31 replies to this topic

[SpeedyRR]

Hi there, just getting started off. In the past have run games with standard layout, only to learn many games later that important actions/keys need to be changed to help smooth out gameplay. I always find it difficult to re-learn when it comes to muscle memory in games so thought I'd ask here.
Using standard keyboard and 5 button scroll wheel mouse.
Currently have these setup so far.

E throttle up
D throttle down
S left
F right
G centre torso to legs
V centre legs to torso
Left shift full stop
Space jump jets
C command wheel
W push to talk
Q toggle night vision
A toggle thermal vision
Mouse 1 2 4 5 fire weapon group 1-4
Mouse scroll wheel Zoom in and out
Mouse 3 toggle max zoom
Tab alpha strike
Caps lock chain fire
Left control free look
T target lock
Z show target overlay
B show battlegrid
Tilde launch UAV
1 toggle MASC
2 toggle AMS
3 toggle ECM
4 cool shot
5 6 consumables

R is still free at this point as well as Y H N. other keys are either standard or have been shifted further away from the EDSF area.

So with this in mind what advice can players give me? Am I missing anything? Are there keys/functions that I need to prioritise now or have I got the main bases covered as it were. I understand this sort of thing can be up to personal prefferences adn can be entirely subjective, but any feedback would be much appreciated.
Cheers

[knight-of-ni]

Well, here is my subjective answer.

I personally have never used the G or V keys, nor will I ever. The "R" key, or whichever key you map targeting to, is one of the most important in the game. You should make sure that button is easily reached, and used often!

Rather than move buttons around on my standard keyboard, my left hand rests on a Razor Nostromo.
I tend to program movement and other non-firing group functions to it, while I set all my firing groups to the buttons on the mouse in my right hand.





Trouble is, I am completely dependant on the Nostromo now. I likely could not play the game w/o it.

EDIT: fix terrible spelling

Edited by knnniggett, 08 March 2017 - 08:20 AM.

[Amatsukaze]

knnniggett, on 08 March 2017 - 07:24 AM, said:

Trouble is, I am completely depend on the Nostromo now. I likely could not play the game w/o it.

Ditto!

I can't recommend the Nostromo enough, It has transformed my gameplay! Make sure you get a good Razer mouse to go with it though.

[Rogue Jedi]

I keep team and all chat mapped as I do use them reasionably frequantly,
it is not possible to comunicate with the enemy team using voice, and being a good sport sometimes requires me to communicate with the enemy ^{(e.g. well played, or great shot)}, and some people deactivate VOIP so it is worth having the team chat, even if just to say good game/try.

by default Tab is to bring up the player list (I am not sure of the name), used in some modes to see how the team is doing, also to mute annoying teammates in VOIP ^{(rarely needed)}, and report people for bad behaviour.

that is all that I can see missing that I would find usefull

[Roughneck45]

Amatsukaze, on 08 March 2017 - 07:58 AM, said:

Ditto!

I can't recommend the Nostromo enough, It has transformed my gameplay! Make sure you get a good Razer mouse to go with it though.

I've been considering one for a while now. Does that stick have a function for MWO? I've also got a logitech mouse, compatibility issues?

[Robinhood78]

I don't see override shutdown listed there. I always just left it defaulted to O, easy to remember and I rarely used it. Recently, though, I've seen several videos where some pretty good players hit override, alpha to kill the target, and then hit override again to shutdown. This is pretty smart, every second you're over 100% heat you are taking damage, and quite a bit of it. You obviously don't want to shutdown in the middle of a brawl if you can avoid it so this is a good strategy. Override while you're in danger and when the enemy is dead of you pull back to cover shut if off and you will auto shutdown thus preventing further damage to your internals.

Because of this I've remapped it to 4 and 5 at the top of the keyboard. Both keys because I found that depending on which way I'm moving I may not be able to get to one or the other easily. When it was at O it was incredibly awkward and now it is not.

[TercieI]

knnniggett, on 08 March 2017 - 07:24 AM, said:

Trouble is, I am completely dependant on the Nostromo now. I likely could not play the game w/o it.

I actually bought a second one (gently used from a friend) in case mine craps out. Tried a Logitech G40 and my big paws need the high rise of the Nostromo.

Roughneck45, on 08 March 2017 - 09:23 AM, said:

I've been considering one for a while now. Does that stick have a function for MWO? I've also got a logitech mouse, compatibility issues?

None at all. I run a Logitech G502 in my right hand and a Nostromo in my left.

