EQ and the Belkin Nostromo Speedpad N52

It's one of those things that's blindingly obvious when you find it,
but it's not where you would expect.  I originally went looking for it
in the macro editor, but you actually assign it to a key by right
clicking on the key and selecting it from the menu.  It's not a
command that you can incorporate into a macro - it looks like
something that you have to dedicate a key to.  I used key 15, by the
cursor pad, because it's easy to hit in a hurry.

--
On Bristlebane:
Banneth, Bard
Banndon, Mage
Bannric, Cleric
Bannsai, Berserker

Hi Skaarak;

Being a total noob to the speedpad. What is the command or method of
instantly stopping a macro?

Thanks
Doctorzoid

Hi Dick;

Must be machine/setup specific. I don't have any kind of problems with the
speedpad (so far).

Doctorzoid

I hadn't discovered that... must investigate!  Thanks for the tip.

That's what USB was designed for.  :)

--
On Bristlebane:
Banneth, Bard
Banndon, Mage
Bannric, Cleric
Bannsai, Berserker

When I was using this I would have similar problems with longer
macros until I found out you can map a button to a 'stop macro'
command.  This stops all macros, right there, no exceptions, even in
the middle of an active macro.  Its very handy when you need to type
something else in (and you don't have to time your 'on-off' button hitting).

That's got to be a lot nicer than yanking the USB cable every time.
Yikes!

-Skaarak

Two things I forgot to mention, which are a right pain in the arse.
I'm not sure if this is down to the N52 or the USB2 card I'm using,
but when I boot XP Pro with the N52 connected, it disables the
keyboard.  I then have to hit the power switch, unplug the N52 and
boot again.  Similarly, when the N52 is connected the caps lock light
stops working.  Caps lock itself works fine (just as well, as I have
it mapped to toggle targets), you just can't tell what state it's in.

--
On Bristlebane:
Banneth, Bard
Banndon, Mage
Bannric, Cleric
Bannsai, Berserker

Hi Dick;

What a great idea for some uses, especially the practice casting use.

So far I have programmed 14 buttons with various items. I have it set to go
to Hotbutton pages 1-4. , my AA abilities, quick camera view and back to
first person, and several key messages I frequently use. I've started with
just these to see how much I would use the pad and how convenient it is to
use. I must admit, so far I'm really liking it. I'm finding it's easier and
quicker for me so far. I think that over time and practice with the
speedpad, I will come up with more items for it to do. One thing I like is
that if I come up with something, I can window out of EQ, program a button,
reload the profile and window back in and it is in effect. That way I can
adjust something or just plain try something new without the major headache
of logging off, program it, and logging back on.

Thank you and the others for a quick response.

Doctorzoid
65 Cleric

I've had one for a couple of months.  I originally bought it for use
with my bard, for two situations... chant kiting, where I am
repeatedly singing the same 4 songs in sequence and rarely have to
stop for something else, and for when I'm grouping with friends in
circumstances where the banter is as important as the killing (if not
more so).  Chatting can be tricky when trying to keep 3 or 4 songs up,
and the Nostromo makes it easy for a bard.

The downside is that when you want to stop your macro, you may have to
wait for a complete cycle.  In the case of my bard, that might mean
waiting for 4 songs to be sung, so it might take 24 seconds or so
before I can sing something else.  The only way that I've found to
interrupt it quickly is to pull the USB cable out (and I've done that
in a hurry before now!).  

There are two repeating options, auto repeat and repeat while the key
is being held down.  With auto repeat, you turn it off by hitting the
key again.  Furthermore, sometimes it completely ignores the fact that
you've hit the key again, and you end up with the cycle starting
again.  In the heat of battle, it's easy to lose track of how many
times you've hit the key and everything can get very messy.

So, if you want it for repeating macros in combat situations, be aware
of the limitations.  If you want it so that you can execute more
commands than a hot key can handle, great - it's ideal for that.  The
one thing that I've found it to be superb for is casting practice.  I
set up hotkeys to stand, cast, pause and sit etc.  Then I set up the
N52 to trigger each hotkey in turn, with a carefully balanced delay
between each cast.  I try to make it so that I sit for just enough
time to regain the mana used by a round of casting, which is typically
9 to 12 seconds between casts.  That way I can leave the character
casting away all night in a quiet area of PoK without worrying about
running out of mana.  Now that we have /autoinv available, this can
even be used for summoning, so if you can summon bread and water you
won't run out of supplies and your conjuration will be rapidly maxed.

