Just a random query - I'm interested in knowing what setup people like to use for piloting their mech.

i.e. Do you use a mouse + keyboard, or a joystick - and what do you do as a general role in most games?

I have a private theory that those using a mouse will tend to concentrate on a sniper/fire support role, while those using joysticks prefer to brawl - a mouse gives you finer control, but a joystick lets you pilot better.

I'm wondering because in many games the snipers and missile mechs regularly pull off long range shots that I can't do well using a joystick (I'm a brawler).

Any thoughts or opinions on this?

I like to use a joystick--I definitely find it easier to pilot with that. Mouse + keyboard does give more precise aim, but I think I aim faster with a joystick and my accuracy isn't much less; it just takes practice and a sharp stick. The Logitech Freedom (and the corded version - Extreme 3D Pro) both are pretty accurate until the potentiometers (or whatever they are) go bad, which unfortunately is pretty fast.

I've heard mixed reviews on the Saitek Cyborg Evo; some people love it, but others say it's uncomfortable. I'm not sure how precise the aim is.

The Saitek X52 has a built in dead zone that I think slows down snapshots... I don't know, but I never felt like the people who I knew were using those were particularly amazing shots.

As far as the most accurate people I've played against whose control setup I knew, they were using Logitech Freedoms (or the Extreme 3D Pro - Ares had one of those, right? He made me cry sometimes). And of course mouse + keyboard is pretty sharp. But get a joystick.

Joystick for me. Now that I think about it, I don't think I ever tried m/kb. Just preferred a stick right off the bat. I use a Saitek Cyborg 3D Gold. I can snipe with it, and fairly accurately, but I prefer to brawl. Just a matter of taste, there. The only thing I never really liked about the Cyborg was how the base is set up. But, I compensated for that with a Nostromo n52 SpeedPad for my left hand, that handles jj, flush, targeting, etc. Like 'Card called it once....a poor man's HOTAS. Seems to work well, tho.

I tried using a joystick a few times and the results were somewhat disasterous. For me, the controls of torso twisting and actual turning should be kept as far away from each other as possible.

Accuracy, as Didy pointed out, is better with a mouse, and for me, significantly more so. I am one who has a tendency to twitch at unwelcome times, and so everything that helps that problem is a good thing.

Besides, I used a custom configuration which is both similar to my background of first -person shooters [only oodles more complex], and specifically tuned to my needs over years of trial and error, so that my control over my ride is damned near perfect. Of course, I'm blessed with musician's fingers [unusually narrow and long digits], and so attempting my version of a control setup may cause you to realise your hand has become an extremely strained and jittery spider.

Essentially, what I'm getting at is: find your own preference and then tweak it. I can't use a joystick, but I'm certainly not going to tell you that it's the worst thing you can use. What works for me may or may not work for you, so why not research before spending your cash?

As for my combat style, you could call me a brawler, but I'm more specialized than that. I prefer to dance in and out of brawls at high speed, usually while under heavy pursuit. I like to think it takes a lot of finesse to pull off, and accordingly, I prefer really fast mechs, really big guns, and paper thin armor. I won't deny that I've done some sniping, but it really isn't for me, and besides there are already too many snipers in the MW4 world. In any case, feel free to take my words with a pinch of salt, because I'm a Dragon pilot. And as we all know, that means I'm more or less insane....

More or less?

Yeah, always hated that damn Dragon of yours.

X52 junky here. I like the fact that the functions I need are right at my finger tips.

(... I thought you were a better shot with the Freedom) (but it's not much of a difference)

Never had a Freedom. Used a Sidewinder precision pro and then an X36 before I got the X52.

Really? shoot... I thought you did have one. haha

I think I'll just go back to lurking now...

Naw stick around. You need to fix that post count

Who'd he get on the wrong side of?

I suspect you know!

No doubt.

I think there's 'bout a half dozen of us now.

... well, if you really want me to...

What I have I done?

Joystick AND mouse.

CH Combatstick 568+keyboard.
F-16 style FTW!

I was a Sidewinder guy for years, until my last Sidewinder's main trigger died on me. Bought an Evo, hated the way it felt, and exchanged it for a Logitech Freedom. Loved the Freedom for a while, but it wore out quickly and started getting all jumpy on me. I suffered through it for quite some time, but eventually gave up. I've now pulled an old Sidewinder out of the closet and have been making do without the main trigger, causing a reconfiguration of all my mechs from 3 weapon groups to only 2, which is limiting and annoying, but at least I can hold the reticle steady again.

