I play my FPS games with Joystick and Mouse combo.

About a year ago I found out that this was not the only way to
control FPS games. I was amazed to find that people used the keyboard and mouse.


Well recently I have seen an annoying trend that has kept me from purchasing some of the top name games.

So to go back to the software developers I want a sample of how many people use Track ball or mouse W/keyboard and how many use Trackball or mouse W joystick and any other method of controll for FPS.

please answer the poll

Since the birth of FPS by ID software with Castle Wolfenstein the available control methods have broadened somewhat.
The original control method was keyboard only with one set of keys for movement either zxcs, asdw or cursor keys and the other for firing, running toggle etc. With the following Doom and Quake series a new element was added to the game. Originally everything was played on a level playing field (so to speak ), you had no need to aim at anything other than that around you. The new element was that you had to aim above and below your position so "mouse look" was added. With mouse look you could set the mouse to guide your direction as well as your aim (current method) or have the mouse just guide your aim so that you could run in one direction whilst firing in another. This was just too hard to do and strafing (runnning sideways) became the more commonly adopted alternative.

Thats what I use now. Mouse to aim and fire and control direction of my movement and keyboard to move forward, backward, strafe, jump, crouch, use, reload etc... (default half life keys which are also the default for Medal Of Honor and quite a few other titles...). I did try and play half life with my Logitech Force3d joystick once but it just felt weird. The point and click fluidity of the mouse was much more natural after so many years of fps

My FPS control system is this:


While my flat mate uses standard keyboard and:


I'm all imaged out now

Also maybe worth having an option for inverted up and down in the poll

I use a Belkin Nostromo n50 Speedpad and my mouse.
It looks like this:

I love it, and have had no bad experiences with it thus far.
For those of you who use the WSAD layout, don't your fingers get sore after a while? It's because the W and S keys, forward and back respectively, are out of line. Which sucks. With my Speedpad they're right inline. Couldn't be better, although I do have questions about that scroll wheel...

Nothing can beat my trackball. I think it's better suited for a game like Unreal Tournament since a steady aim can mean life or death. If you use the shock rifle, then you know what I mean.

I must say I prefer to use the numpad... All the keys inline, enough keys within reach to customize, and I won't have to connect anything new to the 'puter when I want to play...

What do you mean Q 'bout the scroll wheel? What to use it for?

The Belkin website says something about it being for throttle control...
I would consider something like that myself but I have reasonably slender fingers and find I can type and use wsad key combo without any real problems. The only problem is my little finger gets a bit sore if I am crouching for any length of time in counter-strike as it almost gets folded in half pressing ctrl...

same here. it hurts most when playing Deus Ex and i have to sneak around all the time

Arris & Ai Hate, how much power do you need to press CTRL? :giddy:

I fall into the traditionalist class too. I find it easier and better for me to use a mouse and the keyboard combo. I have played friends with trackballs and whipped them good. I use to whip my friends in Duke with a keyboard/mouse combo and them using a joystick.

Its not the power Mict, its the crunched up position that gets to be a pain. Place your finger on wasd and get your little finger to the control key... Maybe its more crushed on this laptop but its not comfortable. Maybe I should just switch to another key for crouch... but which one for CS???? qerfgzxc tab caps lock shift are all taken up!

hehe. the thing is that just imagine the following:
playing Deus Ex, crounching with CTRL pressed with my little finger, and leaning right by pressing "E" with my index finger and trying to move a bit more to the left cause the enemy might see me by pressing A with my ring finger. then i need to swich my weapon to my laser point installed pistol which hotkey's assigned as "1". so now i'm trying to press "1" with my middle finger. so now that i've got the pistol, i need to activate the laser sight with the hot key "G", while moving forward with "W"...
and, yes, i'm always crouching...
that's a lot of work, isn't it :giddy:

just because you can beat your friends that use joystick does not mean that joystick is worse.

It means your friends using joystick are not as good as you. I would doubt that you could beat the fellar who won the Q2 tournament in 2001. That being the case then you could have been beaten by a joysticker.

Configuration and layout are critical most people who settle on joystick are using a left hand aim method with joystick in right hand for weapons and movement.

Mouse in left hand (Note: I am a righty but this seems to work best)
Joystick and its twenty buttons in my right.

I touch the keyboard when needed although other than chats I have not needed it.

Hat N Special wep 1
Hat S Reload
Hat E Primary weapon
Hat W Grenade

Joy 1 Fire
joy 2 Crouch
Joy 3 Activate/alternate
Joy 4 Jump
Joy 5 6 7 8 Game critical voice binds ( need ammo, medic , incomming, disarm the dynamite.)

X axis Move LR
Y axis Move FB

Mouse Aim
MB1 strafe left
MB2 Strafe right
MB3 Zoom
MWup zoom in
MWdown zoom out

Left twist on joystick is sprint

Keyboard for out of reach keys.

keyboard players have to move from the action to do some of these functions I don't

I am missing one function that is killing me but i simply need to add a 5 button mouse to my config. In RTCW as a LT calling in artillery with binoculars is still a keyboard function for me.

I use Arrows + Numpad for FPS games, as then I have all the keys I need, within reach easily, without the problem of W&S not being aligned properly.

as far as alignment being a problem this is not a problem with the ms precision 2, sidewinder precision pro, and most of the good sticks out there.

I have never had to calibrate.

Before Quake 2 came out, I played Wolfenstein, Doom, Doom II and even Quake with just the keyboard. Went as far as using the mouselook feature with the keyboard. Forgot how I did that though; but I did managed to win a competition

Ever since Quake 2, it was Keyboard + Mouse all the way like most of you. It's just like a norm ever since coz most of the new games use that kinda controls by default

I only don't like the scroll wheel because I have to take my index finger off the strafe right key to use it, possibly putting my life in danger. I would rather have it around my 8 way pad somewhere.