First of all...you won't have to do this for the real game. The keys will be fully customizable in the shell. (You can see most of the functionality that will be available in the shell now...you just can't use anything except view and load currently).
Here are the steps you should follow to customize the set. Also included here are several "DO NOT DO THIS" kind of cautions. You really should not do these things...they WILL screw up your game. <g> Really.
LEGAL NOTICE (sort of): The instructions listed below are AT YOUR OWN RISK. No guarantees are made that your modifications will work in-game. The instructions are pretty complete though and most of your changes will work. Just don't call our Customer Service guys about it, okay? They get all stressed out. <grin>
ANOTHER NOTICE: The modifications you make for the demo almost certainly WILL NOT WORK in the full-release game...so don't copy your demo DEF files into the full game thinking that they will work...because they won't.
Okay...enough notices...here are the instructions:
1) Run the game and launch a mission once. (Trust me...this is important.) This creates a file in the game's root directory called CONTROLS.USR. This file will be used later. Now quit the game and go to step 2.
2) Duplicate the MOUSE_N_KEYBOARD.def file.
3) Name the copied file whatever you want to name it, but you MUST keep the ".def" extension on the file or it will not show up in the loading list later. Example: "MYKEYS.def" or "KICKASS.def".
4) Open the file in WordPad or NotePad. Also open CONTROLS.USR in WordPad or NotePad alongside your file.
5) A bit of explanation here: The CONTROLS.USR file lists ALL of the input strings that your computer recognizes. It should have polled all your joysticks, rudders, keyboard, mouse, etc. and provided you with one big long list of all the commands you can send. You will be copy and pasting these strings into your new DEF file so that we can be sure your system will recognize them. For maximum paranoia, you should copy and paste the commands from file to file so that you don't introduce typos by accident.
6) DO NOT CHANGE any of the info in the left column of the file (i.e., "Steer Right", "Steer Left", etc.). ONLY change the input strings in the right-hand column (i.e., "Numpad 2", "Numpad 8", etc.).
7) EVERY input string must begin and end with quote marks. In other words, it must look like "Steer Right", not Steer Right or "Steer Right.
8) Also...the current binding system cannot invert your device (joystick or mouse) and it cannot accept X- or Y-axis devices on movement. (Don't worry...this will be available in the final version.) Therefore, don't even try to put joysticks or rudder pedals on movement...only on aiming for now (Reticle X and Reticle Y).
9) DO NOT CHANGE the SYSTEM entries. ONLY change the Movement, Targeting_HUD, Squad_Network, and Miscellaneous areas of the file.
10) DO NOT add comments to your file and DO NOT delete any key commands and DO NOT delete or alter the "{" or "}" characters.
11) Be VERY CAREFUL to avoid duplication of keys. This probably won't crash the game, but only the upper-most of the duplicated keys will actually work in the sim.
12) When you're done changing keys around, then save the file, put it in the game's root directory, and launch the game. You should immediately go to GAME OPTIONS and hit the CONTROL CONFIG button. Once there, just hit the LOAD button, click on your new DEF file and hit ACCEPT. You should be able to launch into the sim and test it.
13) To modify your file after creation, just repeat steps 4-12.
Enjoy!
Shown below are the modifications I made to my own DEF set. It works well with the demo and I tried to explain what I changed and what I changed.
This set is very similar to the standard MOUSE_N_KEYBOARD set, but the demo has less keys than the full-game and I wanted to consolidate the keys to the numpad area for easier use during multiplayer action. Not everything is moved...just the things that I use the most.
