As some of you know, my Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick now refuses to twist to the right, which really peeved me!

So, I configured the keyboard and mouse to something I thought would work well, loaded up Instant Action and went to town.

Turns out to not be so bad after all! I even did okay in an online game! A for left turn, F for right, S-decel, W-accel, Space to toggle forward/reverse, T for Flush coolant. Mouse to handle torso duties, 1 for weapon fire, 2 for JJ, 4 for toggle weapon group, 5 for previous group, Scroll wheel up/down to handle Center Torso/Legs.

Plus miscellany such as E for night vision (Enhancement, you see), Z for Zoom, and all is working out pretty well!

Have considered a keyboard control alternative such as the Nostromo N52 SpeedPad, or a programmable PC game controller setup, or even a USB numeric keypad to take advantage of Xiomburg's suggested control scheme. (Very well thought out, Xio!) Any ideas along this line, folks?

All in all, I really appreciate all the options this game will allow, and all the help and suggestions the Institute has provided thus far!

PS: Is there such a thing as a mouse extension cable? This new optical mouse I hooked up tonight...the cord keeps coming up short! Also, how about another keyboard? I'm running an IBM AT keyboard at the moment...clicky keys and all!

try
w accel
s decel
a left turn
d right turn
space jj's
left mouse fire group
right mouse zoom
middle mouse click target object under reticule
mouse scroll change weapon groups
mouse movement torso twist

ctrl s start/shutdown
ctrl a light amp
ctrl r passive/active radar
f flush
q override shutdown
backspace reverse

that's about all you need for the basics

scary that i still use that 4 years after originally coming up with it.

you should have scarily good aim with a mouse vs a joystick user.

Hey, thanks for the setup...trouble is, every time I tried using F for flush, I'd mistakenly hit it when I wanted to make a right turn!

If ONLY they'd adapt the technology in an optical trackball for use in a joystick...methinks everyone would like it! (they might not use it, but they'd like it, you see) I think it would finally give stick users a level playing field with the Keyboard/Mouse masters, you know?

Thanks again!

LOL...Keyboard Masters....sounds like something out of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

"I...HAVE...THE POWER!!!!!"

Yes, I watched it a LONG time ago....

As far as keyboard and mouse, Bec and I both have the Logitech cordless setups.

Very nice to use . And will go anywhere up to 6 feet of the receiver.

And surprisingly, no, none of it conflicts with anything else wireless that we have.


Ivy

Trashy - if your AT keyboard is the buckling-spring type, then keep it, unless you _really_ need windows keys. I wouldn't have an original now, as I'm too used to having windows keys and use them all the time, but otherwise I'd happily have an original 'board. At home I use pretty much the cheapest Microsoft wireless keyboard-and-mouse setup, as I'm left handed and nothing else that I've seen has a mouse I can use, but the keyboard is (frankly) rubbish - really soggy. That said, I don't do a lot of typing at home so I can live with it...

Mouse extension cables are easy to find - for both PS2 meeces and USB ones. Just have a look for a PS2 or USB extension cable on somewhere like Dabs or Ebuyer and you'll probably find one for not very much at all.

Turns out I had an extension cable already...I formerly had one of those WebTv boxes with a jack for a standard keyboard, so I used a generic keyboard + cable to use from my TV chair!

Indeed, the prices I've seen are very low--now, if only gasoline were that reasonable....

(Where's a Daniel Shipstone when you need one?)

never been a joystick guy myself, always been mouse

i use:

everything is default except:

W,A,S,D mech movement in the usual config
R toggle radar on/off
Q target nearest enemy
E Target under reticle
T nearest friendly
CAPs Look left
F look right
Z zoom
X crouch
C coolant
mouse1 Fire
mouse2 next weapon group
Space to jump

thought up a fw refinements over the years, but been to lazy to implement them. learned i dont like having zoom on the mouse as it can move your aim sometimes

So then I shouldn't get a joystick?
I'm sooo confused......
I've been using my micro innovations crap wireless set-up for two days now in instant action and it's kinda tough.....

Ignore these philistines..... yes get a joystick.

Microsoft Precision Pro was the best I ever had, I use a Cyborg Evo now but it's not as good for me. I tried mouse and keyboard but I couldn't drive and aim at the same time (I'm so right handed it's cruel, my left is there to make up the numbers and hold my fork when I eat. Mouse and keyboard does require being able to use 2 hands at roughly the same level).

