Using Keyboard Macros for FPS Games

Many of us have them, but not many of us use them. What am I talking about? Keyboard Macros. For my gaming buddy and Modding partner, Omning has 15 keyboard macros. How many does he use for Battlefield 3? 0. For some, macros do not matter. For others, macros mean everything. If you have a keyboard, mouse or even headphone macros and you don’t use them for FPS games like Battlefield 3, Call of Duty or any other First Person Shooters, you are missing a world of helpful tools that are readily at your disposal. For this article, I am going to introduce the pros and cons of using macros in FPS games.

 

 

What is a macro? A macro is basically a series of hotkeys or multiple keystrokes that are combined into one button. An example of this would be if you are a sniper zoomed into someone and you need to quickly zoom out, switch to your pistol and then fire off a round of shots because you noticed an enemy right behind you. Well, you could do this by pressing your secondary weapon hotkey (2) and then left mouse clicking several times. Or, you can do this by pressing a macro, a one button that has been programmed to do this for you in a shorter amount of time and less amount of effort.

Macros are very helpful with certain classes that you may play. In Battlefield 3 when you play as assault, you have your defibrillator. To use this, you have to select it, and then most of the time you have to dive to the down player just so you can get a little cover then you actually left click to trigger it. At this point an enemy could be right up on you. You need to switch to you gun so you can protect yourself. This is alot of steps to take to revive your teammate. And sometimes if it is a real fierce battle, over excitement can get the best of you causing you, the one reviving to become one that needs revived. Macros get rid of all of those steps. Now, with the press of one button, you pull out your defibrillator, dive, revive, pull out your pistol and got points for not only reviving your teammate, but also a kill.

Disadvantages of using macros can come about from poor planning when programming. A perfect example of this is one of my Assault macros. I switch to my defibrillator  then revive, and then switch to my M203 so I can launch some nades. Most times, this works fine. I get a few kills, and revive people. But sometimes my aim is a little off and I end up hitting a wall or the floor close by which causes me to suicide. The same goes for trying to pull out a pistol in the middle of a Mexican standoff.

All and all, using macros is a real advantage once you get the right keys and actions setup, but it takes time to get used to. Once you get the hang of it, your kill / death ratio will start to rise. So, if you have macro capable hardware and have not been using it, try it out. You may find it very useful. I will put a video tutorial up later this week showing how to use Logitech G series software to program macros and other great hotkeys.