How do you play POTCO?
 

I was wondering how other played POTCO there are 2 main ways.

1. Move with the Arrow Keys (<^>v) and attack with CTRL button on the left.

Or

2. Move with the W,A,S,D Keys and attack with the mouse or CTRL button on the right.


I personally do 1. more i find it easier.

Both, depends which hand me mug o rum is in ;)

Neither - I do #3

I use the Up Arrow / R Keys for running, Number and Function Keys for weapons and selection, and my mouse for all movement (left / right) and Weapon Attacks :D

arrow keys to move-mouse for everything else-well except chatting mice are not good talkers they tend to have high squeaky voices that hurt your ears

key board wasd....with lelf hand ....mouse in the right ....stop movin to drink me rum

I've tried numerous times to learn the PvP-essential QWEASD movement techniques. My brain refuses to change though; after a minute or two, I'll notice I'm back to the arrow keys and R/mouse. Might explain why I hate PvP so much.

In sailing, mouse doesn't turn the boat, so I use the arrow keys almost exclusively, there. FUN SAILING GLITCH: turning a circle while going forward, using only the left arrow takes 27 seconds, but turning the same circle using "QA" both held down takes 24 seconds. Might be even faster tapping Q.

Cannon: exclusively mouse, right-button down the entire time. The only exception, being in SvS when using grape shot, I'll use arrow keys if the glitchers are lag-bombing. (If you don't know what I mean, then you've never attacked a glitched ship on a crazy A server in SvS.)

I usually do both depending on the amount of space I have, or if I need to do something with more control (running around in tight spaces filled with enemies I don't want to fight, like Tormenta, or Kingshead) Heres how I do it.

Lots of Space= WSAD
Little Space= Arrows
Control not needed= WSAD
Control needed= Arrows (I have more control over things when they are closer to me)

I use the arrow keys to move, the f1-f6 for weapons, and my mouse for using weapons.
Left hand on keyboard, right hand on mouse.

Is there a 3rd option? As a jumper, in PVP, my left hand is always on qwes for movement and my right hand is on the mouse. Wasd is awkward to use in my opinion so I stick with qwes.

Since I played a lot of FPS (first person shooter) games way back when, I use #2. Left Hand for WASD movement, number keys and Function keys. Right hand on the mouse, using right button mouse looking all of the time. Most times I use left mouse button to attack but sometimes hit the left CTRL key with my left pinky if I don't feel like hearing the click of the mouse. WASD, IMO, is just easier to reach all of the necessary keys quickly, especially the Space bar to jump (not that it's needed too much in game). Plus I can hit my Enter key with my right hand while it's on its way to type a message.

As far as I know, my better half still uses the arrow keys, clicks on the weapon buttons to do special abilities, and doesn't use the right-click mouse look at all. She actually does sail looking at the rear end of the ship all of the time. Not sure how she does it, but I know it'd drive me bonkers.

For the above quoted reason, I use my mouse for almost everything just like I do in my FPS games. Faster to move and aim with fluidic motion.

Movement/actions (have button set to "R" and one to "Shift"), change weapons (scroll wheel, supplemented with Function keys).

I very seldom use the keyboard for anything except hitting "T" for tonic, "Spacebar" for jumping, and of course for chatting.

This is why my pirate often says "AFK" even after playing for hours non-stop.

Your better half, may be on to something you can learn from. I truly hate the mouse, as a human/computer interface. So, I avoided it as long as possible...the first time I actually needed to pan the view while sailing, was in the boss battle (to see when the first three bridges fire.) All other sailing in the game (including SvS) can be done using the compass only. Better, in fact, since the compass is the only thing that accurately reflects what the game server sees. But the compass view only works, if the "standard" view is set to the "aft view" of the ship. If you pan the camera, the compass gets thwacked with the view, so you no longer know if you can hit, nor can you estimate if your gunners still have a shot. The down-side in SvS, is that you can sometimes miss when your opponent starts their open fire or take cover. For the relatively few opponents where that matters, I have sometimes panned the camera...always pressing the up arrow as soon as I can, to re-orient the compass and the main view. When the view is normalized, I can very accurately tell what enemies on compass are in range, for broadsides, as well as my gunners. (Different for each ship type, of course, but only slightly.)

I use practically every button/method/movement, depending on the needed function. When fleeing, I find myself using W and the mouse. When in Cutlass combat and I'm engaged with no need of further movement, I use either a) right ctrl or b) the mouse to attack with the left hand doing the combat moves--the staff makes me do b, so I can shift and turn. Sailing I use the up, down and all-around buttons; cannoning the mouse. I occasionally (as in, once in an ever) use the WASD set to fight with a pistol or grenade.

Lately I've been gambling alot: just the mouse, exclusively.

I play exactly like Mac Ironhawk and I sail just like Edward Edgemenace. I don't mind the mouse at all as an interface, but I use the compass and arrow keys to sail by and attack with. About the only time I use the mouse to pan the camera (while sailing) is to see what rep I got off a ship I just sank. When on land I use the right mouse button frequently while running and fighting.

Number 1. Find it easier. I have a mousepad, and it hard to use the mouse alot, so arrow keys and CTRL on the left win.

Great survey Chris. Tremendous insight, here. Thank you.

I am ambidexterous (sp?) so I actually end up doing a little of everything, albeit with the mouse in either right or left hand. I usually end up swapping the mouse back and forth depending on hand cramps, or how much time I spent on the computer at work that day. The only time I am right hand mouse exclusive is when using a trackball, which got ditched during the last relocation.

Cannonering is strictly mouse with right button, same for pistol and most aiming functions.

Otherwise it's left hand mouse with arrows, or right hand mouse with WASD. Fire control is almost always <cntrl> using the thumb with whichever hand is on the keys. Not much for left mouse button firing.

Confusing, eh?

Two favorite ambidexterous quotes: (1) I'd give me right arm to be ambidexterous. (2) Being ambidexterous means not being able to do anything with either hand.

I tried to use the left for sailing with the 6 (all 6) keyboard letter controls while using the mouse to just click the buttons, where I can pan if I need to. Tough as of yet, but I may try more with it.

In Cuba today, getting a mess of gators, I found myself using WASD (mainly W) instead of autorun (since I had to keep turning it off.) Because it was a pistol exercise, I was using mouse exclusively to aim. I'll have to remember this as a training area, for brain-WASD conditioning.

neither I use the arrow keys and F1, F2, etc. with my right hand. and mouse for attacks and stuff with my left.

I used mostly WASD and a wireless optical mouse since I use a laptop. But something I have noticed, specially for Pistol...you can shoot faster rounds by using CTRL and Left Mouse Button, consecutively. It's a "bang-bang-bang" instead of a "bang ... bang ... bang" if one uses only one triggering button/key. The delay might be a second shorter.

I do #2, cuz that way I can reach the space bar and shift key, and so I have an open hand fer me mouse.