Poll: How much do you customise game controls?

[OrionHardy]

I'm left handed, so when I play PC games I always move has much of the keys as possible to the arrow keys and the surrounding ones.

 

[Wieke]

I usually assign some function to my extra mouse keys. And if they mapped crouching to "c" I remap it to "left ctrl". (Why do modern games have crouch assigned to c?)

 

[King of Wei]

Default control scheme on console 99% of the time. I find myself constantly tweaking button configs on PC games though, my fingers can not move the way PC games want them to.

 

[No_Remainders]

On old games like Arx Fatalis, Deus Ex and Daggerfall, it's pretty much mandatory. Some games get it right, but even then I like to tweak a bit. The only games I've never done that to are Valve's stuff (because they KNOW how to do it right).

But Valve still use WASD for movement. ESDF is far more practical.


Speaking of which, generally I change from WASD to ESDF for movement, and then use the surrounding keys for other stuff.

 

[Mordekaien]

Depends, usually i go with traditional WASD controls, but, for example Gothic and Thief had me revert to ESDF; better for a game with so much key bindings.

 

[Kilroy17]

I rarely adjust the controls on a game unless it's something I find really annoying.
I can't even think of any examples now.

This^. For me I like crouch to always be ctrl, so recently I changed it in borderlands from c.

 

[Saltyk]

I spend a bit of the game at the start getting used to controls. I don't frequently change them as that is the norm for me. However, I do change sensitivity quite a bit.

Pretty much this. I generally like things the way they are at start. Biggest changes I usually make is if the game has inverted set as a standard. I usually turn that to the normal look. Then again, I've gotten accustomed to inverted controls in some games.

 

[Lenin211]

I have some buttons on my mouse, so I usually map stuff to them. Usually throwing grenades and melee.

 

[babinro]

I typically remove inverted controls and that's about it.

For PC games I'll often make F4 quicksave and F6 quickload if they aren't already a default since that's what I'm used to.

In an MMO, I'll greatly change the overview and layout of the screen, but maintain the same general keys to control.

The only time I'll really change a control scheme is when the game completely does from its original to it's sequel. I'll often reprogram the controls to match the original since that is already what I've learned and mastered. This has happened with a few franchises on console whose names escape me...I want to say Uncharted and Resistance but I could be wrong.

 

[Treblaine]

Consoles don't have a whole lot of control change options, and even if they did I normally don't change them. Why? Well, because on a console the controls have already been placed where the developer spent a year or two thinking about placing them. Usually, there's no reason to change what's been perfected over a year or two.

I used to have that attitude till it finally realised: "My god, I'm no better than a George Lucas apologist"

See, the creator doesn't necessarily know everything, they may not have gotten everything right, and at some point you are going to have to take what you can from their vision and have it serve YOUR vision of the game. Sometimes creators can really go off the deep end and you have to do what you know it right with whatever work as you can't lose track of how you are investing your time and money into this game.

Some developers make decisions on control layout that make me cringe, COD on 360 drives me up the wall, one of several reasons why I always try to play on PC if I can.

Things like why can't I have this layout on COD:

LS = crouch->prone
LB = jump
RS = melee
B = Sprint (because it only has to be pressed once)
A = throw-tactical (or switch RB function between Lethal and Tactical)

Then I could drop-shot AND melee with ease, also jump-shooting is much more practical as you don't have to take your thumb off aiming.

IMHO, almost nothing is perfect. Though that's a definite improvement with the 360 controller as-is. I'd really REALLY like a game that used the sixaxis controller for aiming in a really useful way.

Are you kidding me!?

Left stick for crouching is fine, that's the way it used to be. LB for jump is a little out there, but OK. Melee these days is almost always on right stick. But sprint? on B? Sprinting works best on either LB (Halo Reach, when you have the pickup) or LS (Everything else). Why the hell would anyone want something used so much on a face button that you have to stop aiming for?

Because you only have to tap sprint button once while running forward to initiate sprint function and long as you have stick mostly forward, it is not time sensitive like jump, missing by a millisecond means you are a fraction slower getting from Point-A to Point-B, but missed timing on jumpst is a fall to your doom.

Also unlike jump it isn't hugely dependant precise change in look direction, if you start sprinting in slightly in the wrong direction you can easily correct. But a jump, you can't change the direction you have jumped wile you are mid air. To time a good jump you have to have 100% control of movement AND look right up to the millisecond the jump button is pressed.

Starting to sprint AND aiming is impossible, you're either moving laterally where you aren't facing them, or at them which is crazy. Drop-shoting however is aiming WHILE you aree getting down.

So you see why sprint is a function that is more suited on face-pad than LS?

In fact, if it was Hold B (or A, It doesn't matter which face button) to sprint and "left-stick to turn" it would work as sprint would be effectively enter "car control mode" with high speed but just turn left and right to a certain extent.

But then, to each his own. I don't think your layout could work correctly at all, but it isn't my hands that have to control it.

On the other hand, I might be strange in that I think B is the best melee button and RS is actually a good crouch button if you don't have to toggle it. FEAR 2 and BFBC2 spoiled me on those. Still, though, I haven't had trouble with many developer-made button layouts and they're almost always tweaked to perfection for me, so controls on consoles I almost never tweak.

IMHO, toggle crouch only works for very certain keys like shift that you can hold down for a long time and yet release instantly.

I always wanted (on PC) a prone->crouch->walk->run->sprint paradigm, where the scroll wheel cycled through them continuously. So scroll all the way down you are flat as low as possible, scroll up you head gets higher still standing higher, keep scrolling up and you are in sprint mode. I'd like this for popping your head just above cover to take the perfect shots.

 

[Crazy]

You know the Halo 3 default settings? That's my overall settings, minus the very few exceptions.

 

[everythingbeeps]

Not much. I might tweak the camera controls and sensitivity, but that's really it. I don't really remap buttons, unless it's something like Resistance 3, where the default mapping is just weird.