Posted September 17, 2009
Please feel free to contribute yours. Here's mine. Skip to the bottom if this is too long to read.
I'm a fan of long gaming sessions, and after a while that usually means a sore back, neck, and if I'm not lucky, a messed up arm or two.
To get around that, years ago I tried a Belkin Nostromo gamepad. However, I found the programming awkward and unintuitive,and hardly used it at all. Wandering through an electronics store last week, I put my hands on some gaming peripherals just to see if I'd like anything. There were a few good items there, but the one that stood out to me was the Logitech G13 gameboard.
So I bought it, and now I'm using it to play Sacred.
Why? Well, I liked the solid feel of it, and the angles of it felt just right. For one thing, its structure is open enough that you can scoot your hand around it and on it in different ways depending on your hand size and whether you might need a change. Your fingers will remain usably on the buttons in the process. Some other peripherals make you approach with a much more specific "hold" or angle, or you'll find the device uncomfortable or inefficient. It's also heavy enough to stay put when you use it.
It also has 25 keys plus five programmable items on a mini-joystick that you can map to correspond to one of three "M" keys, for a total of about 90. Think of "M" as "mode" perhaps. Hit M1, and you access 30, M2 is another 30, M3 is another 30. By the way each "key" counts as either a stroke or a macro. And you can import macros from player communities or make your own. A few come preloaded, and you can alter those too.
Anyway, there's much more to say about this device, but let's leave it at this thing being comfortable and surprisingly easy to use, giving my laptop keyboard and my body and arms a break, and get on to my new control scheme for Sacred, on the G13 gameboard. With it, I can do virtually everything I find important on only one bank of keys, and don't' need to touch the keyboard anymore. This is a list of the keys I programmed, with an explanation here and there.
FWIW, this is my profile for a Battle Mage. Specifically, a meteor storm Battle Mage.
G1 = Escape (just like on your keyboard; out of the way key and easy to remember placement makes this the perfect spot)
G2 = 1 (first weapon slot) rarely used stave/shield combo
G3 = 2 (second weapon slot) battle shield/stave
G4 = 3 (third weapon slot) rarely used stave/shield combo
G5 = 4 (fourth weapon slot) rarely used stave/shield combo
G6 = 5 (fifth weapon slot) stave/shield combo loaded with skill/trade amulets and rings, switched to when trading
G7 = i (inventory)
G8 = Tab (open up local map)
G9 = 6 (first spell slot) meteor storm (third battle spell cast, or used as single)
G10 = 7 (second spell slot) ring of ice (first spell cast)
G11 = 8 (third spell slot) fire spiral (second spell cast)
G12 = 9 (fourth spell slot (spiritual healing spell)
G13 = 0 (battle spell combo)
G14 = F (open up spell screen) good for juggling spells fast; in reach of index finger which is great for speed
G15 = M (open up world map) Note this and Tab (G8) key are both done with the pinky, while keeping three of your fingers on your other spell keys. Pretty handy for me, as the spell key I usually keep under my pinky when not using map functions is not one I'm going to need when using map keys, even when running around with the Tab map up full time to clear the fog. I put an inessential spell there.
G16 = E (drink poison cure)
G17 = W (drink mentor potion)
G18 = B (give health potion to hirelings, and I have four of them)
G19 = Spacebar (drink health potion to cure yourself)
G20 = F1 (quick access to more spells) Fireball (still a top notch single target spell)
G21 = F2 (quick access to more spells) Purgatory (great against boss/mobs that move around quickly since it follows, eliminating targeting problems)
G22 = F3 (quick access to more spells) undecided so far, but thinking of putting Gust of Wind up there. NOTE: You can change Fkey assignments inside the game freely without throwing off the gamepad. It doesn't care what Fkeys are assigned to; it just executes them!
G23 = unused. I would rather just rest my thumb on this one, or hit it by accident when panicky, without any consequence
G24 = F9 (quicksave) VERY nice. Nothing worse than searching for F9 to quicksave before a tough battle only to hit F8 to quickload instead, wiping out your progress.
G25 is the joystick. It has four programmable directions corresponding to the cardinal directions on a compass, plus one for depressing the joystick straight down. I'll just refer to them by their direction
Left = P (to Pause)
Right = L (open or shut log book)
Up = Alt (highlight loot and characters) good for seeing if loot is good or healing hirelings and quest helpers who are moving too fast or lost in foliage or too many other guys to hit properly
Down = A (collect all)
Depress stick = not using
So with this set up I am moving much more quickly through the world of Sacred. I can also play in the dark more easily, since the keyboard is better laid out for using one hand, and there is even backlighting (strictly optional) if you need it. There are hollowed out depressions, however, in the middle of the keypad to help you orient yourself fast.
Chances are this will not help that many people, but it may encourage some to think about making their games more comfortable for them and healthier for their bodies by trying some sort of gamepad. There are a lot out there, but this one strikes me as a really easy to use and good one for a really good price, and I'm enjoying it a lot.
P.S.: Maybe this is just weird, but when using this gameboard, I seem to find the game freezing and going black less often when I come back from ALT TAB'ing out. Not ruling it conclusive, though.
