[jgwdoc]

Just started Dead Space, which is kind of Aliens meets Doom in Space. Some fun weapons and an interesting attempt to throw in some RPG elements in the modest style of Bioshock (weapon, armor and skill upgrades, a bit of "crafting"). But the combat feels like I had a small stroke before beginning my fighting. It's just not crisp in the way one would expect from an FPS. And the movement keys can't be switched to the arrow keys, which I would prefer. But the main thing is the character movement is very sluggish. Has anyone found a way to create a "Sprint always" key binding? That would help a lot. Also, if anyone here is playing this, what kind of key bindings are you using? The thing is really set up to do WASD and I hate that. Any alternatives that seem to work? There is a Kinetic Mode and a Stasis Mode that need to be very accessible, and the key bindings are annoyingly restricted, so I was wondering if anyone had found a setup they liked. And something to make the character move more briskly than a drunk turtle.

[MadDog]

Dead Space is a great game, except for the really popsnizzlety controls. I dont remember how I did it (found it in the forums), but you edit a config file to give a mouse sensitivity >1. I used 1.8.

Mad Dog

[jgwdoc]

MadDog, on January 22nd 2009, 08:57 PM, said:

Dead Space is a great game, except for the really popsnizzlety controls. I dont remember how I did it (found it in the forums), but you edit a config file to give a mouse sensitivity >1. I used 1.8.

Mad Dog

Glad to see it's not just me. I'll see if I can dig up the trick.

[jgwdoc]

For any of you that end up playing this, turning off V-sync makes things a bit crisper. But the main problem seems to be that it's really meant for a console.

[Wumpus]

I played this through with the standard controls and found it fine. You make an FPS reference, but as you should know, this is a 3rd person game. I did find the character movement 'sluggish' but its meant to be that way. Most action-horror/survival games are. (Resident Evil anyone?) If you could run around and dodge with impunity it would make it easier, which is obviously not the developers goal.

That is of course, my projection but I think its an accurate one. Perhaps its also graphics related? In terms of it being slow due to things being up to high? Just a thought.

As for console-ness, it was developed multi-platform. So elements of that usually creep in...

[jgwdoc]

Wumpus, on January 23rd 2009, 11:53 PM, said:

I played this through with the standard controls and found it fine. You make an FPS reference, but as you should know, this is a 3rd person game. I did find the character movement 'sluggish' but its meant to be that way. Most action-horror/survival games are. (Resident Evil anyone?) If you could run around and dodge with impunity it would make it easier, which is obviously not the developers goal.

That is of course, my projection but I think its an accurate one. Perhaps its also graphics related? In terms of it being slow due to things being up to high? Just a thought.

As for console-ness, it was developed multi-platform. So elements of that usually creep in...

The graphics settings are fine. There's no lag and everything besides me is quite crisp. I think you're right, and it's intentional. It feels a bit like the beginning of Quake 4 before you get Strogified and sped up. I notice that some of the weapon upgrades (I think it's the plasma cutter) include a speed upgrade--does that apply to you or the weapon? I find it quite annoying to move almost as slowly as the monsters.

[Frigidman]

Its intentional, as mentioned before.

I played this game, and the only part that I got frustrated with every now and then, was the aiming was verrrrry stiff in certain situations when trying to turn around. This was because of a weird way they interpolated the Console's thumb-sticks to mouse-control. I blame a bad port.

However once I got used to it being a bit weird when in aimed mode, it was quite enjoyable.

The slow movement of the character, I thought, was a fresh change of pace from the "lets run at 90mph everywhere and switch directions on a dime while still maintaining 90mph"! I so get sick of that in many FPS games (Like battlefield/front farcrap dooms glooms and quakes).

Also mentioned was this isn't a FPS game, its an adventure 3rd person. Its just how they wanted it to be... cause if you look at the levels, they are not HUGE spacious levels. Every inch is crafted, and almost every other inch has something to do in them. Running around in ballistic mode is just not wanted from the game design view.

Lastly, I made the switch to WADS a long long time ago, when I finally got fed up with 'running out of keys in reach' when using arrows or even the keypad. Since MOST pc games simply flat out fail to work with keypad, I had to move. Then, with RPG games like MMOS and Solo RPGs, there are tons of 'hot keys' you need to reach at your fingertips. Things like tilde through 5, then all the other keys around WADS. You really are selling yourself short by trying to stick with a handicapped key setup of arrow-keys.

