rob’s cryptic life

Nostromo N52 SpeedPad Profiles

Looking through this site’s web statistics, I noticed that there are a few topics which are consistently (if infrequently) producing incoming search traffic. One of those is, apparently, profiles for the Nostromo N52 gaming controller, which I reviewed here a long time ago. I don’t actually use the N52 any more; these days I use a Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit instead. (You can read my review of the Saitek at The Gadgeteer.) But I thought I might as well post my N52 profiles here for anyone that might want to take a look at them — links and a description of my somewhat non-obvious control layout are after the jump.

First, here are my N52 profiles. It’s probably best to use whatever “download link” option your browser has to save these, since they’re binary files.

• City of Heroes: CityOfHeroes.n52
• Dungeons and Dragons Online: DDOnline.n52
• EVE Online: EVEOnline.n52
• Guild Wars: GuildWars.n52
• Matrix Online: MatrixOnline.n52
• Neverwinter Nights: NWN.n52
• Neverwinter Nights 2: NWN2.n52
• World of Warcraft: WoW.n52

Before you just drop one in and try it, I feel I should explain my control layout for roleplaying games, which is probably not quite what you will be expecting. When I first got the N52, I thought I might not like it, or might not use it all the time. So when I made my first layout for it (for World of Warcraft) I tried to choose a control scheme that would produce a usable skill setup for both the N52 and an ordinary keyboard at the same time.

What I ended up doing was mapping the buttons on the N52 vertically and right-to left. Specifically, slots 2 through 0 on the skill bar are mapped to the column of N52 buttons under the index, middle, and ring fingers respectively. Buttons 6 and 11 are mapped to the minus and equal sign keys for easy pinkie access, and button 5 is mapped to slot 1 of the skill bar. Button 1 on the N52 is mapped to the ESC key — I can’t reach it with my pinkie anyway. Button 10 is mapped to the first position on the second skillbar; the rest of its slots are mapped using a shift state (activated by the “space bar” on the N52) to the same buttons as the first bar. Finally, buttons 5 and 10 in the shifted state open the inventory and map windows.

Why map an extra skill slot like that? I find that the more things you can do without shifting the better, especially since you can’t press the N52’s space bar and move at the same time. (That’s one of the reasons I switched to the Saitek, actually.) Also, it provides an ideal way to put two related skills together. For example, for pet classes I like to put the pet’s “attack” and “follow” commands there. On my WoW druid, I use those buttons for shapechanging and stealth.

Likewise, the columnar layout lends itself to grouping related skills by the finger, and they will also be in close proximity on the skill bar. I tend to group them by function and put the most frequently used on the main bar — primary attacks (whatever those are for the class I’m playing) under the index finger, heals under the ring finger, and so forth.

I’ve been using that layout ever since I got the N52, and you’ll find variations of it in most of the profiles here. By now, my brain automatically translates a skill set on screen to this layout. The only exceptions are EVE and Guild Wars, since they don’t have large skill bars — for those I map 8 slots along the top rows of keys, and fill in the rest with whatever else seems useful.

At any rate, feel free to use my N52 profiles, if you can get used to my favorite control layout. And if you have the Saitek, look for those profiles to be posted here soon as well.

Gaming :: Gaming Hardware, Hardware, Nostromo N52
:: 4:40 AM August 5th, 2007 #