Optionally, what would you have wanted to know before you bought one?
Thanks!
Edit: Hey, thank you all very very much for your comments and suggestions, I really appreciate. I will most likely save up more and get the 1TB OLED model rather than the LCD model I was initially planning on. A couple of reasons for that, one, I am not good with electronics and I’d probably screw something up putting a new storage drive in. And two this thing will most likely be a permanent replacement for my old gaming laptop, which at this point is more than 10 years old, and seems to be on its last legs (I installed Linux on it, which was a struggle, but that is probably on me rather than Linux or the computer being at fault).
Anyway, I appreciate everyone’s responses and thanks for helping a gal out!
You may become spoiled by the Steam Deck’s excellent controls, such that no gamepad currently for sale will ever come close.
For me and Rimworld, I became dependent on the four back buttons, and now I can’t stand playing it on desktop with a controller because no controller on the market offers four additional buttons that work like that (as far as I know)
I may catch some flack for this, but I was and still am a big fan of the original steam controller, so much so that I still use it on my aging gaming laptop. How do the steam deck controls and buttons compare to the steam controller?
I have an original Steam Controller as well. The Steam Deck is a lot better in my opinion because I can choose between thumbstick or thumbpad on each side, whereas with the old controller you have to live with the touchpads and the single stick on the right.
The build quality feels a bit better too, and the haptics a bit more refined.
Really, the Deck offers everything the Controller did aside from form factor. And maybe if some folks vastly prefer the bigger touchpads, that might possibly be a downside, but I doubt that’d be the case for most
The 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless has 2 back buttons and two extra shoulders, and it has full Steam Input support (must update the Controller and Dongle firmware and hold the B button when turning on)
No trackpads though…
It’s possible to use your steam deck as a controller on your pc. You can use steam link, but if your WiFi isn’t very good there will be problems, or virtualhere. I haven’t tried virtualhere but I have heard that it is good, unfortunately, the only good guide I found for it is on reddit :(
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/v22ddf/guide_how_to_use_your_deck_as_a_steam_input/
i really wanna get into rimworld on steamdeck so much. i played it on pc but never took the plunge back in on deck. What config are you using? Id love to get everything right so i can get hooked as fast as possible :3
Totally stock controls, dozens of hours. Works really really well!
It works so good I even use it as a portable Linux machine. Just for internet etc.
Yeah! I use mine as a media device sometimes. With the first party dock. And with KDE Connect on my phone already since I use KDE on both my work and personal machines, adding the Steam Deck to that works so incredibly well for remote input
I mean… Yeah. Why would you not use a mouse for Rimworld on desktop?
I do a lot of couch gaming. I do have a wired lapboard for keyboard and mouse but it’s nice relaxing with a gamepad too
Playing rimworld on the deck seems tricky. Feels like a game where I want the precision of a mouse. What actions have you set your back buttons to?
I haven’t played Rimworld on it, but I have played other mouse-dependent games, and it’s amazing how quickly you can adapt to the thumbpads. They actually work very well for fine mouse control.
L4/R4: slow down or speedup time R5: move screen faster, also hold down to select multiple L5: something to do with the touchscreen but I don’t use it
I don’t know Rimworld but the GuliKit KK3 MAX has 4 back buttons and works great with the steam deck
From what I’m reading they are not independent buttons though. They can only be copies of other buttons. Utterly useless.