I had at the first tried to push the mouse-speed up for the game, but it made it unplayable when you were not in aimed-mode. Basiclly making it where any speck of dust on the mousepad would send you spinning around in a circle. Screw that. Its a shame they didn't have two mouse settings for aimed/notaimed modes, but oh well. They game is very easily doable with the way the controls are. Just takes getting used to them!

I loved the game, thought it was a nice change of pace. Very enjoyable, even though all the enemies were your typical fleshy bags of pus dripping monsters... which is so done to death. The rest of the game made up for it Also, at full details, it is a really beautiful game!

[jgwdoc]

The thing about WASD that drives me nuts is the diagonal aspect of the keys, which my fingers just can't get used to, and the tendency to mash on nearby keys by mistake. My arrow keys are all by themselves, in a straight 90 deg orientation, and it's easy to use R CTL for jump and KeyPad0 for crouch. you can also assign KeyPad numbers to weapons, and with a 7 button mouse I really have no problem with assigning things I need close at hand. Of course, some games (including Dead Space) are a bit restrictive in how they let you assign keys. I ended up with a half-assed compromise on this one, using Home/End/Page Down/Delete as my movement keys, with BackSpace for Kinetic Mode and NumLock for Stasis. Seems to work OK and keeps me East of the WASD mess.
I do agree the game is pretty, and even kind of interesting. But getting used to moving like a cripple has taken some adjusting. Perhaps I'm corrupted by too much UT.

[the Battle Cat]

jgwdoc, on January 25th 2009, 08:34 PM, said:

The thing about WASD that drives me nuts is the diagonal aspect of the keys, which my fingers just can't get used to, and the tendency to mash on nearby keys by mistake. My arrow keys are all by themselves, in a straight 90 deg orientation, and it's easy to use R CTL for jump and KeyPad0 for crouch.

You are like me. What I did was to get a gamers keypad with straight 90 deg orientation. I bought the Wolfking Warrior. It has the 90 degree orientation as well as handily placed satellite keys that are easy to find. It only has PC drivers last I checked but it works great on my G5 with OSX drivers. I am able to keep my standard keyboard AND my Wolfking plugged in at the same time. When I want to game, the keyboard slides under the monitor stand and the Wolfking slides over from resting on top of the CPU box.

[jgwdoc]

the Battle Cat, on January 26th 2009, 08:11 AM, said:

You are like me. What I did was to get a gamers keypad with straight 90 deg orientation. I bought the Wolfking Warrior. It has the 90 degree orientation as well as handily placed satellite keys that are easy to find. It only has PC drivers last I checked but it works great on my G5 with OSX drivers. I am able to keep my standard keyboard AND my Wolfking plugged in at the same time. When I want to game, the keyboard slides under the monitor stand and the Wolfking slides over from resting on top of the CPU box.

I think that's a great idea tBC. Though, of course, it is a public admission to everyone around you that you are a total gaming dweeb. On the other hand, since my secretaries often have to turn on the lights when they come into my office since I'm gaming in the dark, my dweeb status wont come as a shock to anyone. If you keep them both plugged in at the same time, does your computer recognize both inputs? It doesn't prioritize one above the other? In any case, the layout looks great.

[the Battle Cat]

jgwdoc, on January 26th 2009, 08:28 AM, said:

I think that's a great idea tBC. Though, of course, it is a public admission to everyone around you that you are a total gaming dweeb. On the other hand, since my secretaries often have to turn on the lights when they come into my office since I'm gaming in the dark, my dweeb status wont come as a shock to anyone. If you keep them both plugged in at the same time, does your computer recognize both inputs? It doesn't prioritize one above the other? In any case, the layout looks great.

I've given up trying to hide my gaming dweeb secret identity, all those "Clark Kent" robots were just too hard to maintain. Both keyboards are recognized as an input device at the same time. In fact, I keep the normal keyboard just under the monitor stand so that I can reach over the gaming keyboard and use the Command key or type a message if need be. (Gaming keyboard has no Command key)

[Frigidman]

The only thing I don't like about using WADS ... is on windows, the 'cmd' key turns into a bloody 'kill the game and fire truck you over' key. If you hit it by accident... ugh. It usually kills the game cause of the windows start menu that pops up as a result. I wish I could find a hack that disables that button (or assigns to to something OTHER than the windows start menu key).

But yeah, I was like you a long time ago... could only use the 90 degree keys cause of finger placement. I forgot what game it was that got me trained the other way... it was some game that was forced key setup and you could only use wads no matter what. Oni? I cant recall which it was. Anyhow...