As for the stick, what do you want it to do? It's an old 4-direction stick, so I use it as utility functions. Toggle vision modes, toggle arm lock and toggle the information over mechs (macro I wrote). One of the other reasons I didn't like the Logitech was that it was a fluid stick, not a 4-direction stick. That little button just above is my jump jets. My left thumb stays busy.

Edited by TercieI, 08 March 2017 - 09:47 AM.

[Amatsukaze]

Roughneck45, on 08 March 2017 - 09:23 AM, said:

I've been considering one for a while now. Does that stick have a function for MWO? I've also got a logitech mouse, compatibility issues?

I cant speak to compatibility issues as I have a Razer mouse as well but I really doubt you would have a problem. Razer really does make some great stuff.

By default that stick is the arrow keys on the keyboard. I remapped mine for vision modes fore & aft, arm lock & player ID up & down. Button above that is target lock on mine since its easiest to reach & get used a great deal. The pad below the stick is jump jets.

[TercieI]

Amatsukaze, on 08 March 2017 - 10:03 AM, said:

I cant speak to compatibility issues as I have a Razer mouse as well but I really doubt you would have a problem. Razer really does make some great stuff.

By default that stick is the arrow keys on the keyboard. I remapped mine for vision modes fore & aft, arm lock & player ID up & down. Button above that is target lock on mine since its easiest to reach & get used a great deal. The pad below the stick is jump jets.

I started with that as JJ and found it not responsive enough. It's cool shot now.

(I have 'R' on center mouse, agree it's gotta be super accessible).

[Cato Phoenix]

Targetting needs to be close and easily reached!

I use tab for player list for the same reasons above.

If you have most of the weapon group keys mapped to mouse, you could use some of those unused ones for the consumeable slots.

[Roughneck45]

TercieI, on 08 March 2017 - 09:29 AM, said:

It's an old 4-direction stick,

Perfect, I thought it was analog.

[TercieI]

Roughneck45, on 08 March 2017 - 02:27 PM, said:

Perfect, I thought it was analog.

Nope. The more modern ones are, which makes them worse for my purposes!

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Roughneck45, on 08 March 2017 - 02:27 PM, said:

Perfect, I thought it was analog.

I have an analog on my G13, and I just use it like a 4 way. Only time I have ever had an issue with it is when I am "less than sober" and take on some creative hand positions on my controls.

That said, I really want to try out an Orbweaver w/ mech keys.

I also have to mimic the sentiment that once you get used to one of these it is pretty hard to go back. So hard I actually have made it a point to try to play other games just on a plank instead, because there is no going back for me on MWO.

[Jables McBarty]

SpeedyRR, on 08 March 2017 - 07:10 AM, said:

Hi there, just getting started off. In the past have run games with standard layout, only to learn many games later that important actions/keys need to be changed to help smooth out gameplay. I always find it difficult to re-learn when it comes to muscle memory in games so thought I'd ask here.
Using standard keyboard and 5 button scroll wheel mouse.
Currently have these setup so far.

E throttle up [nice! I use these as my movement keys as well--much easier to find home row, and you get an extra column of keys for your pinky. I have C set to "full stop" so that the E/D/C column is up/down/stop. seemed intuitive to me when I started]
D throttle down
S left
F right
G centre torso to legs [I don't really use this one except on the Urbanmech]
V centre legs to torso
Left shift full stop
Space jump jets
C command wheel
W push to talk
Q toggle night vision
A toggle thermal vision
Mouse 1 2 4 5 fire weapon group 1-4
Mouse scroll wheel Zoom in and out [i sometimes have issues with scroll to zoom, so i switched to 'V']
Mouse 3 toggle max zoom [get used to double-tapping your zoom button to do max; unless you use the Adv zoom module a lot]
Tab alpha strike [honestly you don't need this. As long as you can mash down all your firing buttons, "Alpha Strike" is superfluous]
Caps lock chain fire [good idea to have it by your movement keys. However I usually use at most three weapon groups, leaving Group 4 (and 3 if I only have two weapon groups) for a permanently chain-fired version of my hottest weapon group. Honestly I have Del set to toggle chainfire, so I can reach it with one hand while organizing weapon groups.]
Left control free look
T target lock
Z show target overlay [this is good and probably underutilized]
B show battlegrid
Tilde launch UAV
1 toggle MASC [I had difficulty using the Toggle on MASC. Too much to remember and I tended to fry my legs, but if it works for you, do it.]
2 toggle AMS [if you have large hands and can reach 5/6 as easily as 3/4, then you're golden. However you're more likely to use cool shot and consumables during the heat of battle than you are to switch your AMS on and off. I'd put the consumables closer to your movement keys]
3 toggle ECM
4 cool shot
5 6 consumables

R is still free at this point as well as Y H N. other keys are either standard or have been shifted further away from the EDSF area.

