New player experience

[verbal heart]

TL;DR: Tell me what you found difficult, confusing or frustrating when you started using ConsolePort. Tell me your 'duh' moments, from information you found in-game or learned through this server.

Background

A feature that was planned in the config revamp (https://discord.com/channels/187704823657922560/1306707424085934172) never manifested, which is to bring interactive tutorials to ConsolePort. The original revamp thread had some great feedback from some of you, but it was unfocused as the thread mostly pertained to the config revamp, not the various issues new players face.

By interactive tutorials, I mean the type of tutorial that you do on the fly, small tidbits of information that you can parse as you're learning how to use the addon and play the game with a gamepad. We see questions asked over and over again, questions which do have in-game answers, but the delivery of that information is like the manual you get with an electronic gadget. You throw it out immediately, and try to figure out how the thing works yourself. The manual is too long, too wordy, and too hard to find what you need. If at last, you can't figure it out, you'll call support, which is this server.

A vague criticism I encounter all the time is 'it took me a long time to set up, but it was worth it' or 'it has a steep learning curve'. Let's try to fix that.

Plan vs Execution

The following was planned:

• Tutorial system will be added to introduce concepts like the interface cursor functions, mouse controls, modifiers, the action bar system, and performing common tasks that are not immediately obvious.
• A new "Help" tab will be added to the config, which will contain the tutorial system, link to Discord, and pages on common issues and solutions. This tab will also likely have a section dedicated to figure out controller issues, because I'm endlessly sick of telling people to exit Steam.

What was executed:

• Brief introductory guide which tries to explain the key concepts all at once.

Plan 2.0

To figure out where I need to focus my efforts, I need your feedback. I'm like an omnipotent gamepad god, I know virtually everything there is to know about playing WoW with a gamepad. I know 99% of all the settings and tweaks by heart, and can figure out a problem by turning the cogs of the machine I built in my head. Unlike an actual god, I have blind spots. I don't know how much I know, and how that compares to someone picking up the pad for the first time. This makes me a very poor judge of what the addon needs to communicate to flatten the learning curve, and serve up new concepts in a digestible format.

This is your chance to vent about frustrations with your introduction to this addon. Tell me the problems you ran into, if you ever figured them out, what did you find frustrating or difficult to do, tell me why/if/how you felt overwhelmed.

This feedback will then be condensed into real changes to the addon, which should let new players get going quicker and with less pain and effort.

[ionic orbit]

When I first started, figuring out the mouse/cursor operations was a pain point. Finding out how to easily add/remove/change bindings/action bar assignments was also a pain point. It would be useful to provide a step-by-step tutorial/follow-along on binding a new skill.

[gritty shoal]

Yes the initial setup was a huge pain. I especially wish that there was a barebones default option that had binds like game menu, etc but didn’t have pre-set binds for spells or attacks. Once you get into it and really figure it out it is mostly a breeze. I agree, a tutorial or guided setup process where you bind one button at a time would be great. Thank you for your work on this, the addon is great and using it to play on my handheld is the most fun I’ve had in a while.

[verbal heart]

You raise a good point. If you start on an end game character, you might perceive it as your abilities being flung randomly all over the place.

[gritty shoal]

It also took me about 20 hours to realize that I could use the same button for mount/dismount if I set the mount to both my bar 1 and the skyriding bar. I felt dumb for not realizing it earlier lol. 😂

[verbal heart]

I think there may be a better way to go about it, so that you get steered into modifying the bars using the config. Some bindings on the bars are also highly recommended, like using shoulder buttons for action button 1/2 on Retail because Blizzard still thinks vehicle quests are fun.

[gritty shoal]

One feature that was really nice as a new player was the utility ring. I mapped it to my right trigger and used it a lot while leveling.

[verbal heart]

One thing that is extremely clear to me at this point, is that there needs to be stop to drag and drop on the bars the first time you try it. It should show something akin to a wizard that lets you know what you're about to do. If I put this in the initial setup, people will skip and forget about it, but it becomes contextualized when you start doing the same thing you would on your keyboard and mouse, and you learn then and there that there is a better way.

It also seems that quite a few people do not even realize you can change bindings. They act as if the bindings are set in stone, and all they have control over is where to drag their spells.

[nimble surge]

Pings were very confusing in the beginning. I set the keybind but it would never work. I only found two solutions to be able to ping. Keep the mouse displayed at all times or move the mouse (either on the PS5 trackpad or my actual mouse)

[verbal heart]

I would not consider pings as a necessary part of the new player experience.

[nimble surge]

Fair. It was just something I found frustrating as a new player, especially as a tank to ping targets for routing.