[jgwdoc]

Hey Frigidman, did you develop a weapon preference in this thing? I don't think you find enough of those hockey pucks (nodes) to upgrade all of them, and you only get to carry 4, so what did you end up liking best? I'm sort of inclining towards the line gun and the pulse rifle (old FPS habit), but feel perhaps I should learn to use the Ripper more effectively. Is the Force Gun any good?
And tBC, my only hesitation about your keypad is that it doesn't light up, and I'm kind of hooked on my Saitek Eclipse II for blue-lit gaming in the dark.

[the Battle Cat]

I put an adhesive paper dot on one of the keys, and then let a small drop of Elmer's Glue dry on that. Now it is simple for my hand to find the gaming "home row" in the dark or if my finger has left the key. Not a solution for a lighted keypad but, still it can come in pretty handy.

[Frigidman]

jgwdoc, on January 26th 2009, 06:06 PM, said:

Hey Frigidman, did you develop a weapon preference in this thing? I don't think you find enough of those hockey pucks (nodes) to upgrade all of them, and you only get to carry 4, so what did you end up liking best? I'm sort of inclining towards the line gun and the pulse rifle (old FPS habit), but feel perhaps I should learn to use the Ripper more effectively. Is the Force Gun any good?
And tBC, my only hesitation about your keypad is that it doesn't light up, and I'm kind of hooked on my Saitek Eclipse II for blue-lit gaming in the dark.

You can buy them at a store for 10k each. Since I pretty much rarely used any health packs, those sell for a lot of credits. Sell any ammo/stasis charges/air tanks you wont be needing. You will make a lot of money off all that extra junk. Air tanks are basically useless, so sell them.

The ripper isn't all that great. The flamer is a waste cause it inhales fuel and doesnt do a lot of damage for what it does.

I did the game with the Plasma Cutter (the first gun) mostly, then had a Pulse rifle, and the big bad Contact Beam. I maxed out all three, my rig, and all the stasis by the end of the game. I didn't put any into Stasis till I ran out of mods on the three guns... cause honestly the ONLY times I used stasis, was when it was required for a puzzle to get past.

The Plasma Cutter, when fully decked out, does serious damage if you have good aim. The Pulse gun is great for getting rid of lots of 'little nasty things'... if you havnt come across them yet, then you don't need the gun yet

The Beam gun is good for simply satisfying the urge to make popsnizzle die with great explosive energies. I rarely used the gun though... since it was tough to use in a pinch (you have to charge it up and hold fire down till you want to shoot something).

Never spend money on air tanks.
Pimp your rig out first thing maximum before any guns.

[Frost]

the Battle Cat, on January 26th 2009, 09:11 AM, said:

You are like me. What I did was to get a gamers keypad with straight 90 deg orientation. I bought the Wolfking Warrior. It has the 90 degree orientation as well as handily placed satellite keys that are easy to find. It only has PC drivers last I checked but it works great on my G5 with OSX drivers. I am able to keep my standard keyboard AND my Wolfking plugged in at the same time. When I want to game, the keyboard slides under the monitor stand and the Wolfking slides over from resting on top of the CPU box.

Holy popsnizzle man, I wish I had known about that before!

Ever since getting used to Marathon on the number pad, I haven't been able to get used to using WASD. So I didn't; whenever I play a FPS, the keyboard slides to the side, and with my desk setup, that leaves it half suspended in the air.

This thing would solve my problems. And it's cheap to boot. Kudos!

Also, to anyone reading this who hasn't yet decided on whether or not to try out Dead Space, I give it my personal seal of approval. Got the PS3 version back in October and have beaten it four times so far... GREAT game.

And to those playing, if you give it a go on impossible, pay attention to what Frigidman said. The plasma cutter, pulse rifle, and contact beam are your best friends on Impossible. Leave everything else in the store and sell all ammo for any other guns to get money for nodes. Try and get a decent stock of health (say enough for 6 bars worth of recovery) going, maybe a large med pack or two tucked away for emergencies. If you're able to get that together, start selling all health too. A great help was also always trying to keep the R.I.G. one node away from another health upgrade, and when possible, playing until the enemies wear me down to low yellow or into the red, then doing an upgrade and getting free 100% health out of the deal.

I got all the way through the game in a level 1 suit like that, on impossible, and finished with the RIG, stasis module, kinesis module, plasma cutter, and pulse rifle all fully upgraded, with some decent progress on the contact beam's damage, so it is doable.

Stasis is good for saving ammo, too, if there's an easily accessible stasis charging station around. Freeze an enemy up and then beat them to death. Just doing that as much as I could the first three chapters ended up giving me such a starting stockpile of ammunition that I didn't start running low until the end of the game.