Joysticks really make sense for this game, especially if you've got a twist stick. Mouse is a little bit easier to aim with, but once you've got the aiming down with a joystick, the rest is easy because all your controls are right there. It's especially nice if you use the shift functions. Right now about all I use my keyboard for is in-game chat.

for my 2 cents. I'm a joystick user as I thought it represented the closest analog to a flight game back when I started to play. I find that I don't have real fine control over placing the targeting reticle EXACTLY where I want it to focus on a single part of the mech. If, as I gather is the case, with a mouse you have finer control over targeting then learn the mouse as it will be very important later when hitting that black LT to get the kill instead of the yellow CT and dying with the opponent's return shot. I find I still will spend to much time trying to get the reticle over the section I want which leaves me exposed to long, and pain, oh the pain, that comes my way.

I just remembered. I used to use a roller ball in a flight sim. anyone use one here, rather than scooting a mouse all over the desktop? not enough buttons available ?

yeah well i use a joystick, the old microsoft precision pro has never let me down, but i hear that if you can get used to the mouse keyboard combo you will be better off. Me , i'm too comfortable with what i know and yes sometimes i pay for that

personaly i use a gaming key pad (10 button keyboard with d-pad and throttle) which pretty much handels my needs and on my mouse i have group one as my first mouse button group2 as my second and the mouse wheel button as my third ( missiles) this allows me to set my weapons as left side and right side with missiles separate ( i use a maddy so it fits wonderfully).

I know this thread was done a while ago but I have yet another stupid newbie question:
Since I have had so much trouble with my own Cursed Logitech 3D Extreme pro stick, I wanted to try out one of these custom mouse/keyboard configs, but how do I change the default settings in the options screen? Do I simply highlight the choice I want and then hit the button on the mouse or keyboard that I want for that function? It can’t be that simple. I am not at home now or I would try it this second to see, but this way if that doesn’t work I save time by hopefully someone already telling me the proper way!

Thanks!

THUNDER

Yes I believe it is that simple. I'm not sure though because I've never remapped my keyboard as I use a stick and throttle combination that has plenty of buttons.

I looove my old Precision Pro. It's been with me since the first PC simulator I ever played. Loose as all hell- makes it fantastic for pulling funky maneuvers or precision aiming. Now it's retired, and in its fine old age plays such classics as Silent Thunder, Jane's F-15, and Earthsiege 2 on the good old Win98 compy that was its first "home."

The X52 is my new default, though. It just has so many buttons that I never have to take a single finger off the main controls for any reason, and I love that. I have been having some major driver issues with WinXP SP2 on my laptop...namely that, for no apparent reason, the drivers will just stop working (as if they had never been installed). The end result is that, every time I have to reboot the system, I have to re-install the X52 drivers from the installation CD (which requires me to reboot a second time in order to clean out the old install). That's not as often as it sounds, since I put my comp in Hibernate most of the time, but it's enough of an issue to cause some major irritiation. When it works, however, it is stunning- better than any other controller I've used (save for Old Reliable, the Sidewinder PP).

I truly wish I could set up a workable Joystick/Mouse combo for MW4, though. I might mess with the settings on my Cyborg Evo to see if I can swap the throttle with the vertical axis...having the torso controls hard-bound to the stick makes it impossible to set up a good stick-drive, mouse-aim config (with the vertical axis for throttle and horizontal for turning, like I have it set up in Starsiege). At this point, though, I'm pretty addicted to the X52, so I'd only try something like that to see if I COULD.

Hey WoD, have you tried the X52 beta drivers? I couldn't get the disc to load the drivers onto my PC so I went to the Saitek website. Now as long as this thing has been out you'd think they might have drivers posted but nooooooooooooo.......I searched for quite awhile and deep in some forum there was a thread about some beta drivers. I found the drivers on Saitek's ftp site. As soon as I find the site again I'll post the link. I did download the drivers so if I don't find the link I'll send them to you if you want. I've been using the drivers for a week now and they work fine.

Thanks much for the mechstorm link Rat! ANd yes it is that simple as I found out when I got home last night. Point click and hit the key you want for the funciton. When I have it all mapped out I'll post it so you guys can see the differences I put in.

Hey WoD what was that I read somewhere about some kind of a Flea config you were using to wax assault mechs?

I recently bound the toggle next weapons group to mouse scroll up and the reverse to down, man is that crazy i'm not sure if I'll like it that way or not but it sure makes sswitching a bit easier

The only trouble I would have with that is that I am using a Logitech Marble Mouse, which is kind of a trackball type since my wrists hurt just thinking about a standard mouse, so I have no scroll wheel. My fear on that would be that I would scroll past what I wanted to shoot with and get wiped out trying to scroll to the right group. If I know what group I start on I can just left click and count to get to the group I want to use next. I do have a tendancy to cycle through my groups so I am constantly shooting at the enemy while my main group reloads/recharges. I like that better than skipping through the groups, at least so far.

