big deal. But, I didn't have any issues with DA2's KB/M controls, so I find it odd that they seemed to have totally redone it.

Here's a quick question from someone who's only been playing M+K until now:

When you're using the controller, is there any way to view enemy levels? I'd prefer to know I'm in a level-appropriate area BEFORE getting my shit kicked in (which can easily be done by mousing over your target in that control scheme.) Did I miss a toggle, or is this (and a measured zoom-out function on the controller) just another omission?

I'm still having such a hard time separating this game from Origins. This isn't like Origins, they aren't going to make another Dragon Age like Origins any time soon.

I'll probably pick this up as some point but it seems I need to get over that mental block if I'm actually going to enjoy it.

@demoskinos: Pretty sad we live in an age where a Bioware RPG like Dragon Age is "A console game, not a PC game" especially since the first one was so much of a PC game.

Well, goes to show where EA thinks the bulk of the market share is. As lauded as Steam and PC gaming have been in the last 5 or so years consoles really are still the main destination for most gamers.

Only way I've been doing it is when you lock on to a dude by hitting R3 you'll get their health bar and level on the top of the screen. Also after playing a ton of FF14 on a controller, it's driving me nuts that I can't zoom out, unless that too is hidden somewhere.

I can't tell you how many ledges I've fallen off of because triggering the damn ladder animation seems to be finicky as hell. That being said I think I've kinda gotten used to the kb/m controls for combat.

That should never be in a solution in this sort of game, it should fit mouse and keyboard just fine.

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/521697-pc-community-concerns/

Bioware has officially acknowledged the issues. It's pretty generic and non-committal (I think they must have had Deej from the Destiny community write it for them) but its something

It should just work but its not like the controller isn't a good option and if you don't have one you should get one anyways there are to many games that just play better with a controller.

fear not PC gamers! Bioware has heard your pleas and Dragon Age is going back to its roots. PC controls will be 100% compatible with all your favourite racing wheels and, of course, the legendary Novint Falcon. *pause for applause*

-Excerpt from scrapped Bioware announcement.

Anyway, holy shit these controls are bad, I don't want to play until it's fixed, if it's fixed. Here's hoping.

Yep. It's a fucking travesty.

You're missing out. This damn game is great

Can you actually queue up abilities in the tactical mode? I haven't used it much but I prefer to play these games on the higher difficulty settings and usually micromanaging is required, so far I've had to wait until an action has finished until I can give another order.

Also what is up with the keybindings? Seems you can't bind stuff with modifiers, how am I supposed to control the character with wasd and then press the 9 or 0 key?

@schnoo: Nope.

I haven't had any issues with the controls with mouse and keyboard. In fact I like them over the controller. If you're having that much of a problem you could rebind things to your liking. You don't HAVE to hold R to do a basic attack I've just been holding the left mouse button for my basic attack and then press the numbers on the hotbar to use my abilities.

I do not own this game, but I believe I will soon. I already suspect it is a controller input based game, the opposite of Far Cry 4 (for me anyways), which I have bought.

Nothing like a controller for a whole lot of games on PC these days. Just my take.

I agree. I played it all day yesterday and instead of getting used to the controls it got more and more frustrating. That wind-up on the sprint is a damn nightmare when you want to loot and harvest a bunch of stuff in a tight area.

Anyone know who to follow to keep up on a PC patch release? I am really eager to play this game but I get really concerned when I read reports from KB+M people.

I feel like these situations really justify the 30 dollars for a wired 360 pad.

Switching to controller pretty much changed this game for me.

I've tried both control schemes and still just about prefer M&K. It's not so much a question of whether you're playing console or PC, but whether you intend to play it as an action game or a tactical RPG. If you intend to play it as a poor action game then use a controller and you're fine on either platform; if you intend to play it tactically then it's bad whichever control scheme you use.

At some point in development, somebody presented a control scheme where you have to drive the camera cursor around terrain and up and down stairs, and somebody else signed off on it. Take a moment to think about how fucking ridiculous that is.

The UI is chock full of baffling and frustrating design decisions like that, such as basic functionality being available in one camera mode but not the other, and usually in the one which makes least sense to have it. This leads me to believe that it's not so much a 'nail it on console and forget PC' issue as it is a 'we don't know what we're doing and omg we have no idea how to make this engine do what we want' issue.

It's a shame, because there's a lot of good stuff about the game and the world they built is stunning, but it's really held back by how bad the controls and UI are.

Yeah, I had to go out and buy a controller because I was getting so frustrated with it. The game is 100% better with it, but like @jimbo pointed out, tactical view is a nightmare to use either way :(

I've realized since making this thread too that it can't switch between KB/M and controller. You need to quit the game and relaunch it. That's something $5 indie games made by 1 guy has already gotten past, how is it in a game like this?

@metal_mills: Probably due to the UI itself is completely different with controller and KB + M so when they designed it they probably have to load something else entirely due to the UI change though I agree there could have been a more dynamic solution without having to quit out to the main menu. I'm not a programmer/developer though so it is probably easier said than done.

You don't have to restart the game by the way if the controller was already connected/detected/turned on prior to running the application. If it is disconnected or turned off when you run it then it would say that you have to restart the game.

@jimbo: You can switch between enemy targets instantly in tactical mode. I can't remember what the KB + M equivalent is though but it makes it easier and faster to navigate that way. Also I've been playing with the gamepad on Hard and I've mostly been playing in Tactical mode and micromanaging alot. It is totally possible to still be able to play in mostly in tactical mode with the gamepad so I kinda dispute the notion that its only useful to play with the pad like an action game.