Why I don't use WASD
Posted on 24th Jun 2010 at 10:18 by Paul Goodhead with 104 comments
When I was younger I shattered my left forearm while skateboarding. It was a full on bones-sticking-out-of-the-skin kind of moment and it took two plates, eight screws and a couple of hours of surgery to get my arm back together again.
To make things worse, during its journey towards the outside world the sharp end of my broken bone severed a number of nerves; specifically the ones responsible for the feeling and movement of my fingers. Essentially I was left with little feeling or movement in my left hand thumb, little finger and ring finger.
Over time the bones healed and the nerves did their best to knit back together but I'm still left with reduced dexterity in my thumb and a lack of feeling in my little finger.
I'm not claiming this is any kind of problem in everyday life, it's not like I've got some sort of deformed claw for a left hand, but it has affected the controls I use in FPS and RPG games. It's something that always seems to draw a comment
Take a basic game such as Counter Strike: Source as an example. The controls are ones most bit-tech readers should be familiar with; the W, A, S and D keys control movement with the mouse buttons responsible for fire and alt fire. Other controls such as jump, reload and walk are handled by keys close to the central WASD keys.
The 'WASD' controls have become the de-facto standard for game controls. Click to enlarge.
My control set-up on the other hand is slightly different. Firstly, movement needs to be split between the mouse and the keyboard; the right mouse button is forward, Alt Gr is backwards and left and right strafe are comma and full stop respectively. I use semi colon to reload, M to walk and N to duck. Shift is use, spacebar is jump and forward slash is sprint (though CS:S doesn't use it). Alt fire is bound to Mouse 4 and Mouse 3 (roll wheel click) is spare - in CS:S it's bound to a grenade macro, in TF2 its set to call MEDIC.
So how did I settle on this inside out control scheme? In truth I don't know for certain, it just kind of came about as I worked out what I could and could not do. It wasn't a case of planning out my controls to be as competitive as possible back then; it was more to do with maximising comfort and minimizing frustration.
There were a few distinct problems that I had to work around though and the whole control scheme grew up as as i changed it to tackle each one. Firstly, my fingers would get tired quickly after the accident, hence forward movement migrated to the mouse as holding down W constantly made my hand ache.
Secondly, with a lack of feeling in my little finger it was difficult to distinguish between Caps Lock, Shift and Ctrl, meaning I'd walk when I wanted to duck and vice versa. I needed my little finger to perform one task and one task only as it's not tactile enough to feel different keys. Hence in my control scheme its only job is to sit on Space. Crouching and walking is now delegated to my ring finger (N and M)
Having an alternate control set up makes sharing computers a nightmare
Thirdly, my thumb doesn't bend so it doesn't sit on the space bar naturally when using WASD. Bringing my controls down to centre around the comma and full stop keys takes my thumb out of the game completely, which is a disadvantage (I've got less fingers to allocate controls too) but one I try to get around by using more of the buttons available on the mouse.
These controls aren't necessarily perfect for every game and I struggle when a game has lots of controls that I have to try and cram into my little corner of the keyboard. I also miss out on having easy access to any macro keys on my keyboard as these are usually on the far left of the board.
In the back of my mind I know that these controls were only absolutely necessary when my hand was much worse than it is now. It's entirely likely that these days I could use WASD with a bit of practice. Habit is a strong thing though, and this scheme is now so ingrained in my muscle memory that its just plain strange to use anything else.
I'd be interested to hear whether anyone else uses a particularly strange custom control scheme and why they do, I'm sure there must be others out there for whom it is necessary.
Image credit: Flickr user JerryLuo0520
To make things worse, during its journey towards the outside world the sharp end of my broken bone severed a number of nerves; specifically the ones responsible for the feeling and movement of my fingers. Essentially I was left with little feeling or movement in my left hand thumb, little finger and ring finger.
Over time the bones healed and the nerves did their best to knit back together but I'm still left with reduced dexterity in my thumb and a lack of feeling in my little finger.
