Any game dev that does not allow players to set their keybinds needs to be shot. That is all.
Just yesterday my voice push-to-talk was causing cutscene skips in Vermintide 2, and there was no way to stop that. Similarly back in Soul Caliber 2 the default controller setups were assine, fortunately it did have per controller customization. It's especially bad with games that use "C" for crouch. Control is the key i'v been using for crouch since BF1942, why the fuck are devs still trying to use "C"?
"C" to crouch is helpful in games that have certain contextual movement (sliding/slide jumping and the like.) If I'm sprinting with "shift" and want to initiate a slide it's way easier to use "C" than "ctrl".
Using C to crouch means you have to move your finger off WASD which hinders mobility. I can easily keep shift pressed with the tip of my pinky and use the base of my pinky finger to press CTRL at the same time, and then slap space bar with my thumb to jump while keeping total control over WASD.
That's pretty much mandatory in parkour-heavy games like Warframe where you run, crouch and jump all the time.
It's also more ergonomic and comfortable because my relaxed hand posture is right above those keys. Getting to C requires an awkward movement of either my index finger or thumb.
"C" to crouch is helpful in games that have certain contextual movement (sliding/slide jumping and the like.) If I'm sprinting with "shift" and want to initiate a slide it's way easier to use "C" than "ctrl".
Just give players the option. Configuration is one of the benefits of PC gaming, and it's typically not an expensive feature to implement. (unless you did some weird hardcoding)
Maybe I've got muscle memory from similar games where it is alt-1. Maybe I find alt-1 more comfortable to press than ctrl-1. Maybe I really love my keyboard overall but my left control key is a bit temperamental/sticky and hitting right control + 1 is super awkward. Maybe I'm just OCD or contrarian. Or probably a bunch more reasons.
The same question though, also applies: Why did the dev pick ctrl-1 instead of alt-1? Maybe the dev is the autistic weirdo?
I mean, there's no reason not to have rebindable keys, but if the default control scheme already suits my preferences, or is close enough, there's also no reason to get bent out of shape about not having them. Basically, totally depends on the game, but prefer having the option.
Also, pet peeve...if you're going to make the effort to provide the option, provide it for all keys/actions. A mix of bindable and nonbindable pisses me off, as does "missing" settings, e.g. in a real-time with pause game having the option to pause for almost every event, but for there be glaring omissions.
There's always peripheral emulation to consider. Like I have a steam controller and sometimes the easiest way to fudge around compatibility issues is to have to touchpad work like a mouse rather than an analogue stick and mess with the bindings.
Likewise my mouse has scrollwheel tilt switches and so many games don't recognize them that I have the default profile set up to make them emulate Z and C key presses so I can just bind them that way.
For clarity, when I say "everything" I mean "everything reasonable." I don't need to flip my mouse controls ninety degrees or anything weird. I just mean, if you're going to give some options, why not provide a complete feature set?
Also, I'm not obsessing. I said I prefer rebindable keys, but its not a dealbreaker by any means, if the preset control scheme is reasonable. Again, not sure why you wouldn't include rebinds though.
My keybinds are not autistic and perfectly reasonable. Everyone else's defaults are just retarded. (That's the position of 90+% of gamers and we're all right)
Depends on the game. For example key binding in fighting game can go a long way to alleviate wrist strain by rebinding to the numpad instead of the usual J K L and stuff.
Rebinding a game like Star Citizen which has a lot of binds and you can make a lot of those binds be alt+ something also helps a lot to have most things in your default hand position instead of having to move your hand about.
If it's something simple and the keybinds aren't too bad then I won't really care. That said it's always nice to have the option.
Sometimes also you just want to unbind something you'll never use.
Example, in Chromium browsers ctrl-d instantly adds a bookmark for the page and then you have to click on a popup to remove it. If the site was already in bookmarks I don't want to remove it.
This is really close to ctrl-f which I use a lot so I accidentally press ctrl-d way too often.
Browser doesn't have any way to change its built in keybindings, but Disable Keyboard Shortcuts extension at least lets me override it with nothing.
I like to see how the game feels with default keys.
If I hate it, I rebind.
Or sometimes it's how the key is pressed. I gotta sit there and hold the button to open every single thing as I'm searching through a house or whatever? Yeah, no thanks. Can I rebind that to just a single click?
