I'm very interested in alternative input devices, and the alphagrip
looks like something I would like to try out. I've read up a bit on
the website and third-party reviews, but nothing has really addressed
the issue that would be most important to me:
How well does it function in Alterac Valley? ^^
I'm aware of the shift-click issue and the trackball speed, but they
both seem to have workarounds. I guess what I'm asking is if anybody
has been able to adapt well in using the AG to play their favorite
video games.
While I've seen reviews that address RTS and FPS games, these are not
really an issue as the mouse device is only responsible two degrees of
movement. My main concern is involving 3rd-person 3D games, where
manipulation of the camera along several axis simultaneously becomes an
issue... while jumping, rotate 180 degrees and look up while zooming
out the camera... that kind of thing.
Also, have you found any good mappings to WoW in particular? How does
it compare to your standard keyboard/mouse experience?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. ^^
-gray
As is, I think we might have to change some hotkeys for WoW. I just
ordered one this morning so after it comes I'll let you know how it
works out!
-Mike
> How well does it function in Alterac Valley? ^^
>
> I'm aware of the shift-click issue and the trackball speed, but they
> both seem to have workarounds. I guess what I'm asking is if anybody
> has been able to adapt well in using the AG to play their favorite
> video games.
I think that the grip is mostly better for WoW than a keyboard BUT I
largely say that as I never liked using the mouse for gaming. HOWEVER,
I don't like the mouse for gaming because in general it is too slow to
be shuffling it around everywhere.
Here is my binds for the grip in total. And below that are the reasons
I have ended up with it.
bind PAGEUP CHATPAGEUP
bind PAGEDOWN CHATPAGEDOWN
bind SHIFT-PAGEDOWN CHATBOTTOM
bind CTRL-PAGEUP COMBATLOGPAGEUP
bind CTRL-PAGEDOWN COMBATLOGPAGEDOWN
bind CTRL-SHIFT-PAGEDOWN COMBATLOGBOTTOM
bind CTRL-F5 SHAPESHIFTBUTTON5
bind CTRL-F6 SHAPESHIFTBUTTON6
bind CTRL-F7 SHAPESHIFTBUTTON7
bind CTRL-F8 SHAPESHIFTBUTTON8
bind CTRL-F9 SHAPESHIFTBUTTON9
bind CTRL-F10 SHAPESHIFTBUTTON10
bind SHIFT-1 MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON7
bind SHIFT-3 ACTIONPAGE3
bind SHIFT-4 ACTIONPAGE4
bind SHIFT-5 ACTIONPAGE5
bind SHIFT-6 ACTIONPAGE6
bind SHIFT-UP PREVIOUSACTIONPAGE
bind SHIFT-MOUSEWHEELUP PREVIOUSACTIONPAGE
bind SHIFT-DOWN NEXTACTIONPAGE
bind SHIFT-MOUSEWHEELDOWN NEXTACTIONPAGE
bind SHIFT-TAB TARGETPREVIOUSENEMY
bind CTRL-TAB TARGETNEARESTFRIEND
bind CTRL-SHIFT-TAB TARGETPREVIOUSFRIEND
bind SHIFT-F1 TARGETPET
bind SHIFT-F2 TARGETPARTYPET1
bind SHIFT-F3 TARGETPARTYPET2
bind SHIFT-F4 TARGETPARTYPET3
bind SHIFT-F5 TARGETPARTYPET4
bind G ACTIONBUTTON2
bind F8 TOGGLEBAG1
bind F9 TOGGLEBAG2
bind F10 TOGGLEBAG3
bind F11 TOGGLEBAG4
bind P ACTIONBUTTON12
bind SHIFT-I TARGETPARTYMEMBER2
bind SHIFT-P TARGETPARTYMEMBER4
bind SHIFT-SPACE TOGGLEWORLDSTATESCORES
bind SHIFT-M TOGGLEBATTLEFIELDMINIMAP
bind ESCAPE CAMERAZOOMIN
bind PRINTSCREEN SCREENSHOT
bind NUMPADMINUS MINIMAPZOOMOUT
bind CTRL-M TOGGLEMUSIC
bind CTRL-S TOGGLESOUND
bind CTRL-= MASTERVOLUMEUP
bind CTRL-- MASTERVOLUMEDOWN
bind ALT-Z TOGGLEUI
bind END NEXTVIEW
bind HOME PREVVIEW
bind CTRL-R TOGGLEFPS
bind CTRL-Y TOGGLESTATS
bind CTRL-Q TOGGLETRIS
bind CTRL-W TOGGLEPORTALS
bind CTRL-E TOGGLECOLLISION
bind ALT-B TOGGLEPLAYERBOUNDS
bind ALT-P TOGGLEPERFORMANCEDISPLAY
bind ALT-O TOGGLEPERFORMANCEVALUES
bind CTRL-P RESETPERFORMANCEVALUES
bind BUTTON2 TURNORACTION
bind BUTTON1 CAMERAORSELECTORMOVE
bind CTRL-BUTTON1 CAMERAORSELECTORMOVESTICKY
bind Q ACTIONBUTTON5
bind W ACTIONBUTTON4
bind J REPLY
bind X SITORSTAND
bind Z TOGGLESHEATH
bind ENTER OPENCHAT
bind BACKSPACE TOGGLERUN
bind D ACTIONBUTTON3
bind U ACTIONBUTTON7
bind , ACTIONBUTTON8
bind . ACTIONBUTTON9
bind B ACTIONBUTTON10
bind A ACTIONBUTTON11
bind SPACE JUMP
bind L TOGGLEQUESTLOG
bind C TOGGLEWORLDMAP
bind SHIFT-J TOGGLEBACKPACK
bind SHIFT-V OPENALLBAGS
bind DELETE CAMERAZOOMOUT
bind SHIFT-C TOGGLESOCIAL
bind SHIFT-L TOGGLECHARACTER0
bind SHIFT-N TARGETPARTYMEMBER1
bind SHIFT-O TARGETPARTYMEMBER3
bind Y OPENCHATSLASH
bind 1 SELFACTIONBUTTON1
bind 3 SELFACTIONBUTTON2
bind SHIFT-= SELFACTIONBUTTON3
bind - SELFACTIONBUTTON4
bind = SELFACTIONBUTTON5
bind 2 SELFACTIONBUTTON6
bind 4 SELFACTIONBUTTON7
bind / SELFACTIONBUTTON10
bind SHIFT-8 SELFACTIONBUTTON9
bind 9 SELFACTIONBUTTON11
bind 0 SELFACTIONBUTTON12
bind SHIFT-E SHAPESHIFTBUTTON2
bind SHIFT-S SHAPESHIFTBUTTON3
bind SHIFT-A SHAPESHIFTBUTTON4
bind ' MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON1
bind SHIFT-' MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON2
bind SHIFT-9 MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON3
