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Keyboard players: How do you move the camera?

Locke64·4/29/2014, 3:49:49 PM·4 votes·10,393 views

I've always used a peripheral (Microsoft Strategic Commander) for my left hand instead of the keyboard. It has several buttons mapping to spells, items, etc. and most importantly it can slide to move the camera. Now this peripheral has stopped working on PBE, and if that gets pushed to Live I'll be forced to adjust to using strictly the keyboard and mouse.

Switching from buttons to keys isn't too bad, but I'm at a loss regarding what to do with the camera. How do most keyboard users control the camera? I find that using the mouse (edge of screen) is terribly inefficient as I'd like to be moving and aiming skillshots at the same time. I'm so used to controlling the camera with my left hand, so I tried mapping it to WASD. But now I'm making too many mistakes differentiating camera keys from skill keys. How do you people do it?!?

@RIOT please don't disable controllers on Live, and please re-enable them in PBE...

20 Comments

RiotNoopMoney5/1/2014, 11:06:06 PM4 votes

Hey Lock, I just got my hands on a Microsoft Strategic Commander today and I was able to get it to work on both Live and PBE. If you're still having trouble with it you might want to try re-installing the driver and remapping the keys from scratch.

For me, I pretty much cut my gaming teeth on RTS games so I tend to use the mouse and spacebar to control my camera. If I were you I'd keep trying LtRandolph's suggestion of camera on WASD and skills on 1234 and see how you find it.

RiotLtRandolph4/29/2014, 9:17:07 PM3 votes

Hey there. I'm not entirely clear what is causing your MSC to not work anymore on PBE, but I'll ask around, and poke around in the code. I'm pretty new here, so no guarantees, but I'll see what I can find. ;-)

As a player, I have always used WASD for camera and 1234 for skills, because I migrated to LoL straight from WoW.

Edit: Apparently I'm not showing up as Red yet. I just joined Gameplay Engineering last week. :-D

Hyrum Graff4/30/2014, 1:59:04 AM2 votes

I use my mouse to move my screen. If you end up going this way too, I think in time you'll find yourself having your screen in the right position before fights break out (and in in the case of an emergency, you can always hit space to jump to your champ.

the Anarchit3cht4/30/2014, 3:31:52 AM2 votes

Try not to keep the camera centered on your character when you are engaging the enemy. I tend to keep my champion towards the edge of the screen, with a little bit of room in case someone is going to come up behind me. Or, when I notice them approaching on the minimap, I just tap the space bar to recenter the camera for the time being.

lorewise4/29/2014, 6:23:39 PM2 votes

Like everything else it just take practice. You may want to play around with your mouse sensitivity as well. I've found it's far easier if you can move your cursor (and the move the screen with it) if you don't have to move your mouse very much.

While playing my mouse rarely moves more than an inch in any direction. If you don't lift and move the mouse and just keep moving it in the direction you want it to go it's going to make your reactions very slow.Meaning it's faster to lift and move, lift and move than it is to just keep pushing. This allows you to quickly nudge the screen and reposition your cursor.

Basically it will look like you're rocking your mouse back and forth in a way.

Angry Monster4/30/2014, 6:17:39 AM1 votes

move the camera with your mouse? Like most people.

Why the fuck are you using a controller? Damn xbox kids.

RohirrimRowan5/1/2014, 3:30:31 PM1 votes

I use a Nostromo Gamepad, and I have a button mapped for easy locking/unlocking of the camera. I usually play locked, but switch to unlocked if my HUD is blocking my view, or I'm using a champ with long-range spells. Then I just use the mouse for the most part.

kTGg8TYecZ5/1/2014, 9:20:58 PM1 votes

I use ESDF for camera control, QWRT for abilities, AG for summoners, and ZXCV for pings. This lets me rest my fingers on camera keys while having everything else I need neatly arranged around them.

OblongOtter4/29/2014, 3:54:25 PM1 votes

What you do is actually a great idea, I should try that. I think the arrow keys move the camera if that helps you, I just move my mouse to the edges the screen and hope I don't have to walk or use an ability for that brief moment.