The use of macros?

spacedskunk

spacedskunk

spacedskunk

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I recently bought a Sidewinder X4 keyboard with macro keys on there. I've programmed them to open various programs as quick open buttons but for their main use gaming I'm kinda stuck on what I can possibly use them for?

It's obviously one of the definitive features that sets a keyboard apart from a gaming keyboard. I play mainly FPS, some Minecraft and racing games and the only possible use I can see for them is repetitive tasks in maybe strategy games and MMORPGs.

Does anyone use macros? If so what for? This thread means I'm getting to the point I am actually trying to come up with something for the sake of doing it! :)
 
I would also like to know.

Right now I've just got one to answer a skype call, and one to disconnect. Not sure on what to do with the other 16.... :s
 
I use those marcos to replace the 6 7 8 9 0 keys to save me having to stretch to them. Oh and I use the very top macro key to open the steam overlay, think that is bound to ctlr+alt+].

In desktop mode they are used for calculator, copy, cut and paste.

Also have a marco record function so I can bind any macro I like to any key on the board. Found this out the hard way mind, somehow rebound my W key and thought it had broke. Took me about an hour to realise what I had done.
 
in desktop i use mine for trivial stuff like email address home address etc.

When I am admining a server i have various messages bound to them.

In wow I use them for various things like mounts and casting self buffs etc

For FPS they dont really get used that much, and dont get used at all for most single player games.
 
I've had a G15 for several years now, and I literally have never used any of the 18 (54?) macro keys.

This thread may actually be quite useful for me in terms of seeing the desktop uses you guys have found like email address, I can definitely see that being handy has my email addy is quite long (28 characters).
 
I have a G13, G19 and use the macro keys a lot. I also use in game macro setups to execute commands. Some macro keys are just bound for one button usage (e.g. easier to reacher and bigger keys etc)
 
yeah this is a good question.

I am on the lookout for a new gaming keyboard but i am unsure if i should go for an expensive one, like the razor blackwidow or something cheaper. I think i am only going to be playing BF3 and MW3 so i am not sure if its worth getting something with all these macros.

Sorry to hijac the thread.
 
I have a G15, I've not used the macro keys once either, I game enough on it to do so, I just dont use WASD I use arrow keys so its too much of a strech for me.
 
tidusjar said:
The main use for macro keys for me is for CSS. the buy commands. e.g. b83b84b85b83 for all of the nades :P
Click to expand...

B8 is CS 1.6. CSS buys ammo automatically so doesn't have b6 and b7 for them, therefore b8 moves up to b6.

God, get it right man.
 
In WoW there's an add-on you can use for the G15.

CYVmN.jpg


Obviously designed for the G15 which has the 18 keys, but you can assign a spell to each key, which is so convenient.

Other than that, not much really. I'm considering setting up some for Starcraft 2 builds. So a key to select my nexus and build a probe automatically. So instead of 6e7e8e I just hit the macro and it selects each nexus and builds a probe in each.
 
spacedskunk said:
I recently bought a Sidewinder X4 keyboard with macro keys on there. I've programmed them to open various programs as quick open buttons but for their main use gaming I'm kinda stuck on what I can possibly use them for?

It's obviously one of the definitive features that sets a keyboard apart from a gaming keyboard. I play mainly FPS, some Minecraft and racing games and the only possible use I can see for them is repetitive tasks in maybe strategy games and MMORPGs.

Does anyone use macros? If so what for? This thread means I'm getting to the point I am actually trying to come up with something for the sake of doing it! :)
Click to expand...

I used to use them to spam skills in an MMO I played a while back (you had to spam them AFK to level them :p). I'd set a button up to cast all the spells I needed over & over.

Also useful for repetitive combos e.g. for combat.

Also used for farming items in Titan Quest. When I get to a boss with one of my characters I have to buff up and spawn some pets, so I set the perfect combination of keys with perfect timing up to avoid having to cycle through all the right F keys before I fight.

I don't really use my G keys much these days, only really use G1 for the calculator :D. May come in handy in Skyrim.
 
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magicka its great for the spells since you need to do combos
also it was fun to save the cheats on the G keys in san andreas
 
Well, macros, you can set up a keystroke or a number of keystrokes with the inclusion of "pauses" - so pretty much limited by your imagination TBH :P

I have for the last 7 years or so used the original G15 and more recently the G510 as i use the macro keys for my movement and weaponry in FPS and much prefer the "stacked" nature of the keys as opposed to the "offset" of the main keyboard:

keyse.png


I couldn't go back to a "normal" layout now

As for what they can be used for, BF2 was the last (and only) time I really used them and i had several from change to ammo / medi pack, drop and swap back to main weapon as well as swap to defrib, shock, back to main weapon then some more dubious ones like a regular fire pattern that allowed you to sit at a mounted gun and fire continually it maintained a regular fire but didn't allow the gun to over heat (yes you could do this manually, but i had a toggle on off macro which did the work for me :P) and was great for suppression. The funniest one was used in choppers and at the press of a button moved you to the passenger seat, fired the TV missile and 6 seconds (or so IIRC) later (just giving you enough time to guide the missile before its useful life) swapped back to the pilot seat :P

These and more can be done on the keyboard or a lot of mice have macro facility too and there was talk of a PB kick in BF2 for any mouse / kb software running which enabled macro use (as they did for AutoHotKey) due to some of the exploits

Hope this helps :)
 
Thanks for all the replies, it's seems I'm not the only one! I'm really quite amazed about it all...I thought I just had brainfreeze trying to figure out a decent use for them.

The steam overlay is definitely a good idea so I can rebind it which has sparked another idea, would be possible for a macro to open Ventrilo and auto connect to my server while in-game? It's not uncommon for me to join a game on my own then for a friend to join and I need Vent. Trying to figure out how to make that though. :rolleyes:

Your use of your macro keys ~TB~ is good, if only my macro keys were laid out that way. :( They are just 6 buttons running vertically, each can assign 3 macros.
 
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