The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
What are your keyboard remapping habits?
ChadVader
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Lately I’ve been really curious about other people’s keyboard habits. I’ve been looking at some of the gaming keyboards coming out and it’s just like “what the hell would I even do with all those keys???”. Anyway, I’m fine with this just being a general discussion about keyboard habits, but I do have some specific questions to start things off.
1. In general do you accept the default keys when playing PC games? There are some games (Starcraft II, Eve Online) where the keys are pretty much locked down. Does this drive you crazy, or do you just shrug it off and adapt?
2. How far from “asdf” do you stray when gaming? For instance I think “i” for inventory is fairly universal. But I always remap it to “w” because it’s closer, faster and I don’t have to look down at the keyboard.
3. When you do use far off keys like “i” or even “F12” do you need to briefly look down at your keyboard?
4. Do you remap your keys based on frequency/ease of use? For instance most MMOs pressing “1” will be your basic attack (Fireball, Slash, etc). With my index finger I could press “g” or “v” a thousand times in a row and not get tired. But if I spammed “1” with my pinky it would start to cramp up after a few minutes. So the first thing I do when playing MMOs is remap “1” to “g”.
5. If you own a gaming keyboard with lots of extra hot keys, do you still utilize the “Alt, Shift, Ctrl” + Key combinations? Also, what would be easier for you, pressing “G1” or “Alt+g”?
1. In general do you accept the default keys when playing PC games? There are some games (Starcraft II, Eve Online) where the keys are pretty much locked down. Does this drive you crazy, or do you just shrug it off and adapt?
2. How far from “asdf” do you stray when gaming? For instance I think “i” for inventory is fairly universal. But I always remap it to “w” because it’s closer, faster and I don’t have to look down at the keyboard.
3. When you do use far off keys like “i” or even “F12” do you need to briefly look down at your keyboard?
4. Do you remap your keys based on frequency/ease of use? For instance most MMOs pressing “1” will be your basic attack (Fireball, Slash, etc). With my index finger I could press “g” or “v” a thousand times in a row and not get tired. But if I spammed “1” with my pinky it would start to cramp up after a few minutes. So the first thing I do when playing MMOs is remap “1” to “g”.
5. If you own a gaming keyboard with lots of extra hot keys, do you still utilize the “Alt, Shift, Ctrl” + Key combinations? Also, what would be easier for you, pressing “G1” or “Alt+g”?
ChadVader on
0
Posts
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I started using that because my old keyboard had the shift keys stop working, so I had to improvise.
And I must be allowed to toggle it instead of holding it down
Same here for the same reason, especially since I have a split keyboard and ESDF is centered on the left split section of keys. I move the use key from E to T, leave reload on R, leave Space as jump, Shift is crouch, Crtl is Walk, G is Flashlight, V is voiced commands, B is spray, and QWAZXC are all game-specific things. I usually leave the "once in a while" commands like switching team/class, and whatnot on the right side of the keyboard since when I want to do those things taking the time to hunt out those keys generally isn't an issue. I also have a 5 button mouse and generally map voice chat to the 5th mouse button.
F, Shift + F, Shift + Space, R, Mouse 4, Mouse 5: Common non-combat spells in MMOs, or combat spells that I'd have to make a deliberate decision to use. Mounts, long cast heal spells, auto-run, stuff like that would go on, but quick heals, basic threat gains/drops, block spells, main nukes, etc would stay on 1-5 and the shifts of 1-5.
Shift + B: Bags. I know B would be (har har) better, but I'm so used to hitting Shift + Inventory Key to open up all the sub bags that I now remap to that by default.
Shift: Walk or Sprint
Ctrl: Crouch.
Z: Prone
Just general stuff: As I said above, stuff I won't use in combat or, if I do, it will be a deliberate decision are mapped to the keyboard at large, usually in tandem with shift. Any combat stuff that I'll do on a regular basis get bell curved to 1-5/6ish (IE: 3/4 will be my most used/shortest cooldown, where as 1 and 6 would be my less used/longer cooldown moves). Shift + 1-5/6ish are for things that I won't use a ton but I'd need to get to quickly, such as distance closers, decurses, 'oh crap' defense moves, etc. Past 7+ are spells I'd just like to have on my bar in view; it's pretty likely that I'll just click them rather than move a hand off of WSAD and risk putting them back in the wrong place. I hate using Tab for anything important since it's in a really odd place (it's higher than A, which is where my ring finger usually rests, but lower than 1-6, which is where it needs to go quickly).
That's for MMO's. With most other types of games, I'm okay with learning the generic controls.
I've realized that I actually use the thumb buttons on my mouse as the back button for the internet browser more often than I use it in games. I usually put my voice chat on mouse 5, but I rarely use mouse 4 for anything in games.
Actually, I pretty much never rebind keys in games and just use the defaults, even though it often leads to inconsistencies between games. For example the new Aliens vs Predator has sprint on Q, which I thought was odd, but it actually works pretty well.
W is drop weapon or something.
