Hello everyone!

 

First of all, Goshee's Newcomers Guide was extremely useful, but I'm looking for help on a more fundamental level.

 

I was wondering if anyone had any good tips or guides on how to play PC MMOs in general. I've been a console gamer for years, and having only recently started PC gaming, I'm a little overwhelmed by the stock swtor controls and this whole keyboard/mouse thing.

 

My biggest struggles are basic things like not being able to turn fast enough, having trouble facing enemies, using the left hand to both move into melee range and attack, etc. Mechanically, I have no idea what I'm doing and I feel like I should try to learn while I'm new before I develop bad habits. Maybe it's just a matter of being clumsy until I get the hang of it though, I'm not sure..

 

So, does anyone else remember having difficulties when they first started playing MMOs? What did you do to get over them? Do you have any tips to help me and other newbies get the hang of things faster, particularly with controls?

 

Thanks so much!

I have been MMOing since 2k and the whole WASD thing never took control wise and still doesn;t. I found arrow keys to be your friend on a standard keyboard and the merc stealth keyboard is just awesome cause you can actually use righthand mouse and all controls left.

 

Change the shortcuts and keys to your liking in the options pages. PC games are extrmeley customizeable to millions of differant players tastes and physical needs.

 

If you are more of a clicker ( which I still am) make sure to have all 3-5 hotbars on screen and fill them up with stuff you will use often.

 

It will take time, but you will get better with it. Games are alot less complex user wise than they used to be. You will find your flow once things are set for your playstyle.

well, judging from your post, you seem to be turning using the QD (AD?) keys. you shouldn't because those are too slow, as you mentioned. you should be using the mouse to turn, by holding the right mouse button and moving your mouse around. it's faster and more accurate.

 

as for the Q and D keys, you should bind "strafe left" and "strafe right" to those 2. these are more useful, but more on that in a bit.

 

as for the "movement and attack at the same time", there is rarely a need to do so at the same time. when you're attacking in melee combat, you usually don't need to move and attack at the same time. when you're at range, you don't need to move either.

 

unlike games like CoD or BF, when an attack is used, whether it hits or misses is nearly always determined by random numbers. you don't need to aim, and you can't use your reaction speed to avoid attacks. TOR is a slower paced game, where skill is not measured in reaction speed or dexterity, but by the attacks you choose to use when and against what target.

 

however, sometimes you will have to move to another location, because the enemy used a skill that spawned something under you that causes damage. something like a grenade in CoD, you want to get out of it quickly. that's why you should have Q and D (or A and D) bound to "strafe left" and "strafe right", so you can move while still looking at your target. meanwhile, you can still use your other fingers to cast attacks on the move.

 

this is the basics of it, i'm sure other people can explain it better or easier to understand.

For most PC gamers the standard set-up is

 

w

a s d + Mouselook (I'll explain as I go)

 

for your left hand moving forward, backward, left and right.

 

Your Middle finger will rest on the "W", your pointer on the "D", and your ring finger on "A". Your middle finger will drop down to hist "S" to move your character back.

 

Your ring finger will also handle "TAB" which will cycle through your enemies.

 

If you use a voice chat client, your pinky will usually hit "LEFT CTRL" to activate it if it's push-to-talk. I find mumble with voice activation helps negate the need for this additional keypress.

 

For your standard array of abilities you would use 1 - 5 on the keyboard to press with your fingers.

 

Ringer finger - 1 , 2 - if it suits you then you can have your middle finger press 2.

Middle finger - Stays on W and S primarily

Pointer finger - 3 , 4 , 5

 

I activate a second hotbar and keymap them to "ALT+ 1 - 5" as well. This allows me to use the same fingers to activate 5 more abilites as long as I press the modifier "ALT" with my thumb.

 

Thumb - Spacebar and the ALT modifier

 

Once you get comfortable with your hand positioning you really want to master what we call Mouse Looking or Mouse turning (there are other names). This is simply holding down the right mouse button while moving your character with WASD.

 

This gives you a faster freedom of movement and less jerky movement actions over just using WASD. What's also nice about this is your left and right movement keys (A and D) now become more of a straif key then a turn key. So you can run sideways either direction more easily.

 

There is more there but that's a starting point. It takes time and practice to get it all down and I'm helping a friend IRL with this as well. It could also benefit you to get an MMO geared keyboard with a more friendly layout for newbies to the genre and computer WASD gaming or macro pad like the Logitech G13. I don't use this but I have a friend who does and he loves it because the WASD gets taken over by a thumb joystick on the pad, leaving your fingers open to just using keymapped abilities.