If I can't rebind, I find a way to deal with it. If the gameplay itself becomes boring because of key binds/how it makes you interact with the world, maybe the game isn't very good.
I want to be able to rebind anything for any reason. I use a gamepad + mkb at the same time and I want maximum flexibility. Usually programs like joy to key or rewasd are fine but it’s nice to have the option in game.
It makes a lot of sense to be able to map them if you are playing something like a shooter with special abilities or even an mmo or moba and you have a mouse with many buttons. You want to map those to different abilities. I also liked to be able to map those G1-G6 buttons on my old keyboard, but I've not used that in a long time.
I'm somebody who alt-tabs out of games quite a bit sometimes depending on what I'm doing.
That reminds me of another annoyance. Some games have Alt as a toggle. If that's not rebindable, that's pretty annoying, since if you ever tab out you often end up toggling the setting.
I don't like having the light activated and I'm somebody who alt-tabs out of games quite a bit sometimes depending on what I'm doing. Now I think about my favourite thing to whine about with keybindings is how in some games you've got an autorun key and they decide to bind it to the numlock.
Very much my reason why I hate utilising tab and caps lock key to assign them as normal functions in games because they have practical uses in other situations outside the games.
What do you use as a replacement for WASD? And does it depend on what genre it is? I do FPS gaming a lot so WASD feels pretty natural to me.
I simply move the entire scheme to the right by one key, so ESDF and I apply that to all the games I play on keyboard. Don't ask me why but I prefer using normal alphabet keys for the most functions. Spacebar is the only exception. Even the shift key, I prefer to not use it as jump button. But I feel someone like me is minority.
I played on console for years so I got used to not expecting the option. Only thing I don't like is when a fast paced competitive game puts actions I need to take "on the run" on characters like left ctrl, Z, and X. I always remap those early if I can.
I almost always use whatever the default configuration is. Unless it is blatantly inconvenient and retarded I just think of it as part of the game and adapt.
Any game dev that does not allow players to set their keybinds needs to be shot. That is all.
Just yesterday my voice push-to-talk was causing cutscene skips in Vermintide 2, and there was no way to stop that. Similarly back in Soul Caliber 2 the default controller setups were assine, fortunately it did have per controller customization. It's especially bad with games that use "C" for crouch. Control is the key i'v been using for crouch since BF1942, why the fuck are devs still trying to use "C"?
Why are all your ideas about games so retarded?
"C" to crouch is helpful in games that have certain contextual movement (sliding/slide jumping and the like.) If I'm sprinting with "shift" and want to initiate a slide it's way easier to use "C" than "ctrl".
Using C to crouch means you have to move your finger off WASD which hinders mobility. I can easily keep shift pressed with the tip of my pinky and use the base of my pinky finger to press CTRL at the same time, and then slap space bar with my thumb to jump while keeping total control over WASD.
That's pretty much mandatory in parkour-heavy games like Warframe where you run, crouch and jump all the time.
It's also more ergonomic and comfortable because my relaxed hand posture is right above those keys. Getting to C requires an awkward movement of either my index finger or thumb.
But if people can change the keybinding then in the help tutorials you have to look up what the actual key is.... that's sooo much work...
"C" to crouch is helpful in games that have certain contextual movement (sliding/slide jumping and the like.) If I'm sprinting with "shift" and want to initiate a slide it's way easier to use "C" than "ctrl".
Just give players the option. Configuration is one of the benefits of PC gaming, and it's typically not an expensive feature to implement. (unless you did some weird hardcoding)
Typically done in console ports.
Why does it not make sense at all if I want to change, say, ctrl-1 to alt-1 or shift-1?
Maybe I've got muscle memory from similar games where it is alt-1. Maybe I find alt-1 more comfortable to press than ctrl-1. Maybe I really love my keyboard overall but my left control key is a bit temperamental/sticky and hitting right control + 1 is super awkward. Maybe I'm just OCD or contrarian. Or probably a bunch more reasons.
The same question though, also applies: Why did the dev pick ctrl-1 instead of alt-1? Maybe the dev is the autistic weirdo?
I mean, there's no reason not to have rebindable keys, but if the default control scheme already suits my preferences, or is close enough, there's also no reason to get bent out of shape about not having them. Basically, totally depends on the game, but prefer having the option.
