How do you walk without shoes?
How do magnets work?
How do you solve a problem like Maria?

I've been playing this game with a mouse and keyboard on a laptop since the beginning and have gotten nothing but compliments on my ability. My guess is that whatever you're acclimated to, you will do well with. Once you get used to the mouse and keyboard you will probably play every bit as well as you did with a game pad.

I hope this helps, but it's a bit vague of a question to answer in any real way.

I've tried three different ways of controlling the game--gamepad, keyboard only, and keyboard and mouse.

I've found KB and mouse to be the best combination for me, but I had to modify the setup slightly. I use WASD to move, and I changed left click to shield and right click to attack. I switch weapons with either the mouse wheel or the space bar. This gives me great flexibility of movement and aiming.

Keyboard alone is OK, but only if you never use guns. Swords and bombs are easy enough to use without the finer control that guns require.

Now about the gamepad...I'm sure that my issues may be due to the gamepad I was using, it's fairly old, a Macally iShock (designed to look like a Playstation Duoshock). I could control my character with either the d-pad or one of the analog sticks (both happened to be on the same side), but the stick on the other side of the controller never wanted to quite work properly. I found the sticks to not be very accurate or responsive, so I had to use the D-pad to move and aim, essentially using them as arrow keys. I could set one of the shoulder bumpers to strafe, and others to attack and shield, using other buttons as the quickslots, but eventually the whole thing just became uncomfortable. Hand cramps, sore thumb, and so on. Perhaps a more modern gamepad wouldn't have these issues, but I'm not about to go out and buy one just for this game.

Overall, KB and mouse works best for me. I set myself up in a comfortable position to use them...initially my arms were sore as I don't normally spend a lot of time using the computer that way, but after a few days I was fine.

@Notbob-

I use a gamepad and mouse. Aim and attack with the mouse, move and shield with the pad. That may allow you to use your half-broken gamepad. I also found it allowed me to aim a gun much, much more accurately than when using gamepad alone.

When I don't use a gamepad, I go mouse and keyboard, but I don't move with the keyboard. For bombs and swords you don't need to strafe, so sometimes I ditch the gamepad and just go bombs and swords and move/aim/attack with the mouse and shield and select vials with the keyboard.

This game is so easy, I can play it with a game pad, keyboard and mouse, or even with a touch pad!

If you're having this problem, the problem is with you, not the system <_<

Oh Goddess, the original controls are horrible. It's keyed really dang weird with all the controls and the typical movement commands all on one hand.

For me I have movement keyed to wasd, face the different directions keyed to the arrow keys (which never get used...) attack is still z and right mouse click. The shield I moved to the spacebar as if you're using wasd to move then your thumb is normally right on the spacebar anyways, change weapon is still the scroll wheel, and auto-target is turned off. The auto-target key (if you hold it down it will target the nearest enemy, and only when held down) I keyed to my left mouse click, it works wonders when I use the Flourish or Cutter lines as it will keep you on your intended target usually instead of going right past them. I use my mouse to aim so I can be moving one direction and attacking in the opposite... very useful when kiting.

~Gwen

wasd for movement
space for shield
mouse for aiming and attacking

When i first started playing i used mouse to move as well, but i quickly realized the horrible disadvantage this had to using wasd (you can not look in one way and move in another) so i switched over. It took me a day or so before i got used to wasd

@Sanzenin: There actually is an option to bind move left/right/forward/backward instead of using the cardinal directions. I can't imagine anybody using it, but it's there in controls right at the top.

I use a combination of a gamepad and keyboard/mouse. Both have their advantages. Movement is much smoother with a gamepad, making it easier to navigate bullet-hell environments. Aiming is much easier with a keyboard/mouse; this is particularly true with guns and if you have to move and shoot in different directions.

As people have said, the default control layout for keyboard/mouse is terrible. While it may be useable, it's definitely not optimal and will leave you with a slower reaction time in many situations. Rebind your keyboard/mouse controls and you'll find it much more viable.

Is this not what you mean?

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/2214/spiral20110709205125.png

It says move fwd/back/left/right, which I would imagine it does exactly what it says in relation to your knight, rather than using the cardinal directions.

You try to go exactly to the right, and go in a vaguely rightwardish direction, but also up or down a bit. In some games, that sort of sloppy controls is manageable, but not this one. Trying to walk between spikes, for example, is completely out of the question. And good luck if you want to actually dodge when there's a lot of stuff going on. With a directional pad, you press the right arrow and go exactly to the right. That is simple.

