You can have the "3rd"mouse button do a task. I have mine programmed to use the shield batteries, by just pressing down on the wheel. The way the other mouse buttons work is fine and correct for me.

You know, this is a good point. This game is one of the most user-unfriendly games when it comes to providing options for the user controls. Everything from the taboo topic in these forums of joysticks, to the mundane, such as mapping your mouse buttons. Very odd and short-sighted, in my opinion. I mean, what's the harm?

I'll admit I'm playing Devil's Advocate a bit here. I have no problem with customizable controls - in fact, I'm a big fan of them and a big fan of joystick support as well.

BUT, my theory is the developers limited customization of the mouse and eliminated joystick support entirely because they wanted people to try their control scheme. The reason? Because for this game and its style, I think they realized they had a much BETTER control scheme.

I would imagine that had the game shipped with joystick support, even though the developers recommended mouse and keyboard, people would immediately configure their joystick for it before even trying their scheme (I know - I would have too), and then there would be a lot of people complaining about how bad the interface is and how hard it was to juggle a joystick and mouse at the same time. I can just see the "What were they thinking?" posts now.

Yeah, it might have been nice if the mouse was a bit more customizeable, but I think the default scheme for it works very well, and I believe the keyboard is completely customizable. I would imagine (just my opinion) it'll become almost natural once you're accustomed to it.

Edited by - guptasa1 on 08-03-2003 03:18:27

The fact that the creators like their control scheme may be true, however it seems odd that they foisted their scheme upon us. All I'd like to do is change the Mouse move to the third button on my mouse instead of the first. Doesn't seem like too much to ask for. After years of twitch games, my synaptic pathways have burned a path wherein the index finger (is that the right name?) is the finger that fires my primary weapons. So in a firefight, with fourth button as afterburner, third button for missles, second button for firing, and first for mousemove, my brain/fingers get confused when I stop afterburners or need to drop chaff and start afterburner, but also keep maneuvering....or stop afterburners fire missile, and stop chaff.....etc....etc....Bottomline, I can get used to it, but I'd rather just rebind.

Yeah, I see your point. In that case I probably would want to as well. Maybe someone can do a mod to allow you to rebind those?

I like the control scheme very much but also found myself thinking that if I could reverse the left and right mouse button functions I might be happier. But I think that with so much of the interface focused on selecting things with the mouse (like we do everyday with Windows) that they felt people would become confused if they needed to start using the right mouse button for selecting things. In the end I see the logic behind their control scheme and I think it works just fine.

Oon-tee-dee[!

In Windows Control Panel, go to mouse properties and change the left and right buttons reverse; since I am left handed, this option is available. Of course, you would need to go back and reconfigure the mouse after playing the game.