Remember the Southpaw
Crispy
Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Complete control customisation for all</div>So, I'm left-handed and it seems everyone in the games industry has forgotten about us. According to international studies, we make up between 15% and 25% of the population depending on different parts of the world.
Yet every ergonomic mouse comes in only right-handers flavours and RTS and FPS games frequently lock control setups to right-handed-only controls. Trying to command in NS is a ###### because I have to cramp my right hand into the WSAD corner of the keyboard and stretch my little finger out to reach hotkeys further right, not to mention the squad numbers.
So, please, when assigning hotkeys for Natural Selection, either make all controls (and commander hotkeys) completely customisable, or provide a second alternative that suits a person using the mouse in their left hand and the keyboard with their right (i.e. most hotkeys should emanate out to the left of the main hand position on the keyboard).
Thanks in advance.
Yet every ergonomic mouse comes in only right-handers flavours and RTS and FPS games frequently lock control setups to right-handed-only controls. Trying to command in NS is a ###### because I have to cramp my right hand into the WSAD corner of the keyboard and stretch my little finger out to reach hotkeys further right, not to mention the squad numbers.
So, please, when assigning hotkeys for Natural Selection, either make all controls (and commander hotkeys) completely customisable, or provide a second alternative that suits a person using the mouse in their left hand and the keyboard with their right (i.e. most hotkeys should emanate out to the left of the main hand position on the keyboard).
Thanks in advance.
Comments
The commander hotkeys do get their own line of text somewhere though. The default is a text string that looks like "qwerasdfzxcv", so if you can find that in your config you can replace it with whatever set of buttons you wanted to use for hotkeying.
Lemme see if I can remember what all the unlabeled ones are:
--Select groups 1 - 5 is whatever you have setup for select weapon slots 1 - 5
--Save new groups 1 - 5 is that group button + whatever you have bound to "duck"
--Go to last message is whatever you have bound to "jump"
--Any hotkeys that also show up on that "qwerasdfzxcv" line will be overwritten by the commander function, so the old function won't work in the chair. (Since I have "q" bound to voicecomms, I moved the whole thing over to "wertsdfgxcvb". You can put it wherever you want though.)
I think that's all of them? Commanders don't need any more hotkeys than that, that I can remember.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm reasonably certain the commander interface in NS1 is ALREADY completely customizable for you southpaws.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->If you're right I'll concede this point, but again we're being treated a bit like second class citizens. Give us in-game customisation or at least draw attention to the fact this can be done.
Essentially we should be able to choose our hotkeys, but if that's not possible, then at least incorporate an alternative that is comfortable for left-handers.
You act like lefties are the only ones who ever have to re-bind keys. The HL1 keybinding features were complicated to navigate for everyone, and some of the NS-specific binds were even stranger due to poor integration with the built-in bind editor. But if you were willing to put some time into customizing your userconfig file, NS already provided a huge amount of potential customizability and I have no doubt NS2 will be just as robust.
For example, take Badmouth's request for an option to swap between two sets of binds. I'll agree that it would be cool to have a way to do this integrated into the main menu, but with a little effort you can already do that for NS1. A lot of people use that to swap binds when switching between marines and aliens, or between different alien lifeforms -- I swap binds when the 2nd Hive goes up and I suddenly need the +movement key as a skulk. Swapping binds for different players would be just as easy.
Hopefully NS2 will provide a more intuitive editor interface for accomplishing all these things, but one way or another you can get all the customization you want.
Dito. But I think it's just personal preference. Still feels weird when I have to teach my mom for the 7th time in a week (on tuesday) how to use firefox and are forced to grab over half the table to and use the mouse left handed.
never tried to play with right hand, I guess i would not be able to aim at any skulk anymore :)
hahaha. we know how you feel.
btw, this thread reminds me of a very interesting thread from last year. in the I&S forums i think it was.
Found it. Here it was: <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=103472&hl=left+handed" target="_blank">Lefthanded Weaponmodels</a> funny stuff.
never tried to play with right hand, I guess i would not be able to aim at any skulk anymore :)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is somewhat similar to everyone being taught to play a musical instrument a certain way - i.e. right-handed guitar, right-handed violin/viola/cello/etc.
For as long as that has happened though, there have always been people to switch it around and make it so for lefties (hendrix was a lefty!)
However, for the original poster, I'm sure they'll be more than able to allow lefty customization, though an easy "lefty" setup with no work on your end might not happen, maybe they'll think about it after reading your post?
Then he asked me and I didn't remember cause I was to concentrated on writing the word, I put my left hand forth and he put a stamp on it as a memory support to use that hand.
Most people will accept what they're forced into doing if they are in the minority. Most people will accept second best if they convince themselves it's the only option. Whether you want to be one of those people or not is another question.
No jokes, please.
No jokes, please.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
For quite a few years, when I first started using a keyboard and mouse (and gaming), I used my left hand on the mouse with arrow keys on my right. But I honestly felt no noticeable difference at all which hand I used, but ended up sticking to this setup for years. The only reason I now use my right hand is because it's the standard. I find it noticeably less efficient to go back to using my left hand on my mouse now if I force myself, but I'm quite satisfied that that is simply down to lack of practice (and the shape of the mouse). Oh, and I'm right handed (not ambidextrous).
At the end of the day, you're going to be using both hands anyway.