How many buttons do you prefer on a stick?

[Aeph]

I am in the planning stages of developing arcade sticks (like the Mad Catz ones) for a little cheaper and hopefully with better compatibility. One big question is this: how many buttons should there be? 6 or 8?

So I'm asking what you guys prefer to use.

[Narcowski]

Six. If you really want to include the other two shoulder buttons, extra 24mms on the side of the case work well.

[TheGreatReptar]

The only thing that the extra two could ever be used for it shortcut buttons, which if you ever go to a tournament or something, you shouldn't be able to use anyway. Save yourself 10$ and just go with 6.

[Arvoyea]

Yeah, six would be just fine. Using an arcade stick pretty much means you're learning not to use shortcuts. For example, in GG just the 5 buttons + Respect/Taunt are enough. No one I know of uses shortcuts also.

[shtkn]

i find an 8 button stick to be very useful when using the record/playback features in GG/BB's training mode

[TheGreatReptar]

i find an 8 button stick to be very useful when using the record/playback features in GG/BB's training mode

I just realized I do this too. You could also just remove taunt and use the 5th and 6th buttons though. It wouldn't cause problems in Blazblue unless you play Tao.

Edit: Seeing as this is the Guilty Gear half of the forums though, putting the 2 extra buttons somewhere would be helpful for that.

[qwerty]

you're making a custom?

how about six face buttons, and then add the shoulder buttons next to select and start?

[Redefinition]

What qwerty said.

Generally, the only reason people get an 8-button stick is to use some features outside of actually playing a match. I haven't met someone who uses the extra two buttons in an actual match, but I sometimes like having them, just so I can use record/playback, or whatever.

[DarkDream]

I'd prefer the fightstick style 8 buttons. Some people prefer the buttons to all be on the same straight line, others prefer the Sanwa style with the first two buttons lower than the rest. If you know which you prefer, go with six. If not, the 8 gives people the option.

[SaikoBee]

It feels better only having six buttons on the top, but eight buttons is more useful for the reasons already stated. I would like to have the seventh and eighth buttons located elsewhere, but still existing.

[keninblack]

8, idk why I just never had a stick that only had 6 spaces for buttons. They always had 8. :/

[Senor rata]

One thing that was pointed out to me that I don't hear other people mention is the configuration of the buttons on the Madcatz sticks. The 6 most left buttons are curved like japanese style arcade controls and the 6 most right one are straight like american controls. So if you do prefer one style over the other you get the option to use it.

[qwerty]

well, you're partially right.

the te is based on the vewlix panel, which are what you'll be playing sf4/bb on in the arcade if you go to japan.

the hrap, on the other hand, is based on the astro city panel, which is what you'll be playing gg/most fighting games on in japan.

the primary differences are in button layout (not too drastic, but it matters to some) and distance between the buttons and joystick. and of course, the panels themselves are different, allowing for different places to put your wrists while you play.

also, if you want to get used to american controls, you shouldn't be doing it on japanese parts, since american parts are very different, and you'll end up not able to play on either one.