[tired pendant]

As a new player I found the UI extremely confusing and convoluted at times. Heck, I still dont know how to edit my ring lol so I just ignore it haha

Using a more condensed and direct ui would truly go a long way for new players

[verbal heart]

Give examples.

Extremely confusing is not actionable.

The UI is not changing btw. The strides I have made in CP 3 did plenty to fix all those problems, and there won't be a simpler UI. Not what I'm looking for in this thread.

[verbal heart]

Are you saying that you don't understand the ring editor or that you have never bothered to use it or that you don't know it exists?

[tired pendant]

Ah gotcha, if the UI is not changing then no point in giving examples for that

[tired pendant]

I dont understand it. Every time I try to tinker with it, I achieve nothing. As a new player I would expect the ring editor to simply show “actions/skills” next to it, so that I’m able to drag stuff/skills into the ring. Currently I cannot figure out how to add stuff to the ring

I dont know if that counts as UI too, I’m using the term ui pretty loosely~

[verbal heart]

You first have to pick the ring you want to edit. Is this what you mean? The ring editor does show skills next to it when you're editing a ring. #1306707424085934172 message

[verbal heart]

No, what I'm saying is that the config needs to be both in depth and friendly to new players. There won't be an entirely different experience for new players.

[tired pendant]

Got it, after I picked the ring I wanted I had to change to the other tab “loadout” to see the skills. Thanks

[tired pendant]

Oh ok, I get that. I meant more like setting positionings/layout. for example with the ring it would be more intuitive if the skills were on the same tab rather than switching to another tab. Or after you pick the ring a drop-down menu appears for actions/macros/skills etc. stuff like that to make it more direct for new players and maintain depth

The only other prevalent issue as a new player has been the setup for modifiers, dont know where to activate them. As a really casual player these two issues were the main roadblock for me (and for my friend if that matters lol). Everything else we’re fine using the default and it meets our needs

[verbal heart]

So this is also valuable feedback. That part was not crystal clear to you, so I need to fix it.

[lucid sentinel]

I found tweaking the ui cumbersome. Moving the buttons 1 pixel at a time, can take a while. Not sure if its my controller, but im not able to hold down the button, for continously moving elements. (Maybe something like in steamos, when you tweak mouse sensitivity, where you can hold a button, to move finegrained, like 1 pixel at a time, but reverse, so holding a button would allow me to move it 10, 20, or similar at a time)

[verbal heart]

I guess that's another case of miscommunication. If you press the mover button, you can move it with your sticks.

[lucid sentinel]

….

Yeah, an advanced tool like this, could benefit from some documentation, which takes a lot of time to do properly and maintain

There are a lot of, small details, tricks, etc. im learning as I go

Maybe one day Blizzard will do something themselves properly, so we don’t all have to rely on the awesome unpaid work of 1 man (we atleast know for a fact, that next gen xbox, will be able to Play wow)

[jolly wave]

In the beginning I couldn’t figure out how to easily open the quest log, achievement or character screen since the in game icons are hidden and annoying to access with only a controller.

I ended up making myself macros and added them to an action bar. It works well for me now but figuring out how to open the screens with macros took a bit and I am not sure if there maybe is a better way to do it.

Not sure how anyone else does it but for me all the combat things were easy to do with ConsolePort but some of these“none combat” things is where I had trouble.

[verbal heart]

Game menu, press the interface prompt.

It's amazing to me how many features people are just not aware of, but I guess RTFM is too much to ask in 2026.

[nimble surge]

I just use this

[lucid sentinel]

Where is the manual? (Havent tried going in as a completely new user, as I started a couple years ago, and have been playing om/off, but im pretty sure the guided part was not available then. I remember myself thinking, I could use a manual or something, curse doesn’t have any info either)

[verbal heart]

Every single option in the addon has a description tooltip, but for core features, it's the special section in bindings. It details all the custom solutions for everyday things that ConsolePort helps with. There is also plenty of information in the setup. The problem is that delivering information this way is inefficient and doesn't stick, and that's on me.

Super users or tinkerers usually love ConsolePort for its many features and extreme customizability, but if you just want to play the game, it really sucks to get to a comfortable state.

[jolly wave]

Yeah, that’s exactly what I was looking for. I did check the ConsolePort options but missed that apparently. I should have checked the ConsolePort descriptions better maybe but in the beginning I wasn’t even sure which option was something that wow added and which was something that comes from ConsolePort.

That’s on me but to my defence there is so much to learn in wow as a new player I was just overwhelmed. 😅🤣

[verbal heart]

Well, this is exactly the kind of feedback that I'm looking for. If it wasn't obvious this existed to you, then it's bad design on my end.

