Keyboard foo and RSI

[Murk]

Hello Folks,

I wanted to ask if anyone else finds the keyboard combat keys a little hard on the fingers. By that I mean the "corded" input where you hold down two keys, that is by default:

Bar 1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

CTRL +
Bar 2 : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

SHIFT +
Side Bar 1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

I realize these can be remapped, and in fact you can make use of numbers past 6, but I find that approach difficult, becasue the row is quite long at 12 keys across; and so it becomes a two handed job, assuming you can take your hand off the mouse and put it in the right place to start the action.

MMO geared mice are also a "thing", I don't currently have such a thing though.

A suggestion of non corded input could work something like this:

Some key binding X, Y and Z select Bar1, 2, 3 respectively, and this becomes the current selection (so this might need something in the UI that shows you what bar is the selected one.) You then press 1 - 6 based on what skill you want to use from the selected bar. Thus, you don't have to hold down two keys in combat if you don't want to, and you can carry on using any skill from the selected bar until you need to choose another one. All that said. I don't use the side bar so much either, it's the combat ones that are the hot ones.

There must be a bunch of other people who've seen other systems so please tell if you think there could be a better way, or if there is a key mapping that works well...

[Shalfi]

Finding your own style and what works will take time. It comes down to how many commands do you use frequently & how quickly & easily do you want to access them.

Hand dexterity and muscle memory play key roles here, so create key binds wherever just as long as you are comfortable using them.

There is nothing to stop you from binding slot 1 on bar 1 to "Q" and slot 2 on bar 1 to "Shift+Q" or the "R" key. Perhaps you would like Bar 2 slot 1 to be the "3" key, while Side bar slot 2 is "2". If you determine that you would like a different skill where you have a key mapped, you can just swap the skills around without changing the key binds (within the limits of PG of course).

There are a couple of factors that will help determine the number of usable key bindings I believe: Keyboard type/size & Hand size.

I find playing on a full size keyboard with proper raised keys much easier vs a Laptop with its flat keys. Keys are easier to find & with some keyboards there is an affirmative "click" when you depress it. That being said, smaller keyboards allow for a larger reach (more key combos).

Hand size has to be taken into consideration as well as this will determine how many key combinations you have access to.

Thus far in PG I changed:
Strafe is "Z" & "C" who ever decided otherwise lost their minds :p. That said, they are used little as "A" & "D" become strafe if you mouse-look constantly like I do
The side bar to be the "CTRL" keys and the second skill bar to be the "Shift" keys. This will probably evolve more after the new GUI
Sub windows (Skills/Persona/Crafting) associated with "Alt+" binds
Auto-run key to "Shift+Q"
I personally use "E" for examine (pull up visible details (does not exist in PG)), and "R" for "use/interact/pick-up" selected item.

I am likely to do some more shuffling of binds if content becomes more difficult/fast paced. My panic "OH! Crap" button is "Shift+E" which usually is associated with a heal, which in PG case is on the sidebar.

[Crissa]

I'm currently using a set like this on my Tartarus:


[esc] [tab] [1] [2] [3]
[shift] [U] [4] [5] [6]
[ctrl] [alt] [ ] [J] [ ]

I'm not entirely happy with it; I've pasted U and Talk over onto my mouse as 4 and 5, but I'm not entirely sure about it.

I've see setups using the thumb directional as alt-shift-ctrl, but I really like being able to have that backpedal thing there.

Worse, my top action bar is ctrl, my sidebar is alt, and my second action bar is plain. I'm starting to think it would be better if they were all modifiers.