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Banned
Destiny 2 is often mentioned as one of the best FPS' on console, because of the tight controls. - In todays standards, this is unfactual.
I came across this post on reddit:
Posted by
u/EternalDahaka
Deadzone | Dotgraph
Acceleration Curve
Interactive graph with requested options and relative sensitivity change(note curve used is different from Destiny's default)
As a broad note, unsurprisingly, Destiny's controls are nearly identical to the Halo titles from Reach onward, so players might be familiar with some of the options Halo 5, MCC and Infinite currently have.
Deadzone Options
Destiny uses an ~23% rounded square deadzone for it's deadzone. 23% is within a pretty common deadzone range, but it is very large, and notably larger than some of the default deadzone used in other games(Overwatch uses 15%, Call of Duty 7%). Larger deadzone can make precise adjustments more difficult, and generally make the controls feel less responsive.
The shape is actually from a circular deadzone being built on top of a square/axial one. The axial portion of the deadzone is responsible for the restricted diagonal movement around the axes, which makes diagonal cursor movements inaccurate to the stick angles. It can make it easier to make perfectly horizontal and vertical movement, but makes it much difficult and clunky to make diagonal movement. Warping the deadzone like that also requires more diagonal movement to see the same acceleration as cardinal movements.
Recent Halo games have offered separate radial and axial options, and that would address things here. Players that want to use circular deadzones with no restricted diagonal movement could set that up, and players who wanted to use exclusive axial deadzones could do that too, along with anything in-between. The slider for both the radial and axial deadzones could range from 0 to 0.30 so that players could play at the defaults with either exclusive deadzone if they preferred. Movement is less important but should get these options as well.
Acceleration curve and turn acceleration options
Destiny 2 seems to use the same curve as Halo Reach, but with a more drastic jump in acceleration, but not quite as large as the jump in Halo Infinite. The sensitivity cap has been increased recently, but previous that would have meant that the 'general' acceleration speeds before that jump would have been slower than in Reach, even if the max turn rate was the same at 10 sensitivity(a current issue with Infinite).
Now there's nothing inherently wrong with the curve itself, but players have any range of preference on what curve they'd like to use. Some might like the default, others might prefer a linear curve, and others might prefer something in-between. I'm not sure if the curve they're using specifically plays well with customization, but some level of granular customization would be requested. Players finding their preferred curve would help with small adjustments and general tracking.
Players have differing preferences on turn acceleration as well, and some feel like it can make aiming feel inconsistent. Just passing the threshold almost doubles your turn speed. Some players might like to completely disable it so acceleration feels smooth all the way up to max stick movement, and others might like to increase the multiplier to turn even faster.
With options for both, this would allow players to really fine-tune their acceleration. Players who like slower sensitivities might like using linear curves with decent turn accel to turn fast, while others might like playing at higher sensitivities with more exponential curves with no turn accel.
Separate horizontal and vertical sensitivity sliders.
It's not at all uncommon for console games to keep the vertical sensitivity lower than the horizontal, but this can come with a few issues. The first is simply that it can make aiming feel awkward for some players who want them to be the same.
The second is that it affects diagonal movement, skewing the angles towards the more sensitive axis. Your cursor angles are simply made up of horizontal and vertical movement, and if you change one, you get a different angle than the correct one. Because the horizontal is faster, all your diagonal angles are shifted horizontally. Ignoring the incorrect diagonal movement caused by the axial deadzone, this means if you correctly move the stick in the correct direction to track a target, the crosshair can fall off target because the angle was altered.
A separate vertical sensitivity slider is requested to address this. Plenty of players are used to this kind of angle warping because of how common it is in console games, but this would allow players who want the same X/Y sensitivity and correct diagonals to access it.
It would also be important that the slider values are correct. Many games that offer separate options have them incorrect, so even if they're set the same the vertical is still lower(i.e. recent DOOMs, Halos, Splitgate, Shadow Warrior, Call of Duty etc.).
Unified acceleration threshold
The dotgraph shows this better, but the threshold for the acceleration jump is broken into separate threshold for vertical and horizontal acceleration, and these thresholds overlap slightly. When passing the horizontal threshold, you only additional horizontal acceleration and when passing the vertical threshold, you get only vertical acceleration.
This is a problem because, like with differing axis sensitivities, this also affects diagonal movement in the same way. If only horizontal turn acceleration is triggered, then your cursor angle becomes more horizontally bias. If only the vertical acceleration is triggering, then your cursor movement more vertically than expected. Many other games have the turn acceleration trigger affect both the horizontal and vertical axes evenly, and that would be the fix to address that here.
Aim assist options
Many might think playing without aim assist isn't possible, but it definitely is, and options for it should always be offered. Bullet magnetism is tied with weapon balance, but slowdown and magnetism could be offered.
Ideally separate sliders for each could be offered, so players could customize what they want. Some players dislike being pulled off target, and could reduce the magnetism while keeping the slowdown. Some might think the slowdown is awkward, and could control that while keeping the magnetism.
Of course, a simple toggle can work too. As a minor thing, it'd be nice to have this option toggle the menu aim assist too when disabled.
Conclusion
This is a lot to ask, given how long it took just to get ADS and higher sensitivity options, but these are important options for thumbstick aiming, and something that would help Destiny 2 play much better.
A "simple" solution would be to add custom controls, like Apex Legends did from the get-go 3 years ago:
As a former Destiny player with over 5000 hours clocked in on both games, from 2014-2019 and 3 years with Apex Legends (2019-2022), I would love to try Destiny again with updated controls, but as it is now - it feels really bad - extremely unresponsive.
