PC controls - Keyboard layout

(H0RSE) #221

Gonna have to decline…

I am currently using an old, backup PC of my dads, since my main gaming rig died. In layman’s terms, this PC blows, and as a result, I try to avoid playing any fast paced, twitchy shooters, and stick mainly to playing RPG games, casual games like Plants vs Zombies or Puzzle Quest 2 or console games at the moment. Oh, and the small fact that my trackball stopped working about 2 months ago, and I am currently using a mouse.

I also don’t duel. I have never played a duel in my entire life, and I never will. I play team games or nothing. 1v1 games and deatmatch (even team) gets my anxiety up too high.

(AnthonyDa) #222

Atavax new to the forum? Don’t bother debating with THE league.

(Nail) #223

Trackballs are the best because they’re a Canadian invention (first one was a bowling ball)

(Senethro) #224

I thought the other guys were the league?

Or is it just whoever you disagree with at the time?

(DarkangelUK) #225

I think Anthony has distanced himself so far from anyone, that everyone is in the league as far as he’s concerned. Obvious troll is obvious etc. etc. etc.

(Nail) #226

Is this like “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” ?

if so, I want in… Sean Connery was great in that movie

(Cankor) #227

I remember playing this video footbal game around 1979, it was a video screen built into a glass tabletop with large trackballs where each guy (two player game) was able to control your player. You pick an offense or defeanse and then roll that sucker like crazy. At the end of a couple of games everyone’s hand had blisters on it.

(Atavax) #228

[QUOTE=H0RSE;252151]Actually, it’s nothing like that. It just has to do with timing and coincidence.

Timing, because I happen to get interested in comp play after I started using a trackball and coincidence, for explaining how I started using a trackball in first place.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I went in to use the computer. I looked at the desk and a strange device was sitting where the mouse once was. I said to my poops, “WTF is that thing?!” and he replied, “It’s a trackball. It like a big, upside down mouse.” From that day on, I used trackballs.

My decision to use a trackball was not a thought out, decisive process, with me eventually coming to the conclusion to buy one or try one out. If my pops never would have gotten that trackball, I most likely never would have used one, and would still be using a mouse today. I has nothing to do with me favoring the trackball because I played competitive with it and not with a mouse. I favor the trackball, because I think it is more comfortable, easier to use and I play better with it period - regardless if it is comp play or not. Even back when I first started using it, within a week I was playing the same or better with it in FPS games than I was with a mouse, which I had 5 or so years experience with.[/QUOTE]

thats not what i’m talking about. I’m saying, you got to a competitve level with the trackball which means you learned how to use it very well, but you didn’t learn to go to a competitive level with the mouse, so obviously you’re going to consider the mouse inferior…

(H0RSE) #229

thats not what i’m talking about. I’m saying, you got to a competitve level with the trackball which means you learned how to use it very well, but you didn’t learn to go to a competitive level with the mouse, so obviously you’re going to consider the mouse inferior…
you’re still not comprehending (and choosing to form your own reasons for my choosing trackball over mouse)I liked trackballs more for the reasons I listed, BEFORE I reached a “competitive level” with them, so at one time I was at the same level with each, and I chose one (trackball) over the other. I then gave up using a mouse, because I already liked trackballs so much more.

There are 2 reasons why I have not reached “competitive level” with a mouse. 1) I started using trackballs and 2) even back when I used a mouse regularly, they were to cumbersome for me to ever reach “pro status” with them. I have tried to use them again, and I can never get to the level I am at with a trackball. Even now, with my trackball busted and me using a mouse for a couple months now, it still feels awkward.

The reason I didn’t reach comp level with a mouse, is because I can’t, thus why I prefer trackballs - because I can actually use them seriously.

This same logic applies to why I prefer the arrow key opposed to WASD - because I am better using the arrow keys. I have been trying to use WASD, since I use it to navigate in MMO’s, but I just can’t get the hanf of it for FPS, since I need to use all the extra keys around them.

Trackball and arrow keys was my setup throughout my clan days.

(Crytiqal) #230

Horse, your controls are getting weirder and weirder :stuck_out_tongue:

the arrow keys?
Dont you miss out on, like, the entire rest of the keyboard buttons in reach from wasd?
spacebar/jump for instance?

