Amputees
#1
Posted 19 March 2014 - 01:00 AM
#2
Posted 19 March 2014 - 01:14 AM
Also these mice are Epic +1 if your friend plays any other MMO games.
#3
Posted 19 March 2014 - 01:45 AM
That said... I'd imagine this is a question of control mapping more than anything else. Looking at my old Sidewinder, a joystick and a 3-set of pedals might work to at least get the essentials set up for one-handed operation, if you're willing to get creative with a hat switch.
The stick itself takes care of pitch, turn and twist.
Fire controls are trigger and buttons 2 and 3, 4 is target under reticule.
You can put vision on the hat switch: zoom (down), thermal (left), night (right), adv. zoom (up).
Map the right pedal to throttle up, middle pedal to throttle down, left pedal to jump.
Less common functions like battlegrid, scoreboard, ECM mode, heat override and so on might require a trip to the keyboard or buttons on the joystick's base, but I think it's doable, particularly if you get a joystick with more thumb switches than mine has.
Saitek makes an inexpensive stick with four thumb buttons plus a pinkie switch that can act as a shift key, potentially doubling the number of commands accessible from the stick (18 total... 2 trigger, 8 thumb, 8 hat).
Pedals may be harder to come by... Logitech makes the only 3-pedal set I can think of that isn't way too expensive high-end racing sim stuff, but if I were you I'd ask here and see what they say.
As an alternative to the pedals, there's also this thing. I know nothing about it, but it may be worth researching further if pedal boxes prove too expensive.
Also--just a suggestion--this may be of some use to you: http://www.spellcheck.net/
#4
Posted 19 March 2014 - 02:05 AM
The best Option for your friend would be to buy some pedals and bind their controls to AWSD.
A control glove would be an other option. It takes time to master them but a friend of mine is lacking a left hand too and she uses one and is faster on the controls than me. She discribed it as like a second right hand. Eye controlls / eye cam would be an other ( expensive ) option.
Steer the Mech with the right hand and the eye controls will substitute your mouse. ( Look kill controls )
Either way HIDs are ample but seldomly supported in games. Do some keymapping and programming for yourself.
#5
Posted 19 March 2014 - 06:49 AM
What the game does do is support a large number of peripherals and lots of options for control customization.
If your friend can use a joystick, then there will probably be plenty of input options available to him with a joystick. There are mountains of joystick -related threads- if he has questions regarding specific model joysick or specific control he needs to change, check back with the details and someone will be able to help. Rudder pedals for turning (and a regular mouse for aim) also works.
#6
Posted 19 March 2014 - 07:22 AM
#7
Posted 19 March 2014 - 07:33 AM
I use a joystick for my left hand for moving, and a couple weapon groups and vision modes. A mouse with enough buttons would let you move the extra weapon groups and vision modes off the stick and to the mouse. So what that'd leave you with is trying to find a way to control movement.
If your friend has a usable arm (just no hand) then you could probably rig up something that would allow basic (front to back, left to right) joystick use.
If not, pedals are another option. You could set them up as left and right, and bind the throttle keys to the mouse. I'm honestly not that familiar with pedals though, so you may have more options.
#8
Posted 19 March 2014 - 08:48 AM
#9
Posted 19 March 2014 - 09:19 AM
The way I heard him describe it was: You can move and steer, or you can aim and shoot, but you can't do both. Something tells me he had very simple weapon groupings.
Edit: Also, this: http://www.infogrip....mouse-plus.html
It's a mouse, for your mouth. It costs $2500, but I'm guessing it would bit the bill pretty well for a variety of uses for a one-armed person, or even a person with no arms. Which brings us to: http://octopup.org/c...er/foot-control Also an option for someone with only one arm.
Also: http://www.instructa...computer-mouse/
Also, you could always go check with the people who build sim-pits. They would probably have lots of ideas about ways to help out an amputee or double amputee. http://mwomercs.com/...um/243-simpits/
Edited by Throet, 19 March 2014 - 09:30 AM.
#10
Posted 19 March 2014 - 09:28 AM
The first time the surgeon said it would be easier to amputate because both of the forearm bones had completely broken just below the elbow. I wasn't even four years old. How it happened was embarrassing, but let's just say gravity doesn't take a break if you let go to get your foot unstuck.
Sequential breaks have been lower. Also have a few scars from impalement but that's another story altogether.
The long story short is that while I do have both arms, I have a few issues with my left. Loss of some function and what could best be described as "Lag" where I want it to do something.. but there's a delay before it will actually perform.
These issues greatly impact my ability to play games and have required some ... tricks to overcome them. One of them was for the longest while I had learned to play with my feet (around the time of the second break). Before analog controllers this was really easy to do with a playstation 1 controller. Later on I used it to compete against myself in games like Battlestations. Before it stopped being about the ships.
Occulus Rift hasn't got good support yet. So that is out of the ball park.
There are certain flight sticks that feature an analog stick under your thumb. Mine unfortunately counts each direction as a different button and has taken some getting used to but it does work.
I've also seen someone in a similar condition (left arm only; paralyzed right arm) use his two fingers to control the sticks on a PS3 controller attached to the computer. He uses a foot pedal pad with 8 large buttons for the other functions. This dude plays Hawken with it and does better than I do.
Point being it will take some expense and some getting used to, but your friend is in a situation that can be overcome and allow you to play. Just keep it 2 weapon groups or fewer.
-----
Since we're on the topic and I always thought this was interesting.
I was able to hide this disability to get into the army before it was eventually discovered. During that time, I learned that when it came to rifles I shoot better left-handed than right. But handguns remain best in the right hand. However, I think this mostly has to do with the reflexes of the hand holding the handguard at the end of the rifle and not the hand holding the trigger.
Another oddity. Doctors were afraid the growth would be stunted. Instead, my left arm is a few inches longer yet my reach is the same for both arms. The extra length makes up for the loss in flexibility. The arm only grew the extra length from the elbow down. o.O;
Edited by Koniving, 19 March 2014 - 09:31 AM.
#11
Posted 19 March 2014 - 09:28 AM
but honestly, it's on his end to figure out ways to play. We can make suggestions, but he's going to need a control scheme that's fairly unique to him, so we can only do so much.
PGI has little incentive to spend a ton of dev time to help simply because you're not talking a large market (amputees who play complex FPS games is probably not a big money market, or user base).
Edited by Bront, 19 March 2014 - 09:30 AM.
#12
Posted 19 March 2014 - 10:00 AM
http://www.razerzone.../razer-naga-hex
He can also involve gaming pedals, like these.
http://www.gamingmou...fragpedal/quad/
Use a little Google-Fu, and you'll find a variety of options for one-handed gamers. Mechwarrior, I salute him.
Edit: HA! Found it! PCGamer did an article in 2013 about disabled gamers. Give it a look...and the disabled gamer charity the article is about. Maybe your friend could contact them for assistance, too.
http://www.pcgamer.c.../specialeffect/
Edited by Ghost Badger, 19 March 2014 - 10:05 AM.
#13
Posted 19 March 2014 - 10:01 AM
It's intended for a left hand, the one you'd normally use WASD with. I bought it because my wife's a lefty and she's tired of using the keypad for what little gaming she does. I've got a second as a gift still in its box, unopened.
#14
Posted 19 March 2014 - 10:33 AM
Straylight, on 19 March 2014 - 01:45 AM, said:
"MWO is the
In general good suggestions though.
#15
Posted 06 September 2014 - 04:47 AM
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