Mapping Movement Keys

I always remap so WASD are moving and -turning- and Q and E are strafing. But I hardly ever use those keys.

I hate having to use the mouse during the action, so I use the arrow keys to move around* and leave my left hand completely free to hit tab/esc to select or deselect targets and 1, 2 3, 4, 5 and 6, with or without alt, to activate lots of powers quickly. Left hand also has the thumb over space and x for vertical movement, turns auto run on and off or does straffing in the very rare times I need it in this game (usually I only move laterally if I'm looking for a glowie or something).

I only ever use WASD if I have to move and use the mouse quickly, as in time-critical glowies/doors (very rare) or when I know I'll use some power that is in tray 3 (or 4... Or 5 nowadays with incarnate stuff!), like charging into a group and EMP Pulsing them (I hardly ever need EMP pulse, so it was relegated to tray 3... I can usually hit it with the mouse quick enough if I need it as a panic button).




*Arrows to move makes total sense to me! I almost always remap other games, if possible, so the arrow keys are movement, unless something other than movement - like crazy key sequences for special moves like in fighting games - is complicated enough that it will require me to use my dominant, right hand. Then WASD is movement sans strafe... I've hate shooters for over a decade now, so I've always thought the way I use it was the default for movement, until I saw this thread!

Every game ever;

I use Up/Down/Left/Right for movement. Although in FPS RMB is often forward, and the up key is crouch.

RtControl is Jump, and the numpad fills in power activations, or in FPSs, commands, weapon switches reload, that sort of thing.

Insert to PGDN above the arrow keys also add for a few more choices, although often they are push to talk keys for voice-comms.

I rarely make it over to the other side of the keyboard, unless I want to type!

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooGirl [*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*

It annoys the heck out of me when other games DON'T use WASD, so I remap those instead.

I'm left-handed with the mouse so I map things a little bit differently.

Forward - Up Cursor
Back - Down Cursor
Turn Left/Right - Left/Right Cursors
Target Next Enemy - End
Jump - Home
Look Up/Down - Insert/Delete
Page Up & Page Down are typically bound to powers I use most often.

I made a *slight* adjustment to my QWE/ASD mapping which isn't all that different, but which made all kinds of things easier for me.

Rather than use Q/W/E as ... Strafe Left / Move Forward / Strafe Right ... and ASD as Turn Left / Move Backward / Turn Right ... I instead shifted all of those functions 1 key to the right on my keyboard.

Instead I use W/E/R for Strafe Left / Move Forward / Strafe Right ... and use S/D/F as Turn Left / Move Backward / Turn Right.

By using WER/SDF instead of QWE/ASD, I made it easier for the fingers of my left hand to reach any key from ~ through 6, and from Esc through F5, easier to perform without needing to look down from screen to confirm finger positioning. Muscle memory works fine for anything "near" to the Forward key (which orients me around all left handed operations).

For my Kheldians, I expand this keymapping to include T/Y/G for my Form keybinds.
T = Nova Form
Y = Human Form
G = Dwarf Form
This gives me easy left index finger access to being able to shapeshift without needing to glance down at the keyboard to confirm finger placement. I also use the T and Y keys as binds on my Masterminds for their Train/Equip powers, programmed to deselect target as part of the bind ... allowing a double tap of the T or Y keys (as appropriate) to automatically select the nearest pet in view as the target of my Train/Equip powers, thereby sidestepping the need to manually deselect/select a target pet.



My one regret with binding movement to WER/SDF is that the SG Base Editor has the R key bound to an override that rotates the selected object, rather than moving my character around. This can be ... annoying ... when I forget about it and reflexively press R to move myself and instead mess up the placement of something I'm editing because it rotates. This also means I can only Strafe Left but not Right while editing, which results in some whacky maneuvers so as to make three left turns equal a right.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I use AD as strafe because I started on shooters, where you turn with your mouse and WASD are movement (and yes, strafe is movement, turn is not, at least in my book for video games).

I always screw up in other games with movement until I rebind them to CoH style, or get used to them. I reference all my other keys from WASD, and I touch-type constantly. Never had a problem yet- I know where WASD are from muscle memory mostly, so I just base off of that.

I have grown so accustomed to my CoX keyboard layout that I try to emulate it in any other game I play.

I never use the keyboard for turning, ever. Mouselook is my friend. So I use WASD, but A and D are for left and right strafing.

The Q and E buttons I have bound for targeting -- Q is target previous, E is target next. This lets me quickly cycle through a horde of enemies to find the one I need to get. I've also bound shift+Q as "target previous friendly" and shift+E as "target next friendly", which lets me select teammates quickly, although my empaths and buffing defenders have additional keypad layouts to select team members by number.

To complete the left-hand layout, I use Z and C for toggle powers (up to three toggles per key; shift+ the key turns those toggles off). X is left unbound for flyers, so I can use it as the default 'fly down' key. For non-flyers X becomes a third toggle button.

CoX deserves a lot of credit for having one of the most customizable input schemes ever. It's spoiled me for a lot of other games.