I came across this post on reddit:
Posted by
u/EternalDahaka
Deadzone | Dotgraph
Acceleration Curve
Interactive graph with requested options and relative sensitivity change(note curve used is different from Destiny's default)
As a broad note, unsurprisingly, Destiny's controls are nearly identical to the Halo titles from Reach onward, so players might be familiar with some of the options Halo 5, MCC and Infinite currently have.
Deadzone Options
Destiny uses an ~23% rounded square deadzone for it's deadzone. 23% is within a pretty common deadzone range, but it is very large, and notably larger than some of the default deadzone used in other games(Overwatch uses 15%, Call of Duty 7%). Larger deadzone can make precise adjustments more difficult, and generally make the controls feel less responsive.
The shape is actually from a circular deadzone being built on top of a square/axial one. The axial portion of the deadzone is responsible for the restricted diagonal movement around the axes, which makes diagonal cursor movements inaccurate to the stick angles. It can make it easier to make perfectly horizontal and vertical movement, but makes it much difficult and clunky to make diagonal movement. Warping the deadzone like that also requires more diagonal movement to see the same acceleration as cardinal movements.
Recent Halo games have offered separate radial and axial options, and that would address things here. Players that want to use circular deadzones with no restricted diagonal movement could set that up, and players who wanted to use exclusive axial deadzones could do that too, along with anything in-between. The slider for both the radial and axial deadzones could range from 0 to 0.30 so that players could play at the defaults with either exclusive deadzone if they preferred. Movement is less important but should get these options as well.
Acceleration curve and turn acceleration options
Destiny 2 seems to use the same curve as Halo Reach, but with a more drastic jump in acceleration, but not quite as large as the jump in Halo Infinite. The sensitivity cap has been increased recently, but previous that would have meant that the 'general' acceleration speeds before that jump would have been slower than in Reach, even if the max turn rate was the same at 10 sensitivity(a current issue with Infinite).
Now there's nothing inherently wrong with the curve itself, but players have any range of preference on what curve they'd like to use. Some might like the default, others might prefer a linear curve, and others might prefer something in-between. I'm not sure if the curve they're using specifically plays well with customization, but some level of granular customization would be requested. Players finding their preferred curve would help with small adjustments and general tracking.
Players have differing preferences on turn acceleration as well, and some feel like it can make aiming feel inconsistent. Just passing the threshold almost doubles your turn speed. Some players might like to completely disable it so acceleration feels smooth all the way up to max stick movement, and others might like to increase the multiplier to turn even faster.
With options for both, this would allow players to really fine-tune their acceleration. Players who like slower sensitivities might like using linear curves with decent turn accel to turn fast, while others might like playing at higher sensitivities with more exponential curves with no turn accel.
Separate horizontal and vertical sensitivity sliders.
It's not at all uncommon for console games to keep the vertical sensitivity lower than the horizontal, but this can come with a few issues. The first is simply that it can make aiming feel awkward for some players who want them to be the same.
The second is that it affects diagonal movement, skewing the angles towards the more sensitive axis. Your cursor angles are simply made up of horizontal and vertical movement, and if you change one, you get a different angle than the correct one. Because the horizontal is faster, all your diagonal angles are shifted horizontally. Ignoring the incorrect diagonal movement caused by the axial deadzone, this means if you correctly move the stick in the correct direction to track a target, the crosshair can fall off target because the angle was altered.
A separate vertical sensitivity slider is requested to address this. Plenty of players are used to this kind of angle warping because of how common it is in console games, but this would allow players who want the same X/Y sensitivity and correct diagonals to access it.
It would also be important that the slider values are correct. Many games that offer separate options have them incorrect, so even if they're set the same the vertical is still lower(i.e. recent DOOMs, Halos, Splitgate, Shadow Warrior, Call of Duty etc.).
Unified acceleration threshold
The dotgraph shows this better, but the threshold for the acceleration jump is broken into separate threshold for vertical and horizontal acceleration, and these thresholds overlap slightly. When passing the horizontal threshold, you only additional horizontal acceleration and when passing the vertical threshold, you get only vertical acceleration.
This is a problem because, like with differing axis sensitivities, this also affects diagonal movement in the same way. If only horizontal turn acceleration is triggered, then your cursor angle becomes more horizontally bias. If only the vertical acceleration is triggering, then your cursor movement more vertically than expected. Many other games have the turn acceleration trigger affect both the horizontal and vertical axes evenly, and that would be the fix to address that here.
Aim assist options
Many might think playing without aim assist isn't possible, but it definitely is, and options for it should always be offered. Bullet magnetism is tied with weapon balance, but slowdown and magnetism could be offered.
Ideally separate sliders for each could be offered, so players could customize what they want. Some players dislike being pulled off target, and could reduce the magnetism while keeping the slowdown. Some might think the slowdown is awkward, and could control that while keeping the magnetism.
Of course, a simple toggle can work too. As a minor thing, it'd be nice to have this option toggle the menu aim assist too when disabled.
Conclusion
This is a lot to ask, given how long it took just to get ADS and higher sensitivity options, but these are important options for thumbstick aiming, and something that would help Destiny 2 play much better.
A "simple" solution would be to add custom controls, like Apex Legends did from the get-go 3 years ago:
As a former Destiny player with over 5000 hours clocked in on both games, from 2014-2019 and 3 years with Apex Legends (2019-2022), I would love to try Destiny again with updated controls, but as it is now - it feels really bad - extremely unresponsive.
