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durian

Moving forward with the mouse or keyboard?

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I am interested to know people's preferences for moving forward. I have used mouse button 2 since DOOM was released. Most people I know that play FPSs use 'w' (I use an 'ASD' configuration - that is, WASD except mouse2 is used instead of 'w'). I expect I have kept with this setting because I haven't and don't play contemporary FPSs, in which it's more convenient to use mouse2 to activate additional functions of the sort that DOOM does not have. But I've noticed that many DOOMers also use WASD. So I was just wondering if any people here have switched from the mouse to the keyboard for moving forward, and why they switched (I've tried but I find it cumbersome, but I'm interested to know if there's any perceived playing advantage), or if anyone else still uses mouse2.

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There is an playing advantage to have your fingers on all 4 movement keys at once. Personally I use RDFG for movement. But I've been toying with the idea of trying something else so I can indeed have a finger on every movement button at once. But I doubt I will do it as I've been playing with this set up for so long.

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I mostly use AS mouse, where I have A and S for strafing, and the Middle mouse/ Right mouse buttons for moving forward and back. If I ever get a hold of a 5 button mouse, I would possibly change A and S to inventory keys.

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That's neat Edward. I could never make that work for me.

I like reading about people's setup and how something so unfamiliar to me can work for someone else. I have a bit of a pet peeve for customizable controls, as in, I think it should be standard to allow full and exotic customization in Computer and Console games. The interface between player and game should be as seamless as possible and I don't mean flaky motion controls but intuitive function placement and I don't like being crammed into one of three profiles the developer has decided would suit my experience. Although I don't use them I was very glad to see Chocolate-Doom add forward and backward bindings for the mouse along with single click use which is a must for me.

I use the simi standard ESDF or if the game has extra commands like prone YGHJ. I also make sure that my thumb and pinky are fully utilized giving them Prone, Stand/Jump, Reload, Comms, Score/Map and Duck, Run/Walk etc respectfully.

Quake I, II and III are about the only games I place Jump on the Right Mouse Button for platforming and Rocket Jumping.

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One of my weaknesses is relying to much on WA. I need to diversify my right and back peddling as to avoid becoming predictable.

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HackNeyed said:

Quake I, II and III are about the only games I place Jump on the Right Mouse Button for platforming and Rocket Jumping.


For all FPS games I have this standard set up.

Movement: RDFG
Fire: Space
Jump: Mouse1

Then other controls change depending on the game and it's features.
Like this is in the case of the game having use for them, but they can be something different in one game from the next for me:
Z: Run/walk alternator
S: Crouch
Mouse2: Zoom/scope
Mouse4: Reload
W: Flashlight

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Guest

I have a bizarre setup


Forward: Mouse2
Backward: ,
Strafing: m and .

Jump: n
crouch: b
reload: space
zoom: R.Alt

Use: /
Shoot: Mouse1


Have been using this (and variations) for a long time.

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I dunno, but moving with a mousebutton feels as if Doomguy was a tank or truck requiring pressing an accelerator pedal to slowly accelerate forward.

It's just not ideal for the type of game at hand: Doomguy needs to be able to nimbly dart in all 4 directions, stop on a dime and backpedal at full speed, whenever needed, he's no fucking garbage truck. What next, give him a brake pedal, clutch and manual gearbox too? Or map him to a flight sim joystick (rotary rudder included) ?

And good luck passing from catwalks with vertical mouse movement on...an inconvenience at best. If you want something hard and finicky to control, play a helicopter simulator.

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I also use MOUSE2 for Forward. The main disadvantage of this setup is having to Strafe with the keyboard. Binding Strafe to MOUSE2 makes performing str-50 much easier.

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Maes made:
A funny analogy


Indeed I am highly doubtful I could make it work for myself. However if one were coordinated enough I can see the slight advantage inherent in a system of movement that requires no adjustment and a finger rests on all four movement keys at all times.

I have to reposition my middle finger from E to D to reverse my movement with a small amount of time in between where I am not pressing a movement key. Whereas Belial for example need only lift his right middle finger and lower his left middle finger at the same time. But that is kind of like Rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time. It is doable but it isn't generally intuitive.

I prefer to assign movement/body position to my left hand and view/interaction to my right hand while assigning several non-conflicting tasks and sub tasks to my digits. I often toggle between Ducking (pinky) and Prone or Standing (thumb) which is heaps better then haveing to lift my pinky from Duck only to standup while I'm moving to press Prone with my pinky... That was a good way to get a face full of tank shell so I changed it. Also, I rarely Jump and Reload at the same time so they are both tasked to my left thumb that can execute them in quick succession anyway.

