Lefty keyboard bindings

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IlyasNL
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Lefty keyboard bindings

Post by IlyasNL »

This may sounds weird but, a buddy of mine would love to play the game, except he is a lefty.
So if he would start to rebind key.....there would be no end to it.

Is there any way to have a 'sane' default keymap for lefties?
I'll ask my buddy for more input as well.

Are there any other lefty players who feel like the default keymap is unhandy or is it just my friend?
Thanks!

Koub
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Re: Lefty keyboard bindings

Post by Koub »

[Koub] Moved to Technical Help
Koub - Please consider English is not my native language.

obsessed_skier
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Re: Lefty keyboard bindings

Post by obsessed_skier »

Any update on lefty key bindings? I like to use the number pad, but it won't let me use for example: "Shift + NumPad 9" the way righties can use "Shift + R".

Thanks!

Tertius
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Re: Lefty keyboard bindings

Post by Tertius »

There seems nobody left-handed who reads this thread, unfortunately.
I carefully remapped my keyboard to use ESDF instead of WASD, so I have some general idea how to approach keyboard reassignment, even although I'm only right-handed.

A left-handed uses the mouse with his left hand, isn't he?
So you somehow need to mirror what's on the left keyboard half to the right half and vice versa.

I speak from the perspective of someone who types with 10 fingers, blind (blind=without looking onto the keys). I'm using TKL keyboards (without numpad). That's faster for right handed, because the right hand has less distance to cross between keyboard and mouse. Left handed have an advantage here.

All fingers rest on the keyboard. Index finger is on F (left hand) and J (right hand). You feel that dot on these two keys to position your hand without looking.
With games, the mouse hand leaves the keyboard, so its keyboard half is orphaned, so the non-mouse hand does almost all work.

Now clear all key assignments (every one of them except function keys and numpad keys).
With the right hand as non-mouse hand, start with the center. The navigation keys would be IJKL instead of WASD, so assign IJKL. Don't use the cursor keys, because the're too far away to all of the useful keys on the regular keyboard.
Now take a look at the default keyboard layout. See how the important keys are arranged around the navigation keys (WASD). They are nearest, because they are most important. Now find appropriate locations around IJKL for these important keys first.

Test it, how it works out.

Some key were mapped according to their function name (for example M=map). See which you can keep, and which you need to move to the other keyboard half, because their functions are not that important to warrant a location near IJKL.
Finally, find keys more far away and even on the far side of the keyboard for the rest of the functions, usually the more seldom used functions.

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