So with this in mind what advice can players give me? Am I missing anything? Are there keys/functions that I need to prioritise now or have I got the main bases covered as it were. I understand this sort of thing can be up to personal prefferences adn can be entirely subjective, but any feedback would be much appreciated.
Cheers

Comments in [italics bold and brackets]

Only thing I might add--as mentioned above--is Team/Lance/All chat.

I have them set to

F1 Team Chat
F2 Lance Chat
F3 All Chat

I found it was easier to remember.

Also definitely want to have Power and Override. Default is P and O. I also have secondary keys set to

Num Pad '+' Power
Num Pad 'Enter' Override

That way I can quickly strike it with my mouse hand while getting to cover with my keyboard hand.

EDIT: added italics since bold alone doesn't show up well in the Quote box...

Edited by Jables McBarty, 08 March 2017 - 08:33 PM.

[SpeedyRR]

Thanks for the tips and advice everyone, will be changing a few things around.
Going to map 5 and 6 to override and power down, sounds like it's an important part to use in dire situations.
Of course the trade off is consumable keys will now be further away, might look at the Y H keys for that.
Had U J M for for team lance and all chat but F1 F2 F3 seems more logical probably F4 for player list.
I may even switch up Tilde 1 2 3 possibly at a later date, not using these at all due to the mechs I have started with, Hunchback IIC variants.
I've gone with the E D forward back and Shift for full stop as I've seen videos of turning, peaking, and pirouetting. I've got throttle decay off so I can run full speed holding E, turn right or left and tap shift to slow down a bit which tighten the turn, then back up to top speed again as I'm still holding E.
It also seems to speed up 180 or 270 pirouettes. Run at target full speed, turn one way, hit brake, then reverse, then brake then forward again, all whilst holding turn key. This part needs a lot of practice by me but seems quite a useful movement to flick around and front up to an enemy mech again.
And while I'm doing all that I can still press space for jump jets with my thumb as well. So all five fingers sitting on movement based keys.

Edited by SpeedyRR, 09 March 2017 - 08:50 AM.

[Burning2nd]

lol not one of those is how i am mapped.. But ill keep all this in mind,

thanks for the heads up

[TercieI]

Burnin2nd, on 09 March 2017 - 06:19 AM, said:

lol not one of those is how i am mapped.. But ill keep all this in mind,

thanks for the heads up

Personally, I see this as "what's most important" not "what gets mapped exactly where." My Nostromo/Mouse setup is so customized I would not pretend it's a universal standard, it just works for me.

[SpeedyRR]

TercieI, on 09 March 2017 - 06:51 AM, said:

Personally, I see this as "what's most important" not "what gets mapped exactly where." My Nostromo/Mouse setup is so customized I would not pretend it's a universal standard, it just works for me.

That's the one Tercial, I'm trying to get advice on what to prioritise around where my hand lays on the keyboard. I'm new to game so have just used what my own mind feels comfortable with to map out where the keybindings are, so it's completely subjective

[Roughneck45]

SpeedyRR, on 09 March 2017 - 08:56 AM, said:

That's the one Tercial, I'm trying to get advice on what to prioritise around where my hand lays on the keyboard. I'm new to game so have just used what my own mind feels comfortable with to map out where the keybindings are, so it's completely subjective

Override, coolshot, and your strike of choice are the most important keybinds IMO.

Enemy spotted is also really useful. I'm still trying to work that one in because "E" has been coolshot for a long time now for me.

Edited by Roughneck45, 09 March 2017 - 09:24 AM.

[TercieI]

SpeedyRR, on 09 March 2017 - 08:56 AM, said:

That's the one Tercial, I'm trying to get advice on what to prioritise around where my hand lays on the keyboard. I'm new to game so have just used what my own mind feels comfortable with to map out where the keybindings are, so it's completely subjective

Yep. And keep in mind you can refine it as you progress. I generally worked on integrating one skill into my play at a time for a long time, so new things would become important. When I started, "center legs to torso" was a huge deal for me. I don't even have it mapped any more. You'll learn what matters to you as you go. Always refine.

Also, if you have macro-able hardware, there are lots of little quality of life things you can do. A few of my favorites: 1) Macro for arty/air so whatever's equipped fires, 2) Override for five seconds, so when I use it to get out of a shutdown I don't forget and cook myself on my next alpha and 3) ECM mode/Missile Door macro. This is a key-saver, only the Archer Tempest has both and if you're using missiles on it, you're doing it wrong.

Edited by TercieI, 09 March 2017 - 09:39 AM.