Your plan is good, to start out right instead of forming bad habits. Personally, I prefer to move wasd over to esdf, as it give you an extra column of easily accessible keybinds. For the same reason, I get rebind the crouch/sit/down key to shift-space, so space is all vertical movement. This gives me the following easily accessible binds, without taking my hand off center, 3456qazxcvgtrw and shift variants of each, plus shift esdf, and shift extra mouse buttons. While turning with the keyboard kinda works for pve, you will get wrecked turning at that speed in pvp. Use the mouse to turn. Also learn jump shots early, where you're running in one direction and jump up, and while in the air, spin around with mouse and use an instant ability on something chasing you, then turn back around before landing. Its an invaluable pvp and kiting ability.

 

I don't pay much attention to ability names, but rather basic concepts, e.g. regardless of class, if I have an interupt, it'll be Shift-C. AoE abilities end up around Q and W, primary abilities at cvgrt, killing blows z, defensives a and shiftdirectionals-, and cooldowns on the numbers, with longer, more important ones farther out (e.g. 6) where i'm less likely to fat finger them. You'll probably come up with a totally different strat, but by 2nd or 3rd character, it'll be routine.

I've played MMOs for years and I personally never use WASD. You can move with the mouse. Pressing both Left and Right Button will move you forward and moving the mouse will change your direction. I always use my right hand for movement and my left hand to target and attack. You can change targets with the tab key. Put you best/most used attack combos in the 1234 slots. Look at remapping your keys. If you go into your options you can add additional toolbars on the right and left side of the screen. You can map your F keys to those toolbars. For example the left bank can be F1,F2, etc. and the right bank can be Shift-F1, Shift-F2, etc. I place my heals and stims on the left and my out of combat stuff like instant travel on the right. Basically try and organize your toolbars so they make sense to you and you can quickly use them in combat. You might group all your range attacks together, your heals and stims in another group, you meleee in another, etc. Play around with your UI and do what makes sense to you.

 

BTW A gaming keyboard really helps. You can program the G function keys for your primary attacks, heals, etc. You can use different banks of keys for different suituations. Hope this helps.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Owsley

Thanks a lot guys, all these tips are really helpful. I'll experiment with the arrow keys and number pad as Kwaiden described, and I'll also try to use the mouse to turn rather than the q/e or a/d keys as the rest of you suggested. I feel like I was already trying to mouse turn, but was just using left-click rather than right. I'll get the hang of it eventually.

 

Also, thanks Platus for talking a bit about PvP techniques. I'll definitely come back to it once I know what I'm doing.

Thanks a lot guys, all these tips are really helpful. I'll experiment with the arrow keys and number pad as Kwaiden described, and I'll also try to use the mouse to turn rather than the q/e or a/d keys as the rest of you suggested. I feel like I was already trying to mouse turn, but was just using left-click rather than right. I'll get the hang of it eventually.

 

Also, thanks Platus for talking a bit about PvP techniques. I'll definitely come back to it once I know what I'm doing.

 

I use s+f, in conjunction with the mouse, to straft. Also, the left mouse button moves your camera, the right mouse button turns you, and both mouse buttons make you run,,,a handy alternative if you need to take your left hand off w/e while running.

Thanks a lot guys, all these tips are really helpful. I'll experiment with the arrow keys and number pad as Kwaiden described, and I'll also try to use the mouse to turn rather than the q/e or a/d keys as the rest of you suggested. I feel like I was already trying to mouse turn, but was just using left-click rather than right. I'll get the hang of it eventually.

 

Also, thanks Platus for talking a bit about PvP techniques. I'll definitely come back to it once I know what I'm doing.

 

Long time hardcore mmo raider.

 

It's all about a balance of w a d and the mouse (yes, I left out s). Learn to strafe: hold down the right mouse button and press a or d, sometimes in conjunction with w. Use the same had to use skills from 1-6. You can also bind skills to q e r t d f1-f4, extraneous mouse buttons, etc.

 

You don't need q and e for sideways movement. A and d + hold down right click is better.

 

I personally put my ring ringer on 1, middle on 2, index on 3, etc. Some people shift that to the left one and use their pinky on 1. It's all preference.

 

I highly recommend against arrow keys.

 

Good job asking. You are the type of player who wants to get better, and will become non-bad very quickly.

Edited December 13, 2011 by The_Pro

Hello! I came from a console background and went right into a BIG MMO myself. This is personal preference, but I strongly suggest you check out the Belkin Nostromo N52TE Gamepad. It's a 16 key keyboard that fits in one hand with a directional pad that lies right under your thumb. You can use the directional pad for forward, backward and strafing while using the mouse to turn. It's EXTREMELY easy once you get it figured out. This also leaves your fingers available strictly for button mashing. If you start with it now, it'll allow you to skip right over being a "clicker" as most newcomers are and move right to keybinding. I absolutely swear by this product and noticed HUGE gains in my play once I set it up to my liking.