I'm not claiming this is any kind of problem in everyday life, it's not like I've got some sort of deformed claw for a left hand, but it has affected the controls I use in FPS and RPG games. It's something that always seems to draw a comment
Take a basic game such as Counter Strike: Source as an example. The controls are ones most bit-tech readers should be familiar with; the W, A, S and D keys control movement with the mouse buttons responsible for fire and alt fire. Other controls such as jump, reload and walk are handled by keys close to the central WASD keys.
The 'WASD' controls have become the de-facto standard for game controls. Click to enlarge.
My control set-up on the other hand is slightly different. Firstly, movement needs to be split between the mouse and the keyboard; the right mouse button is forward, Alt Gr is backwards and left and right strafe are comma and full stop respectively. I use semi colon to reload, M to walk and N to duck. Shift is use, spacebar is jump and forward slash is sprint (though CS:S doesn't use it). Alt fire is bound to Mouse 4 and Mouse 3 (roll wheel click) is spare - in CS:S it's bound to a grenade macro, in TF2 its set to call MEDIC.
So how did I settle on this inside out control scheme? In truth I don't know for certain, it just kind of came about as I worked out what I could and could not do. It wasn't a case of planning out my controls to be as competitive as possible back then; it was more to do with maximising comfort and minimizing frustration.
There were a few distinct problems that I had to work around though and the whole control scheme grew up as as i changed it to tackle each one. Firstly, my fingers would get tired quickly after the accident, hence forward movement migrated to the mouse as holding down W constantly made my hand ache.
Secondly, with a lack of feeling in my little finger it was difficult to distinguish between Caps Lock, Shift and Ctrl, meaning I'd walk when I wanted to duck and vice versa. I needed my little finger to perform one task and one task only as it's not tactile enough to feel different keys. Hence in my control scheme its only job is to sit on Space. Crouching and walking is now delegated to my ring finger (N and M)
Having an alternate control set up makes sharing computers a nightmare
Thirdly, my thumb doesn't bend so it doesn't sit on the space bar naturally when using WASD. Bringing my controls down to centre around the comma and full stop keys takes my thumb out of the game completely, which is a disadvantage (I've got less fingers to allocate controls too) but one I try to get around by using more of the buttons available on the mouse.
These controls aren't necessarily perfect for every game and I struggle when a game has lots of controls that I have to try and cram into my little corner of the keyboard. I also miss out on having easy access to any macro keys on my keyboard as these are usually on the far left of the board.
In the back of my mind I know that these controls were only absolutely necessary when my hand was much worse than it is now. It's entirely likely that these days I could use WASD with a bit of practice. Habit is a strong thing though, and this scheme is now so ingrained in my muscle memory that its just plain strange to use anything else.
I'd be interested to hear whether anyone else uses a particularly strange custom control scheme and why they do, I'm sure there must be others out there for whom it is necessary.
Image credit: Flickr user JerryLuo0520
104 Comments
Discuss in the forums Replybut other than than default generally
The reason I stayed with cursor controls was simply that, when I first got into 3D shooters, namely Quake, the default controls were Cursors, plus PG-Up and PG-Dn for looking up and down. I just wasn't comfortable using mouselook for starters.
Later, when I had started to use the mouse, I still stayed with the Cursors for movement, then Ctrl for duck, Num-0 for Use, Shift for Jump and End for reload. That was mainly because I'm very clumsy and I have very big hands - I don't need to stretch to reach those keys and the gap means I didn't fumble.
Nowadays though, I'm just a vanilla WASDer.
Worked wonders, also gave you complete use of both hands for the keyboard.
Curse you mouse look!!
I might just try your control scheme, Paul, to see how it feels.
One of my old school friends played like this on Quake and was epically good at deathmatch, again roughly the same reason (we used to play Doom and I believe that cursor keys was the default setup, but I am certain that by the time Quake rocked up WASD was also bound by default, I have certainly been WASD since Quake). Weird thing was he was right handed but played with a normal MS intellimouse southpaw, a bit like the Hendrix of Quake, very odd.
FIFY ;)
I hate you I hate you I hate you.
