Too many powers? What's your solution?
By
Baracca,
Posted on: 2010-07-27 11:42 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
Am I the only one who just clicks their powers with their mouse to use them? 
Proud member of Everyday Heroes (Infinity Heroes), Dream Stalkers (Infinity Villains), Devil Never Cry (Freedom Heroes), Enclave of EVIL (Pinnacle Villains), Phobia (Infinity Villains), Les Enfant Terribles (Freedom Villains), Gravy Train (Virtue Heroes), and more!
Full, detailed character list
My setup looks something like this for most characters:
Numpad 1-0 are used for attacks or primary powers (depending on AT). For masterminds this is where I put personal attacks and pet controls.
1-0 are either secondary powers or defensive powers. On defenders this is where I put the stuff for my primary. The extremely useful stuff goes on 1-5, while the more situational powers go further down.
Sprint I have bound to Left Control+1, with my travel power (usually ninja run) bound to Left Control+2.
I put situational powers such as summon abilities on numpad /, numpad *, and numpad -. Depending on power sets these may be armors or other toggles instead.
Next up I'll have micilanious abilities on the arrow keys. Down for example is my jump jet, while the others depend on the AT and powers.
Rest is bound to the numpad delete key
If I have more useful abilities then I have tray spaces, I create a 4th tray to put things like my pocket D teleportal and Oro portal.
THe setup was initially made with masterminds in mind, but it works well for most of my characters. My kelds have a different setup, but then they are a lot more complex and need a dozen macros and other binds beyond power activations.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
Quote:
I know a few others who do that. I use to always just use the default setup myself. Then I discovered the joys of using the numpad for my frequently used powers. Suddenly I could move and fight at the same time.
|
Originally Posted by Patteroast
Am I the only one who just clicks their powers with their mouse to use them?
|
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
almost all of my controls are different from the base because I learned my habits in Everquest, which used the numpad for movement.
So I have one hand on the numpad for moving and one hand on the keyboard for power activation. I never run out of keys, but it does mean that anything that requires the mouse is kind of annoying. So I try to avoid using the mouse for anything. I have tons of targeting macros that I move around depending on the enemy group I am fighting. I try to keep the mouse cursor in a central spot so I can just reach over to tap the button to open doors. Placing targeted powers like Oil Slick or Shield Charge is about the only time I really need to grab the mouse.
Everquest had the "u" (for "use") key, which basically was the equivalent of mouse clicking the exact center of your screen. Whatever was there would be interactded with as if you had clicked on it. An NPC would talk to you, a door would open, a body would be looted, etc. If there were a keyboard button or slash command that simulated clicking on the door or glowie in front of you, I'd be a very happy camper.
[SIZE=1][COLOR=Yellow][U]Virtue Heroes (Serenity's Children):[/U] [B]@Eek a Mouse, The Devil's Mark, Outlaw Sniper, Gas-Soaked Rag Man, Amazon Prime, Friday's Child, Hot Blooded,[/B][B]Flower of the Moon[/B], [B]Rouge Demon Hunter[/B], Stimulated Emission, Animatronic Wench, [B]Lennie Small[/B]
[U]Virtue Villains (Serenity's Orphans):[/U][/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=1][COLOR=Yellow] [/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=1][COLOR=Yellow] [B]Eek a Rat[/B], [B]Bomb Blondeshell[/B], Babe Brute, Jeanne Dark, Fallen Angle[/COLOR][/SIZE]
I am the only person I know who uses this particular solution I came up with a few years ago.
Namely, SCREW WASD! and SCREW MODIFIER KEYS!
WASD is way too close to the left-hand side of the keyboard to be efficient, and I HATE having to use alt and ctrl to activate my powers
Instead, I use ESDF for movement. It's the exact same shape and layout, just 1 key to the right. I also use W and R for strafing, since I like to have both keyboard turn and strafe readily available. What benefit is one key to the right, you ask?
-Way easier to hit the 6 key, and to a lesser extent, 7 through 0. Where most people use 1-5 easily, I use 1-6 with the same amount of effort
-Q, A, and Z all become available to bind to the second row of my power tray
-X gets bound to 'down' for going down while flying
-G and V are also bound to powers on row 2, in fact, these are usually my 2 most used attacks
-H and B usually get bound to toggling jet packs, travel powers, etc.
-C sometimes gets bound to something of use.
-Shift + left click is often bound to something targetable, like shield charge
-T is bound to 'target next enemy' so that I can hit it with my index finger instead of stretching my pinky to hit Tab
-Toggles go up on the third bar, and usually get turned on when I log in, then ignored.
And that's pretty much my entire set up, for now. I'm considering adding more (the numpad, perhaps?) for when I play Masterminds, but for all other AT's, this set-up works pretty damn well for me.
EDIT: Oh, yeah, one more thing. Middle-click. A slightly obscure button, it's what registers when you press down on a mouse's center scroll wheel. I bind that to auto-run, to save my aching fingers from holding the E key all the time.