The default PC game controls almost always are set up assuming WASD is movement. I hate WASD. They don't line up straight and they're surrounded by other keys.

I push the keyboard to my left and use the arrow keys for movement. Then I set R.Shft, R.Ctrl, Num.4,1,0, as needed (crouch, jump, use, whatever).

Games that don't allow full control over key re-mapping really piss me off. 

I agree with you about custom key mapping. PC Games that dont have this feature are shooting themselves in the foot.

Although I disagree with you about WASD for precisely the reasons you stated as a negative... the reason WASD is best is *because* it's surrounded by keys. :P 

Well, it's not like the arrow keys are lonely. Their arrangement and slight isolation from the nearby keys make it hard to hit something else when moving around, and the other keys are close enough to reach easily. I guess it's just something I've gotten used to over the years.

Most often R Shft is run, R Ctrl is crouch/sneak/duck, Num 1 is use, Num 0 is jump. 

Right/left mouse - Walk forward/backward
,/. - Strafe left/right
M - Use
Space - Fire
Right alt - Jump

Then I sorted my shit out and started using WASD because I figured out if literally all games came preconfigured that way it was probably for a good reason, and I've never looked back. 

wow czg, that is kind of odd...

I think the only thing I ever did that might be odd is have inverted mouse look. I don't use it any more, no idea why I started or stopped. 

You're pressing and holding the right shift/control keys with ... your pinky finger? I can't imagine that not hurting like a son of a bitch after awhile. 

I hardly ever use the pinky. I shift over and use the ring finger while driving with just the index finger. I guess that's a bit awkward, but you don't have to run or crouch that often really. For games that don't have a toggle for those functions (i.e. sneak/unsneak)it can get to be a bit of a pain at times. 

was that in your confused phase of life? 

 

Shambler I haven't done any real looking around but I assume there are mods for Dark Souls that add quicksave, make combat easier etc. Others might know something about this. 

There are at least mods to make it harder. 

Thought I was alone. I push the KB to the left and use cursor keys for movement and nearby keys for common functions. By tactile feel, I can position my hand. Using WASD is useless to me because if my hand drifts off position... I prefer not to have to look at the KB and prefer to operate the controls by feel.

Which is not to say my method is any better than WASD. What I'd like to say is that every PC game should have fully configurable keys and mouse buttons. The lack of keybinding really stole away a bunch of my enjoyment of the game Cradle and in Fear 2, you can't assign the del key to anything and I rely on it for Aim Down Sights. 

I used to use arrow keys too!
I don't anymore.

Wasd was a little annoying at first because, as you say, the hand tends to wander out of position, but I got used to it... 

I'm of the opinion that if you're going to play a console port, use a controller.

That's the story of how I bought xbox gamepad:
I bought and installed steam vesion of Dark Souls, installed mods that my DS fan friend had told me, launched the game, started a new campaign, saw the hints for pad buttons not for keyboard, decided to look at key bindings, pressed esc to open menu, nothing happened, pressed it one more time, nothing happened, pressed random keys on keyboard, started to panic, didn't know how to quit the game, pressed ctrl+shift+esc and terminated the process, went out and bought xbox controller.

I decided to get used to new controller before playing DS, played other games with it. When I got brave enough to try DS once more (with controller this time) the game showed me and error and didn't want to launch. Uninstalled it from my steam library. 

Mouse inverted ofc

Forward - LMB
Backward - RMB
Left - I
Right - P
Run - R-Ctrl
Jump - R-Shift
Crouch - O
Reload - U
Fire - #
Alt Fire or Aim - [
Aim or Alt Fire - ]
Melee or whatever - Left Arrow
Use - Enter or Space
Next weapon - MWheel down
Previous weapon - MWheel up

etc.

95% of games accept this. 4% are fussy about the fire button but can be bound to something nearby. 1% was fucking hopeless for binding anything and that 1% was DS. 

 

Couldn't even get close to it with DS.

I think Alice Madness returns forced me to put fire or alt-fire as something else. And I'm pretty sure there was some underwater action game demo that was a dick about that too. Skyrim was fine of course. 

Lol u scrubs. The Dark Souls installation process is supposed to be challenging. It's designed that way, which is good because it weeds out lame noobs like you. Yes your system will crash many times before you succeed, but it's specifically and expertly crafted to be like that otherwise you'll never understand the many steps and subtle nuances required to master the installation process, which is actually designed to reward the skilled and resourceful, and punish all the little babbies who think they can just click on a "play" button in Steam and launch the game lol. 

As such, I godmoded most of the game.
What a waste of a good game, probably the saddest thing I have read here in a long while. God mode will reduced the game to a museum visit, staring at scenery while drifting through the crowds.

Through great struggle comes great reward
This is what Dark Souls is about, its a journey, a hostile land to explore and most of all its designed to be challenge. If your heart does not race or hands shake with adrenaline then you are playing it wrong.

The story is fantastic! Need NG+ to understand the alternative ending. You got to question NPCs, piece together comments and keep exploring for answers. Its certainly no PDA, pretty logbook or boring NPC dialogues, its a tale you have piece together like a true detective! :P 

And then you realize how the act of you and other people actually playing the game ties in to the story and it's a whole new level of narrative and I get goosebumps. 

Forward - UpArrow
Backward - DownArrow
Left - LeftArrow
Right - RightArrow
Run - Mouse5
Jump - R-CTRL
Crouch - !
Reload - Mouse3
Fire - LMB
Alt Fire or Aim - RMB
Use - Enter
Next weapon - MWheel down
Previous weapon - MWheel up
Lean Left - �
Lean Right - *

Keep in mind, being French, I have an AZERTY keyboard instead of a QWERTY keyboard. 

And then you realize how the act of you and other people actually playing the game ties in to the story and it's a whole new level of narrative and I get goosebumps
OMG YES! The whole connection between everyone playing the game, the messages, the eternal circle of events, are you the beginning or the end!?! its just so perfect! :D 

Necros, there's no official godmode, but on gamecopyworld the trainer named
Dark.Souls_Prepare.To.Die.Edition.v1.0.Plus.22.Trainer-FLiNG
works good, no malware warning either and for once all the cheats actually do something instead of just crashing the game. You just have to make sure you don't have F or numpad keys bound to anything in-game or you'll set it off.

czg I still use your old setup
Forward - LMB
Backward - RMB
Left - ,
Right - .
RShift- Fire

But probably half the games I play I'll also have WASD setup so I can switch. Because holding down LMB for 50 hours will kill my wrist, so whenever not in combat I switch back to using WASD. It probably is the best way to kb because of the amount of keys around it, but despite a few years of practise I'm still better in my old config. I think the earliest PC FPS' must have had this setup, maybe Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny, and I've just stuck with that ever since.

Anyway back to DS... fuck so that's why I was never as fast in the second half of the game! I dumped all the heavy armour and just put on light shit. The menu made no mention of any key to drop items, or ever warned me of a limit, so I assumed there was no limit. I probably didn't notice because I used the stone armour for a while, and I probably went over the limit during that little excursion so when I dumped that overweight pos I didn't really notice that I wasn't as fast anymore, or assumed it was the weapon/shield. 

That explains Crouch - ! .

On a QUERTY that wouldn't make sense because it's about as far from the arrow keys as you can get.

I used "Enter" for "use" a lot in the past, but some games are picky about rebinding that particular key, so I switched to numpad 1. It actually seems a bit easier to reach for me. 

It's not about how much you're carrying, you can carry as much crap as you want, but rather just what you've got equipped.
There's an "equip load" in the stats, shown as a fraction of max equip load.