Overview
How to re-map your controls for easy play with a QWERY keyboard with a number pad and a standard mouse.
Because the Default Keybindings Assume You Have 10 Digits on Your Left Hand…
Hi, everybody! LycanDiva here with a bit of help for players who may not only be new to Wildstar, but to action games on PC in general.
Now, if Wildstar is your first ever MMORPG, and the most involved game you’ve ever played on PC has been something slower-paced and input-light such as The Sims or Rollercoaster Tycoon, then you probably don’t have a mouse with more than three buttons (left click, right click, and mouse wheel). With a mouse like this, the mouse look controls are probably not ideal. But, at the same time, the default keybindings for this game are awkward and tend to work against one’s time-tested, hard-won console gamer muscle memory. So, how do we overcome this hurdle?
Simple! Rig you keyboard up like a controller!
By that, I don’t mean try to hold the blame thing in your hands and pretend you’re playing with an Intellivision Controller. No, that would be silly. Instead, I’m talking about spreading your controls out so that movement is on one side and action commands (attacks, jumping, etc.) are on the other. This way, you can rely much more on those old instincts honed through hours of Sonic the Hedgehog (the good one on the Genesis/Megadrive, not the Game Which Shall Not Be Named) and Mario 64 back in the day to carry you through kicking butt and taking names in Wildstar.
All you need for this to work is a keyboard with a number pad. If you’re using a laptop with a keyboard that lacks a number pad, cheap, decent quality USB keyboards can be bought for 12-20 US Dollars at any office supply, big box, or electronics store. With that keyboard in hand (well, on desk, actually), press the ESC key to go into the settings menu while logged into your character, click “Keybindings”, and hook up the following settings:
Movement:
Turn Left: 1 on your number pad
Turn Right: 3 on your number pad
Move Forward: 5 on your number pad
Move Backward: 2 on your number pad
Strafe Left: 4 on your number pad
Strafe Right: 6 on your number pad
Move Down (this is your dive button while swimming and by default isn’t mapped to anything at all): + on your number pad
Jump: Leave the space bar setting intact, but remove Num 0 as the alternate for safety’s sake.
Limited Action Bar: My personal recommendation is to leave the main numbers at the top of the keyboard mapped in the Default column, and put the alternates into the second column just to give yourself options in a frantic battle scenario.
Limited Action Set 1-4: No change. Keep the defaults.
Limited Action Set 5: Q
Limited Action Set 6: W
Limited Action Set 7: E
Limited Action Set 8: A
Gadget: S
(Additional Notes: Having trouble with those “Tap ‘F’ Until You Break Your Keyboard” QTE’s? Map the second column control for interacting with objects to Mouse Wheel Down and swap the Zoom In and Zoom Out controls to the up and down arrow keys respectively. That way, when it’s frantic QTE time, you can just roll that mouse wheel like a madman or roll that wheel and mash “F” like a raging lunatic for maximum efficiency! 😀 )
With this setup firmly in place, you may now find a few formerly occupied buttons have been freed up. Go ahead an map them (or leave them inert) as you choose. Personally, I mapped my wardrobe to my “U” button, since I fiddle with it a lot (Fashion Souls is in full effect! {A cookie to anyone who knows which YouTuber I’m quoting}), mapped movement speed to “J” and sitting to “K”. 🙂
Hopefully this little mini-guide has been useful/interesting for you all. Happy gaming, and see you on Nexus! 😀