bind SHIFT-[ MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON4
bind [ MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON5
bind SHIFT-/ MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON6
bind SHIFT-\ MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON8
bind SHIFT-. MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON9
bind \ MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON10
bind ] MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON11
bind ` MULTIACTIONBAR1BUTTON12
bind E TURNLEFT
bind S STRAFELEFT
bind O STRAFERIGHT
bind LEFT TURNLEFT
bind I TURNRIGHT
bind T MOVEFORWARD
bind F ACTIONBUTTON2
bind N ACTIONBUTTON6
bind SHIFT-T SHAPESHIFTBUTTON1
bind SHIFT-G SHAPESHIFTBUTTON1
bind M TARGETNEARESTENEMY
bind K MOVEBACKWARD
bind R MOVEBACKWARD
bind TAB TARGETNEARESTENEMY
bind H ACTIONBUTTON1
bind SHIFT-2 TOGGLEAUTORUN
Now to go over that in English. :)
Roughly everything that isn't something that is movement or battle
centric I've placed on the front panel. This allows me to have my
thumbs free to work the mouse while fighting. I mostly just use that
ability to fix the camera if I can't see, but the tabbing through
enemies in WoW works so poorly that I'm now starting to get used to
using the mouse to target enemies where I used to hate having to switch
back and forth.
I find shift+something to be the easiest to hit, so I generally use
this as my first option for reusing a key for multiple uses. Red shift
is the second easiest to hit and I use that to toggle my spells for
self-cast. Green shift is the next hardest so I use it for my secondary
spells.
So, on the front panel left thumb, J is reply to whisper, V is
currently unused and awaiting something worthy, C is map, Y is /, K is
move backwards (though this is a remaider from an old setup and
unused), L is my quest log, Shift-C is social, Shift-L is character
screen, Shift-J is one bag, Shift-V is all bags, and RedShift-J (AKA @)
is autorun just so I don't accidentally hit it.
Front panel right thumb, X is sit, Z is sheath/unsheath, enter is chat,
space is jump, tab is cycle enemies, and backspace is backspace.
Now, one issue with the Grip is that if you have your movement keys on
the bottom, then when you are stearing any of the bars you are using to
turn or move can't be used for a spell since only one side can be
depressed on a button-bar. The extra buttons straddling the index
finger keys, though, help this immensely.
So, the left index finger has T as move forward, R as move backward,
and G and F both as Spell Two. Making sure spell two is something you
use a lot is a good thing.
The right index finger has N as Spell Six, M as enemy cycling, H as
attack, and U as Spell Seven.
I steer with E and I as turn left and turn right. S and O are strafe
left and right.
Shift-(T,E,S,A) switch between animal forms--seeing as I am a druid.
And Shift-(N,I,O,P) are select party members 1 through 4.
Spells (or button bars) go in the general order FDWQNU,.BAP with button
one (attack) handled by H as said before since I don't want to
accidentally attack something. Red shift as said. causes these to be
self casts, and green handles button bar two. With this setup you can't
self cast a spell in bar two without using the mouse. Also, you can't
self cast Spell eight because RedShift-, is Enter and would overwrite
the chat popup.
ALL OF WHICH SAID, there is a whoooole lot of room to configure the
keys based on what seems both logical to you and ergonomic to the
spells that you use most. So really I probably recommend evolving your
keys as you find things a pain to do given your set up. And in the end
you'll be a lot ahead of a keyboard because you don't have to contort
your fingers to get all the combos, and that means you can cover a
larger array and don't have to move your fingers as far around the
board to hit them.
It definitely seems like there is enough promise here to warrant
testing one out. I've placed my order. ^^
My main concern still is the trackball, since I change orientation via
mouse-look exclusively. I feel that players who choose to turn with
keys are heavily disadvantaged in PvP situations, and I cringe when I
see players stop and do that little foot-shuffle in place to slowly see
what's behind them. >_<
The key placement and "touch-typing" nature of the alphagrip seems to
fit a command-heavy game rather well. My next question then is whether
or not you believe it can eventually give a player an advantage over
the "vanilla" input players. It seems like you have addressed this as
well, and as a caster myself I think I will be able to make great use
of this. Now for rogues, I suppose only two buttons would ever be
needed... =P
I really look forward to playing around with this, and I'll post my
findings as well.