Mouse-less play? (keybinding setup recommendations wanted)

[SalBasss]

My fiancée wants to start playing with me soon. I am excited for that, but I'm concerned that if she doesn't pick up the game quickly, she'll get frustrated and stop playing soon after she starts. The biggest concern is keybinding and setup.

 

The bulk of my gaming background is from Guild Wars 1 (and a host of games I played using the same key setup), so a variant on WASD while using the mouse with my right hand is very natural to me. However, her background is much less dense... I think her experience may be in some kind of Tomb Raider game, probably a game that is 12 years old or more at this point. The idea of using a mouse is completely foreign to her. What she wants to do is use the arrow keys to move and look (apparently shift + left or shift + right is a natural strafe combination for her), and use her left hand for skills which she claims will be easier for her to adjust to.

 

I have already explained that the best scenario would be to forget old habits and adjust to using the mouse, and I know she will need to use it to interact with objects/NPC/other (not a big deal) and change the camera angle (maybe a bigger deal). What I am curious about is whether anyone else does something similar. If anyone does use something similar to that...

 

• What is your keybinding setup?
  
• Is it difficult to be forced to play with essentially a "fixed" camera angle?
  
• Are there any other tips you might recommend for a keybind setup like that?
  

 

I fully understand that the final outcome may be to force her to adapt. In the meantime I'm hoping that someone else has done something similar and help me out.

 

Thanks!

Edited March 4, 2017 by SalBasss

[jdudom]

Well, you could make her use the arrows for movement, strafe is not that important in this game, but yea, the shift+arrow could work for strafe, as for the abilities, you could just bind them to the alphabetical keyboard, they don't always have to be on the numbers (example qwert for 1-5 and asdfg for 6-10), you could use the numerical keyboard (the one to the right of the arrows) for other commands, like zoom in (=5) zoom out (=2). If it comes to targeting, the Tab is sufficient to target enemies, but if she plans to play healer, she will need to bind zxcv to target group members 1234.

 

That is all I could think of to make the game as simple as possible using only the keyboard, actually, I have been testing this layout right after I read your post in an Uprising (which is the most fast paced mode imo) and I had no trouble playing a tank and healer (they usually are required to constantly watch their cooldowns and switch targets more often than dps classes). But I wouldn't recommend doing Operations without a mouse, the friendly targeting binds are only 4 and you would need 8 for that.

 

So yea, sorry if I made it confusing or if this wasn't helpful at all, but that is the best thing I could've come up with. Good luck with that and tell me if you actually figured it out

 

Edit: forgot to mention, you NEED to bind quickbar switching, she will need it later on.

Edited March 4, 2017 by jdudom
Adding info

[SalBasss]

Thanks for your reply! That is helpful. I didn't even think about the healing thing but that is a great point too.

 

How was your experience without using the mouse to adjust camera angle? Height would obviously be the only thing to worry about since you can turn using the arrows. Did it even matter?

[jdudom]

Yes, the height adjusting was a problem, but most of the time you just fight on flat land so you don't really need to adjust it too often. The problem only occurs on tilted platforms or when standing at a wall, which I do often as tank, the problem could be fixed by zooming the camera in, but another issue was watching the ground for big red circles from the enemies.

I also came up with the idea, why doesn't she use the mouse to move? When you hold down both of the mouse buttons your character walks forward so she can just use the mouse for movement instead of wasd and the arrows and her left hand can be fully dedicated for abilities and jumping. I imagine her issue was that she wanted to use her right hand for movement, so yea, this feature actually does fix the problem for her completely.

[JediQuaker]

An alternative approach might be to start by using only the mouse - to move and click on skills. Once he/she gets used to that, then re-introduce key-binds (if desired).

 

Btw, my first MMO was GW1.

Edited March 5, 2017 by JediQuaker

[jdudom]

An alternative approach might be to start by using only the mouse - to move and click on skills. Once he/she gets used to that, then re-introduce key-binds (if desired).