(Apples) #231

arent the keyboard layouts and mouse/trackbawlz choice defined by “what its best” for the guy who use them?

Its like saying a F1 is better than a kart, plain stupid! oh wai…

I used arrow keys fora a loooong time too cryt, and I had such a keyboard that my arrows were really close to the numpad, the insert/suppr etc pad and the right of my other keys, I actually had at least as many keys in reach that with wasd now, it was just another finger’s gymnastic as my left thumb was unused.

The point is, some people tend to like other cfg’s as the “common” one, its not necessarily weaker configs, just different, I never used a trackbawlz for example, so maybe its better than a mouse for some situations.

A duel to test which rig is better? It can work assuming the 2 participants have the same skill level…

Peace

(Senethro) #232

I doubt such a thing can be measured especially as I’m working on the idea that poor equipment is a limitation on skill. What I was looking for was just to see a trackball in action just to see if they could move and aim effectively. Anything between a clean sheet victory or just scoring 20% of the mouse players score would show this really.

(H0RSE) #233

[QUOTE=Crytiqal;252238]Horse, your controls are getting weirder and weirder :stuck_out_tongue:

the arrow keys?
Dont you miss out on, like, the entire rest of the keyboard buttons in reach from wasd?
spacebar/jump for instance?[/QUOTE]

This is the keyboard I used:

For RTCW and W:ET, my setup was:

arrows = movement
CTRL = jump
SHIFT = crouch
ENTER = sprint
num keys = weapon selection
/ and \ = previous and next weapon (located on left and right of shift key.)
Numpad 0 = reload
Delete = prone
End = binocular air strike (had a cfg. so I just had to tap it, and the air strike would go where I was aimed)
Numpad 2, 3, 5= class tools
Numpad 1 = alt view (zoom)
Numpad 4 = grenade
Mouse 1 = shoot
Mouse 2 = action/activate
Insert = mission map

I also had most of the other keys bound to vsays. I would use my left hand for keys and right hand for trackball. All the keys I used, I had down to muscle memory, so however awkward they seem to you, they were completely natural to me. I had the scroll wheel bound to select previous/next weapons as well, but I found using the keys to be faster and more accurate.

(Crytiqal) #234

I would love to see your sprint and jump at the same time :smiley:

I had a friend of mine who also played with the arrow keys.

PS: doesn’t your palm hit the touchpad? or do you disable that?

(tokamak) #235

What the hell?

(H0RSE) #236

I would love to see your sprint and jump at the same time

I sprint using my pinkie and jump using my thumb. Jumping and sprinting together, although sounds awkward, is easy, since I still have my other 3 fingers in full control of the arrows. And yes, I disable the touchpad.

(Crytiqal) #237

do you mean the KP_INS button for jump then, instead of CTRL?

EDIT: No wait you said that was reload?
How do you manage to get CTRL and SHIFT with pinky and thumb? :smiley:

(murka) #238

Is this shiet for real?
First you talk nonsense about how difficult it is to move a finger up or down in a relatively unmoving mouse, then you show how you do finger origami magic just to sprint and jump at same time.

(H0RSE) #239

[QUOTE=murka;252327]Is this ****e for real?
First you talk nonsense about how difficult it is to move a finger up or down in a relatively unmoving mouse, then you show how you do finger origami magic just to sprint and jump at same time.[/QUOTE]
There is one fundamental thing you are forgetting - a mouse moves, keyboard buttons do not. If I had to do these finger positions on a moving object, it would be much more difficult. Also, the keyboard buttons are used with my left hand (I am left handed) while the mouse is used with my right. I have much greater control using only the fingers on the right hand (with a trackball) than using my entire hand,wrist and arm (with a mouse)

(H0RSE) #240

[QUOTE=Crytiqal;252321]do you mean the KP_INS button for jump then, instead of CTRL?

EDIT: No wait you said that was reload?
How do you manage to get CTRL and SHIFT with pinky and thumb? :D[/QUOTE]
I guess the only thing I can say is “it’s easy for me.” I don’t expect you to understand, but it is what I found to work the best for me.

It’s because I am used to this finger placement that I find it difficult to use WASD and the buttons around it.