I was looking around for another gaming keyboard and I've noticed that reviewers think the lack of a number pad is a bad thing. I never, ever use the number pad anymore. The last time I used it was when the first Tomb Raider came out for the PC. I've never even used it for non-gaming purposes. What about the rest of you? Is a number pad important to you?
Well for me when i play mmo's i play with my left hand so a ton of things are mapped on the number pad other than that ive never had a time where i want to use it.
Outside of games, I use it quite a lot. But in gaming, I only use it if I'm typing out a CD-Key that consists of nothing more than numbers. If it consists of letters as well, I say sod it and use the keypad.
Laptop user here. It's those random games that require you to use the key pad (or if I'm just lazy) that make me miss having it. But in general, I don't use em. I generally just remap anything in there if I can, but I tend to have all of the really important macros/combos tied to my mouse. A 6 button mouse helps, though I'd prefer having more...
It's important. Marvel Ultimate Alliance is the last game I played that required it, the same reason I can't play it on my laptop. I'm also planning to reinstall IL2 where it's important for view control.
I used to have view control mapped to my joystick hat. If you've got the cash, pick up a TrackIR. Makes playing flight sims, driving sims, and even some FPS games so much easier and more immersive. If you don't, then build your own!
I used to have view control mapped to my joystick hat. If you've got the cash, pick up a TrackIR. Makes playing flight sims, driving sims, and even some FPS games so much easier and more immersive. If you don't, then build your own!
bogaty
yea, I'm not sure about trackIR, but I used to have a gravis joystick that did the job. unfortunately, I broke a piece of plastic, where the stick would come off when I moved it left. I haven't been encouraged played a flight game or any of the mechwarrior game since. perhaps i'll look into the the trackIR or some other rudder and pedals.
Edit. Thanks for the link. it looks kinda weird making your own, but i'll be interesting. the calibration process looks interesting.
One thing a number pad is useful for is Garry's Mod (for activating triggered events.)
If you don't have a number pad you have to press "Fn" and a number key at the same time (which won't work with all the keys as they are assigned to all your weapons and stuff.)
If you don't have a number pad you have to press "Fn" and a number key at the same time (which won't work with all the keys as they are assigned to all your weapons and stuff.)
FamiBox
Well yea. But my laptop had the Fn blue key on the bottom left of my keyboard, and it's hard to access that when using WASD. In addition, the keys the numerics are assigned to aren't aligned like the keypad. All reasons why it's difficult to play games mentioned above, and Sid Meier's Pirates.
My experience has been that I rarely use the number pad on my home pc. At work however I use it a lot. If I was buying a laptop for my personal use, as opposed to work usage, the lack of a number pad wouldn't really matter.
I didn't think about left-handed gamers. It makes sense that you dudes would use the number pad. I also forgot about people who would need it for work reasons! So, the number pad seems to be valuable for most PC users. I just use the number keys above the letters. I've always done that. We don't even have number pads at our work keyboards.
Anyway, I went with the Merc Stealth keyboard. My Wolf King keyboard was fine, but I really needed something with back lighting since my room is very dark & I prefer to play games with the lights off. It's a nice keyboard with a very good feel to it, plus it has that cool "gaming setup" on the left side of the keyboard, which I like.
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