[jgwdoc]

Frigidman, on January 26th 2009, 07:42 PM, said:

I did the game with the Plasma Cutter (the first gun) mostly, then had a Pulse rifle, and the big bad Contact Beam. I maxed out all three, my rig, and all the stasis by the end of the game. I didn't put any into Stasis till I ran out of mods on the three guns... cause honestly the ONLY times I used stasis, was when it was required for a puzzle to get past.

The Plasma Cutter, when fully decked out, does serious damage if you have good aim. The Pulse gun is great for getting rid of lots of 'little nasty things'... if you havnt come across them yet, then you don't need the gun yet

The Beam gun is good for simply satisfying the urge to make popsnizzle die with great explosive energies. I rarely used the gun though... since it was tough to use in a pinch (you have to charge it up and hold fire down till you want to shoot something).

Pimp your rig out first thing maximum before any guns.

So far I've been concentrating on my rig and the pulse rifle. The plasma cutter is very useful, but it seems that the line gun could cut off more limbs at once so I've been tempted to buff that one. I definitely agree that the pulse rifle is the way to go for those annoying little beasties that try to swarm you.

Frost, on January 26th 2009, 07:43 PM, said:

Also, to anyone reading this who hasn't yet decided on whether or not to try out Dead Space, I give it my personal seal of approval. Got the PS3 version back in October and have beaten it four times so far... GREAT game.

And to those playing, if you give it a go on impossible, pay attention to what Frigidman said. The plasma cutter, pulse rifle, and contact beam are your best friends on Impossible. Leave everything else in the store and sell all ammo for any other guns to get money for nodes. Try and get a decent stock of health (say enough for 6 bars worth of recovery) going, maybe a large med pack or two tucked away for emergencies. If you're able to get that together, start selling all health too. A great help was also always trying to keep the R.I.G. one node away from another health upgrade, and when possible, playing until the enemies wear me down to low yellow or into the red, then doing an upgrade and getting free 100% health out of the deal.

I got all the way through the game in a level 1 suit like that, on impossible, and finished with the RIG, stasis module, kinesis module, plasma cutter, and pulse rifle all fully upgraded, with some decent progress on the contact beam's damage, so it is doable.

Stasis is good for saving ammo, too, if there's an easily accessible stasis charging station around. Freeze an enemy up and then beat them to death. Just doing that as much as I could the first three chapters ended up giving me such a starting stockpile of ammunition that I didn't start running low until the end of the game.

I was unsure at first, but I'm starting to share your enthusiasm. It's really fun to play, and visually very detailed, with lots of things to look at in every room. I actually find the kinesis module pretty useful as well, having learned from Bioshock to pick up explosive canisters and throw them at uglies.

[Frigidman]

I forgot to mention Kinesis lol... yeah, I maxed that one too, as I used that a LOT. I would throw all kinds of things around at bad things. Especially the explosive red cannisters... those things make great work of a LOT of stuff Also, Fire extinguishers do well for stunning enemies good. I also used kinesis to grab all kinds of goodies from various locations you couldn't walk too (usually due to exploding enemies and flying of goodies grr lol).

[the Battle Cat]

Frost, on January 26th 2009, 06:43 PM, said:

Holy popsnizzle man, I wish I had known about that before!

Ever since getting used to Marathon on the number pad, I haven't been able to get used to using WASD. So I didn't; whenever I play a FPS, the keyboard slides to the side, and with my desk setup, that leaves it half suspended in the air.

This thing would solve my problems. And it's cheap to boot. Kudos!

Marathon is where I started using the keypad too, WASD always felt so cockeyed. I played it the same way you did, keyboard slides to the side... game ON! I decided to get the Wolfking Warrior when a couple of my games wouldn't accept some of the keypad keys. Now I have the best of both worlds, a keypad style configuration with WASD access to more keys, keys that have been arraigned to fit a hand. I got the thing in March of 2007 and it's been trouble free during that time.

[Frigidman]

Heh, if we are reminiscing about Marathon and key setups, yeah... same here. I used keypad. I also used a keyboard that could only allow two keys pressed at any given time (with any amount of modifiers, shift ctrl cmd). I ended up modding my keyboard to put a new button under the "period" key on the keypad, that acted like cmd. This allowed me to sidestep, move, and fire secondary shots all at the same time without running into the limitation of 'having to stop movement in order to fire of a nade' ... hehe.

But yeah, the sign of a marathoner: keyboard slid off to the side at an angle so the keypad was in perfect orientation.