Newcomer / Intro Thinking of switching to KBM. Questions for KBM masters.

[Kentai]

Good Day Commanders,

I picked up Elite in January and played for around 4 months and then took a 6 month break until now. Before I was using a HOTAS and, while immersive, I became really frustrated with aiming fixed weapons. I figured out the software for my HOTAS, adjusted the curves and all that jazz, but it never really felt right. So now I'm considering trying keyboard and mouse since I'm an avid fps player. The amount of controls is a bit daunting but I figure I can make use of some modifier keys and maybe a gaming keypad like the razer orbweaver. I had a few questions for anyone who normally plays KBM:

1. How do you handle your throttle speeds?
2. How do you handle your pip management? Is there a program to set up macros you're fond of?
3. Is there a program out there to swap out relative and non-relative mouse when switching between FA on and off?

Thank you for your time!

 

[A C Ender]

Good Day Commanders,

I picked up Elite in January and played for around 4 months and then took a 6 month break until now. Before I was using a HOTAS and, while immersive, I became really frustrated with aiming fixed weapons. I figured out the software for my HOTAS, adjusted the curves and all that jazz, but it never really felt right. So now I'm considering trying keyboard and mouse since I'm an avid fps player. The amount of controls is a bit daunting but I figure I can make use of some modifier keys and maybe a gaming keypad like the razer orbweaver. I had a few questions for anyone who normally plays KBM:

1. How do you handle your throttle speeds?
2. How do you handle your pip management? Is there a program to set up macros you're fond of?
3. Is there a program out there to swap out relative and non-relative mouse when switching between FA on and off?

Thank you for your time!

New KBAM user here. First of all if you try KBAM make sure to put YAW and pitch on your mouse, not roll and pitch. This will be closer to aiming in FPS and might feel more intuitive.

1) I use WASD for horizontal thrusters (not throttle), space and ctrl for vertical, QE for rolling. I have a few keys bound to different throttle levels (B 100%, V 75%, are the most use. I also got X 0% which isn't uncommon, but C 50% I almost never do). I also have incremental throttle on mouse wheel but can't remember when I last used this and may remove this.

2) I use mouse 5+WASD. No macro just quick taps. Works okay but could probably be improved if desired with macros.

3) To my knowledge there's no such thing. If you find it do let me know. I'm playing FA off and relative mouse on 95% of my time. I used to do FA on and relative mouse off (never do relative on with FA on... Your arm will die from the constant mouse movement). I find it best with a quick return of the relative mouse. You want to be able to get max acceleration with one motion with as little delay of mouse centering after as possible in my opinion. Supercruise was very annoying with relative mouse on in the start, but I've bound arrow keys to yaw and pitch to use during SC which make it manageable (though means you need to let go of mouse). I only turn on FA to stabilise after I lost control (colliding with an asteroid for example) or to stop moving through space (this is where the throttle 0% key is handy). I have sometimes used FA on when I try to avoid a scan entering a station to allow higher speeds with no drift.

 

[Wimmer]

Hello!
I'm using keybord + mouse since I've launched the game. I'm not playing a lot of games and didn't use joystick in all my gaming 'career', maybe once. I'm just used to KBM.
Almost of all my controls in ED are default.
W for throttle up, S for throttle down. A and D for yaw. Mouse for pitch & roll. R and F for vertical thrusters. I'm still not skilled with FA OFF, so I think in near future I will change some controls. Like said above I need to try yaw on my mouse instead of roll.
For PIP manegement I had to buy gaming mouse with additional buttons. Now I have PIPs under my thumb and 'reset' near the mouse roll. And my mouse has an application to manage all buttons and macros.

 

[dm06]

1. How do you handle your throttle speeds?
2. How do you handle your pip management? Is there a program to set up macros you're fond of?

1. qwes - side thrusters
ad - roll
mouse move - pitch, yaw, absolute without autocentering, shift - reset
mouse wheel - -+ 12.5%
side mouse buttons - full forward, full backward
tab - 50%
` - 0%
caps lock - boost

2. 1 - reset, 2/3/4 - sys/eng/wep. These buttons are close to throttle controls, so time to access them is minimal.

 

[A C Ender]

1. qwes - side thrusters
ad - roll
mouse move - pitch, yaw, absolute without autocentering, shift - reset
mouse wheel - -+ 12.5%
side mouse buttons - full forward, full backward
tab - 50%
` - 0%
caps lock - boost

2. 1 - reset, 2/3/4 - sys/eng/wep. These buttons are close to throttle controls, so time to access them is minimal.

I played some with mouse resetting before. Ultimately I didn't like it (I play without dead zone) because my mouse is very sensitive and without auto center the tiniest unconscious motion will start to drift you, and you have to constantly press the reset during FA off. Ymmv

 

[dm06]

I played some with mouse resetting before. Ultimately I didn't like it (I play without dead zone) because my mouse is very sensitive and without auto center the tiniest unconscious motion will start to drift you, and you have to constantly press the reset during FA off. Ymmv

yeah, the layout is an additional pain with faoff. I'm not using relative mouse, that saves my table space, I'm able to recenter manually when faon, my ships fly arcs always and I'm ok with that, in certain cases when I need straight path I use recenter button but that does not happen often and not a problem because the button is always under my fifth finger.

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

As previous poster I have played since about a week after release with KBM and use mostly default controls. Changed only a very few keys for convenience (Chaff and heatsink moved, dump all cargo deleted, separated jump keys). Biggest challenge I find is setting pips and flying, it can be done if you are quick but you need to know quite well the key press sequence to get what you want. PIP managing is challenging though when you have to take a hand off other controls to do it.

 

[Kentai]

Wow thanks for all the info guys! I hadn't thought about putting throttle on the side mouse buttons but i guess it would make more sense. I swear I've heard of a script that can switch mouse between relative and non-relative. I think this was it:

https://github.com/EliteDangerousStuff/RelativeMouseToggle

I may try getting the orbweaver gamepad so I can manage pips with the thumbstick and not kill my wrist.

 

[A C Ender]

Note that you only save desk space with FA on by keeping relative mouse off.

Wow thanks for all the info guys! I hadn't thought about putting throttle on the side mouse buttons but i guess it would make more sense. I swear I've heard of a script that can switch mouse between relative and non-relative. I think this was it:

https://github.com/EliteDangerousStuff/RelativeMouseToggle

I may try getting the orbweaver gamepad so I can manage pips with the thumbstick and not kill my wrist.

That's interesting, I got neither software but might have to get it and bind the toggle to the same key as my FA toggle.