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HackNeyed said:

Indeed I am highly doubtful I could make it work for myself. However if one were coordinated enough I can see the slight advantage inherent in a system of movement that requires no adjustment and a finger rests on all four movement keys at all times.


Now that you mentioned it, I use WASD keys with three fingers as well because I have to use my LEFT hand for it, and there's no natural position in which I can twist my hand so that 4 fingers touch 4 buttons without interfering/hurting.

One other reason is that just about any WASD-like button combination will be higher up than the normal cursor keys, and requires to keep the whole hand artificially lifted to have 4 fingers down.

Now, the normal cursor keys I CAN use with 4 fingers (thumb controls down) because of their more natural position and being on my good hand's side. Perhaps a left-handed player using a left mouse can also use the normal cursor keys instead of WASD and have 4-fingers-down control, althogh I don't know if it really offers any advantage: after all, you switch from forward to backwards, you don't need to combine them like e.g. back and left or forward and right.

A left-handed mouse user could also (theoretically) use the 8-way numeric keypad and avoid two-button combos altogether (imagine auto SR-45 with a single button in the desired direction).

Then again, I know some people on DW who apparently have freakish fingers and can -to their saying- play comfortably in positions that require such finger twisting which are painful for me just to watch...they might enjoy such a control scheme :-p

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Maes said:

Now that you mentioned it, I use WASD keys with three fingers as well because I have to use my LEFT hand for it, and there's no natural position in which I can twist my hand so that 4 fingers touch 4 buttons without interfering/hurting.


It could be done with S as forward and Shift as back, then Ctrl could be walk since one rarely walks backwards though this assumes that always run is an option.

I had thought about inverting things so that left, forward and right were W, E and R respectively with D as back however in games that have a Lean function I found it much easier to Lean with R and roll my finger down to press F at the same time to nudge myself around a corner while peeking.

Of course I do all of this and standardize my schemes so that I don't have to think about it in game and when I switch games my muscle memory can take over and I can, as is said, get into the game.

P.S. "4 fingers (thumb controls down)" sounds like a cramp to me. heh.

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I use WASD to move, F to jump and C to crouch.
As my main port of choice is Skulltag, and many of the mods require it, I use mouse button 1 for primary fire and mouse button 2 for secondary fire, and scroll the mouse for changing weapons.

The only real control that is still mapped to it's original key is Use (spacebar).

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i started playing with the keyboard, tapping the up arrow key with the middle finger of my right hand to move forward. when i switched to the mouse, i found it easier to walk forward with mouse2 than getting rid of this reflex. so i ended up walking forward with the mouse button (right hand), and backward / sideways with ASD (left hand).

now i don't even think about re-learning something i left unchanged for 15 years, but if i think about some gamer's config i found once, the guy used mouse1/mouse2 to walk forward/backward, and his left hand on WASD to shoot (W primary fire, S secondary, or so). i remembered that particular config every time i moved the mouse slightly when firing, missing the target.

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I used to move with the right button, but the disadvantage in DOOM is that that button also activates doors by double-clicking. This would occasionally make me open doors against my wishes. I left strafe there, which I rarely use. I move forward with the E:

W: strafe left, E: forward, S: backward, D: strafe right

I like it more than the WASD setup because it lets me use Ctrl with the palm of my hand for use (space is run; I don't want to apply autorun) and leaves me a bit closer to the more powerful weapon keys, as the hand is oriented towards them.

kristus said:
But I've been toying with the idea of trying something else so I can indeed have a finger on every movement button at once. But I doubt I will do it as I've been playing with this set up for so long.

When I used the right mouse button for forward and Ctrl (with the palm) for backward, I had one "finger" per movement action (since the palm isn't a finger but can act like one) but it didn't really help much. The habit of switching between forward and back also predisposes one to accidentally press both. The middle finger is in a great position to alternate between to keys, especially for the essential back and forth movement, which is much more steady and consistent than strafing to a side.

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s : left strafe
d : forward
f : right strafe
<spc> : back

mouse-1 : fire
wheel : weapon change

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I use wasd. Mouse1 is fire. capslock is run, and if the sourceport supports it then shift is crouch, mouse2 is jump and mouse3 is alt fire.

