About FPS games for PC - want to share how I control my character

What’s your set up for controlling your FPS character. I think I have a very good set up and wanted to share this idea. If you are doing something similar, then you might also agree it’s a great gaming control set up. Here’s my game control set up for PC First Person Shooters:

For the right hand, I have a Logitech MX500 optical mouse. I chose this mouse because it has 8 buttons you can configure or map to any keystroke or combinations of keystroke using the Mouseware software 9.79. I prefer 9.79. Naturally I use the mouse to aim, look around, and do other functions with the 8 buttons & scroll wheel. Plus with this mouse, I don’t need a mousepad.

For the left hand, I have a Saitek P2500 Rumblepad. Yes that’s right. A gamepad instead of the keyboard. Mainly because I have my left thumb on the little analog joystick on the pad. This stick is mapped to the standard movement buttons WASD. This IMO and experience has a faster response and FEEL than pressing buttons to move. Juking left-right feels natural. I have available 6 buttons (which are accessible to the left thumb & fingers) on the pad which I map to other game functions that I did not map to my mouse. For example, when playing Call Of Duty, on the gamepad I have lean left, lean right, crouch, prone, jump, and use. I know that’s not a lot of functions on a gamepad but the main deal is the ease and feel of movement with the analog stick as opposed to pressing keyboard buttons. Also I map all other functions to my 8 button mouse.

Please give this a try. I hope this helps someone.

[Bozos of Bones]

I have a cool optical mouse with two wheels and six buttons for my right hand, and a Keytronic armored(that's right, armored) and grounded keyboard for the left. I play on the direction keys, just a matter of habit.
This may be slightly off topic, but has anyone ever met anyone who is a happy owner of the Microsoft Strategic Commander?

Originally posted by Bozos of Bones: I have a cool optical mouse with two wheels and six buttons for my right hand, and a Keytronic armored(that's right, armored) and grounded keyboard for the left. I play on the direction keys, just a matter of habit. This may be slightly off topic, but has anyone ever met anyone who is a happy owner of the Microsoft Strategic Commander?

Armored? Curious. Please explain. And regarding the MSC, I've tried but didn't like it. If they only made the base heavier so that it would stay in place AND make the buttons alot softer, then I might have liked it better. BTW has anyone tried the Nostromo N52 Speedpad? Very nice with plenty of buttons though I would have prefered an analog stick to the replace the D-pad and make the buttons softer too.

[Zero Alpha]

i own a bog standard Genius Optical mouse. thing is it was not only cheap, but its really light and sensetive. on the left hand i use WASD, with E as use, and Q is a function key. the mousewheel is weaponswitch, and mouse 3 is reload. then shift or space is jump, and ctrl or c is duck. the problem with a pad is that althouh you have the directions, you miss lots and lots of bound keys. if i was going to play online i would definatly miss the extra keys. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Zero ... true about the WASD directions but I do have 6 other buttons that I can add to the pad AND my Logitech MX500 can hold 8 additional buttons. That's 14 total buttons mapped to important game fucntions not counting the scroll wheel, WASD, and left-right-middle mouse buttons. That's a whole lotta functions with just the mouse and pad. Also if I still need more buttons then I just have the other less important fucntions mapped to the pad's other buttons.

[Bozos of Bones]

About the armored part: it's hard plastic, metal base wire-frame inside, fat external plastic layer, and the whole thing is massed and grounded. It's not too heavy, but signifficantly heavier than our normal keyboard. Nice buttons, metal letters on the space key which are the main grounding, altho you'd be grounded when touching anywhere on the keyboard. A bit old model(8 years +) with no multimedia tabs, but a heck of a board. Hey, it whitstood eight years under my pounding fingers.

[Kakero]

I just configure mine the same way as I play Might and Magic games. I'm so used to those controls.

[Mr_Krift]

i have a mouse with two buttons . I dont really play computer FPS, becuase if i do i want to play on the internet, and with 56k dial-up im not going anywhere fast

[Gnarf]

Me has a mouse'n a keyboard. They came with the puter'n stuff, so that's... quite something [img]tongue.gif[/img] I guess I'll eventually get a gamepad with two analog sticks (or a thingy for connecting a PS2 controller to the puter) for playing DOOM splitscreen [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Thoran]

I've got the Microsoft Optical mouse... it works fine for FPS games.

Mouse buttons control forward and fire
Wheel controls sniper mode activate/zoom usually

I use the keyboard keypad... I tried the MSC and didn't like it. I also tried using a rublepad and it was too slow, but I'm a VERY fast typist (120 wpm when I get cruising) so using a keyboard is second nature. Keypad settings are probably pretty standard... 4/6 strafe, 8 jump, 2 backup, 3 crouch, .(del) prone, KP_ENTER Use, KP_+ Reload, 7 Next weapon, 9 I map to grapple if available otherwise 9 & 1 map to favorite weapons. Surrounding keys are mapped depending on the game to things like walk/run, map, inventory selectors, etc...

[ 12-30-2003, 12:24 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ]