Aion's Absurd Custom Keyboard

[Kraj]

I hear Z-Boards are loud as hell.

I'll take my G15 any day, tyvm.

I second that notion. G15 rules all.

 

[Nargleblarg]

Wow what kind of person has one of these...is it really so hard to use a mouse that you need to hotkey a in game button straight to your keyboard. Although it would be fun to see someone switching out keyboards for each individual game they play.

 

[Cougies]

It's not a keyboard at all. It's a Z-Board Keyset, which as many of you guys have already pointed out, is pretty much just a redesign of the WoW Keyset. For anyone unfimiliar with Z-Boards, they come with the ability to 'change' the key layout, by purchasing the 'keysets', which you just unclip and then clip the new one on. Pretty funky, and I like the artwork, however I fail to see how this was anywhere near news worthy.

 

[Drakey]

Oh look. Another z-board layout. I feel almost, not suprised.

I was hoping for 'CUSTOM!' sorta like the steam punk keyboard they showed off a little while back.

Havnt we moved on from this foolishness yet?

hmmmmm... can we change the channel on this thingy, whats the button with the circle and a line through it? Is that Phi?

 

[Drakey]

OK, here's my issue. The articles and comics on this site pray, and whine, and carry on about quality and just plain integrity.

I think this is something that merrits a banner with flashy lights, it would get the message across to the market its shooting for far more accurately. This 'FOR SALE' article is just silly when it comes to the quality of work that is put out for the Escapists readers.

Write something fun about it. there's enough banner space out there somewhere to sell the board on launch day. Custom is custom. This gimmick has been selling the z-board for years, they pretty well sell themselves. Heck, oogle the artwork or something, give us the readers insite to its nuances, the beauty of its practicality. Anything but 'Buy Me, I'm Single'.

ok im done.

thanks.

P.S. Give us a full page of oogles?

 

[Woem]

Meh. Never been a fan of ZBoards. My Belkin N52's are the only way I can game.

[font color=maroon]Behold! The Right and Left Hands of Khell...[/font]
Trackman Wheel and N52 for the FPS games, MX Revolution and N52TE for the RTS games, and everything else a combination of one Logitech and one Belkin.

While I'm usually not a big fan of these types of controllers ("my keyboard + regular mouse will do just fine") these actually look pretty good. For an intense game like Quake I would prefer more keys on top of the N52 than on the left though.

On-topic: Yes, this is much, much more absurd than their WoW mouse [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87414-SteelSeries-Unveils-The-Ultimate-WoW-Mouse].

 

[Tygerml]

http://www.steelseries.com/us/products/keyboards/merc_stealth/information

^^ love this keyboard. The gaming keys are on the left. I never understood why people put the gaming keys on the right. I just don't get it.

There are people who use the mouse with their left hand. This sort of keyboard would be entirely useless for them.

I would kill for a right-handed version of one of those Belkin N52's. Or just about any similar device allowing for right-handed use.

 

[I am Jack's smirking revenge]

Thats.. cool?

Since I've never played an MMO I don't see what the point of all the extra stuff really is. I should look it up.

[sup]To the Google mobile!![/sup]

(Can I call shotgun?)

If I bought one of these I would feel like on of those people...you know the ones I'm talking about.

 

[scotth266]

[font color=maroon]Behold! The Right and Left Hands of Khell...[/font]
Trackman Wheel and N52 for the FPS games, MX Revolution and N52TE for the RTS games, and everything else a combination of one Logitech and one Belkin.

Oh, those things on the left are neat. What are they called, exactly?

EDIT: Saw the mouse on the far right: thought about getting it, cause it fits my hand, but I didn't have the money with me at the time.

 

[scotth266]

[font color=maroon]Behold! The Right and Left Hands of Khell...[/font]
Trackman Wheel and N52 for the FPS games, MX Revolution and N52TE for the RTS games, and everything else a combination of one Logitech and one Belkin.

Oh, those things on the left are neat. What are they called, exactly?

EDIT: Saw the mouse on the far right: thought about getting it, cause it fits my hand, but I didn't have the money with me at the time.

The names are right in what you quoted. The Belkin N52 (silver) and N52TE (Blue, stands for Tournament Edition).

I meant as in, what's the general terminology for them? Like how mice are called mice.

 

[Kiutu]

http://crystaltips.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/topimage.jpg
Look familiar? I hate to say it....but everyone copies WoW. *Joke*

Every body copies everybody, but its a good thing. Its called improving (or deproving as seems teh case of newer shooters)

 

[ZeroWarrior]

Design is identical to the WoW Zboard keyboard overlay, I don't understand some of your phrasing in this article. Calling it an absurd or hardcore for a keyset thats been out for years is silly.

 

[Woem]

While I'm usually not a big fan of these types of controllers ("my keyboard + regular mouse will do just fine") these actually look pretty good. For an intense game like Quake I would prefer more keys on top of the N52 than on the left though.

On-topic: Yes, this is much, much more absurd than their WoW mouse [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87414-SteelSeries-Unveils-The-Ultimate-WoW-Mouse].

Trust me, investing in a Nostromo N52 is something you never regret. Biggest problem I find with keyboards is that the keys are offset, not in perfect rows. This makes it painful for me to use the WASD controls because the W is halfway between the A and S keys, not directly atop the S like it belongs, and the middle finger has to bend backwards to hit it. Nostromo keys are in perfect rows, five per on the first two rows and four on the third row. This means you can play with WASD in the center of the pad like it comes pre-programmed, or if you play like I do, you shift it one row to the right.

My typical Battlefield or FPS setup
Using only 1/4 the functionality of the N52 (no using the Red/Green/Blue shift modes) I can play BF1942 thru 2142, only needing to hit the keyboard for weapon/vehicle slots higher than 4 (and weapons can still use the mouse), and for manipulating the map functions.

Not shown on the picture, the orange thumb button works the ComoRoso (BF2/2142), and thumb button 15 returns the camera view to normal (or inside vehicle). The 8-Directional thumbpad is set to the arrow keys for the extra flight/vehicle axis controls.

Changing to more typical, less vehicular FPS games than BF, the mousewheel is usually set to cycle grenade types, with the orange button throwing them, Key 14 resets to crouch, 11 to sprint/run, 02 (prone) to medkit, 15 (lower thumb, not shown) to melee attack, 01 (chute) to flashlight, and 12/13 get disabled. Enter vehicle becomes Use Object, the D-Pad typically becomes inventory items or weapon select, or a second set of crouch/medkit/light keys, and Bob's your uncle.

Some words of caution. The Nostromo N52 is superior to the Belkin N52TE. The TE (the one from my post above, blue glow black frame) has nicer keys but the programming software is vastly inferior (Razor or not, the software bites) and there isn't really 52-command functionality because there is no "No-Lighted" mode. The N52 has No-Light, Red, Green, and Blue. That means every key except the shift keys (shift between color) can have four commands mapped to it. The N52TE is always in one color or another, meaning only [i]three[/i] commands per key. As well, the knob they placed on the DPad is more annoyance than benefit, and not removable (without breaking it permanently), and the TE costs 50% more for all its flaws.

I'm not saying don't get a TE, the N52TE is still better than the Saitek Commander, or any other command pad out there, but given a choice between the N52 and TE, my money rides with the classic N52.[/quote]Thanks for the explanation, and you have a pretty good configuration. The thing is that for Quake I bind almost every weapon. So AWSD for movement, scroll up for the rocket launcher, scroll down for the shotgun (the two weapons I need to access the fastest) and then 1 to 4 for my next important weapons (rail gun, grenade launcher, lightning gun, gauntlet), E for "use item", R for "next weapon" and F for "previous weapon". I don't bind the plasma gun and BFG since I rarely use those, and I can get those using R and F.

In most FPS games the weapon switching takes less of an important role and they certainly aren't [I]that[/I] fast paced, so I would definitely give it a try.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

I don't see why this even warrants a mention. All sorts of games get Zboard keysets. I bought ones for Guild Wars, Battlefield 2142 and Tabula Rasa and saw ones for Age of Empires III and Doom 3 among others.

Incidentally, I don't use the BF2142 one because it enforces a default keyset on the board which I don't like and there's a bug where you can't start moving in a crouch position without standing up. Just using the standard FPS keyset works fine. I'll probably pick up the Aion one, though.

 

[Woem]

Thanks for the explanation, and you have a pretty good configuration. The thing is that for Quake I bind almost every weapon. So AWSD for movement, scroll up for the rocket launcher, scroll down for the shotgun (the two weapons I need to access the fastest) and then 1 to 4 for my next important weapons (rail gun, grenade launcher, lightning gun, gauntlet), E for "use item", R for "next weapon" and F for "previous weapon". I don't bind the plasma gun and BFG since I rarely use those, and I can get those using R and F.

In most FPS games the weapon switching takes less of an important role and they certainly aren't that fast paced, so I would definitely give it a try.

Outside of Battlefield series games, the D-Pad is rather redundant in FPS's. But don't think of it as directional controls, instead it is four more buttons (eight if you're looney enough to think you can hit diagonals without triggering other actions by mistake). Map your four favorite weapons to the DPad and with a half-twitch you can switch between without compromising what your fingers are doing (as opposed to how I map 1-4 means I can't move all directions when switching).

The damn things are limitless in possibilities.

That's actually a damn sexy suggestion. Although my fingers are used to switching to the weapons using 1-4, there is a very slight loss of movement control. I'll definitely think about this, thanks!