Battle of the Century: Keyboard Layouts

[sponge]

Thought it would be interesting to see the layouts people use, after playing keyboard only for a few years, moving to WASD, and now a recent convert to ESDF. Vote for your choice, and decide something that's not "WHAT WILL YOU WEAR WHILE PLAYING QW:ET FOR THE 3RD TIME!!!1" for a change!

[sureshot]

iffy turned me onto esdf many moons ago

[Ifurita]

I cannot think of any good reason to prefer WASD over ESDF, except for latent Luddite tendancies. ESDF gives you the same key arrangement, but greater access to more keys.

Arrow key people are ... well ... just strange.

[WeblionX]

Dude, DFGH is where it's at!

[sponge]

WASD vs ESDF reminds me of QWERTY vs DVORAK a bit: the latter are both technically superior, but everyone uses the former anyway.

I've always wanted to try VIM/Emacs style ASDF or HJKL for movement, but that's just a bit too weird for me.

[Javert]

<-, ^, ->, v FTW.



jk. WASD it is.

[isendel]

i use wasd, but ive never tried esdf

[SpankMuffin]

I started out using WASD in normal shooters. Once I started playing Tribes 2, I used ESDF since that was the default. Once I stopped playing Tribes 2, for some reason I moved back to WASD.

I'm not really sure why, since ESDF is actually better IMO. I guess I am just too lazy to remap so many keys since most FPS default to WASD.

[Phobos]

i use wasd because i have big hands and its easier to find myself than esdf

maybe if i get used to it.. but its kinda tough, since i use c for crotch and v for talk, i would have to change my whole set up

[Pseudo]

Wtf? People really use ESDF? :eek:

[Apc]

ESDF definitely, because i like to use buttons to the right side of my controls too. got attached to this because some game had such complicated controls, that i left them default, and default had ESDF... so i got used to it :D

[Jantemplar]

lol we all use Qwerty

WASD all the way, ESDF only if there is a range of keys needed to do different things, that are not realted.

[Hakuryu]

Arrow Keys. The reason you guy's go to ESDF is to try and get the benefit of arrow key users ... ie more keys available to the left of your hand. While I lose keys to the bottom of my hand, I find it much more natural to select by moving my hand up rather than have it sitting over a bunch of keys, and I don't have to take my hand off the movement keys to crouch (C is usually the WASD crouch, and you must use your right movement finger to crouch - unless your thumb is super-dextrous and can snake over the spacebar).

One good reason to use Arrow Keys is Numpad # keys for weapon selection. They are perfectly layed out for this... let me see you select 8 from WASD while playing without taking your hand off the mouse....unless your fingers are 10 inches long.

[ruE]

what?!?! no num pad option? im a left handed mouser.... sorta like riding a skate board goofy foot LOL

[SKS]

SPONGE <3 esdf has always been my setup. I have short fat fingers and have to have as many keys as possible at my disposal. I can't use 1-0 number keys to switch weapons, and the mouse wheel is either too slow or too inaccurate in most games. Also with 2 different types of grenades and other assorted goodies in qwtf/mtf (the game I started on), you need all the keys you can have!

[Mr.Cripples]

WASD, I have tried ESDF for a while, but im so used to have Control, Shift, Z and Space as my secondary movement keys(Crouch, Walk, Prone, Jump) that I just couldnt get used to it.

[Pseudo]

I guess if you were left handed its a whole world of options, unless they make left handed keyboards.

[Blucid]

Right Mouse Button - Walk Forward
a - left
s - right
d - back

That's my config a little weird. All BF series games have coding problems with this config. Its hilarious.

[Bmw1000c]

LOL esdf? wtf :|

wasd 4ever.

[isendel]

Arrow Keys. The reason you guy's go to ESDF is to try and get the benefit of arrow key users ... ie more keys available to the left of your hand. While I lose keys to the bottom of my hand, I find it much more natural to select by moving my hand up rather than have it sitting over a bunch of keys, and I don't have to take my hand off the movement keys to crouch (C is usually the WASD crouch, and you must use your right movement finger to crouch - unless your thumb is super-dextrous and can snake over the spacebar).