Okay, let me clarify: I can go exactly to the right/left/up/down with an analog stick. I can demo this anytime we're online in Haven. Just /tell me in game. I'll walk any vertical or horizontal line in Haven for you. IGN: Sanzenin. [edit]: just realized this wouldn't work since you wouldn't be able to tell I was using an analog stick. I don't have a video camera so I can't prove it to you that way. I suppose I could try and borrow one but it's really more trouble than I'm willing to go to prove I can walk a straight line with an analog stick to some random dude on the internet. Maybe someday you'll be able to see someone do this and realize it is ENTIRELY possible.

Oh, I'm well aware that I can't push a thumbstick exactly to the right. Good controls make it so that I if I'm off by a millimeter or two, it doesn't matter. Directional pads do that. Keyboards do that. Thumbsticks don't. That's why analog thumbsticks are not good controls for a lot of purposes, such as this game.

We disagree on the definition of "good controls." Good control for me means that when I make a small adjustment it is registered in game. I prefer the analog stick BECAUSE it lets me have more PRECISE control over my knight. I move it a slight amount and my knight makes a minor adjustment. For me sloppy/poor controls are when you're off by a millimeter or two and it doesn't matter. I can't imagine a modern game where pushing your joystick a millimeter and not seeing a change in your character would be considered "good controls."

So basically, you can use the W, A, S, and D keys, but not for what they're used in usual WASD movement games? That still doesn't make WASD movement akin to other games a viable option.

You need to give me an example of what wasd movement games you're talking about. Most of the games I've played on the PC that have used WASD have been FPS's. That same scheme can't be exactly the same in a top down game such as SK. In Spiral Knights you can map WASD to either move north/south/east/west or move up/down/left/right. That seems to make sense for a top down game like this. I thought when you were talking about turning you were talking about changing the direction you're facing. Changing the direction you're facing is what turn right / turn left is used for in most games I've used WASD type movement in.

@Metaphysic: Yes I was aware of that. I just misunderstood what he meant by turn right/left.

Err, what? Stand such that shooting directly to the right will hit a mob, face directly to the right, fire gun, hit mob. Easy. Well, with a directional pad it is. With a thumbstick it ends up as, shoot in a vaguely rightwardish direction, miss mob. But that's a problem with thumbsticks, not a problem with gamepads. Now, gamepads do only make it easy to shoot in eight directions, and there are rare situations where it's convenient to be able to shoot in a different direction. But that's pretty rare.

I think you meant to say directional pad above. My gamepad has a dpad and thumbsticks. I find it pretty rare that mobs are directly above/below/right/left of me. I'm always moving and more often than not the mob is slightly diagonal in relation to me and not at 45 degrees diagonal. Since I have no problem hitting a cardinal direction with the analog stick it's easy enough to hit the ones that are. An example: I'm dodging gun puppy fire while returning fire. More often than not, dodging their fire puts me in a diagonal direction in relation to the gun puppy and generally not at a 45 degree diagonal. If you're always standing still or only shooting in the eight cardinal directions the gamepad is easy to aim with. In all other cases it's not.

Now, gamepads aren't better than mice for aiming with a lot of guns. If you're using one with recoil, that's more of a problem, but many guns don't have that. The problem is when you're using a sword and trying to aim, in which case, you point at a mob and attack the mob, and then attacking moves you, which scrolls the screen so that the mouse pointer is no longer pointing at the mob. That's awkward, and gamepads have no analogous problem.

In my post I only said I have difficulty aiming with vials and guns. I use mainly Alchemer's. I have no problem hitting anything with all two/three/five hits of the combo of any sword. When attacking using sword with a mouse you keep the cursor beyond the mob you're attacking that way you won't change direction even when the screen scrolls or the mob is pushed by your attack. This is pretty easy to do. I did play for the first two days of my SK life with mouse and keyboard and I never had any issues executing full sword combos on mobs.

And what's the feeler shot for? A lot of maps have the terrain line up so that you can see exactly where the bullet will go: parallel to the walls, floor tiles, or whatever else there is on the map. Shooting diagonally is a little more awkward, but even that isn't needed or even useful all that often.