However these days I have a Belkin n52te and a g9 so rather than remapping my keys for every games I have the controller and mouse button positions moved to convert the standard WASD to how I like it.
Its not hard to transition to the right by one key, and it gives you a whole other set of useful keys around it.
I jump on my mouse side button, reload on scroll click, and W and R become lean, where the developers bother to implement it these days. A is usually to activate zoom, and space to crouch.
Movement - Cursor Keys
Fire - LMB
AltFire - MB4 (aka mouse back button)
Jump - RMB
Duck - RCtrl
Run - RShift
Use - Enter
Reload - BackSpace
Melee - Num 1
FlashLight - Num 0
Talk - End
Grenades/Special Moves - Insert/Home/PgUp/PgDown/Delete
You could use the Alt key (or whatever was there back then) as alternate fire if needed.
Nowadays just WASD+Mouselook.
Anybody use that mind control thing? Was it by OCZ or somebody?
right mouse - forward
left mouse - shoot
m - duck
, - left strafe
. - right strafe
/ - backwards
; - reload
left shift - walk
these have always been my keys for any fps game.
Nice idea but I'm right handed and that would leave me aiming with my left hand which would both drive me mad and get me killed...a lot.
Saying that playing bad company 2 is attrocious as every time I react and try to sprint (which I always set to enter) I end up opening the squad screen.
There's been only a few times when I've noticed hardcoded key binds in games (and no others that I can name) but for people who play unconventionally it really does ruin a game. But these dev's don't seem to realise that lots of people are unconventional - HCI out the window is the order of the day.
But ive since migrated to WASD'ing, although i could easily switch to cursor keys if for some reason WASD wasnt an option (my previous keyboard was a dirt cheap no-brand thing and one day my 'A' key stopped working, which made things rather difficult).
Hard coded keys and lousy mouse movement.
from memory the set up was using w,a,s,d to move with my thumb on the pad. The Alternate method was arrow keys with thumb on the pad. Double touching the pad was set to activate and if w,a,s,d was used for movement the right click to attack and with arrows left click was attack. Apart from attack my other hand was free to hit any key needed and being morrowind I didn't need to attack as much as in an fps so really it was a lazy one handed way of playing.
Forward = /
Back = Alt GR
Strafe left = ,
Strafe Right = .
Fire = left mouse
Alt fire = right mouse
Reload = '
Use = middle mouse
Crouch = m
Walk = n
Health pack = l
Pistols = k
Main Gun = ;
Pills = j
Spray = #
Zoom = Mouse button 3
The reason for this goes back to when I used to play Doom2. There was no real mouse controls back then, so I used the cursor keys to look up/down and left/right with my right hand and the left used the keys as mentioned above, to walk forward/backward etc. When I started to play Quake1, my right hand moved onto the mouse but the left stayed put.
I have tried WASD, but I just can't get used to it! They say "you can't teach an old god new tricks", well in my case that's true.
There are systems. They are mostly rubbish.
http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/06/03/gwsystems_fragpedal_classic_review/1
The OCZ NIA? We had it. I spent three weeks using it and trying to get it to work. It was unreliable, unusable and pretty goddamn terrible, to be honest. It was less about mind control and more about waggling your eyebrows and sitting in awkward positions - a result we still had even when we had the designer on the phone helping me learn how to adjust it with hidden driver functions. It was terrible and, in the end, we decided it wasn't even really worth covering.
Yep, I use my n50 for MMOs but I don't find it responsive enough for FPS gaming. I'm tempted by the N52TE though.
One of these days - probably tonight, if I remember - I'll get around to changing the key settings.
As an aside, does anyone that uses the n52te actually use the scroll wheel on it?
I was trying to remember this keymap all the way through the article. I use something similar on the rare occasions I play a racing game with the keyboard. makes more sense to me!
I might try ESDF though. I can definitely see the advantage of having keys to either side.
I use my pinky on Ctrl, ring on A, middle on W or S, index on D, and thumb on spacebar. My first stop shopping for keybinds is on E. In HL, "E' was the default key for "use", so I got used to pressing it quickly. If I play a FPS and there isn't already something important on "E", I put something important on it.