 

One word of advice. If you do check it out and get one, delete the default keybinds for the diagonals on the thumbpad. This will allow strafing while moving forward and back. You don't need to add any other command. Just leave them blank. That's been a nightmare for a lot of us to figure out.

 

Feel free to contact me on Space Slug Republic side with questions. Name is Toxan. Good luck!

Hey there .

I wanted to write something myself, but I remembered this little guide. It's fantastic. The player in general is very good too and his class videos for SWTOR are very much worth watching if you're new to this whole thing.

 

http://taugrim.com/2011/04/07/guide-to-strafing-movement-and-keybindings/

Do what i did when i first played WoW. Don't look at any guides just go in as you are so you can fully experience MMOs. You'll meet people on the way that'll give you a few pointers but i honestly think you should stay away from guides. It was fun for me to learn how to play without worthless guides. I think if you really need a guide it would have been provided with the game.

If you start with it now, it'll allow you to skip right over being a "clicker" as most newcomers are and move right to keybinding.

 

Or just use a normal keyboard but still don't be a clicker.

 

Obvious salesman.

Or just use a normal keyboard but still don't be a clicker.

 

Obvious salesman.

 

 

Actually I'm a Real Estate Appraiser and tournament volleyball player. As I said, it's personal preference and it worked great for me. There are a lot of MMO and FPS players that have fallen in love with these style devices. They open up a ton of options that are difficult for people with smaller hands or that aren't super familiar with keyboard layouts. They aren't for everyone, but there are a lot of us that'll never look back.

I think the first response said it best.

activate the other action bars on the UI.

use the mouse to move (I call it 'driving' as you can steer and move the camera or do both.)

put your favorite/most often used moves at 1-4 or 1-5.

 

Personally, I don't do a lot of key-swapping or changing key binds. I use 'tab targeting' most of the time, tho clicking on targets is more accurate (but harder to do in raids).

 

good luck!

I caution against becoming a clicker if you want to be competitive at PvP. My first two years of playing WoW I played a holy pally which did not have an emphasis on movement. When I started running a rogue I was getting destroyed because I couldn't keep the enemy in front of me. I eventually had to keybind most of my abilities and hide the interface to force myself to mouse turn and use hotkeys for abilities.

I used to be a clicker and arrow key user, but one day decided that there was probably a good reason that so many people used wasd and decided to press through the growing pains. It was very much worth it, so much more control.

 

Keybindings are your very special friend, get to know them.

 

Two things that I use that help me in the area of keybinding accessibility.

 

1. Nostromo Speedpad
   
2. Razer Naga
   

 

Yes, a lot of buttons to make us of, but you needn't use them all.

 

I standard keyboard and mouse will work just fine, these couple of additions just add to the fun.

 

All the best as you learn a new mode of gaming.

If you're new to MMOs and want to get used to things more quickly and avoid starting bad habits, I'd recommend learning to move with the mouse and use the keyboard to hit keybinds, as other people have recommended. If you're the kind of person who likes a reason for doing things, there's a few main reasons to learn to play like this:

 

1. As you have noticed, there is a limit to how fast you can turn when you use the keyboard to do it. It's fairly trivial to stay at the back of a person who is using the keyboard to turn, so that they'll never be able to face you to use their abilities.

 

2. Using your mouse to click on abilities overworks your mouse pointer, and leaves your keyboard hand doing almost nothing. You're not only using your mouse to select targets, but you're also using it to click on abilities, and your mouse simply can't be in two places at once. People who click their keybindings can eventually get used to using abilities in order quickly while standing still, but will never be able to perform combinations of selecting targets and using abilities as quickly as a person who is using two input devices to do the same thing.

 

3. Using your mouse to click on abilities overworks your eyes. Again, your eyes can't be in two places at once, and having to take your eyes off the action to look down at a section of the screen which is irrelevant to the fight and which never changes is tiring, and in complex encounters and PVP situations, can be deadly.

 

I've found that the easiest way to do this is to get rid of the "turn left" and "turn right" keybindings, and to replace them with "strafe left" and "strafe right". Using strafe + the mouse to turn allows you to easily circle around targets, facing them the entire time. Move forward with the forward key or the left + right mouse buttons as needed, and use the strafe keys to move sideways, and use the mouse to turn and select targets as needed. (Limit your use of the 'walk backwards' button as much as possible... It makes you move slower than going forward or strafing, and doesn't do anything for you that clever strafing and mouse-turning can not.)

Edited December 28, 2011 by WhatNext

is there anyway to stick the camera pan to the keyboard? i understand looking with the mouse is faster but i would prefer to not use the mouse at all. any suggestions?