The feeler shot is really just what I call my first attempt to hit something. Say I've got two or three kats firing at me. While dodging their bullets I can fire back. So I'm moving with the left analog stick to dodge and using the right analog stick to aim and fire back. With everything I'm trying to do at once I find it hard to notice EXACTLY which way my character is facing. I have a general idea but sometimes I fire and I notice I'm a few degrees off and I miss. That shot became a feeler shot. I readjust and my second shot more often than not will hit what I'm aiming at. That's what I meant by feeler shot. With a vial I have to take an extra split second and make sure I'm facing exactly the direction I think I'm facing. With a mouse there's no split second delay. The arrow is there. I point at something and I hit it.

Being able to face in one direction and move in another at the same time sounds useful. But in practice, it isn't so useful. I've gone out of my way to make sure that my controls are set so that I can do that, and I basically never come across a case where it's useful. If you need to back away from mobs, you can do that while the weapon is reloading. If you need to be mostly running away and shooting behind you, I guess there is some advantage to this, but it really only means that you can fire somewhat more often. Most mobs are either fast enough that guns don't work, or else slow enough that if you fire as often as the cooldown allows and run directly toward the mob while firing and away otherwise, you'll have to constantly stop and wait for the mob to come nearer as you run away.

I strongly disagree. I find it extremely useful in practice. I've tried it with setting movement and facing the same keys. It took longer to kill mobs and each fight had a lot of running back and forth. Circle strafing was harder. And some situations become needlessly frustrating. Being able to dodge things and fire back in a direction independent of where you had to move is invaluable and many mouse/kb users will attest to this. Especially useful in those small T3 rooms with devilites and kats. For example: You're dodging kat bullets, in dodging these bullets you're moving south while hitting a devilite to the west with your sword. Now you're dodging the bullets while moving to the west and you hit that same devilite to the north. Lets you control not just what direction you attack from but what direction you hit your target to set up your next attack. Kinda like playing pool. Pretty useful I think. Also I try not to reload any gun I'm using. Anything that keeps me from shielding at a moment's notice is bad imo. Alchemer's, I fire once > pause for the smallest amount of time possible to not count my next shot as the second shot > fire again > pause > fire > etc. No reloading.

TL;DR
@Quizzical: I disagree with a lot of what you wrote in regards to analog sticks and mapping movement independently from facing.

I use a drawing tablet, like I do for everything else. Using a mouse makes my hand cramp up after about 20 minutes. I have all of the buttons I need for the game set to the buttons on the tablet, and the tap to move plus the absolute positioning for the tablet (meaning the screen is mapped 1:1 on the tablet's surface) means I can change direction and facing very quickly and precisely.

Of course, I also don't use a gun very often, and the gun that I do use is an Autogun line, so I can't move and shoot anyway. Mostly I'm either attacking with my sword or running around in circles like a mad bomber person.

A lot of it comes down to what interface you're most used to, in the end. I'm sure most of you would be running into walls with a tablet. At the same time, I have a friend who plays with just keyboard, and does better than me on many runs. She also uses a different weapon set and strategy than I do. This game is all about style choices, so I don't think that any one way is better than another; they're all just more useful in the situations we like to put ourselves in.

I also play more or less with the default controls (mouse+keyboard), I've just edited them a bit to fit better to the way I usually play. After seeing your thread I tried playing with a gamepad: its true its a very good way of playing but I find its hard to be sharper with a gamepad than with a mouse, and also, I'm just far to used to keyboard+mouse to change now.

you're comfortable with using either one set up, then you will be doing good with it. The rest are really skill wise that comes from thinking.

Whatever the control scheme you use, you have to be able to run freely around while being able to aim freely around in any direction. Keyboard + mouse do that. Gamepad + mouse too. Gamepad only by aiming with an analog stick and moving with another analog stick or a dpad could be viable too. After that, it's a question of preference.

I prefer using the keyboard. I pretty much keep all computer game controls on the bottom row of keys. WASD is already out of the question for me anyway, since I use the mouse with my left hand.

My general control scheme: Arrow keys to move, left shift + arrow keys to strafe, Z or right click to attack, X or left click to block.

I have no mouse cursor when moving for some reason so I only use the mouse to turn when standing still. Trying to do some complicated circle strafe manuver would probably just mess me up anyway. XD

Default controls are terrible.

Try with WASD for move, left click for weapon, right click for defense , and mouse wheel or other buttons from mouse or other keys for weapon change. That's the true standard for this kind of games, and is pretty comfortable and natural.