Good luck everyone. Contribute your own peripherals/control schemes, if you like.
I'm a fan of long gaming sessions, and after a while that usually means a sore back, neck, and if I'm not lucky, a messed up arm or two.
To get around that, years ago I tried a Belkin Nostromo gamepad. However, I found the programming awkward and unintuitive,and hardly used it at all. Wandering through an electronics store last week, I put my hands on some gaming peripherals just to see if I'd like anything. There were a few good items there, but the one that stood out to me was the Logitech G13 gameboard.
So I bought it, and now I'm using it to play Sacred.
Why? Well, I liked the solid feel of it, and the angles of it felt just right. For one thing, its structure is open enough that you can scoot your hand around it and on it in different ways depending on your hand size and whether you might need a change. Your fingers will remain usably on the buttons in the process. Some other peripherals make you approach with a much more specific "hold" or angle, or you'll find the device uncomfortable or inefficient. It's also heavy enough to stay put when you use it.
It also has 25 keys plus five programmable items on a mini-joystick that you can map to correspond to one of three "M" keys, for a total of about 90. Think of "M" as "mode" perhaps. Hit M1, and you access 30, M2 is another 30, M3 is another 30. By the way each "key" counts as either a stroke or a macro. And you can import macros from player communities or make your own. A few come preloaded, and you can alter those too.
Anyway, there's much more to say about this device, but let's leave it at this thing being comfortable and surprisingly easy to use, giving my laptop keyboard and my body and arms a break, and get on to my new control scheme for Sacred, on the G13 gameboard. With it, I can do virtually everything I find important on only one bank of keys, and don't' need to touch the keyboard anymore. This is a list of the keys I programmed, with an explanation here and there.
FWIW, this is my profile for a Battle Mage. Specifically, a meteor storm Battle Mage.
G1 = Escape (just like on your keyboard; out of the way key and easy to remember placement makes this the perfect spot)
G2 = 1 (first weapon slot) rarely used stave/shield combo
G3 = 2 (second weapon slot) battle shield/stave
G4 = 3 (third weapon slot) rarely used stave/shield combo
G5 = 4 (fourth weapon slot) rarely used stave/shield combo
G6 = 5 (fifth weapon slot) stave/shield combo loaded with skill/trade amulets and rings, switched to when trading
G7 = i (inventory)
G8 = Tab (open up local map)
G9 = 6 (first spell slot) meteor storm (third battle spell cast, or used as single)
G10 = 7 (second spell slot) ring of ice (first spell cast)
G11 = 8 (third spell slot) fire spiral (second spell cast)
G12 = 9 (fourth spell slot (spiritual healing spell)
G13 = 0 (battle spell combo)
G14 = F (open up spell screen) good for juggling spells fast; in reach of index finger which is great for speed
G15 = M (open up world map) Note this and Tab (G8) key are both done with the pinky, while keeping three of your fingers on your other spell keys. Pretty handy for me, as the spell key I usually keep under my pinky when not using map functions is not one I'm going to need when using map keys, even when running around with the Tab map up full time to clear the fog. I put an inessential spell there.
G16 = E (drink poison cure)
G17 = W (drink mentor potion)
G18 = B (give health potion to hirelings, and I have four of them)
G19 = Spacebar (drink health potion to cure yourself)
G20 = F1 (quick access to more spells) Fireball (still a top notch single target spell)
G21 = F2 (quick access to more spells) Purgatory (great against boss/mobs that move around quickly since it follows, eliminating targeting problems)
G22 = F3 (quick access to more spells) undecided so far, but thinking of putting Gust of Wind up there. NOTE: You can change Fkey assignments inside the game freely without throwing off the gamepad. It doesn't care what Fkeys are assigned to; it just executes them!
G23 = unused. I would rather just rest my thumb on this one, or hit it by accident when panicky, without any consequence
G24 = F9 (quicksave) VERY nice. Nothing worse than searching for F9 to quicksave before a tough battle only to hit F8 to quickload instead, wiping out your progress.
G25 is the joystick. It has four programmable directions corresponding to the cardinal directions on a compass, plus one for depressing the joystick straight down. I'll just refer to them by their direction
Left = P (to Pause)
Right = L (open or shut log book)
Up = Alt (highlight loot and characters) good for seeing if loot is good or healing hirelings and quest helpers who are moving too fast or lost in foliage or too many other guys to hit properly
Down = A (collect all)
Depress stick = not using
So with this set up I am moving much more quickly through the world of Sacred. I can also play in the dark more easily, since the keyboard is better laid out for using one hand, and there is even backlighting (strictly optional) if you need it. There are hollowed out depressions, however, in the middle of the keypad to help you orient yourself fast.
Chances are this will not help that many people, but it may encourage some to think about making their games more comfortable for them and healthier for their bodies by trying some sort of gamepad. There are a lot out there, but this one strikes me as a really easy to use and good one for a really good price, and I'm enjoying it a lot.
P.S.: Maybe this is just weird, but when using this gameboard, I seem to find the game freezing and going black less often when I come back from ALT TAB'ing out. Not ruling it conclusive, though.
Good luck everyone. Contribute your own peripherals/control schemes, if you like.