[jolly wave]

I think it was just there are so many options everywhere and I had no idea what most meant. And I totally missed the interface button was even there

[lucid sentinel]

Allright, just wondering if a missed a completely manual somewhere. My experience in general has been that I learn something new, everytime I have to do/look for something, thats not already set up

[verbal heart]

This is also fine in my mind, because the customizability is one of the hallmarks ofthe addon. However, if you don't know how to edit your utility ring or end up making janky macros to access your interface panels, that's a problem with design.

[median kestrel]

Action bar designer is a bit confusing. I want to add buttons for ds edge back paddles, but options to add buttons are like 1,2,3…12. What these numbers mean?

I love tooltip for targeting bindings with visualisation of cone - having more tooltips like that across settings that explain very verbosely what they do would be helpful.

Can I save my preset in designer somewhere or just export string and save in notepad? Maybe I’m blind, but if it is there it could be more obvious.

Is this kind of feedback valid?

In AI era having one file documentation which I can paste to LLM and ask question would be dope tbh. I know how it is with docs and updating it tho. Just an idea that I had recently and want to share.

[verbal heart]

1. It's just a bug on Classic that I keep forgetting to fix. Retail/MoP shows button icons in that list. The action bar designer is not a new player experience kind of feature, it's a super user feature. It has a lot of depth, and that is at the expense of user friendlyness. Options to use different styles can be offered in the introduction, and some options can probably serve pre-written conditions that are widely used.
2. It's a trade off, images are nice, but they also make the package larger. They also sometimes become outdated. For some things, maybe.
3. Yes, there is a save button in the layout tab. The symbol could be made clearer.

[rose stone]

@verbal heart right now what I find confusing is trying to figure out how to leave vehicle, flight paths while in flight with the current action bar(s).
Also making the paddles work on all controller settings people have controllers with back paddles and currently only PS5/Steam Deck presets as far as I know support back paddles by default for the others you have to jump through hoops in your own to get them to work, and on Linux OS you need to download a certain program for controller to set said keybind because PS/Xbox/other aftermarket programs don’t work there

[verbal heart]

You can leave vehicles and jump off FP from the game menu ring. Paddles I can't do much about. It's not a matter of settings, the game can't see the buttons. Playstation and Nintendo controllers have good coverage of their buttons, but Xbox controllers do not, and Steam is essentially an Xbox controller.

[nimble surge]

TLDR......I couldn't figure out how to close the nested ring unless I selected an option.

My normal menu close button didn't work. It just tried to use an ability. The keybind to pull up the ring didn't work either. I thought maybe the nested ring needs it's own keybind to close. The buttons were on top of the menu (I assumed this was unintended and likely part of the addon apocolypse). I added the keybind to the nested menu but that didn't work either. Then I realized that I could no longer use the stick to select any options and it would just have my character walk around. (Not sure if this is intended or not) At first I thought it was a bug so I reloaded. I tried againg and I just started pressing buttons and the "X" button closed it.

Also here's a video for reference of the possible bug/unintended feature.

[verbal heart]

Please keep bug reports to #1025592211687096410. Nested rings will use the accept binding instead, even if you use press and hold. This can be changed in the rings settings.

Nested rings are also not really "new player experience". Just figuring out how to use the basic utility ring is.

Let me reiterate again what I want this thread to be about: the struggles you faced when you downloaded the addon and tried to use it. What was unclear, what worked, what didn't. I do not want this thread to be a general collection of "this complex feature could be better in this way".

The goal is to make the initial experience as smooth as possible. Building your own action bar template is not part of that. Building out complex rings for all your stuff is not part of that. This is still valuable feedback, but there is #1025595411022487643 and #1025592211687096410 which I routinely look at to make features better.

[autumn elbow]

Sorry, English is my second language but hope it helps. ConsolePort's menu navigation was frustratingly slow until I found the speed setting buried in the settings. I was confused about spell setup, tried guide tab first since its the first thing but found it too intricate/overwhelming, then looked into the action bar tab and rebound keybinds over the spells i already had on my bars, but then found out I could drag/drop spells by reading tooltips more slowly. Dropdowns (e.g., dungeon/group finder) are hard to select (still unsure of the proper way or a quick focus for it, so I use mouse or mouse mode but still difficult). When theres multiple windows/frames switching contexts between them (bags ↔ bank/vendor ↔ bags) find it difficult.

[solar night]

I had a hard time binding the alt modifier, to my back paddles, as they're mappable buttons, they don't have their own seperate output.

But using steam mapping the paddle to ALT, the in CP settings napping the paddle to ] and using that as alt modifier was my workaround.

[verbal heart]

So what you're looking for is basically some kind of guide which helps you set that up?

[solar night]

Hmm yes maybe? Even though the alt modifier is for super users.