One good reason to use Arrow Keys is Numpad # keys for weapon selection. They are perfectly layed out for this... let me see you select 8 from WASD while playing without taking your hand off the mouse....unless your fingers are 10 inches long.

i dont think people use esdf to get more keys to the left of the hand, but more keys, period. looking at the arrow keys i think its got even fewer keys nearby than wasd, because of the location - its lower on the keyboard, so you lose a bunch of the top row keys, and theres a lot of wasted space around the keys themselves (unless you have one of those keyboards which jam everything together, those arent as common tho)

i dont lose my movement to crouch either - used to use ctrl, but have since moved to mouse2. thats really the whole basis of moving to esdf: extra keys to rebind. the arrow keys cant quite do the same thing

i use wasd, and i never take my hand off the mouse to hit keys unless im hitting keypad or typing in chat. i hit 8 with only a slight stretch using my index finger, and can reach all the way over to 0 with my thumb without taking my fingers off w and a (not that i often have to hit anything beyond 6)

[CodE-E]

WASD for me. I prefer it over ESDF because I find the large buttons on the left (tab, caps, shift, ctrl) very easy to reach with my pinky finger. With ESDF, I find everything on the left on my hand either too close or too far to reach.

[Salteh]

numpad.
:)

[SENT]

I think the esdf people should have more buttons on their mice :)
i have a logi mx100 with lots and lots of buttons above the usual ones.
I use these for all sorts like TS weapon changing to an exact weapon etc..
these things are done when you are already running and using your left hand
basically you need to have anything you do with your legs waist feet on your left hand and anything you do with your arm on your right hand (mouse) this way you dont have to do 2 things at once with 1 hand

Ive been a pro gamer for a long time now and i have improved many peoples skills by changing the ergonomics of their set up and this left and right handedness is a fundamental.

the arrow keys are very inefficient as there is a serious lack of nearby buttons
esdf is virtually no different to wasd.
iI use wasd as i love just playing a game without having to change anything

the wierdest thing i have had was for the first 10 years of my gamng career i had the mouse inverted|!.
you might laugh but its actually much quicker to pull a mouse towards you than it is to push it away so in an inverted setup you can raise your gun much faster.

[NoControl]

WASD for me, been using it now for couple of years. I don't need more buttons either, as i don't use any binds or such, just basic keys, + i have some extra buttons in my mouse.

[fusen]

I used to use arrows when I first started in Quake3 but then moving to WASD was like playing a whole new game, made it much more enjoyable.

Only reason I don't used ESDF is because my keyboard is smaller in the middle compared to the sides so using WASD I get more contact on the spacebar.
Although saying that I doubt it helps the keyboard constantly pressing only the left far side of the spacebar :X

[ruE]

numpad.
:)

WooT!! thank you Salteh .... now i know im not alone in this goofy foot playing style:cool:

[b0rsuk]

I use Home End Del PGDown. Take that ! Also, I have quite big palms so I can easily access numpad, arrow keys, brackets etc anyway.

...and my third mouse button switches to handgrenades. Not just for sentimental value :->

[murka10]

WASD
as my mouse has all the buttons i need.
btw using thumb for crouch(C) is easy, maybe this is cuz of my specially arranged keyboard(buttons go like two diagonals /\/\). i can press 8 easily with my left hand without having to release a button, i can even press 9, so no button reach problem for me.
all the buttons on my left hand:
WASD+
C=crouch
X=prone
Q,E=lean
R=reload
T,Y,U=speaking
Ctrl=stats

mouse:
mouse3=selfkill
mouse4(below mouse4)= FFE script(useless cuz im eng)
mouse5,6(thumb)=call for medic and ammo
vertical scroll=cg_fov change(90,95,100)
horisontal scroll=nothing special, i have strafe right now

and thats all the buttons i need

[Houdini]

Without a doubt, I have the STRANGEST layout ever... only seen one other person that has the same as me and that was the guy who taught me how to play NetQuake back in 94.. check this out.

all fingers on left hand.. right hand on mouse.
my ring finger is on the / key.. which on my keyboard, is just to the left of my right shift key.
In most games, this is my Alt Fire button.

my left middle finger is on the RIGHT SHIFT key..which i program as "walk backwards"

right index finger is on the \ key .. which sometimes is used for toggle weapon up.

my pinky finger operates the < and > keys.. for strafe right and strafe left...also gives me the ability to hit the SPACE key and the M and N keys..

the Enter key is right above my middle finger, i use that for toggle weapon down.. or whatever

my right index finger can also slide diagonally down right and hit the RIGHT CTRL key.. which in BF2 i use for Sprint.

