Does anyone play this keyboard only?

FriendPie

FriendPie

Member
Gender
Male
I got a new a new laptop and I'm trying to play this keyboard only (don't want to lug around a controller with me everywhere), and I gotta say the experience is pretty lousy compared to a controller.

Character movement is bizarre (you spin in place with Q and E), turning around 180° makes you walk, and limited key binding options make it a subpar experience. Is there anything I can do to help make it more fluid? I can get used to it, but want to make sure I'm not missing something.

I know the game was made for a controller. I'm just kinda bummed the experience isn't as good with a keyboard.
 
Last edited:
I play with a QWERTY keyboard myself, and I'll gladly help you out here!
The movement's a little stiff, but I switched it over to WASD as that makes things easier. Next was the customization. Surprisingly, I found that using the arrow keys as the face buttons works really well! You only have down, left, and right at your disposal though. Up is reserved for turning the camera behind you. Obviously you also have ctrl to toggle your second layout. Now for things like hotswapping between items, symbol chat, etc, I personally use the End key, but if that doesn't work for you, I would recommend the shift key or forward slash key. Next would be the menu, which is the Home key by default. I recommend setting it to enter or backspace, which are much easier to reach and muscle memory can adapt to it easily.
Since this is the PC port, you also have access to the numpad keys! These are extremely useful with PSO, and can be used by pressing the corresponding number while you have your action selected in the Customize menu. I personally recommend putting stuff like mates and fluids on here to save space on your "face buttons" but that's just me. Hope this helps!
 
Hey man, It's been a second since I played. But I always remember playing with just the keyboard? I usually just use the WASD keys to move around and when your facing the direction you would like to look in you can press the "up arrow" I believe and it will set the camera to look in that direction. It seems to work ok, running around and slapping up arrow if you wanna look in that direction or not pressing it to just maneuver. I don't use the q & e keys at all. I think on xbox this button used to be bound to the trigger or something.
 
Zeero said:
I play with a QWERTY keyboard myself, and I'll gladly help you out here!
The movement's a little stiff, but I switched it over to WASD as that makes things easier. Next was the customization. Surprisingly, I found that using the arrow keys as the face buttons works really well! You only have down, left, and right at your disposal though. Up is reserved for turning the camera behind you. Obviously you also have ctrl to toggle your second layout. Now for things like hotswapping between items, symbol chat, etc, I personally use the End key, but if that doesn't work for you, I would recommend the shift key or forward slash key. Next would be the menu, which is the Home key by default. I recommend setting it to enter or backspace, which are much easier to reach and muscle memory can adapt to it easily.
Since this is the PC port, you also have access to the numpad keys! These are extremely useful with PSO, and can be used by pressing the corresponding number while you have your action selected in the Customize menu. I personally recommend putting stuff like mates and fluids on here to save space on your "face buttons" but that's just me. Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

I guess because I have a laptop keyboard things feel a little strange. No num pad and my up and down arrow keys are top and bottom of a single key (size-wise). I just feel a lot slower on keyboard compared to controller, and I think my keyboard's size and layout is what's messing me up.

I keep playing around with it and see if it clicks!
 
A laptop keyboard for this game is pretty lame. I used one on all of USBB and while it was workable, it was by no means comfortable and probably caused more than a few errors when it mattered. Stick to the default controls and you will get used to it sooner or later; if not rebind everything in a way you like with another application if needed.

A standard desktop QWERTY is pretty great though. It'll let you do more too unless you use macros to extend keyboard shortcuts to a controller. Still can't do a 1:1 emulation of PSOGC controls with a Gamecube controller though, meh (close doesn't cut it!)
 
FriendPie said:
I got a new a new laptop and I'm trying to play this keyboard only (don't want to lug around a controller with me everywhere), and I gotta say the experience is pretty lousy compared to a controller.

