Hate WASD, not happy with arrows. Any suggestions?

boren

Member
Dec 13, 2009
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0
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I hate using WASD keys for movement in games because the W key is not right above the S, so it just feels awkward to press the right edge of the W key rather than the key itself. I have large hands, so maybe this could be the reason, but it is what it is.

So I use the arrow keys, but don't find them very convenient either. I have to move the keyboard all the way to the left to get a reasonable reach, and I agree that the lack of keys directly around the arrow keys is limiting.

I'm considering buying a gaming keypad like the Logitech G13 or Razer Nostromo but not sure they'll be a good solution, nor that they justify the added cost beyond a $15 external numpad such as those listed on ebay (at /bhp/external-keypad).

Thoughts?
 

cronos

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 2001
9,380
26
101
Logitech G13 or Razr Nostromo. You can then do everything however you want.

Whoops, I actually typed that first line before reading your post completely. Yes, these will absolutely revolutionize the way you play games. It's going to take you a couple of weeks to get used to the setup, but after that you're going to wonder why you didn't try this years ago. The only disadvantage of these is if you don't have your gaming pad with you (traveling, or at a friend's place) you won't know how to play any game :)
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,603
9
81
I just move the thing to the left and use arrow keys. I also don't like WASD for the same reason. Never found a better solution.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
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Right edge of the W key? So that means the S key is more important?

Do you role play as the French in games? :p

Press W as normal and just deal with the minuscule inconvenience of pressing the left edge of S while retreating.
 

boren

Member
Dec 13, 2009
103
0
71
Right edge of the W key? So that means the S key is more important?

Do you role play as the French in games? :p

Press W as normal and just deal with the minuscule inconvenience of pressing the left edge of S while retreating.

For my middle finger to be centered on the W, my index and ring fingers have to lay on the left edges of the A and D keys. If I center these fingers on the keys then the middle finger lays on the right edge of the W. If I try to center it while keeping the other fingers centered it presses against my ring finger. I guess there's no way around this other than using the arrow keys, or an external keypad.
 

microAmp

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2000
5,996
114
106
I use left mouse button for moving forward, ASD is same. W is jump for me. Right mouse button is main shooting button.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
I use left mouse button for moving forward, ASD is same. W is jump for me. Right mouse button is main shooting button.

o_O

How do you aim/iron sight? That seems like a very odd key bind setup, but I guess that's the beauty of the PC, use it like you want!
 

Sable

Golden Member
Jan 7, 2006
1,127
97
91
You should probably get a console and use a joypad, real gaming clearly isn't for you. ;)
 

wetech

Senior member
Jul 16, 2002
871
6
81
o_O

How do you aim/iron sight? That seems like a very odd key bind setup, but I guess that's the beauty of the PC, use it like you want!


reminds me of way back in the day, and the first time someon suggested I try Quake using the mouse instead of a gamepad. Didn't understand the use of the keyboard at the time, and used the mouse for movement. So physically moving the mouse up to go forward. Got quite a workout during the 1 or 2 rounds I did that until I realized what they were talking about.
 

KidNiki1

Platinum Member
Oct 15, 2010
2,887
126
116
Logitech G13 or Razr Nostromo. You can then do everything however you want.

Whoops, I actually typed that first line before reading your post completely. Yes, these will absolutely revolutionize the way you play games. It's going to take you a couple of weeks to get used to the setup, but after that you're going to wonder why you didn't try this years ago. The only disadvantage of these is if you don't have your gaming pad with you (traveling, or at a friend's place) you won't know how to play any game :)

agreed. i have a belkin gamepad and mapped the keys how it worked best for me. in FPS games, i find i move a lot more fluidly now. the difference, for me personally, was like night and day.
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
5,558
25
91
I've had a few people recommend e,s,d,f. Mostly so you're not having to mess with caps lock and such.

This layout only exacerbates OP's problem. His problem is that W and S aren't perfectly aligned on top of each other, making for awkward finger placement. The keys E and D are even more misaligned than W and S.

I don't have any suggestions for OP, but I will say, I find it very interesting that anyone finds the slight misalignment of the W and S keys to be a problem. I've never heard anyone else talk about it that way before. Maybe his hands really are that big.
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
33,929
1,097
126
It's not much different, but I've settled on ESDF. I used to use YGHJ when I played WoW, but ESDF is nice. I tried FGHJ, but my brain wants the up key to be on the top row.
 

