Day 21 of asking for an overhaul to controller aiming. Any day now please.
I think there are really two levels to improving controller aim: a few relatively easy changes that could make a big difference, and a more involved overhaul of the aiming mechanics.
The easiest/most immediate fix would be aim assist. I don't think controller players should have to disable it entirely because the current implementation is so difficult to use that many of us have resorted to turning it off. That's basically a workaround, but it also puts controller players at a disadvantage against M&K.
Right now the combination is a very strong aim snap + extremely strong slowdown. The snap can work in theory, but it sometimes snaps next to the target rather than onto it, and it's so aggressive that it feels jarring. Then the slowdown is so strong that once you're near the target, you actually have to fight the controls to make micro-adjustments or move from body to head.
At minimum, I'd separate aim snap and aim slowdown and give each its own strength slider. That alone would let players find a balance that works for them. Ideally, though, I'd eventually like to see the aim assist move toward something more like rotational/magnetism-based assistance with minimal slowdown. The goal would be for the assist to help you initially get on target and stay with a moving target without taking control of the reticle.
Another relatively simple change would be separating horizontal and vertical sensitivity. Right now they're coupled, so increasing horizontal sensitivity automatically increases vertical. A lot of controller players prefer slightly lower vertical sensitivity than horizontal, especially in shooters.
For a more involved overhaul, I'd also love to see more control over the response curve. Having options such as Linear, Exponential, and Dynamic/reverse-S, rather than being limited to the current curve, would give players much more control over how the stick responds. Personally, Dynamic/reverse-S is my preference.
The close-range aiming is where all of this becomes particularly problematic in Active Matter. Medium and long-range aiming is generally manageable, although the excessive slowdown makes tracking something moving horizontally very difficult. But so many of the monsters here rush directly into your camera, move extremely quickly and unpredictably, and then juke laterally at the last second.
Flowermen are a good example. You can center your aim and track them while they're approaching, but once they get close they suddenly cut left or right. By the time you fight through the slowdown and get the reticle back onto them, they've already hit you or run past you. Distorted can be even more extreme because some of them will come straight at you and then suddenly shift/teleport a short distance sideways as you're trying to center your aim. I understand that movement is intentional game design to make them harder to hit, but combined with the current controller mechanics it can make those encounters feel more like you're fighting the controls than the enemy.
That's also why I think the issue is particularly noticeable in this game. It's not just that the aim assist needs work. The game has a lot of extremely fast, erratic enemies that attack at point-blank range, which really exposes the weaknesses in the current controller aiming. M&K doesn't have that aim-assist behavior to fight against, so players can make those tiny corrections much more precisely.
One other, lower-priority feature I'd eventually love is an option to control how ADS magnification interacts with your FOV. Essentially, allowing players to choose whether their ADS view uses a consistent zoom level or scales relative to their current FOV. I wouldn't consider this nearly as important as the other changes, though.
So if I had to prioritize it:
Separate aim snap and slowdown + individual strength sliders
Rework the aim assist toward more subtle rotational/magnetism assistance
Separate horizontal and vertical sensitivity
More response-curve options, particularly Dynamic/reverse-S
ADS/FOV scaling options
I know that's a lot, but I'm not trying to nitpick or complain. I genuinely really enjoy the game, and that's why I'm taking the time to break this down. I've been playing shooters for about 25 years and generally feel very comfortable on controller, including holding my own against M&K players. I'm not expecting the game to make aiming easier for me. I just want the controller to feel precise and predictable.
Right now it feels like the aim assist is doing the opposite of what I think it should: it can snap aggressively onto the wrong spot and then slow the reticle down so much that correcting it becomes difficult. Even just separating those two systems and letting players tune them independently would be a huge step in the right direction.
u/MajorMcDonalds