I have a MS Sidewinder mouse, and I really should get around to using the macros. On my old PC, I had the two back/forward buttons macro'ed to select different Spy disguises in TF2, but I never worked out the kinks, and haven't installed the software on my new PC yet. I also tried to bind them to two Warcraft 3 item slots (WC3 is not re-mappable, and the default keys to use an item are numpad 784512, while most hero hotkeys are concentrated on the left side of the keyboard, so there is no convenient way to get to the item slot keys without moving your hand)
Everything else ESDF
Also, my first thought when I read the title was "Yeah, you probably use a DVORAK keyboard..."
Controllers are a little worse, i can play with them for an hour or two before things start to hurt.
I'm left handed and use WASD with my right hand, with my palm resting on space and my thumb on CTRL. on rare occasions i have set it up as IJKL for movement but then i loose out on using my palm to jump and mashing space is too much fun :P
As such on my Saitek n52te My keybindings are set relative to the WASD configuration but with those four keys replaced by the cursor keys.
I use the numpad on the keyboard and the mouse in the left hand basically. Any other lefties out there use this sort of control method?
Oh and obviously mouse look.
I ocassionally try to switch back for FPS games that don't have a toggle crouch button but it never works.
I have one of those, i tried for several months to get used to it, and failed. Couple of hours with a keyboard and it felt so much easier again.
Why?
-Theres not enough buttons to use WSAD/EDSF along with other keys.
-The arm rest is uncomortable, and i think i have pretty much average hands.
-The joystick is pointless, i used this for wow, but never really mastered strafing.
-The space bar is in the wrong place..
Although i do agree that generally pressing buttons is alot faster.
One thing I seem to be unique on is using the middle mouse button to reload - all the primary shooting controls are already on the mouse, why not do that as well?
TAB = Duck/Prone
Q = Strafe Left
W = Strafe Right
E = Back
A = Activate/Use
S = Scores/Objectives
D = Zoom/Secondry
Z,X,C = Flash/Nade etc (game dependant)
SHIFT = Run/Walk
CTRL = Meele
SPACE = jump
MOUSE LEFT = Fire
MOUSE RIGHT = Forward
MOUSE WHEEL = Weapons
MOUSE SIDE LEFT1 & 2 = changes game to game (ie Care pack on MW2)
this is with a soltek keyboard and razer imperator mouse..
make sense lol
It's quite easy to pick up - within a couple of weeks.
Also my best mate lost an arm, so with basic controls, he can use the hat for mouse look, and I plug in the steering wheel and map weapon cycle up, down to the pedals for him. This only works on certain games though, as the game has to recognise either the pedals as a seperate controller, or recognise all the buttons on the joystick to allow the mapping software to handle the pedals. It can take a little while to set up, but once it is the control map are saved in profiles which can be activated at any time, and one profile can be used for several games.
Middle mouse gets redefined to use, right thumb back is reload, forwards is melee. Started using that after the first time I needed to strafe right and reload simultaneously - just not feasible with the default key mapping.
Good to know I'm not the only one, it was actually me that wrote this blog post though, not Alex
A large X-Y table with pickups from a non-optical mouse and large lightswitch style buttons. Worked well.
I felt pretty weird moving to this "new" WASD over "old" cursorkeys.
Switched when I started to run out of keys around the cursors though ;-)
Pre-mapped keys can be a real pain if you're playing on a non-american layout (like my QWERTZ-keyboard)
Snap! F grenade, Q sprint, Alt Duck, X prone, Z lean left, C lean right, E use, Shift Melee.
Space crouch
E jump
Capslock use
Shift walk
R reload
Then qtfgzcvb ctrl and alt get binded to misc things
Z is often prone and in games where walking (silent) isn't used alot shift is run
As for controls - I use 'A Z "left shift" X' - default controls in Terminator: Future Shock. Somehow I'm comfortable with these controls - it's enough even for games like Op. Flashpoint.
http://blog.barrkel.com/2008/10/wasds-little-known-alternative-qwas.html
This picture was made a long time ago (2003?).
