u/FerriteDwarf

Rivals of Aether 2 is my first platform fighter, and the first time I've used anything other than a keyboard and mouse for gaming in over a decade. When I first began playing, I was clumsy, full of misinputs, had no idea what things like "endlag" and "frame data" meant, and played one of the harder and less forgiving characters. Eventually, I stumbled upon the control options. I saw a world of possibilities open up to me, things I could change and adapt to in order to make different movements, techs, and options faster and easier for me to do. I would change and adapt my controls almost every other week with each tech or move I discovered, and would refer to it as "prestiging my controls", as I would play poorly until I had adapted to the new controls, but would then play better than I had before.

Then I started looking beyond just the controls. I looked at the controller and said "what if...". What if I used a controller with 4 back buttons instead of using the face buttons? I would never have to remove my thumbs from the sticks! What if I put the stick press input to use? I could have more control options available, and I would never have to move my thumbs off of the sticks, or my fingers off of the buttons! My inputs would be faster, more consistent, more fluid! So then I did just that, and for the first time, defeated one of my friends in a 1v1. For a while, I sat upon that control scheme, only making small tweaks here and there, until Valve descended from the heavens, showing this new controller, with It's 4 back buttons, two trackpads, and a whole plethora of options to steam input.

It was then that I knew, it was time for another big change to my controls. I meticulously planned a new control scheme, putting every possible input into thought. I awaited the arrival of the GabePad unlike anything that had come before. Through the RAM crisis and Delays, I waited. Until, for a mere 30 minute window, the steam controller was available to buy. I purchased the steam controller with such force, that the entire store page was nearly obliterated. 3 days later I was unboxing it, and it was almost perfect. I went into steam input, configured the trackpads to act as sticks, tuned them, added a center zone to the right trackpad to emulate a stick press, went into Rivals, and further tweaked it. I had decided as well that I would swap my jump and shield buttons, as I had noticed before that I was slower to release the triggers when compared to the bumpers, which would occasionally buffer shield out of a waveland.

I then booted up training mode, and begun playing with the new controls. It was smooth, magnificent, fast. It was everything that I could hope for. I then drew up a proper diagram on paint, to show to the world. I posted it in a couple of Discord servers. They were astonished, they did not believe that I actually use these controls. They thought I was crazy, but I think they are merely blind to the magnificence and genius of my perfected control scheme. But I will prove them wrong. With this control scheme I will train. I will escape gold, and climb my way to Aetherian.

TL:DR; I made a crazy control scheme, and I love it. It feels really good to use.