Utilizing Controller Profiles

posted on October 26th, 2012, 2:06 pm

Have you ever been in a battle so large that by the time you selected a ship that was taking damage and ordered it to cloak and/or repair, it was already almost destroyed, and getting it out of the battle just one second earlier would have saved it? I know I have. So I've devised a solution. If you have a profileable controller (eg: X52 joystick), you can use that profile ability to your advantage.

Put the controller in an easy-to-access location (eg: opposite side of the keyboard from the mouse), and through the profiler, select one button to cloak the ship and do a priority repair (in the case of a cloakable ship), and the other button to do just a priority repair (in the case of a non-cloakable ship). You will still need a bit of speed, but with the push of a single button, the damaged ship will be out of the battle much sooner than hurrying to hit the cloak hotkey followed by the priority repair hotkey.

Cloak Hotkey: Ctrl+R
Priority Repair Hotkey: Shift+R

I cannot help you assign the hotkeys through the profiler, so you'll have to consult your controllers operating manual, but I can guarantee that once you do, you'll be able to save more ships than you would without the profile setup. For assigning multiple hotkeys (such as cloak+priority repair), speed is still an issue, but once you've got the delay as short as possible, you will not have to worry about speed for that button anymore.

posted on October 26th, 2012, 2:37 pm

you can just use a hotkey program to assign these actions to keyboard keys (ones you won't use to type) or mouse buttons (if your mouse has extra buttons to use it should have its own profiler). it's easier than using a 3rd piece of equipment to shift your hand over to.

software exists for mapping keys like this. autohotkey is a good example, many others are available.

posted on October 27th, 2012, 12:49 am

This would certainly be an advantage. I wonder how people would view this. Is it cheating? Is it just using technology to the best advantage? What? I don't think it would be cheating, but I would like to know what you guys think.

posted on October 27th, 2012, 4:17 am

Some players already use macros to assist their play, but Fleet Operations is not about clicking the fastest, but about clicking most correctly . There are many benefits to quick shifting, but a large degree of skill is knowing when, how, and what to build and where to deploy it.

posted on October 27th, 2012, 11:53 am

Some players already use macros to assist their play, but Fleet Operations is not about clicking the fastest, but about clicking most correctly . There are many benefits to quick shifting, but a large degree of skill is knowing when, how, and what to build and where to deploy it.

Good to know. I will adjust accordingly. Thank you.