In 1998, Quake 3 Arena was what converted my to EDSF. In almost every possible case of any game, EDSF is superior to WSAD. The problem is spending 5 to 10 minutes for each new game to map out an efficient configuration and, as you mentioned, impossibility of sharing controls. Playing all of those aircraft simulators from the DOS days is responsible for my playing all games with an inverted mouse Y-axis (aircraft pitch is inverted).
As a result my left arm doesn't like to lie flat AND perpendicular to the keyboard, so I have to use QWAS as my control cluster - Q for left, W for forward, A for back, and S for right. :(
I am left handed, and I use the default set up - i.e control mouse with my right.
I am about the opposite of ambidextrous - you should see my hand writing when i use my right! but I am fine gaming like this, just got used to it I guess. I would imagine you could get used to it pretty quickly as well.
I think many lefties use the mouse with their right, not only are all games set up with this default assumption, but most workplaces, university computer labs, internet cafes etc etc all set up like this as well.
For multiplayer or any game i feel like switching the default controls for, i use the arrow keys in conjunction with the six keys above the (pg down, pg up, home etc.) and some of the num. pad keys.
Counter Strike: Source got me really started on it. Weapons like the dualies which aren't automatic but which fire as fast as a person can click can be somewhat exploited by using the scroll wheel to 'click' at very high speeds. With one quick stretch of my middle finger I can fire up to eight shots in a split second, effectively making a shotgun pistol. It also helps control bursts with automatic weapons, but unless you can use a macro/secondary bind to retain LMB functionality you lose any way of constantly holding down a key to spray.
Razer's little macro thing is very nifty for simply spoofing the scroll wheel as being LMB and just keeping all games as LMB, but then you can't really scroll anymore on web browsers.
I usually play cs:s or ns but here is what I am using (logically the arrows are obvious)
[numbers on keypad]
0 = use
1 = crouch
4 = buy menu
7 = flashlight
2 = reload
5 = voice chat
3 = spray tag
pgdn = map
shift = walk
Everything else is on the mouse.
But then I got a new keyboard, and the delete, home, page down area was squished up and it was useless. So I had to get used to WASD. I bought an Eclipse 2 a while back and WASD just stuck with me even though I could of gone back.
And gaming mice FTW!
Switched to mouse button 4 (aka mouse back button), using the thumb.
But i dont think any games allow pressure sensitive input? For instance what im thinking is:
Accelerator- lightly pressed = walk forwards, Full down = run forwards.
Brake - Move backwards.
Clutch- Crouch.
I dont think it would achieve anything, but with a multi button mouse i could play single handed (my left hand doesnt like resting on a keyboard regardless of the buttons its covering)
That's where the Saitek software is really good. You can greate multiple bands for each axis. For example 1-50% would be W, and 51-100% would Shift+W to run. It works on the pedals for the steering wheel too, I just found it a pain having so many cables around all the time.
Nerve damage sucks.
As for control schemes, I tend to bind Q to 'knife' as it's a button I can reach very quickly when someone pops up in my face on BC2 or cod6 ^^
I'm right-handed, but my father was forced into left-handedness by a serious injury to his right hand in his early 20s, so our computer desks at home were always built to be left-handed and I grew up using the mouse in my left hand during my 'formative gaming years'.
I quickly got used to mouselooking, but I still used arrowkeys for movement with my right hand even when I got my own computer & desk, and I remember doing so right up to about the time I was playing Jedi Knight 2 : Jedi Outcast.
I used to have my force powers bound to the ins/home/pgup/del/end/pgdn keys and would use those for Gunsmith-like ninja gameplay back then with easy access.
Then one day I think I got sick of rebinding keys in shooters to my left-handed controls and decided to put the mouse in my right hand switch to WASD.
At first I found it really annoying, because it meant remapping the force powers in JO to awkward-feeling letter-keys around WASD like Q, E, R, etc. but I got used to it over time.
The upside of it is that these days I'm comfortably ambidextrous with the mouse & keyboard. I can switch between them happily as needed. :)
These days, I play WoW with complex keybinds for PvP and the like, with nearly every key using modifiers (via macros with shift, ctrl, alt) for alternate actions.