I started out on a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, which I loved because it had all those buttons I could assign functions to. Then the # 4 button on it went out and things went down hill from there. I switched to some crappy in-between stick for while, dumped it and tried to work around the limitations of the Logitech, meaning that I had only 2 fire groups, (ANNOYING) and I started assigning keyborad buttons to other functions. Now I have a Saitek uhm...er...stx90? or some such, the Wal Mart cheapy I mentined in the other post where Didy mentioned he was in the market for a stick...anyway now I use the stick for movement and torso twist as well as fire control (6 buttons on the stick plus a throttle) I use the KB for throttle, reverse/forward, flush, Zoom, and targeting changes. I have tried to go back to straight stick but found my left hand automatically goes to the keys I have assigned for those functions so looks like I will be a stick/KB guy for the rest of my MW career.I reccomend getting a cheap stick like the Saitek I have, and experimenting with different combinaitons of stick alone, stick and KB and KB/Mouse to find what works for you.

I only use the keyboard...no joystick, no mouse. The numeric keypad for torso twist, turning, pitch, looking left or right, coolant flush, jump jets, radar control, zoom, map, reverse throttle, and target designation. I never heard of anyone else with that style.

And no, I don't suck.

I couldn't imagine trying to aim by keyboard!

Similar to MW2 controls.

i was mouse and keyboard all the way.

and i'd like to think i was a pretty decent brawler!

OK, so joysticks seem to be the most common. I far prefer that myself - I've got a Gravis Xterminator, which is nice is it's two-handed, with loooooads of buttons. It's even got a little thumb-swivel thingy which is great for torso twisting.

That raises a second question - are there any good techniques for getting in accurate long range shots using a joystick?

I far prefer getting up close and personal in my Uziel (and I certainly don't want to become a sniper), but there are some maps where you really need some extra range - being able to shoot accurately at 500m+ would be a big plus!

I would start with ER Large Lasers since they require no lead. Try some single player missions where there is a lot of ranged battles, and then move to multiplayer. Once you get the hang of lasers you can try Gauss or PPC.

Wildcard's guides have a lot of great shooting tips, but the best advice is probably to "aim center mass". At long range, keep it simple and aim for the torso of your target. Use alpha strikes also - if you're not already.



I don't move my reticle to the target; I shoot when the target moves to the reticle. Although snap shots can be tough...but I practice snap shots so that I'm not at a disadvantage.

2 joysticks.. both CH Products gameport joys (incidently both have lasted over 10 yrs also)

left hand ..throttle and turning
right hand.. elevation and twist..like a tank turret


had basically the same setup from mw2 thru 4

Okay, I'm rather disturbingly like Sandy (right down to the minor palsy in the hands, but with short, stumpy fingers ).

Somewhat FPS'ish kybd/mouse setup with the extra functions clustered around the WASD 'core'.

I've tried joysticks from time to time, but I usually get a POS that wears out in a month (a dead zone for most of the stick's travel) and can't overcome the occasional tremor jarring my concentration (and aim).

I suppose I'd snipe (I do like to 'gnaw a leg off' and annoy someone moreso than killing them outright, meow ) but even my strategy is similar to our eastern friend's - SKIRMISHER. Gimme a light, fast, 'mech with one big weap (like a ltppc or hll) and I'll zip in there, take a couple of stabs and run off to cool down; the Solitare is rather fitting for the purpose - a light mech is a little harder to hit with a smaller profile, and shoehorning a big-arse engine in there makes me one hard to hit annoying fly... but then, once you do hit, it's likely a satisfying kill, so karma stays balanced

The big thing I accomplish is disrupting planned offensives: throwing off timing, distracting assaults, etc. That AND with the weight ratios from Battle matches, I get decent points even for just damaging an assault...

One task I relish to take, though, is ANTI-sniper; take that solitare - or maybe an uziel - with some flamers tacked on, sneak around the edge of the map with radar off, and backstab those novas and glads that are laser boating - "how can you be a camper without a campfire?"


empath, who also used to play kamakaze, and regrets the loss of the high-explosive 'weapon'...

I too must confess to liking to play a Zippo mech to take out snipers.



Purely hated that one in Vengeance.

Well, here lately, I have found myself more and more in a Raven running figure 8's around all the hundreds of assaults on the opens and peppering them with CSSRMs and medium lasers. I actually took down an assault the other night by running circles around it and hitting the same leg over and over and over until he went boom. I just satr there in stunned disbelief (so distracted that I made myself an easy target for one of his buddies, heh heh) I owe it all to the Mech Fu guide found on this very board. there's something about running so fast and annoying the dogsnot out of the assault whores that really gets the adrenaline pumping!