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For DooM I use:

Arrow Keys: Movement

Mouse2/Ctrl: Strafe

Mouse1: Fire

/: Use

;/': Select Item (Hexen/Heretic)

Enter: Use Item (Hexen/Heretic)

For other FPS I use:

WASD: Movement

E: Use

Space: Jump

R: Reload

C: Crouch

Mouse Wheel: Change Weapons

Mouse1: Fire

Mouse2: Flashlight

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My controls (ZDoom):

Arrow Keys = Movement/strafing

Mouse1 = Primary Fire

Mouse2 = Secondary Fire

Mouse3 = Use

Mouse Wheel = Weapon Select

RCtrl = Jump

RShift = Crouch

[ & ] = Inventory

Enter = Use Inventory

Menu Key = Walk/Run

Tab = Automap

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I use a separate number pad but I use a fairly standard 'finger' layout:

8,4,5,6 for movement
1 for toggle crouch
Enter for jump
Plus for reload
Backspace for pause
Mouse 1 for fire
Mouse 2 for alt fire
Mouse wheel up for next weapon
Mouse wheel down for previous weapon
Mouse wheel left for previous item
Mouse wheel right for next item
Mouse button 3 for use item

The numberpad I use is a Logitech V250 and I've used Uberoptions to reprogram the media buttons so that the media key is an escape key to bring up the menu and the play, stop, fwd and rwd keys are now cursor keys for navigating. I also use them in-game for Strife to bring up the menus and stats.

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Hectic said:

I always liked the default setup.


That. I played Doom "the way it was meant to be played" out-of-the-box for nearly 10 years, even if I did play other FPS games with WASD and mouse, I just didn't feel it necessary for Doom. Eventually I switched because simply WASD + mouse = faster AND more precise = better than.

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I use W (of WASD) for normal forward movement. Pretty standard.

That would be the end of the story if it weren't for glides. But since they are easier with a slow movement speed, I also have forward/backward mouse movement enabled, with a very low sensitivity and a little bit of acceleration.

MB1 = fire
MB2 = strafe on (for Strafe-50 only)

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uctytav said:

So I was just wondering if any people here have switched from the mouse to the keyboard for moving forward, and why they switched (I've tried but I find it cumbersome, but I'm interested to know if there's any perceived playing advantage), or if anyone else still uses mouse2.

I switched to WASD when I finally switched to playing with the mouse, before then I'd use the default keyboard setup and use the forward arrow to move forward.

myk said:

it lets me use Ctrl with the palm of my hand for use

Clever!!!!

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I also have a three-finger ESDF setup for all my games. A is usually crouch, W is jump and Q is run (most games have autorun and that's capslock). Space is usually for activating things because so many games need the right mouse button for some combat-related thing. In DOOM that's still the use key for me.

Since my mouse is loaded with buttons, 4 and 5 get bound to other things like reload, cast, flashlight, etc. Same goes for the wheel. I usually choose weapons with it and also have a flashlight or something.

It's funny how long I played with DOOM's default setup and even used it in other games. It was designed for Romero's left-handed play and it took forever for the world to catch on.

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Mouse + Keyboard setting :
Forward/Backward - W & S
Strafe Left/Right - A & D
Use - F
Mouse Movement - Rotates Player
Mouse Left Click - Shoot

All Keyboard setting :
Forward/Backward - W & S
Strafe Left/Right - A & D
Use - F
Up Arrow - 180flip
Down Arrow - Toggle Run
Left Arrow - Turn Left
Right Arrow - Turn Right
Use - Spacebar

Tab is always MAP

I find this to be the most comfortable way to play doom (or any FPS shooter for that matter)

All keyboard is always a pain though.

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I use D to move forward, E for backward, and W and R to strafe right and left, respectively. If you look at your keyboard, this may seem odd, but it actually makes perfect sense if you rotate your keyboard 180 degrees, as I do. This puts all seven vanilla weapon keys within easy reach of your pinky and thumb.

As for my mouse, I have both "use" and "shoot" bound to Mouse1, so that no matter what I need done, that button does it.

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Mouse1 - Shoot
Mouse2 - Forward
Mouse3 - Strafe

Left Shift - Run
Z - Strafe Left
X - Strafe Right
Left ALT - Backward
A - Turn left
C - Turn right
Space - Use
Tab - Automap
1...7 - Weapon Select

Other FPS Games
Left Shift - Jump
Left Ctrl - Crouch
Caps Lock - Run / Walk Toggle
Always Run
Always Mouselook
ASDF as spare keys for reload / flashlight / walk etc.

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