G is use, R reload, T talk, Y team talk
V crouch
B inv/buy
shift walk
ctrl prone
q last weapon
mouse 4 push to talk
mouse 5 melee
^^^
thats fps/tps stuffs
rts' i use the defaults
F = forward
V = backward
D = Strafe Right
S = Strafe Left
A = Jump
Z = crouch
Q = laydown/utility (depends on game)
E = open stuff/use stuff
R = reload
G = Grenades
Space = Melee
Been using it 15+ years now, will never give it up.
I knew some guys at Nexgen who did that. They were the worst
I ended up EDSF myself. Started arrow keys and asdf with no mouse (doom2), went to mouse and arrow keys (quake), then went to WSAD and mouse (Quake2), finally settled on EDSF and mouse (Tribes) and been with that ever since.
I get a headache when games don't allow me to toggle crouching (assuming you can crouch) or toggle zoom-in view.
I do!
I have a weird control setup, use A&G for strafe, r is typically secondary fire with w being reload. D is usually duck/crouch too.
However.
Crouch is always space, right click is always jump.
Me too, control is use and c is sprint. Works great. I started doing this when I played Oni way back in the day and it had uncustomizable key mapping and I actually really liked it.
Q is quick switch.
F is flashlight
E is use, no exceptions.
R is reload.
Ctrl is crouch.
Z is prone.
Shift is walk or sprint.
G is grenade.
Space is jump.
Mouse 4 is voice chat. Mouse 5 is melee. Mouse 6 is mapped to alt.
That's about it.
up is next, down previous. somehow every game does the opposite of that. Whyyyyy
Q - quick switch (switch weapons in MW2)
E - extra functions (flashbangs/stuns in MW2)
R - reload
T - chat
Y - team chat
F - use
Shift - Sprint
C - crouch
V - voice chat (in game)
B - voice chat (Ventrilo)
CTRL - prone
Space - jump
Tab - scoreboard
esc - menu
numbers - specific weapons if needed/other functions if no weapons to switch (4 is killstreaks in MW2)
left click - primary fire
right click - secondary fire/zoom
middle click - depends on game (underbarrel weapon in MW2)
scroll wheel - switch weapons (Q to switch in MW2)
"back" button (mouse 5 i think) - grenades in most games
"forward" button (mouse 4) - melee
As a result, about the only thing I'm absolutely unforgiving of is if a game has hold-to-crouch, because seriously it's a pain in the arse.
I DO have a G15, one of the old ones with 18 function keys and the LCD readout, but the only time I've really put it to use was for Everquest. I played a high level raiding bard, and it was a godsend.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Interestingly though I tend to be fairly flexable about keyboard layouts to some extent (my Oblivion/Morrowind/Daggerfall setups are rather unusual, to say the least) and it also seems that a lot of the games I pick up tend to have setups that aren't really too bad by default anyway.
For games I usually don't need to make changes. The only thing I'm picky about is that if the crouch is a toggle, I want it to be C, otherwise Ctrl. I also bind any bandage/medic/heal feature to Q.
I don't think there's much benefit to extra keys in FPS games, which is what I play. RTSs and RPGs maybe, but on the other hand there are plenty of rarely-used keys on a 101-key or 104-key board that can be taken advantage of.
If you don't give me a toggle option I will not be very happy.
Cursor keys!
Control, shift and return for movement like crouching, jumping, etc.
Delete, end and pagedown for equipment like grenades, nightvision, etc.
Numeric 4, 1 and 0 for weapon hotkeys.
I've also got 7 buttons on the mouse, some of which get re-bound to select any remaining weapons. I don't like the next/previous weapon switches, so I normally change the mouse wheel to a melee attack, if available.
As far as non-FPS goes, I pretty much leave the controls as-is unless they feel especially wrong.
Movement was 8/4/6 and Del for forward/left/right/backwards.
0 - Jump
Enter - Crouch
+ - Reload
The top row (/ * -) were usually things like fire select, special function and use.
The in between number keys were usually game specific special functions, drop weapon, flashlight, bandage, prone, vision modes etc.
Arrow keys and the 6 key block above them (INS through PGDN) were used for more esoteric functions and quick communcation binds.
I think it was SWAT 3 or 4 that broke me of the habit, the numpad was reserved for some other function or couldn't be mapped to, so I played with WASD for the first time. These days I do much more of my gaming on the 360 and for some reason I now stick with the default controls when I do play a PC game - especially if they have one of those little quick reference sheets for the controls.
After that my next big FPS was Quake 2, and I invented my control scheme that I'd used forever.
Left click - fire
Mid click - alt fire
Right click - jump
Movement - arrow keys.
Ctrl - reload
New additions:
Enter - use
Numpad 0 - sprint
End - voice chat
Pagedown - grenade
Delete - melee
What can I say, it works.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. just seemed too complex to stick with any kind of normal layout, but then, I'm not exactly a massive FPS player anyway
I know K is the default voice chat key in Counter-Strike, but why the hell would you ever want to actually use that? It is not practical at all.