Mutilator

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2000
3,516
10
81
I use to play using the arrow keys + page up/down before there was mouse aim in games so I kinda transitioned moving and looking around to my right hand... seemed like a natural progression to me.

Right mouse = move forward
Left mouse = shoot
Thumb button = move backward (edited cause I left this one out, most important part!)
A = strafe left
S = strafe right

All other controls are based around my left hand. D for aim down sights, C for crouch, F for flashlight, E for use, space jumps, etc. etc.

Sounds weird but has worked well for me for what... 20 years now? I know of 1 other person that used the same setup.

And Chaotic... ESDF makes sense to me simply because your hand is still in the home row position. For the longest time I wondered how people using WASD were moving their left ring finger back and forth comfortably... then I realized most shift their hand over to the left 1 key. ;)
 
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greenhawk

Platinum Member
Feb 23, 2011
2,031
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I started gaming with the arrows, so when games started comming out with wasd it was painful to use. and rebinding was a fail in lots of games as you needed those extra keys around it.

I just kept at it and I got use to it eventually. Added benifit was that I did not have to care about remaping keys when a new game came out.

but for the issues mentioned, it sounds like either a good gaming pad or finding a oversized keyboard might be a better option. I would go the later one if you are using the computer a lot. either fail in having to use someone else's at some point as all the keys will feel in the wrong place. I had this issue upgrading from my old keyboard to this g110. the extra keys on the left effected my use of several key combos in games as when I rolled my hand, all the wrong keys would get pressed.
 

MikeyLSU

Platinum Member
Dec 21, 2005
2,747
0
71
I use to play using the arrow keys + page up/down before there was mouse aim in games so I kinda transitioned moving and looking around to my right hand... seemed like a natural progression to me.

Right mouse = move forward
Left mouse = shoot
Thumb button = move backward (edited cause I left this one out, most important part!)
A = strafe left
S = strafe right

All other controls are based around my left hand. D for aim down sights, C for crouch, F for flashlight, E for use, space jumps, etc. etc.

Sounds weird but has worked well for me for what... 20 years now? I know of 1 other person that used the same setup.

And Chaotic... ESDF makes sense to me simply because your hand is still in the home row position. For the longest time I wondered how people using WASD were moving their left ring finger back and forth comfortably... then I realized most shift their hand over to the left 1 key. ;)

I do something very similar.
Right mouse is forward.
Thumb mouse is usually aim or alt fire. And middle mouse may be grenade or something.

Basically the thumb mouse button allows me to put whatever right mouse is supposed to be there.

I like this setup because it allows me to use different hands for strafe and move forward which works pretty well once you are used to it.

I think I first used it on quake long ago
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,817
126
ESDF for me, it allows 'q', 'a', 'z' and 'w' to be used for other things.
 

Scooby Doo

Golden Member
Sep 1, 2006
1,040
18
81
Using a Steelseries Merc keyboard as a gaming keyboard (it has a second seperate arrow set on the left-hand side), but using it otherwise is quite horrible.
 

boren

Member
Dec 13, 2009
103
0
71
I think I'll start with a simple external numpad. It turns out dx.com has them for $6 to $12 (including worldwide shipment), so there's hardly any risk. I just need to decide which one to get:

http://dx.com/p/silicone-usb-18-key-numeric-keypad-numpad-for-laptop-black-27613
http://dx.com/p/compact-usb-numpad-3652
http://dx.com/p/usb-19-key-numeric-keypad-numpad-for-laptop-black-143cm-25691
http://dx.com/p/ps-2-keypad-4921
http://dx.com/p/multi-function-20-key-usb-numeric-keypad-for-laptops-black-139437
http://dx.com/p/19-key-usb-numeric-keypad-for-laptop-notebook-black-147449

If it doesn't work I'll buy the Logitech G13 (which costs around $100 where I live).
 
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KentState

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2001
8,397
393
126
Back in the Quake days, I used ASDF and then mouse 2 for forward. However, with sight aiming, I've had to revert to ASDW and sometimes I get a stuck trying to move backwards when hitting D.