controls cumbersome. Help!!

[SteelDisciple]

Ok, my wife and I finally got back into the game...but dang..I forgot how clumsy and un-user friendly the controls were!!

Is there a way I can make character movement by using the W A D S and one click for everything? I hate the fact you have to press and hold CTRL or ALT in order to do anything...can't I make it so I can do W A S D without entering chat mode?

[Yeargdribble]

Alright... I dunno how most people play but this is how me and my wife play. The natural layout is waaaay different than FPSs and being in first person (which isn't a good idea most of the time anyway) makes it more difficult because you don't strafe the way you would in a FPS.

It is fairly complicated and hard to explain but it definately works great and in a moment I may try to make a chart on Paint to show how it works.

Put your right hand over the number pad. You really need to do this because everything on the num pad is useful to you and within a fingers reach.

Basics
8 is forward (away from the screen) {middle finger}
2 is backward (toward the screen) {index}
4 is left {ring finger}
6 is right

You hold 8 to run and 4 and 6 make you 'lean' left or right. It gets easier as you do it but like I say it's not like a FPS.

5 toggles 1st and 3rd person PoV. There are very few reasons you would wanna be in 1st person for most of the game.

0 (or tab) will tab around your visable targets.

Up, Down, Left and Right will pan your camera around as you move. You will use this with your thumb in conjunction with 4, 8, and 6 to help you move around.

7 will toggle auto-run mode if you are already running.

The rest of the num pad

Enter is multi-function and is generally what you 'select' things with. This works in your list. If you target an NPC Enter will talk to them. If you are targeted on a foe it will bring up your attack menu.

- brings up your main menu and hitting it again brings up the other half of the main menu.

+ makes your chatlog box resize to full size. If you hit + and then Enter the chatbox will fill your entire screen afterwhich you can hit + again to select different portions of recent chatlog.

Hitting + 2 times without Enter inbetween will put a cursor on different effect you have such as spells like Protect and Shell. Also Signet, Foods, status ailments etc. You can hit ++ to look at them and what they do. Putting your cursor on certain ones and hitting enter will take it off.

+ is also used for certain functions in sub menus and its function will show up on the screen.



/ will toggle you between walk and run mode.

* if you are targeted on an object will lock you onto that target. You will get a red box around the target and it will say locked. You should make sure that if you are meleeing a monster you are target locked or you may not be able to 'see' it.

* will also make you rest if you don't have a target but I suggest something else for resting... I'll get to that next.


The main keyboard
For most of the keyboard you type. Like I said earlier you can use tab to tab around your targets. Holding Alt OR Ctrl+(certain keys) will have certain effects. Some I wouldn't suggest and are turned off by default. Here are some I find very useful.

Ctrl+I will immediately bring up your inventory
Ctrl+E will bring up your equipment display
Ctrl+H will make you heal. You can use * if you prefer but there are downsides to this most because you have to manually untarget whatever you are targeting to use it to rest and there are many times you want to rest and keep your target on target.

Esc will escape you out of pretty much everything you are in including canceling targets (but you still need to use * to unlock a target you are locked on).

When you set macros you will use Ctrl or Alt+a number to activate the macro that you have 'programmed'.

F1 will target you
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6 all of these rest will target people in your PT as they show up in the PT box at the bottom right of your screen. You are always at the top which is why you are F1.

F8 will target the nearest NPC whether it is a ??? on the ground. A friendly towns person or a mob you plan to fight.

Any other questions?

[Yeargdribble]

Sorry to double post. Here is a little chartish thing you can print to help you learn how to move around. The other keyboard stuff is pretty simple if you can get this working for you.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e240/Yeargdribble/numpad.jpg

[Lionx]

Config => Misc. => Keyboard => Compact. O_o that might help.

[escobert]

Config => Misc. => Keyboard => Compact. O_o that might help.
yeah that's what I switched to.

[SteelDisciple]

Compact helped a LOT thanks so much!! :)

One other question..i'm so used to controlling my characters direction with the mouse...is there a way to do this in FF Online a little easier? When I try it...my guy sort of runs all over because the mouse movement seems a little sluggish...

[Lionx]

This game was designed for a controller, so keyboard it is, mouse is useless.