Character movement is bizarre (you spin in place with Q and E), turning around 180° makes you walk, and limited key binding options make it a subpar experience. Is there anything I can do to help make it more fluid? I can get used to it, but want to make sure I'm not missing something.

I know the game was made for a controller. I'm just kinda bummed the experience isn't as good with a keyboard.
Click to expand...
How some ppl have Mastered Keyboard Kombat mew'll never know...but they DO IT Awesomely! Purrsonally mew's used Xbox360 pads for over 12 years now and LOVE it! =3
 
You will get used to it. I played keyboard only for a very long time, only since last summer I actually also use a controller. The only thing that is not that great is aiming with single target guns but you will get used to it eventually. Keyboard does reign supreme when handling a force imo, having way more spells to your quick disposal.
 
When I first started on Ephinea I used kb only for like a year, but I exclusively played RA and FO (w/o s-ranks) so it was much more manageable. You'll get used to it for sure, but you'll always be at a minor disadvantage because you have less control over movement.

I hate playing any game w/ a controller on PC so it took me a while to use one.
 
You can certainly play the entire game with a keyboard, many people like it. It is, however, objectively worse than the controller. The keyboard limits your movement and targeting options, two things that are of fundamental importance in this game. The only "advantages" keyboard supplies are the use of hot keys and faster scroll speed . If you make good use of the "quick menu system" provided by the game, the utility of hot keys are almost non-existent. (You can do everything the hot keys do, but better with just your thumbs and an index finger.) If you still prefer a few hot keys, there are several programs that will allow you to bind keyboard inputs to your controller. These programs also allow you to use keyboard scroll speed on controller.

TLDR: Keyboard is best at typing messages in game, controller is probably better for everything else.
 
I've played on keyboard since returning to BB. Does not compare at all to the original experience with the DC or GC controller. Everything was so intuitive and movement was via joystick. Playing on keyboard, my character is often a little too far to the right or the left and unnecessary time is spent playing with the directional keys to get the proper position in order to target the enemy. Not to mention all the shortcuts one was able to do on DC and GC- assigning quick phrases to F keys and being able to switch weapons on the fly by simply holding R trigger and pressing Y then selecting your weapon of choice. Never had targeting issues back then so I will be getting a controller and configuring it as closely as possible to the original mechanics that worked for this game so perfectly.
 
Keyboard only is best for FO if you nuke a lot. F2 pulls up the equipment menu if you want to change merges on the fly and if you're holding a controller, you have to

1) let go of of one hand of the controller and move it to the keyboard to press F2
2) perform the equipment change with some akward mix of keyboard and controller
3) exit the menu and move your hand back to the controller

Controller movement feels a bit more natural with keyboard sometimes, but I don't think it's that significant.
 
Aside from GC I've been exclusively playing PSO on a Keyboard and it feels much more natural to me.
 
I've been playing with controller since the game released on Dreamcast, but I lost my custom xbo elite to windows xp driver so I haven't had access to my controller on my retro rig since August 2018 lol. Hasn't really been a big issue for me though since I can swap between the two pretty easily.

FriendPie said:
Character movement is bizarre (you spin in place with Q and E), turning around 180° makes you walk.
Click to expand...
This is a nice pro for me since it allows me to control the map better in Battle Mode. You can get this functionality on a controller by linking the A and D keys to Left and Right on the right analog stick.
 
Controller is objectively better and I swore by keyboard for a decade. Also the "KB is better for FO!" sentiment is horribly incorrect. You can easily use a button mapping program (I recommend antimicro) to map 0-9 to unused controller buttons. All my needed techs are mapped to the D pad, left/right triggers/bumpers, up/down/left/right on the right joystick, etc... The only advantage a keyboard gives is quicker access to typing. You can easily map every key, macro or shortcut to any modern game controller with minimal work. It makes a big difference in high stress quests like PW4.
 
Maybe eventually i'll set up my controller for the game if I ever get hella invested in it, but right now I'm still at a level where keyboard only is appropriate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top