Mouse 1 = fire
mouse 2 = run forward
mousewheel down = reload

and if ETQW ships witha functional mousewheel up and down.. i can bind those to weps or weps scroll.

what do i win for having the oddest setup?
by the way, i've played in the best Quake 1, Tribes, UT, CS and ET clans with this setup.. so i'm no chump, just awkward, like a first kiss.

[Nail]

WASD, I use really cheap keyboards (change every couple months) and it just fits best for me

[assassin]

ARROWS MUCH?

nahh,


wasd, i have a g15 so macros will eat your heart out and are much easier then the esdf option.

[Afterglow]

I use the mouse left handed, so I like using the numpad for movement.

[Demo91]

LOL i used to use arrow keys for cs. :P Man I remember that sooo well. :P Then I moved to wasd, when I saw my cousin play. Now that is all I ever use and all MOST games ever use. Its the universal keyboard configuration. ;)

[GreyMatter]

I have never even thought about using ESDF and find that i can hit all the keys i need too with WASD.
I can hit my K (i have it bind for /kill) and L keys with my thumb with no probs while still having my fingers on WASD.
Only thing i don't like is i use CapsLock for walk and sometimes when i goto chat i end up SHOUTING when i don't mean too lol

[fo$$!l]

WASD for sure.
my littl bro tho uses arrow keys.
dont know why he uses them.
I dont see any advantage in it.

[sponge]

freaky-ass setup description

I'm not sure how you even reach half of those keys, and I've got giant man-hands. Seemed EXTREMELY uncomfortable just from reading along placing my fingers. That definitely ranks up there among the strangest, almost as much as RivrStyx playing ET with a gamepad/joystick! :P

[[PTG]shogun]

I cannot think of any good reason to prefer WASD over ESDF, except for latent Luddite tendancies. ESDF gives you the same key arrangement, but greater access to more keys.

Arrow key people are ... well ... just strange.

i just use WASD and change the other controls around it and get a mouse with exrabuttons ;)

[Infiltrator]

Haha this is a pretty one sided-poll. Of course most people use WASD, it's the most comfortable. I myself started out with arrows on Duke Nukem but quickly realized that WASD was the true path ;)

[Sublim3]

WASD since a long time lol...

only time i used the arrow keys was in doom and wolfenstein....

[MadPiloT]

when i grab a keyboard, the first thing my fingers lay on is WASD shift and space..

[ps1ho]

THIS IS....WASDAAAAA :p
i use wasd, it fits best to me:)

[=[ETw]=Dodgysod]

arrow keys and numpad (left handed cuzz i am right!!!!)

[2112(AWG)]

I used arrow keys for years with the Delta Force series and must say it took me a while to convert to (WASD). I would never go back for anything. I still hurt from leaning over using those damn arrows lol. Oh well guess I am getting old. Must say one bad thing about the original G15 series. My (WASD) keys have worn off lol.

[Bobble]

I use the arrow keys and find it almost impossible to use WASD, but that is because I am left handed.

[Krollspell]

I'm a lefthanded gamer, so I use the arrow keys as well. I've played like that for many years, and that's really the only thing that works for me...

[sponge]

The lack of ESDF is saddening. It's just like WASD, but a bit more ergonomically comfortable, and allows you to use the bump on the F like home position touch typing.

[CodE-E]

The lack of ESDF is saddening. It's just like WASD, but a bit more ergonomically comfortable, and allows you to use the bump on the F like home position touch typing.

Naw, with ESDF I think it's really hard to use extra keys with my pinky finger without moving my other fingers off the ESF. With WASD I can easily use tab, caps, shift (3 extra keys) while keeping my ring, middle, and index fingers on WAD and not getting a cramp. With ESDF I can only easily reach \ and A (2 extra keys - caps and shift are too far, and reaching Z feels a bit uncomfortable) while keeping ring, middle, and index on ESF.

I used to play with arrow keys back in the days when I was still a total n00b and FPS games didn't have the controls set to WASD by default. I think I started to use WASD around when Quake 3 came out. In the Quake 3 beta I was still using arrow keys (and left/right were turn and not strafe, lol).

Houdini: your setup is seriously weird!