On my Death Knight for instance this is my current setup:
WASD = Movement
1-5 = Main Attacks
6-0 = Other convenient abilities
Q = Utility cooldowns (Blood Tap, ERW, etc )
Z = PvP Trinket
X = Sit (Important for RP :D )
E = Defensive cooldowns
C = Runic Power attacks
R = Snares, Grips, Taunts
F = Self-heals
V = Interrupts/Silences
T = Pestilence
G = Extra spec-specific cooldowns (Vamp Blood, etc )
B = Minion summons
H = Presences
N = Presences (Alternate)
And that configuration carries over to similar/comparable abilities on my other characters, though it tends to be more complex on my Warlock! :D
In shooters these days I use a fairly typical WASD configuration, though for a long time (prior to HL2, or thereabouts) I kept crouch on left-shift and sprint/run on ctrl.
I usually stick 'Reload' on MOUSE4 as I find the 4th button very handy to reach on my MX518 (but Mouse5 never gets used, ever) and I usually bind Melee attacks to R on the keyboard instead, which I think is a holdover from the first shooter with melee attacks that I actually played significantly, which was F.E.A.R.
It's interesting to see how much people vary in their preferences with these things!
- -mw2
F = flash
G = another grenade key
I never switch weaps with scrollwheel, in any game, never got used to it. always use the numbers, and quickswitch. :)
WASD
c = crouch
v = lie down
f = use item
left shift = run
g = grenade
space = jump
mouse 1 = fire
mouse 2 = reload
scroll wheel click = toggle scope etc
scroll wheel move = zoom in/out with scope
numbers = weapon selection
I can reach all these with either my little finger or thumb while my index and ring fingers are on A & D, with my middle finger on W or S as required.
WASD ever since Quake. The last game I played with cursor keys must've been either Doom or Wolfenstein 3D.
MB1 - fire
MB2 - scope
MB3 - voice comm
SCR up - primary
SCR down - secondary
MB4 - knife
MB5 - grenades
Tilt scroll wheel left - Ventrilo PTT
However, as some have already mentioned, I got tired of having to rebind every key for every new game I got, so now I use This. I find it very comfortable and it if I need to type, I just slide it out of the way and pull out the keyboard.
and i got a wave keyboard for better and faster typing so those keys are just not handy
i mostly use the arrow bottoms and all around
up down left right
ctrl = jump
number pad 0 = reload or special
number pad 1 = crouch
del = open
page up = zoom in
page down = zoom out
rest is on my mouse with 8 keys
or i use the number pad
but it changes with the game what works best
So I designed a layout that suited me and that made sense to me.
Cursor keys for movement as that was logical, up arrow goes forward, back arrow goes back, etc.
Then there was the next level of movement which needed to be accessed almost as much as the main movement keys, but needed to be separated as they did opposite functions and in a frenetic "I'm gonna die if I don't get my ass outta here' moments I didn't want to be catching the wrong button by accident. So crouch was bound to the right ctrl key, and jump was bound to the KB 0 key.
Next up was the run/walk key. Whether it was a state toggle or if you had to hold the key down to keep it one one state (i.e. hold down the key to run, release it to walk) it needed to be easy to get too, but in a comfortable position to keep a finger on without getting the dreaded hand-ache. So the right shift became the defacto key for that.
For quite a long time that was my default set-up (and still is today actually). As games have progressed so I have added extra keys in to accommodate their functions. The large main return key gets used for activating game objects or for getting on and off ladders (depending on which I will be doing the most of during the game), the numpad 1 key is used as weapon reload, the numpad '.' key is used to swap between weapon fire modes or to holster a weapon (again depending on the game). If there is a flashlight it gets bound to the num pad 4 key. Inventory opening if it is important gets bound to the del key, but if something else is more important (Like casting spells in oblivion for example) needs to be close at had then that key is used for that and the largish tab key is used for opening the inventory (A long way away, hence it uses a large key to be quickly found and thumped without having to look down at the KB) because invariably any game that has you doing something like casting spells does not make it imperative to open your inventory mid-battle.
