Hand Positioning On The Keyboard

[heavenlysovereign]

Guys,

 

yeah, yeah a newbie question but....

 

How should I position my hands on my keyboard while playing Warframe. I'm not able to consistently hit the correct keys during the game. I need to train myself to hit the keys consistently but before I start to train myself I would like to get some advice on how to position my hands from the pros - that way I can train myself to do something that actually works!

 

thanks,

Skui

[Shion963]

Pinky over ctrl and shift (tip on shift, curl finger up for toggle crouch).

Ring~Index on A, W,  and D respectively.

Thumb for jumping.

 

Activate power 1 by moving up ring finger, 2 and 3 using middle finger, and 4 using index finger.

I have my 'Use' key on E, so index finger also covers reloading and use/action. I set tab as tag, and use ring finger for that. Melee is on my mouse's thumb button. Equipped item selection is tilde (~).

 

To slide, hold Shift with pinky finger tip, run forwards, and bring pinky down to engage toggle crouch.

 

I find Warframe's controls as it is right now to be quite comfy, personally. The above 'setup' is just how I would rest my left hand on the keyboard, so there isn't much strain.

[Llokii]

Pinky over ctrl and shift (tip on shift, curl finger up for toggle crouch).

Ring~Index on A, W,  and D respectively.

Thumb for jumping.

 

Activate power 1 by moving up ring finger, 2 and 3 using middle finger, and 4 using index finger.

I have my 'Use' key on E, so index finger also covers reloading and use/action. I set tab as tag, and use ring finger for that. Melee is on my mouse's thumb button. Equipped item selection is tilde (~).

 

To slide, hold Shift with pinky finger tip, run forwards, and bring pinky down to engage toggle crouch.

 

I find Warframe's controls as it is right now to be quite comfy, personally. The above 'setup' is just how I would rest my left hand on the keyboard, so there isn't much strain.

 

Pretty much this, although I swapped crouch (shift) to C, so I can hold shift with pinky, run with middle, and crouch © with index to make sliding easier.  My pinky didn't like being contorted when crouch was on shift lol

[Letter13]

The first reply sums up the WASD control style nicely.

 

And if you want some added challenge and skill, flatten your pinky slightly so you can use your pinky finger to press Shift + Ctrl simultaneously.

 

Pinky for Shift, Ctrl,

Ring for A, Q, Z, 1,

Middle for W, S, X, 2, 3,

Index for D, E, C, 4 (and everything to the right of those keys, F, R, T, G, V, etc etc etc etc)

Thumb for Space. Thumbing space. Spacing thumb. Thumby.

 

Here's a picture! 

[Atham]

My layout:

WASD

Shift for sprint

Alt for crouch

q for secondary jump

space as primary jump

 

This has been very useful and causes a lot less hand strain if any.

[heavenlysovereign]

thanks for the reply, I think I will alter the default layout of the keys to make playing a bit more natural for my hands.

 

:D

[Kheimon]

Try mouse wheel to scroll your abilities and mouse4 to activate them, that's how I do it and I find it very practical. 

[FLSH_BNG]

My layout requires a mouse with at least 4 buttons.

 

W, A, S, and D for movement, Spacebar for jump, and Left Control for toggle crouch.

1, 2, 3, and 4 for abilities, Mouse 1 to fire, Mouse 2 to aim.

Mouse 3 (middle button/wheel) for melee, and Mouse 4 (usually a button on the side) for Sprint/Roll

 

It's comfortable for me and keeps me from having to keep shifting my little finger between Shift and Ctrl.

Also allows me to be able to maintain the Forward Flip - Slide - Flip maneuver when necessary.

 

I also have Mouse 5 be Block, just in case it finally becomes useful...

[SkacikPLz]

Arrow keys master race.

[KingKeif]

Just like almost any other shooter, you're going to be using WASD to move around, R to reload, Shift to sprint, Ctrl to crouch, and Space to jump. I highly recommend keeping all of those at their default locations, as they generally work the best, hence default.  

 

A few that you could move around are melee (default E), and interacting with objects (default X).  One place you might consider placing them are on your mouse buttons, if you have them. I have melee set to my left mouse button and interacting with objects on the right mouse button. This makes for less finger crossing on the keyboard. 

 

Last thing was already said above, but worth mentioning again. Don't even worry about pressing keys 1-4 to use your special abilities. Just scroll through your powers using your mouse scroll wheel and then click the scroll wheel to use the selected power. Much easier than moving your fingers around looking for the right key and also helps avoid mispressing the wrong skill.

Once you get your basic movement and controls down, try combining sprints, slides, jumps, and whatnot to do special moves/attacks. 

 

TLDR:

WASD (Index, Middle, and Ring Fingers) --> Movement

R (Index Finger) --> Reload

F (Index Finger) --> Switch Weapons

Shift (Pinky) --> Sprint 
Crtl (Curl Pinky and use the top left corner of your palm) --> Crouch

Space (Thumb) --> Jump

Left Mouse Button (Thumb right hand) --> Melee

Right Mouse Button (Ring Finger right hand) --> Interact with Objects

Mouse Scroll Wheel (Middle Finger right hand) --> Scroll through and use Skills

 

Edited August 9, 2013 by KingKeif

[Nyriad]

I had move my crouch/slide button from Ctrl to my 4th mouse button.. otherwise my pinky was like Nemo's lucky fin after playing

Edited August 8, 2013 by Nyriad

[Kyria]

Being female I might have smaller hands - and longer nails - than the average gamer and I sometimes find that the default keymapping is not physically doable or effective (particularly reaching L-Ctrl). My current setup on a Scandinavian keyboard is:

 

 

Pinky -> Shift (sprint)

Ringfinger -> A (move left), Q (toggle weapons)

Middlefinger -> W (move forward), S (move back), 2 (ability B, not spammed)

Index -> D (move right), E (interact/open/pickup), R (reload), F (melee), G (waypoint), C (gear), 3 (ability C, not spammed)

Thumb -> Space (jump), Alt (hold crouch, located under X)

 

Middle mouse-button/MB3 -> Ultimate/ability D

Mouse wheel up -> Ability A

[honeybadger]

Try mapping crouch to a mouse button (thumb buttons preferably). Its a lot easier on your poor pinky finger than trying to hit shift and ctrl all the time.

[PettiTheYeti]

Arrow keys master race.

 

Last time I saw anyone using Arrows was OG Doom. Such a goofy control scheme, looking back...

 

 

 

But for OP, pretty much everyone has already fleshed out the common WADS controls. It depends on how big/small your hands are, what you are confortable playing with.

 

I have hands that could quite comfortably palm an entire watermelon, twice, so my hands are always bunched up on the keyboard. ZXCV and ALT are pretty much unusable for me, but if I just kind of swing my wrist around my thumb can easily find BNMHJK, and my index finger can hit TYUI5678 pretty well, so any game that needs the lower keys will always have them mapped to something I can easily hit.