Also, pet peeve...if you're going to make the effort to provide the option, provide it for all keys/actions. A mix of bindable and nonbindable pisses me off, as does "missing" settings, e.g. in a real-time with pause game having the option to pause for almost every event, but for there be glaring omissions.
There's always peripheral emulation to consider. Like I have a steam controller and sometimes the easiest way to fudge around compatibility issues is to have to touchpad work like a mouse rather than an analogue stick and mess with the bindings.
Likewise my mouse has scrollwheel tilt switches and so many games don't recognize them that I have the default profile set up to make them emulate Z and C key presses so I can just bind them that way.
For clarity, when I say "everything" I mean "everything reasonable." I don't need to flip my mouse controls ninety degrees or anything weird. I just mean, if you're going to give some options, why not provide a complete feature set?
Also, I'm not obsessing. I said I prefer rebindable keys, but its not a dealbreaker by any means, if the preset control scheme is reasonable. Again, not sure why you wouldn't include rebinds though.
Lack of keybinding is the hallmark of indie shit.
And console ports.
My keybinds are not autistic and perfectly reasonable. Everyone else's defaults are just retarded. (That's the position of 90+% of gamers and we're all right)
Depends on the game. For example key binding in fighting game can go a long way to alleviate wrist strain by rebinding to the numpad instead of the usual J K L and stuff.
Rebinding a game like Star Citizen which has a lot of binds and you can make a lot of those binds be alt+ something also helps a lot to have most things in your default hand position instead of having to move your hand about.
If it's something simple and the keybinds aren't too bad then I won't really care. That said it's always nice to have the option.
Sometimes also you just want to unbind something you'll never use.
Example, in Chromium browsers ctrl-d instantly adds a bookmark for the page and then you have to click on a popup to remove it. If the site was already in bookmarks I don't want to remove it.
This is really close to ctrl-f which I use a lot so I accidentally press ctrl-d way too often.
Browser doesn't have any way to change its built in keybindings, but Disable Keyboard Shortcuts extension at least lets me override it with nothing.
I like to see how the game feels with default keys.
If I hate it, I rebind.
Or sometimes it's how the key is pressed. I gotta sit there and hold the button to open every single thing as I'm searching through a house or whatever? Yeah, no thanks. Can I rebind that to just a single click?
If I can't rebind, I find a way to deal with it. If the gameplay itself becomes boring because of key binds/how it makes you interact with the world, maybe the game isn't very good.
Atomic Heart has left the chat.
I want to be able to rebind anything for any reason. I use a gamepad + mkb at the same time and I want maximum flexibility. Usually programs like joy to key or rewasd are fine but it’s nice to have the option in game.
It makes a lot of sense to be able to map them if you are playing something like a shooter with special abilities or even an mmo or moba and you have a mouse with many buttons. You want to map those to different abilities. I also liked to be able to map those G1-G6 buttons on my old keyboard, but I've not used that in a long time.
What games are people complaining about?
I can’t play without mouse look inversion.
That's THE single weirdest option that always makes me wonder "Why does that even exist?".
I mean yea, in flight sims, but 1st and 3rd person shooters? What is wrong with people?
Yeah. I’m too old 😂
I hate using WASD and normally do not buy games that do not let you rebind the keys. I find using caps lock and tab key as normal keys awkward.
That reminds me of another annoyance. Some games have Alt as a toggle. If that's not rebindable, that's pretty annoying, since if you ever tab out you often end up toggling the setting.
I remember when I tried having tab as boost in Elite: Dangerous. That didn't last past the hangar, and neither did my ship.
Very much my reason why I hate utilising tab and caps lock key to assign them as normal functions in games because they have practical uses in other situations outside the games.
I simply move the entire scheme to the right by one key, so ESDF and I apply that to all the games I play on keyboard. Don't ask me why but I prefer using normal alphabet keys for the most functions. Spacebar is the only exception. Even the shift key, I prefer to not use it as jump button. But I feel someone like me is minority.
I played on console for years so I got used to not expecting the option. Only thing I don't like is when a fast paced competitive game puts actions I need to take "on the run" on characters like left ctrl, Z, and X. I always remap those early if I can.
Draconian binding philosophy is precisely why some games are known for the infamouse "claw grip."
Options will never be a detriment.
I almost always use whatever the default configuration is. Unless it is blatantly inconvenient and retarded I just think of it as part of the game and adapt.