 

Btw, my first MMO was GW1.

 

I think that would be an even more frustrating experience than the default controls

[Balameb]

An alternative approach might be to start by using only the mouse - to move and click on skills. Once he/she gets used to that, then re-introduce key-binds (if desired).

 

I agree with this. I also have a background with older/not skill intensive games, so its can be natural transition.

It is true that key press is faster, but i don't think you will get her to a HM/NM Op while she learns to play the basic things. Mouse click is easier, better to click the right skills slower than press the wrong skills faster.

The first challenge is movement, then UI, then keybind.

* First Learn to move with mouse (keep arrows and/or wasd binded), strafe is not that important and can also be done with the help of the mouse (right click+ arrow). Movement with mose is more relaxing. I still use the keys for "fine tunning movement" but once i realized that i only need the mouse with just its regular two buttons to handle movement and camera, it was like reaching heaven.

[SalBasss]

Thanks for all the responses. We tried in "inaugural" run using the arrow keys which seemed to be OK. I wonder if clicking on everything might be a decent option for now though... I have her playing commando since I thought that would be easiest to learn the game on, but right now it seems to be a lot of mashing one button (which unfortunately works just fine on Ord Mantell with 250% experience, even if it's Hammer Shot). I do remind her she has other skills that might work better than others depending on the situation, but so far that has only led to mashing a different button repeatedly. I was amused, anyway. But hey - it's only one night. Maybe clicking would force her to evaluate which skill to use everytime. The offset would be she might stop paying attention to the actual people on the screen. She seemed to do pretty well with targeting though, which I did not expect.

 

Regarding comments about HM/NiM ops... yeah, we're never going there. The top end of what I would do with her would only be some Veteran Flashpoints, and I'm not expecting that to ever happen either with all of the other things in the game that we would otherwise enjoy. My guild is mostly disbanded anyway so we haven't run that type of content in a long time.

[jdudom]

Glad to hear that she has the same start that I had xD She will eventually learn to murder stuff with more diversity than just simply shooting She's just begun, don't force her to go full-advanced mode from the start. Also there is a vendor on the fleet from whom you can buy the anti-event that completely cancels the xp bonus from this event.

[SalBasss]

Good point - I was probably very much the same way too despite having a background in other games. And I forgot about the anti-event item... good point. I'll have to go pick up a couple of those to use. It's not a huge deal on OM, but from what I understand we could probably push level 40 on Coruscant with the bonuses as they are.

[jdudom]

So, any progress? I am actually quite interested in how her skill develops (sorry, I plan to study psychology and the evolution of the human mind)

[SalBasss]

Nothing yet - even though I am more of a "casualcore" type, she is definitely casual only so we have not played together since the weekend. Maybe we will tonight though - I'll happily post updates as we go along though.

[Adric_the_Red]

but if she plans to play healer, she will need to bind zxcv to target group members 1234.

Or she could just stick with the default keybinds of F1 through F4 for targeting group members.

[jdudom]

Or she could just stick with the default keybinds of F1 through F4 for targeting group members.

 

Oh, didn't know that, my friendly targeting was unbound from default

[SalBasss]

Just wanted to give an update... this is probably more information than needed but I am enjoying writing it, so too bad!

 

We have played a handful of times and she really enjoys it so far. No issues with the keyboard yet, but she's only really using about 5 abilities (hammer shot, grav round, full auto, mortar volley, sticky grenade). I only have one AC I haven't played before (Shadow), so I'm playing that. Needless to say, between both of us and two companions everything dies very fast so there's really not going to be a ton of advancement on the keybinding/rotation side until we start getting into heroics (because right now, she can just mortar volley or sticky grenade and that pretty much kills anything between whatever I do and the comps). So I am delaying heroics for now because we are both overleveled, but we're using the White Acute Module now so we'll catch up after we burn through a couple planets. All that said, she is using more than just one skill now, and seems to have grasped the concept of the GCD and concept of instant skills vs channeled vs skills with an activation time, and that's a huge improvement over mashing the key for explosive round 10 times in one GCD and telling me it doesn't always work.

