keyboard or mouse?

[DLRArchangel]

I don't use the mouse to play doom. I've used the keyboard only since I was a kid. I use the mouse in all other fps games though. It's not like you can look up or down in doom anyway so I never saw the benefit of switching. I was just wondering if anyone else does this?

[Mexican Doomguy]

I use my joystick, and rarely, the keyboard-mouse combo.
I have never played Doom with the keyboard alone.

Is it hard?

[HavoX]

I use both.

Most of the time I use the keyboard, while I only use the mouse for mouselooking in GZDoom.

[PRIMEVAL]

With ZDoom ports, I use the mouse. If I play Chocolate, I generally use keyboard only.

[Seeker_of_Truth]

PRIMEVAL said:

With ZDoom ports, I use the mouse. If I play Chocolate, I generally use keyboard only.

This.

When I play prBoom+, I'll alternate between mouse and keyboard depending on my mood.

[Maes]

Mexican Doomguy said:

I have never played Doom with the keyboard alone.

Is it hard?

Not really, however it's not as competitive as mouse + keyboard in deathmatch or in very demanding single-player maps (as isn't any other control method, OTOH).

Of course, in order for keyboard + mouse to be as good as it gets it must be a sensible layout (WASD + right handed mouse and no mousewalk or extreme sensitivity, for example), otherwise it may actually be worse/offer less precise control.

Keyboard-only offers you good precision (Doomguy doesn't do anything that you don't order him to) but can be excessively stiff/rigid and use way too many buttons if freelooking, and straferunning may be nearly impossible to perform without special training or a too specialized layout). Nevertheless, there are very good and even exceptional keyboard players. I played Doom for 10 years straight on keyboard only, using the default layout, even when I played other FPS games with WASD + mouse.

Mouse offers much faster reactions (especially for rotating/looking around), but if it's mouse only or coupled with a bad keyboard layout (e.g. mouse + arrow keys) or disruptive input (e.g. mousewalk, too low/too high sensitivity), then it's not precise enough, and any speed advantage gained in rotating is lost.

Gamepads + joysticks in general are inferior to a good keyboard-only layout, and pretty much combine the worst aspects of both (they need you to be extra-precise in input, like the keyboard, and exhibit "looseness" like a badly set mouse layout). Then again they are pretty much an obligate choice for console Doomers, so...

My idea for organizing online matches between Doomers organized in controller-specific leagues still stands ;-) E.g. mouse only, keyboard only, gamepad only, and also cross-style, to see who owns who ;-)

[Mexican Doomguy]

Maes said:

My idea for organizing online matches between Doomers organized in controller-specific leagues still stands ;-) E.g. mouse only, keyboard only, gamepad only, and also cross-style, to see who owns who ;-)

Pufff...that seems to be pretty hardcore.
Are you talking aboit ZDoom matches?

[45th Parrallel]

I use keyboard and mouse for all of the ports

[Maes]

Mexican Doomguy said:

Pufff...that seems to be pretty hardcore.

Depends...it can range from being like Special Olympics (between those using less efficient control methods) to a very bad ownage fest (if you pit super-efficient amphetamin-boosted mouse + keyboard Brit10 ZDaemon players vs gamepadders ;-) but the very least it would give some hard answers.

Mexican Doomguy said:

Are you talking aboit ZDoom matches?

At the cost of opening yet another can of worms.... ZDaemon (because that's what I use. Sometimes. And I would compete in the pure keyboard league).

*Someone will soon start yet another "How do you play doom online?" thread*

[Mexican Doomguy]

Maes said:

At the cost of opening yet another can of worms.... ZDaemon (because that's what I use. Sometimes. And I would compete in the pure keyboard league).

Ok, seems to be better than ZDoom, I'll try it.

*Someone will soon start yet another "How do you play doom online?" thread* [/B]

Not me...

[DoomUK]

I've never heard of anyone playing Doom or any other shooter with just a mouse.

</pedantry>

EDIT: I guess it would be possible though if your mouse had enough buttons. Though still awkward.

[Maes]

There are people who claim that they do/did just that on these very forums (including one who's no longer with us).

It surely always was possible with Doom, with a 3 button mouse and if you use mousewalk/mousestrafe/mouseuse (e.g. MB1 shoots, MB2 walks forward, MB3 strafes/uses etc.) and that annoying mouse walking. Technically, it was similar to mouse + keyboard but with more emphasis/more complex controls on the mouse itself, and the keyboard not being used for movement.

You'd still need to use they keyboard for switching weapons in vanilla though (no mousewheel support), and you can't combine it with mouselook (unless you have more than 3 mouse buttons and bind one to be selective mouselook...aghh)

If you do ALL of the above, you can literally play Doom with one hand if you have to...only that you will move around like an old lady. I guess it's better than nothing, if you are given no other choice.

For a period, years ago, I could not use my left hand following an accident, and ofc that affected my gaming habits (started playing RTS), but didn't think of trying a single-hand, mouse-only Doom.