This translaters into me using my WASD key config and the rollerball mouse for aiming when I don't want to divide my attention between the keys and the stick. so I guess I am both...does that make me some sort of weirdo mutant?

I'm purely a joystick player, never got on without it and I'll snipe, brawl or use a light mech whatever I particularly feel like doing that day.

My controls are universal and very simple (honest)

main trigger - always quick firers / energy (eg machine guns or er large mainly but on a few configs, thats where the PPC's go)
button 2 - big punch, guass, usually PPC's, LBX, big UACs
button 3, always missiles, afterthought weapons for me or if I want a button for chaining.
button 4 on my Cyclops missileboat only - Tbolt - never used on any other config.
button 5 override shutdown.

so, for example, my Hauptmann of death, the 3 ERPPC's go on button 1 and 3 and the HGR goes on button 2. I set trigger 1 for chain and leave 3 for Alphaing.

I suck so badly that it really wouldn't make any difference how i control it though but I'm most comfortable with joystick.

I used to use a Sidewinder Precision Pro, but it got too loose as it got older and older, so I retired it for use only with older games with less sensitive control inputs.

Then I picked up a Cyborg Evo, and it worked for a time... then the stick twist got farked and the stick would only turn in one direction in MW4. Still can't figure out why.

Now I use the X52, and it makes me verrry happy. I've got the commands bound as follows:
Stick:
Trigger, 1st stage: nothing
Trigger, 2nd stage: fire selected weapon/weapon group (that way, little bumps can't twitch the trigger; I don't fire unless I really want to and can back off the trigger if I get hit just before firing)
Pinkie trigger: target under reticule
Covered Fire button: Coolant flush (mode 1), shutdown override (mode 2), eject (mode 3)- no accidental coolant wasting, quick access to override (but can't be accidentally pressed), absolutely no hitting the eject button accidentally as no other commands are bound to mode 3 (red light on = death)- but it can be nice to have when LANning with friends from school.
Fire A: select next weapon group (mode 1), select next weapon (mode 2)
Fire B: select previous weapon group (mode 1), toggle group/chain fire (mode 2)
Fire C: toggle zoom window
Hat 1: target next enemy(up), target prev enemy (down), target next friendly (left), target nearest enemy (right)
Hat 2: directional views
Toggle 1: shutdown (down), startup (up)
Toggle 2: toggle radar range (down), toggle active/passive (up)
Toggle 3: toggle radar/map (up), cycle 1st/3rd perspective

Throttle:
Fire D: cycle nav points
Fire E: jump jets
scroll button: toggle searchlight (mode 1), toggle nightvision (mode 2)
mouse button: toggle turret auto-centering*

What's auto turret tracking?

oop, meant auto-centering. Got my features confused with Earthsiege 2; I play a fair bit of that as well. I use the same control config for playing base MW4 offline, minus MP3, and the auto-centering is enabled by default- hence the need for a button that flicks it off.

OH. I thought I was gonna get some cool new thing I could use in MW4

personally i like useing the main trigger button for fireing all my weapons...seems more stable and accurate, ergonometrically speaking..

i set up my fire groups per situation on the same button and then switch between them (kinda like mw3) with a hat switch

alpha strike........................ FG1
long range ..........................FG2
low heat (cool down) ...........FG3
special (like Narc or flares) .FG4

and set up my configs to take advantage of this

always thought grouping per weapon TYPE..ie missle energy and ballistic with different buttons for each was idiotic...hovering over a single button and switching WHAT u were fireing depending on the situation is much better..IMO

I like having lots of options when it comes to firing groups- usually one with weapons that have similar projectile travel times (i.e. Gauss, Autocannon, PPCs), one with weapons that hit where your reticle is when you fire (Lasers, streak missiles), and one with locking missiles, then another for direct-fire weapons and yet another for alpha strike. If I have more than three of a particular weapon type, I like an alternate group to use for chain-fire.

For brawlers, I like to have three groups for decreasing range- group 1 has the mid-long range weapons, group 2 adds in the mid-short range weapons, and group 3 adds the big close-in punchers. That way, each weapon can be fired as soon as it is in range without wasting a shot from any other weapon, but once everything is in range I can move straight into chain fire or alphas (since the farther-reaching weapons will still be recharging when the bigger short-range guns come into play- voila, instant chaining). A fourth group would have everything but energy weapons to allow for cooling.

Extra groups added as necessary for flares, NARCs, Arty and the like.