Which is the easiest control setup for PC Doom?

I've been playing on the 360 a lot, but I want to get back to the PC version. I used to use all keyboard controls (up and down to move, left and right to look, ctrl to shoot, shift to run, space to use). I can't seem to get comfortable with those because strafing is so hard to do with it and I strafe A LOT when playing (on the 360 version). I bust ass when I strafe, but I can't with the keyboard. I tried with the mouse to look, but I couldn't get comfortable with that either. Then I tried it with my Xbox 360 controller, but it just seems different.

How do you guys play?

Personally, I use a WASD+mouse setup, in which W and S are set to step forwards and backwards, S and D are to strafe left and right, and the mouse is used to turn and look around. Left hand on AWD keys by default, and right hand on the mouse. Spacebar to use, via thumb. Mouse1 to fire. Depending on the port I'm playing with, sometimes I'll bind Mouse2 to also run forwards because it's useful to be able to keep moving with either hand.

Wow, I never thought of that lol. I'm an idiot. I used that but instead I was using the arrow keys which was a pain in the ass to hit any other buttons. I think I'll give your setup a try.

Okay, so I just tried it. I'm getting used to it lol. It's the best setup I've tried so far. Thanks again

No problem. :)

It's a pretty commonly-used setup, and if you can get accustomed to it, it affords you a great level of control over your movements.

Doom seemed so much harder when I was still trying to play it with the arrow keys...

I'll second the WASD+mouse, but one fun setup to try is this: WASD for movement, space for use, left and right arrow for turn around and up arrow for shoot. Biggest problem with that, though, is that if you have a bad keyboard you'll easily get your keys into a jam. :(

Here is a control scheme that every FPS game released since at least the original HL has used:

W: move forward
S: move back
A: strafe left
D: strafe right

E: use

shift: hold to walk

I also bind weapons to 1,2,3,Q,R,F,V just in order to be able to do everything with one hand.

I prefer ESDF to WASD personally.

But since I use a laptop, I've gotten used to plugging in an USB keypad and using that for movement. So 8456 for movement, 7 for automap toggle, 9 for jumping (if enabled), 3 for crouching (if enabled), del for use, 0, 1, 2, /, *, <--, -, + and Enter for misc other functions.

woah, can you use mouse in doom?

You've been able to use the mouse since December 1993.

I have to agree that using a joystick for Doom (or any other PC game, for that matter) is a mistake. The optimum control performance is the mouse and keyboard combo. It's also great that you can assign the various functions to virtually any key you want so that, if you're like me and aren't comfortable with the WASD setup, you can put the movement functions on the direction arrows or wherever.

Jodwin said:

I'll second the WASD+mouse, but one fun setup to try is this: WASD for movement, space for use, left and right arrow for turn around and up arrow for shoot. Biggest problem with that, though, is that if you have a bad keyboard you'll easily get your keys into a jam. :(

I have used that when I feel like disabling freelook, and it is quite effective compared to the default vanilla controls (why was I stuck with those and without a setup.exe for so long?)

I've also attempted this weird setup, when someone said it's good to have one finger for all 4 directions:

Lshift: forward
A: strafe left
S: strafe right
space: backward
mouse/arrow keys: look and fire

It's almost too strange, and I'm guessing not the best method.

I've been thinking about getting used to the default controls, and using ALT to strafe. The period and comma keys are just way too far out of the way. My current setup has been pretty beneficial to me so far.

W - forward
S - backward
A - left
D - right

← - turn left
→ - turn right

E - use
Space - shoot

I think it's kinda lame to use a mouse (especially with mouselook) in doom. Monsters don't really move very fast and only in 8 directions. Their behavior is pretty predictable and they have pretty decent sized hit boxes that receive the same damage no matter which angle you shoot them from, not to mention autoaim. Generally all you need to do is center a monster on your screen to get a good hit on it. You don't really need any precision at all, which is kinda like using a chainsaw to cut a steak. This is excepted for something like Deathmatch though, since players move at an ungodly speed and it's really tough to keep up. Before I got this lame keyboard that stops responding if too many keys are pressed at the same time, I could still maintain a pretty good frag count on most online Skulltag servers using the keyboard alone though. its a lot more about timing your shots correctly than about good aim.

What killed the default controls to me was the 105-key Windows keyboard. Before, with the tip of the space bar, and enter, r-shift, r-alt and r-ctrl all huddled together in close vicinity to the arrow keys, things were pretty simple. 99% of DOS action games used these keys exclusively for gameplay (plus escape, pause, and the function keys for gameplay-interrupting purposes). Heck, just alt, ctrl and space in most cases. You could hold three down with just one finger.

Then suddenly, two useless keys got plopped down in the middle of this beautiful harmony; and in Windows games they were worse than useless: disruptive.

with mouse
WASD for movment
space - open
left click - shoot
mouse wheel - weapon change


keyboard only
default doom 95 controls
still my favorite to use when I play sp wads.

derp said:

Wow, I never thought of that lol. I'm an idiot. I used that but instead I was using the arrow keys which was a pain in the ass to hit any other buttons. I think I'll give your setup a try.