Zooming in for sniper mode weapons is bound to the backspace.
Any other controls are bound on a game by game basis as I find out what I am using the most and need quick access to.
Nowadays a few of the controls have been moved to the mouse for ease of use, like weapon zooming is now on the mouse wheel and spell casting is now set to my thumb button on the mouse, but I still keep the KB versions as backup because I seem to be hard on mice and I can never be sure when the mouse wheel will stop working correctly for example.
There are exceptions to this rule though as some developers think it is still cool to make certain keys not reconfigurable, for example I like playing Just Cause 2, but I play it rarely as the controls cannot be reconfigured how I would like them. Thus I am forced to use the standard wasd setup the game has and after half an hour I start to get cramp in my hand as the keys seem way too close together.
Gives access to the most buttons with my right hand + reversing fire buttons means my fastest finger (i.e. index) does primary fire.
For another game i use ESDF
I fixed the joystick issue (taped a wine cork to the stalk as a support) but I decided that as a contract developer I'd be out of pocket if I (though I'm most definitely not ambidexterous) just in case I got the same trouble again.
Right Mouse Button: Forward
Left Mouse Button: Fire
Middle Mouse Button: Alt Fire
Mouse Thumb Button: Last Weapon
Left Alt: Strafe left
Space Bar Strafe right
A: Jump
S: Backwards
D: Use/Interact
Z: Crouch
C: Grenades
X: Health (when applicable)
Left Ctrl: Special (spin mini-gun in TF2, aim down the sites in COD)
On a closing note: games that refuse to let you re-bind every key have special place in hell reserved for them. Appropriately, Hellgate London's already there. >:(
I'm a full-time nostromo speedpad user. I haven't touched a keyboard in years! I have no problems in FPS games, in fact, FPS games are what led me to use a nostromo...I don't know how people can use keyboards, they're too awkward for me.
WASD = normal
CTRL = altfire
SPACE = crouch
Shift = Walk/Run/Prone
CapsLock = prone(if game has walk also)
ALT = use
R = reload
T = last used weapon
Mouse1 = fire
Mouse2 = jump
Mouse4 = knife
that makes sense actually i may try this out
Obviously this wouldn't work too well in games that require more than the movement/aim controls and the few buttons available on the mouse/controller but it certainly works well enough for him to play TF2 and CS:S effectively.
there is another alternative that I have been using for the last 5 or 6 years. I use a Saitec X52 flight controller and a mouse.
Before you laugh, know that I am and always have been a clutz trying to use all these damn keys all at once in a good FPS game. I do know how to type though by no means a speed typist, 30-40wpm on a good day.
The Saitec X52 controller comes with programming software that lets you program "all" of the buttons, pot switches, rotary switches, stick and throttle to emulate any key press and most can be programmed for multiple key presses. I have profiles for all the FEAR games, Crysis games, BF: Bad Company 2, FarCry 1 and 2, and a couple of others. I currently use a Logitec MX 1000 cordless laser mouse left handed for directional control and most of the mentioned games allow the use of the 3 main buttons and mse wheel for what ever you wish to assign them.
So basically the joystick itself becomes Fwd, Back, step left and step right. between all the other buttons and the mouse, I rarely ever have to use the keyboard for anything. You do have to go in sometimes to the game options and reassign some of the default keys but it's not a big deal. Believe me if I can figure it out anyone can.
Anyway, anyone that has one of these controllers and would like to try it, let me know how we can arrange it and I can provide a couple of profiles to try. It's good to be able to be moving while stepping right or left and firing while selecting your next grenade and toggling crouch or run.
Yeah at last, one other like me, I use a Saitek ST290 Pro and a Logitech MX Revolution which is also programmable. I use a standard template with the bands on X, Y for wasd , and spacebar, then tailor the others, I must 20 plus profiles. I also use MS Publisher to print out the controls:D PM me if you want a copy of either templates.
Needless to say they all found it immensely useful and still utilize ESDF or others to this day.