[Phml]

^ Right click to move forward, left click to shoot, swing the mouse around to look and aim. It's not ideal, but better than to forgo gaming while you've got a broken hand. :P

[Maes]

^ Well, sure. Just don't expect to pwn any Brit10 griefers anytime soon with that.

Edit: of course, there could be a single-handed deathmatch league, as well ;-)

Next stop, would be foot-only controls for Doom.

[kristus]

DoomUK said:

I've never heard of anyone playing Doom or any other shooter with just a mouse.

His name was Espi, and he had but one arm.

[fraggle]

[TwinBeast]

If I play with keyboard only, my fingers usually start to hurt much faster than if I played with mouse & keyboard.

[DoomUK]

kristus said:

Espi

fraggle said:

video

I stand corrected. And he used mouselook too.

I notice he had to take his hand off the mouse and switch weapons on the keyboard at certain moments, but I guess that was down to his mouse not having enough buttons.

[MSPaintR0cks]

Mouse + keyboard!
WASD for moving and strafe running and mouse for looking around.
Sometimes I also like to use keyboard (using the arrow keys for looking), but I soon switch back to mouse because aiming becomes pretty unprecise.

[Avoozl]

For me it is the default mouse and keyboard setup with the "WASD" keys for moving/strafing and the mouse for turning.

[ASD]

wasd + mouse in vanilla Doom DOSBox.

[_bruce_]

fraggle said:

Porn skills.

[Face23785]

Mexican Doomguy said:

I use my joystick, and rarely, the keyboard-mouse combo.
I have never played Doom with the keyboard alone.

Is it hard?

I think they're all hard if you're used to something else. For years I played exclusively with keyboard, with a strange setup too (at least I've never seen anyone claim to use this, I'm sure someone does). I used the arrow keys for movement, KP0 was right strafe, rctrl was left strafe, shift was shoot. The only thing I used my left hand for was space for use and for changing weapons. I typically had my left hand arranged ring finger on 3, middle finger on 4, index on 5 (those were the 3 weapons I most commonly used) with thumb on space bar. I was able to effectively straferun, but only to the right (I would bring my pinky up to hit KP0 while my ring finger was on the right arrow).

I don't know how the fuck I played like that, but I was good enough like that to beat all the original games through Final Doom on UV. I didn't have Episode 4 at this point, so I'm not sure if I'd have been able to beat it like that.

Nowadays, I play with the keyboard/mouse, ever since I discovered source ports. I've always felt that keyboard/mouse was the most natural way to play a shooter. I tried to switch back to keyboard one time when my mouse was acting up and I was WORTHLESS.

I was also pretty efficient at the PS controller to beat PS Doom and Final Doom (I don't remember what difficulty, I would imagine on UV because that's what I always play on) but now I try to play that and I suck horribly.

I guess the point is that if you practice at it, you can be good at any of them. I'm spoiled now.

[Koko Ricky]

I simply do not play the original Doom anymore. I gotta have me my source ports, so it's keyboard + mouse all the way.

[DuckReconMajor]

When I played Hexen as a kid I used a joystick. The first time I played Doom though was on the 360, so when I got the game on computer I was more then excited to play the game with mouse control. So no, I never play with keyboard only.

[Mexican Doomguy]

The first time I've played DOOM was on the Xbox 360 arcade port.
It's not the original, but is a nice adaptation (port).

I love to play DOOM with joysticks because I've played all my life with them.

However, I respect (and admire, in certain way) people who plays with the keyboard or with the mouse.

[Enjay]

I used keyboard only for the longest time. In fact, I used keyboard only for games after Doom too. I think it was some time when Quake 2 was still a current game that I finally started using the mouse. My first time through Quake 2 would have been keyboard only. O_O

Now, personally, I simply don't enjoy playing Doom without mouse look. So I tend not to play vanilla-like ports and always use mouse and keyboard. Mouse to look around, turn, fire, change weapons and use doors (etc) and the keyboard to strafe left-right and walk/run forwards and backwards (bound to the arrow keys because I'm left handed so WASD is on the wrong side of the keyboard for me).

[DLRArchangel]

Keyboard all the way through Quake 2? awesome! lol. I used the keyboard only through duke3d and when I began playing Quake 1 even online in deathmatch. I finally embraced the mouse when a quake clan recruited me and taught me how to use it. I can't imagine playing anything but doom without the mouse now.

[Torturephile]

I'm transitioning to using only the WASD keys and the mouse.

[Relic]

Ryback does extremely well with Keyboard only, creating speed demo's of even the hardest wads such as Hell Revealed. Although he is good at it, the only reason he sticks with it because he finds it fluent and finds learning levels like learning songs.

But if you switched to Mouse + Keyboard it's much more all rounded, if you can aim that is. It's a lot more competitive and just allows more versatility in play. M+K has more upsides, but if you're used to keyboard just stick with it unless you play competitively online, then I suggest you switch.