A proposal for a new default keyset

[Tichy]

Edit: changed Set speed keys. Added photos of left hand position.

AKA keyset from a VIM user... suitable for Emacs users too. :)

Some players (including me) find the default keyset of controls a bit awkward. One of the main complains are that with pithch/yaw/roll controls on the left side of the keyboard and thust controls on the right, when you reach for the mouse to have a more fine control of the ship's heading, you have to swap hands: the right hand now must control pithch/yaw with mouse and left hand now controls thusters. Some players just swap the two set of keys, just to avoid that.
I tried to do something more: a keyset that minimizes hand movement across the keyboard. (Why? Beacuse one day I'll have an Oculus Rift! :D) It's a work in progress, so comments are welcome.
In my set, all of the fingers are used and hands are placed on the keybord homerow with the two forefingers on F and J keys, that are usually marked.

Target object in crosshair: V (pressed with left hand's thumb or forefinger)
Fire laser: Space (with left or right thumb)
Fire missile: M (with right thumb or forefinger)

Pitch up: K
Ptich down: I
Yaw left: J
Yaw right: L
Roll left: U or W (useful when you control pitch and yaw with mouse)
Roll right: O or R
Kill rotation: ; (semicolon) or the key right of your L (you can press it with the right pinkie)

Thust forward: E
Thust backward: D
Thust up: Q (pressed with left pinkie)
Trust down: A (pressed with lift pinkie)
Thust left: S
Thust right: F
Use low thust: Left Ctrl (press with left palm.. could be awkward with a laptop keyboard, but it's very handy with a desktop keyboard, because you can press it while keeping all your fingers on thusters and orientation controls)

Left hand position:


Increase set speed: Shift+E
Decrease set speed: Shift+D

Toggle scanner mode: \ (same as default)
Increase scanner range: ]
Decrese scanner range: [

Toggle HUD mode: Tab
Toggle Lua console: `
Toggle rotation damping: H

In sector map view I added some keys to the shift movements to be coherent with the ship's ones
Shift view forward: PgUp or E
Shift view backward: PgDown or D
Shift view left: Left or S
Shift view right: Right or F
Shift view up: Up or Q
Shift view down: Down or A
Rotate view left: J
Rotate view right: L
Rotate view up: I
Rotate view down: K
Reset orientation and zoom: U

If you want to try it and tell me how you feel with it.

[bszlrd]

I agree that the current layout is quite awkward for the reason Tichy said. And I'm left handed even, but using my right hand for for mouse.

Most of this seems to be good for me, and it's close to what I usually set up my keys (ESDF from this shifted to the common WASD, FR for up and down, TG for set speed). It's a bit strange to shift right, but I think it could be easy to get used to it.

The QA for up and down feels quite uncomfortable (I use lateral thrusters a lot). For me swapping them with TG for vertical thrusters and QA for Set speed seems more comfortable, but my pinky still isn't really mobile for that.
My solution was to shift the whole thing back to the conventional WASD, and put the set speed controls on shift+W and shift+S. My pinky seems to be better fit to just hover above left shift, instead of moving around.

I agree that the map controls should mirror the ship controls.

So my version:

Pitch Up: K
Pitch Down: I
Yaw Left: J
Yaw right: L
Roll Left: Q U
Roll Right: E O
Kill rot: X (left index finger)

Thrust Forward: W
Thrust Backward: S
Thrust Up: R
Thrust Down: F
Thrust Left: A
Thrust Right: D
Low Thrust: Left Shift

Increase Set Speed: Shift+W (My pinky is more comfortable sitting on left shift, and not reaching anywhere)
Decrease Set Speed: Shift+S
Edit: I just realized that these two won't work with low thrust this way, so:
Increase Set Speed: Alt+W
Decrease Set Speed: Alt+S

Map controls:
Search: / (same)
Lock HS target: Space (same)
Toggle Info Panel: Tab (same)
Toggle Selection follow View: T
Warp to current: C
Warp to selected: G
Warp to HS target: H
Shift Fwd: R
Shift Bwd: F
Shift Left: A
Shift Right: D
Shift Up: W (these and fwd/bwd feels more natural this way for me for some reason. Maybe because it's more directional for a top-down view, and for closer/further you also have the mouse wheel)
Shift Down: S
Rotate Left: L
Rotate Right: J
Rotate Up: K
Rotate down: I
Reset: Q

A similar layout worked finely for me in I-war 2 back then, and I use this in Pioneer currently. I just tried to put the set speeds to shift+WS, and I think it works nice.

[DraQ]

Personally I use keypad for thrusters and roll, mouse for firing, target lock, GUI and orientation control (I'm left handed BTW).

I also remap controls in pretty much every game the moment I first fire it, so I don't really believe in finding a good, universal set of default bindings.

[bszlrd]

Having good defaults is a must if you ask me (or proper professional UI designers actually). It can't be really universal, but that's not a reason to have a bad default.

[DraQ]

Well, my experience might be coloured by being left handed.

[Tichy]

The QA for up and down feels quite uncomfortable (I use lateral thrusters a lot). For me swapping them with TG for vertical thrusters and QA for Set speed seems more comfortable, but my pinky still isn't really mobile for that.

I understand that: usually the pinkie finger and the ring finger are weaker and less precise than other fingers. But the downside of placing up/down thrusters to the right side (RF) is that it's difficult to thrust up/down while thrusting right because you have to move the forefinger from D to RF or, IMHO even more awkward, shift the whole left hand one key to the right (pinky to A, ring finger to WS, middle finger to D and forefinger to RF). In my config, the pinky moves only between Q and A, ring is always on S, middle moves between E and D and fore is always on F (unless you want to change set speed, which is a thing that you don't do constantly when maneuvering). If you need more precision, you just have to lower the palm on left ctrl. After some minutes of gameplay, I feel that this layout gives me more control of the ship. Of course, this is quite subjective and depends heavily on how one is used to type on the keyboard.

put the set speed controls on shift+W and shift+S.
[...]
Increase Set Speed: Shift+W (My pinky is more comfortable sitting on left shift, and not reaching anywhere)
Decrease Set Speed: Shift+S
Edit: I just realized that these two won't work with low thrust this way, so:
Increase Set Speed: Alt+W
Decrease Set Speed: Alt+S

(Or generally on the same keys used for forward and back thrusers) That's a nice idea because it easy to remember and keep in the brain's keymap and because it wouldn't be necessary to stretch the forefinger to reach TG (in my first setup), but Low thrust must be set to another key. I like Left Ctrl, because it can be pressed with the left palm while keeping the fingers on the thusters keys.
In my setup the Alt key would be hard to reach and, maybe, using three different modifier keys could be confusing.

I changed my Set speed keys to Shift+E and Shift+D. Feels good.

[FluffyFreak]

Maybe have a default, then have others as options?

[DraQ]

For what it's worth I have my vertical thrusts on Num+/NumEnter under my pinky.

[Tichy]

Maybe have a default, then have others as options?

Having more keysets could be also handy for keyboards without numpad, or with different keyboard layouts (eg: AZERTY instead of QWERY).

As for the default, it seems that swapping thusters and orientaion keys could be a good thing for most players. The rest looks more subjective.