THUNDER

Aspiring apprentice of Scat Fu...thanks Archlight!

Funny you should mention those, Rat...I tried those when I first decided to use my X52 with my laptop (all of a month ago now) because I couldn't find my install CD. The drivers installed and Windows didn't have any throuble with them...but I could not, for the life of me, get MW4 to recognize any profile I tried. I reverted back to the CD when I found it simply because I knew that those drivers WOULD work, since I already used them on my desktop with no issues. It would seem that, barring miracles, I'm just going to have to keep re-installing every time I need to reboot.



That would be a Flea with the LCBL, Large Continuous-Beam Laser. That was with MP2, though. The LCBL has gained 2 tons of weight in MP3, so it is harder to squeeze it onto a Flea without losing valuable speed (it used to be 5 tons, now it is 7). However, there are still some cool things you could stick on a Flea- try 1 CHML, 2 ISML (for simplicity, since all three weapons have a 300m max range). Loadout total 3 tons, which leaves plenty of room for speed (watch the heat, though).

Gah...I hate this network. I can't get on and play when anybody's around because it's so slow! Frustration!

Okay, got home from Tae Kwan D’oh! And had some time to run the mouse keyboard set up with a shadow cat sniper config I have christened “Scat Fu,” and it wasn’t all that bad. It took a few runs to get used to not moving my trackball too far too fast, and of course to get used to steering with my fingers as opposed to a stick, but I think I could get used to this. I did manage to run across a major tech issue and a couple of general questions while I was at it. (of course if I didn’t it just wouldn’t be me!)
First here’s the key set up:

W,A,S,D for movement and throttle control
Ctrl R for radar toggling (might change that to just R tonight)
Q target nearest bad guy
T center legs to Torso
Caps –look left
F-Look right (M and I still for down and rear)
Z-Zoom
X-crouch (really fun in city maps sniping from alley ways!)
C-coolant (which took some getting used to because I had been using it for crouch!)
Mouse 1 Fire group
Mouse 2 select next group

Everything else was pretty much default. Like I said not bad and I could get used to it. The biggest issues was technical, though. When I first installed MW4 vengeance, BK and Mercs on my Windoze 2K machine, I was told I didn’t have enough virtual memory to run it. SO I maxed out my virtual memory and thought I ws cool but since then the game has locked up once on me (in the frickin mechlab no less!) and last night running the mouse keyboard combo the video kept momentarily freezing on me, like it had to catch up to me or something! This was a real problem because I let a Loki sneak up on me when I was sniping one of his buddies from behind a hill top and the video freeze made the getaway rather difficult and disorienting. Anyone have any ideas what might cause this and how I make it stop!?

The general question I have is how in the name of all that is holy am I supposed to jump to the top of a building! No matter how I tried it I would end up just going straight up and land beside the intended perch looking stupid. I tried it running, walking, you name it. Frustrating.

Thanks Rat and everyone for all the help!
And WoD, thanks for the flea ideas!

THUNDER

always been on keyboard and mouse cept i have a different movement key setup, leaving 1-9 as movement speed i switched up "W" to jumpjets and "S" for reverse

http://www.banzaiinstitute.net/InvisionBoa...?showtopic=6688

I like all the configs to try out till I get something I think I can get used to but this is all gonna be for nothing unless I figure out why the screen is freezing up at odd intervals and then catching up to me later. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could do? Uh, please?
I am not that big a techie, but I can do most of the tweaking and maintenance on my system my self all the way to installing new components, but I am not sure what is even causing this.

THUNDER

You might want to give us the specs for your computer. The processor, memory, vid card, operating system and such. That way we'll have a starting point to work from.

DUH!

my current system

Win 2K
AMD Athalon XP2400+, AT/AT Compatible
130,544 kb RAM

NVIDIA GeForce MX420 W/latest edition drivers installed

Uh not sure what else you guys would need to know, other than the fact that I know just enough bout them to install hardware and software if I read how to do it first, which I suppose makes me just about smart enough (just barely, mind you) to be dangerous. Please let me know what else I can do to help in this diagnostic process. I know that my XP machine runs an Intel motherboard as it is an old refurbished Compaq my brother in law helped put together (read: he did it while I looked on), and a slightly different video card, an NVIDIA GeForce MX4000, and I do not have this freeze frame issue on that machine. (sadly that machine is NOT internet capable or there would be no problem…sigh)

I can't even make it through a walk around the Banzai Boot camp map with out it freezing a bit here and there and if I wander into the brawler pit, FORGEDABOUTIT!

Thanks in advance for any ideas, Rat and gang.

T-BOLT