 

The most challenging thing she's facing is navigation, which was a surprise to me. I am sure I was like this at one point too. "Where did you go," "how do we get there," "how do you know where you are going" are very common questions and that's kind of foreign to me. Don't get me wrong, she has made big improvements in this area too, but still has a ways to go.

 

One question. Do you think having her play some solo play would help her learn vs. playing everything through with me?

 

So, we're on Coruscant now, just finished the Black Sun area. We have done story stuff only to this point (although we have been doing the Gree storyline of quests so far on Coruscant), and we also did Esseles, which she really enjoyed too - and that's great, because I really like Flashpoints in general. I used to run semi-hardcore ops a few years back, but if I can run some FPs now and then, I'll be more than happy. She was really tickled when she ran off the edge near Senate Tower too, which was amusing.

 

Oh, and I wasn't sure when sprint would be available to her... because at level 10 it looked like something she could only buy with CC. We checked again at level 20ish and she found out she had it! That has made the game twice as enjoyable for her, and for me too (I had clicked sprint off so I wasn't constantly waiting for her to catch up).

[psandak]

One question. Do you think having her play some solo play would help her learn vs. playing everything through with me?

 

Your experiences have taken me back to my earliest days playing EQ1: my friends telling me to get out of area X and go to area Y and me saying, "Huh? How? Where do I go?" and them saying, "OK head north quite a ways, when you get to X, turn east and just run." then me saying, "I can't find X."

 

Yes, EVERYONE goes through that navigation learning curve. Maybe not solo play, but let her try to "navigate" the two of you. Explain to her about the icons on the minimap, that there is no sin in opening the full map. but that it is rare for straight line navigation; going from one side of the map to the other to get to a specific marked location there will be twists and turns. And only speak up if/when she asks for assistance. I know it can be tough to not lead her by the nose, but if you want her to learn she is going to have to stumble now and again. But at least with you there, she has a frustration valve.

Edited March 23, 2017 by psandak

[SalBasss]

I know it can be tough to not lead her by the nose, but if you want her to learn she is going to have to stumble now and again. But at least with you there, she has a frustration valve.

 

That was my thought as well. That being said, she's probably not going to play if I'm not playing (but that doesn't mean I have to be playing with her, I could be doing GC or something).

[Adric_the_Red]

Oh, and I wasn't sure when sprint would be available to her... because at level 10 it looked like something she could only buy with CC. We checked again at level 20ish and she found out she had it! That has made the game twice as enjoyable for her, and for me too (I had clicked sprint off so I wasn't constantly waiting for her to catch up).

Seems you got this sorted out, but at some point she may want to make another character so if (when?) she does....

 

If she is a subscriber, she will have Sprint from level 1. It no longer is automatically placed on your quick bars when you start a new character, though, so she would need to open the Abilities panel (P), find it in the list (under her "base" class abilities), and drag it onto her quick bars.

 

Otherwise, she would need to level up and eventually it will be available from her class trainer. No need to spend CC on it, unless she wanted to get it earlier. Not really the best use for Cartel Coins, IMO.

[psandak]

(but that doesn't mean I have to be playing with her, I could be doing GC or something).

 

So she has opportunities to navigate on her own but you are just a "Oh **** where am I?" away

[jdudom]

Sorry, haven't been active lately because my internet service provider decided to just derp around. Good to hear she is advancing Hope that it's still fun for her to play by the time I'm writing this. If you want her to learn faster, try going a simple flashpoint on veteran difficulty, tell her that you both are going to die (so she can mentally prepare for it). At boss fights she will learn to move during combat, during which she also will discover the advantages of each type of abilities (insta, cast time, cooldown). If you have already tried FPs, well, I can't think of another way for her to improve, since FPs were my main training grounds