I'm using an 8bitdo 2 ultimate wireless controller, and the pad left and pad right, as well as the L4 and R4, doesn't have its own button, so it's a work around for me.

[oblique cove]

As a new player I used a mortar for a quest and it took me about 15 minutes until I figured out that I had to use the utility ring and choose "exit vehicle" to get off that thing. I did not even realize that I was in a vehicle and I didn't see any hint on screen how to get off.

[snow tusk]

A short explanation or tutorial on the guide page describing how to setup paddles would be super helpful. Something like:

1. A 3rd party software such as; XboxAccessories, Steam, etc. is needed to set a key-binding to each paddle-button you want to use. ( You will need to refer to their documentation for how to do this )

2. Once you have your bindings set go to this section to assign them to console port.

[verbal heart]

This explanation is already in the Guide, but it's bad UX because it forces you to read a few sentences. 😛

[snow tusk]

While I belive you, I've not seen it. I'm creating a fresh character now to test steam inputs for double tapping. SO I'll look for it.

[verbal heart]

Tbf, it is shown very early, when you select your controller type. At this point, mapping the paddles is probably not on your mind, because you haven't yet figured out that they do not work natively.

My point was mostly about the trap of adding more text to the setup. I understand your point about a guided experience, but I think it needs to be very interactive. I have a lot of experience of adding text which just gets ignored, so I want to avoid that if possible.

[snow tusk]

In a past life I was a tech writer so I feel your pain on adding text no one reads, lol. It's a shame the game doesn't detect the paddle inputs natively. And to your point, I did just see the text about the paddles when setting up the new character.

[random cradle]

I would also say I've been using console port for over a year now and I know my around most of it but still struggle to bind 3 CRL alt and shift so I can have more moves

[snow tusk]

This is worth setting up. https://discord.com/channels/187704823657922560/1363773909396357270

Bit complicated to configure but it's easy to use and you get 40 buttons.

[brittle elbow]

Hi! Ive been using console port for about a month. 1. Thanks for making this, I love it. The part I was confused on was removing items I added to a Ring. For example, I had a temporary hearthstone. I used it. The hearthstone icon turned greyed out on my ring because the item no longer exsisted. So I went to edit the ring mode to remove the item, but I could only add things not remove. It was only the other day I realized that if I have the ring open to like use an item, I get a tiny pop up that says remove by pressing "rb". Before seeing that, I was deleting and rebuilding a ring because I couldn't remove items from the ring set up menu-at least for an item that is no longer in your bag--or I'm blind and missed the cue. Thanks again. This is an awesome add-on. Everything else was very straightforward and clear. Most of my time spent understanding the add-on was just me trying to decide my button layout preference.

[verbal heart]

You can remove things from the ring in the setup interface as well. You have to point at it with your stick, and it gives you the prompt to either select it for swapping place, or remove it. You will need to be in the loadout editor when doing it.

[verbal heart]

Many of the things mentioned in this thread could be helped with "help tips". This is the black and yellow box you see spread all over the default UI. They could be used to inject tidbits of digestible information when the need arises, but does it solve the attention span problem? Do we perceive those as helpful or annoying? Do we just click through them to get to the thing faster?

[sinful breach]

Tbh you made an incredible thing, me as a total newb got this thing working. Its not perfect there is room for improvement but that will come eventually, as you said people will skip a lengthy amount of tutorial text. However i think 1 youtube tutorial with visuals and speech, on how things would work and be costumised to your liking. Could solve alot of beginner to all steps, in the end people need to set it up to how they feel it works best. Wich is different for everybody.

[weak nest]

I’m using PlayStation 5 dualsense controller and touchpad didn’t work for me because I never tried connecting with the cable and only connected via Bluetooth and I think I found in this Discord that installing the certain PlayStation app fixes that

[azure onyx]

@weak nest You'll need the "playstation accessories" app, here's the link -
https://controller.dl.playstation.net/controller/lang/en/2100004.html

You'll need this open if you're wanting to use the touchpad while in bluetooth mode so you don't always have to be physically connected to use it, once you open the app just minimize it and forget it exists, if you close it you'll lose the touchpad usage in bluetooth mode - It's obnoxious really that it has to be utilized to do this, but it's minor and w/e lol

The app will also check your controllers current firmware and update it and gives you the ability to setup different profiles for the dual sense edge and map the triggers and such, but honestly I felt it was pretty limited in what you could map

Instead I just open battlenet or whatever other game, non-steam game, software, etc with steam, that way I had a ton more options the ps app doesn't afford for controller mapping - If you haven't already added battlenet for WoW to steam a non-steam game, I'd suggest doing that so you have this option yourself with that controller