As we approach the release of Fallout 4, I'm becoming concerned about an issue that sometimes causes me problems with new releases, including the past few BGS games: keyboard controls that are not fully configurable. As a left-handed mouse user, I NEED the ability to remap the keyboard control scheme to something I can use with my right hand. This becomes an even greater concern with Fallout 4, since it uses a lot of pop-up interactions that happen in real time. We haven't yet seen how these work with mouse and keyboard, but I'm worried about things like the conversation wheel being hard-coded to WASD.
When Fallout 3 released, there were several controls that didn't properly remap. For instance, the button to open the PIPboy could be remapped, but that didn't change the button to close it, it remained hard-coded to TAB. some menu controls have no mapping option (Take All and Exit in the looting menu), making the game more awkward for people who don't use the default control scheme. Some issues were eventually improved with a patch, but some remain in the game.
Skyrim at release also had several controls hard-coded, and didn't allow use of the number pad (the number keys were hard-coded to hotkeys). It took a user-made fix (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=88 by crazy-g) to expose the full set of control mapping. It was a non-user-friendly process of editing hexadecimal codes in a text file that was required to fix the key-mapping issues. Again, most of the issues were eventually patched out, but it took a while.
The fact that these problems were patched out of the games at least shows that BGS acknowledged that they were issues, but I worry when this sort of thing pops up again in subsequent games.
Please Bethesda, before Fallout 4 goes gold, I'm asking you to review the key-mapping options and make sure you're giving us something that works for everyone. With more interactions happening real-time instead of in paused-time menus, it's more important than ever for non-WASD players that the key-mapping works properly. If I remap A or E or C to different keys, please let ALL the functions that use those keys map to the new key assignment! A bunch of quick pop-up interactions that demand timely key-presses on the other side of the keyboard could really get in the way of enjoying an otherwise masterful game.
Thanks for your consideration, and I hope the above-described concern won't be a problem come November 10th.