--
On Bristlebane:
Banneth, Bard
Banndon, Mage
Bannric, Cleric
Bannsai, Berserker

On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 06:46:56 -0500, "Doctorzoid"



I bought the N50 exclusively for the Auto-Fire capability,works great.
Never bothered to set up other hotkeys or macro  with it.

Uland ,65 Hunter

"Doctorzoid" <Doctorz @nospam.net> wrote in



I play a ranger.  I primarily use one button on mine: the big one on the
far right is set to archery auto-fire.  I did go through and map the entire
thing to have all my hotkeys, spells and such pretty handy.  But what I
found was that now instead of just moving my right hand from the mouse to
the keyboard to type a message, I now had to move both hands.  So most of
the other keys are largely unused.

I do use it when two-boxing though, as I can keep the gamepad much closer
than I can my laptop keyboard, so I don't have to reach nearly as far to
hit my bot's hotkeys.

Is it worth it?  I think so, it's a nice piece of hardware and works better
than the software auto-fires I've tried.  If you don't twobox and aren't a
ranger (or some other class that requires a button press about every 1
seconds), I'd consider returning it.

--
Huntress Meerina
65 Forest Stalker of Tunare
Lost Asylum, Karana server

"Whizzn" <whi @comNOSPAMcast.net> wrote in



My first thought was that the four movement keys could be mapped the same
for all "shifted" states, so that you could shift on the fly without
stopping.

The Tacticalboard I had before worked as an HID (human interface device)
in Windows XP. It was basically recognized as a keyboard with the various
buttons actually mapped to various keys from a standard keyboard.
However, and I don't know why exactly, there were also various input
anomolies. For example, you often were sent into a non-stop spin if you
hit the movement keys just wrong. The movement keys were actually mapped
to the arrow keys, I believe, but they weren't completely reliable.

Additionally, the macro facilities consisted of assigning string values
to output when a button is pressed. These strings were sent to the screen
at about the same speed as I might type them, not as an immediate
command.

I'm hoping the Nostromo doesn't exhibit similar flaws.

--
Rumble

"Am I jumpin' from tree to tree all nimbly-bimbly?!"

Hi Faned

Thanks for the warning on patching EQ and the speedpad.

The various reviews I read on the N52 indicates it is much improved over the
N50. It appears that Belkin listen to gamers using the N50 to improve the
N52.  So maybe the "new and improved flavor" will help you more.

Doctorzoid

Hi Rumble.

Actually I just got this Thursday and basically just installed it and got it
running. When I was trying to learn the programming software that came with
it, is when I realized I hadn't thought this through all the way. Like how
do I tell it to move and do other things quickly when you have to "shift" it
to another layer of commands and other things I have had to learn to do
simultaneously using the keyboard.

So, at the moment, I'm not much help. I can see (I think) the potential
here.  I'm hoping that the great people in A.G.E. will come through as they
usually do, with some good pointers, tips, help, etc.

Doctorzoid

I have the N50, which I use as "bot control" for my 2-boxed cleric.

One popular use that I've heard of but never tried is an archery macro so
that a ranger can still move and talk without interrupting their constant
firing.

I was hoping to use the pad for more, but I ran into some serious
limitations to what you can do with it.  Dunno if those were fixed in the
N52.  One thing to remember is that you have to close down the software to
be able to patch EQ (only when it tries to patch eqgame.exe).

"Doctorzoid" <Doctorz @nospam.net> wrote in



I have been seriously considering the new Nostromo as well. Can you give
me some specifics on what you don't like or what isn't working for you? I
had the Thrustmaster Tacticalboard a while back. It should have been
perfect, especially for my bard, but while the button layout was more
comprehensive, the button configuration and macro software was lacking to
the point of rendering it impractical.

--
Rumble

"Am I jumpin' from tree to tree all nimbly-bimbly?!"