Kerrle on 1/5/2022 at 04:38

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I recently got a Steam Deck, and the normal fan patched versions of Thief work just fine:
https://i.imgur.com/omPS3wC.jpg

There's a recent fan mission running and I haven't encountered any issues. I've run through the first two missions in the main campaign also with no issues, though I did have to put some real work in to get all the controls just right.

But the standard FMSel is...only okay:
https://i.imgur.com/Ea8e9vE.jpg

Because of quirks of the windowing system it's hard (not impossible) to use any of the drop down menus.

The deck could really use a more controller-centric UI... and I'm willing to work on that. But what would people like to see in that? Is standard manual downloading of missions still the right way forward or should that be built into the launcher (obviously that'd require an index of missions that could be referenced)? It'd also make sense for people on the TV/couch.

And would people prefer a modern UI or something that looked a bit more like the UI of the game? Given it'd be dropping you right into Thief Gold or Thief II maybe having it look like the menus would make sense.

Kerrle on 1/5/2022 at 06:42

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In a single word: no.

Everything about the Steamdeck has been designed to make PC games playable, even if they were originally mouse/keyboard.

I don't expect to convince you, but look, I'll describe my setup. Refer to the photos above.

I use mouselook just like you would on the PC - that's the square pad to the right of the screen. It's configured to simulate a trackball and you can flick it for speedy 180s or move it slowly for fine movement, just like a real one. The built in haptics are super convincing at making it feel like an actual ball rolling under your thumb, so you can feel how fast it's moving, when it's slowing down, etc.

Thief natively supports joysticks for movement, so I use the left joystick for standard WASD Stuff - only it's even better, as with analog I don't need separate Creep or Run keys - it's all based on the analog movement of the stick. Click the stick in for toggle crouch.

The right joystick is set up as a radial menu - when I move it, it overlays a circle on screen that looks like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/MUfLGrz.jpg)
(I can't edit the names of the buttons yet, but that's coming)

The joysticks are capacitive, so it knows when your finger is on it. Just move it in the direction for the weapon you want and let go, and it will select it.

But because fan missions also sometimes include non-standard weapons, I set up the left touchpad as basically a mouse wheel - you just swipe it up or down to go to your next or previous weapon, so that handles custom weapons. Oh, and clicking the left pad holsters your weapon.

Inventory is on the d-pad - Left or Right are next/previous, up clears inventory, down drops your item.

The face buttons (XABY) are, in order, Quicksave, Jump, Square Lockpick, Compass.

I have quickload on a modifier layer so that it doesn't get pressed accidentally. Lean is also on a modifier. For either of those, hold the right shoulder button and then either left shoulder will Quickload and the left joystick becomes lean left/forward/right.

In short everything that the keyboard traditionally handles is just fine, and the virtual trackball does a damn good job of providing good mouselook.

And if you're worried I'm going to create some nightmare of a launcher, it wouldn't be my first attempt - more than 15 years ago (ugh) I attempted a launcher for Linux: (https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103343)

It got positive feedback, though the screenshots are long gone.

Kerrle on 1/5/2022 at 07:27

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I'm literally a user experience designer for a living.

As I said above, this was specifically about the Steam Deck, so it'd be making an interface more fit to that device (and TV use) than FMSel currently is.

I have no problems using FMSel on a normal computer; it works fine there.

trefoilknot on 2/5/2022 at 01:14

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Awesome! Was it hard to get it running? Or does it work just fine out of the box?

zajazd on 2/5/2022 at 09:25

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Would you be able to create a patch/mod for Thief for native controller support? I have been using Xpadder to play fan missions with my Xbox One controller for a while but I have always thought about how great it would be to have native support.