Don't worry, we're in the same boat here :-p

I used to think that mouse control was totally retarded when I first tried it, back in 1995, but I was using default arrow keys and mouse without vertical movement lockup, which was indeed shite compared to the super-efficient and super-optimized WASD that became commonplace later.

As a result, I played Doom with the default controls for 10 years straight, even when I played other FPS with WASD and mouse.

With mouse.
RDFG for forward/backward and strafing movements.
Space for fire
Mouse1 for jump where available.
Mouse2 for Use..

WASD or ESDF are the two most common layouts in terms of preference, i'm used to WASD as default

I'm comfortable with WASD now. Thanks everyone :)

Back in, hrm 96? I think, when I made the switch from KB to KB+M someone posted the following setup they used for duke3d at the time. I ran with that and have used it in all FPS games up til I started using WASD in L4D/L4D2 (and SLADE2).

fire=mouse1
altfire=mouse3
fwd=mouse2
bkwd=left alt
strafe left=z
strafe right=x
jump=left ctrl
crouch=left shift
use=space or dbl clk mouse2

a,s,d,f,v,space all used for various weapon/use options depending on game.

Giving it some completely unnecessary thought. I think I found WASD a touch difficult on a std keyboard all those years ago because I couldn't rest my wrist on the keyboard, it always had to stay off the other keys below WASD, where as the ALT+ZX combo meant I could rest my wrist on the desk. With a laptop setup now I can rest my wrist on the laptop frame without hitting other keys.

-travers

40oz said:
This is excepted for something like Deathmatch though, since players move at an ungodly speed and it's really tough to keep up. Before I got this lame keyboard that stops responding if too many keys are pressed at the same time, I could still maintain a pretty good frag count on most online Skulltag servers using the keyboard alone though.

Also speed running or playing tough WADs where you get attacked from various fronts. Recall your complaints about SOD in the other thread: Mouse use, allowing quick turning, would probably diminish them. There are also 180° turn TSRs (for DOS) or keys (for ports) to make you turn quickly while sticking to keyboard-only controls.

40oz said:

I think it's kinda lame to use a mouse (especially with mouselook) in doom.

I disagree. Maybe your combo strafe/turn keyboard setup does the job just fine, but until I get used to it, I DO need the mouse in Doom. Monsters may not be fast or reactive, but I do become slow by only using the keyboard, for a very simple reason: limited turning speed. You can't help it, only with the keyboard.

This thread may be long dead, but I use a QWEASD setup with the mouse. Q and E strafe, A and D turn, W and S move forward and back. It makes multitasking possible (eating pizza and backtracking through hallways one-handed). If I'm not mistaken, this is the default scheme for World of Warcraft. Anyway, thanks for reading.

I know it's not the most popular choice nowadays, but I use the default control setup and mouse. It works fine on my small laptop, because I can easily hit the space bar with my pinkie. It'd be much worse on a PC keyboard, but surely manageable.

Anyway, I do nearly everything with my mouse: shooting, turning, backpedalling and even strafing and sometimes moving forwards. I know a lot of players disable vertical mouse movement, but I rely on it a lot, as it's really helpful to accelerate my speed without straferunning or to make small movements when punching demons, especially with the -fast parameter. Over the course of time, I've achieved a sufficient degree of control of my movement, so as to not resort to the keyboard when walking on narrow ledges, etc.

I don't know if there's anyone else who plays like that, but I only use the strafe keys for straferunning and the "," and "." keys suit me very well. Maybe I could benefit from changing the way I play, but I'm very used to it, and frankly, I totally suck at modern shooters (I play them with the now-standard WSAD setup and freelook).

Also, I NEVER use freelook or crosshairs in Doom, even in some ZDoom wads. I just bound jumping and crouching to ";" and "'" respectively. I fucking suck.

Standard WASD affair for me. Shift to run, E to use. Mouse to aim & fire.

Been playing FPSes with WASD since forever and I can't imagine using another control scheme. "Gamepad Doom" can be interesting from time to time, though.

Standard WASD for me as well. But it doesn't feel like Doom unless I use space for opening doors.

I've been using arrow keys, and ctrl to fire. Maybe this is where I've been going wrong.
I'll try playing through Ultimate Doom with WASD, see how it turns out.

Arrows for movement, shift for "use", numpad keys for weapons (but BFG is "0" because "7" is too far away), mouse to aim/fire.

Eris Falling said:

I've been using arrow keys, and ctrl to fire. Maybe this is where I've been going wrong.
I'll try playing through Ultimate Doom with WASD, see how it turns out.

It's certainly faster, I cleaned out E1M2 in 3:41, as opposed to my usual 4:30-5:30

Yes I know I'm still slow.

Yeah, I just use the now-standard FPS setup. WASD for movement, E to use, (space to jump, ctrl to crouch, if applicable). It bothers me when new games change those.