First off, let me say that, as a left-handed number pad user, I was very pleased to see the keybinding issues being addressed in the new patch. I've gone through and tested everything I could think of as it pertains to my own typical keybinding layout. Here is a summary of what I have found:

WASD

Remapping the WASD keys works properly for movement, Pip-boy menu navigation, and Transfer menu navigation. It does not work for lockpicking--this remain hard-coded to WASD. It also does not work in VATS for cycling between enemies and body parts.

E

Remapping the Activate key works properly for almost all instances I tested where the game expects 'E' (Activate, Grab, entering and exiting Power Armor, and Accept in Transfer and Crafting menus). When used for Accept in menus, the prompt still shows 'E', but the remapped key works, and 'E' does not. Remapping the Activate key does not work in Workshop Mode. Build remains hard-coded to 'E'.

TAB

Remapping the Pip-boy key works for opening and closing the Pip-boy, but other functions of the TAB key remain hard-coded to TAB. These include Cancel or Exit in menus such as Transfer, Crafting, Inspecting items in the Pip-boy, the Perk Chart, and cancelling VATS. VATS is the one particular case where this is more than a minor annoyance, since when you're in VATS you are in a non-paused state and in combat--not the best time to take your hands off your normal controls. TAB also works (along with the remapped key) for closing the Pip-boy.

R

Remapping R works for reload and ready/holster, as well as opening the Transfer menu. It does not work within menus. 'R' remains hard-coded for functions such as Take All in Transfer menus, scrapping items in the Crafting menu and Workshop Mode, and dropping items from the Inventory menu. It would be nice to see menu and Workshop functions remap since it is used a lot, including out of menus for Workshop Mode.

Q

VATS activation remaps properly, but menu functions of Q remain hard-coded, such as assigning items to the Favorites menu in the Pip-boy, and tagging for search in Workshop Mode. It also does not work for selecting a target in VATS.

X

The Auto-Move function can be remapped from 'X', but menu functions (like Inspect in the Pip-boy) do not go with it (not critical).

T, Z

These keys are used for Wait and menu functions like Transfer All Junk and Sort, but they are not remappable.

Alt, Ctrl

These keys can be remapped for their primary functions (Crouch, Bash/Grenade), but their menu functions (next/previous rank in the Perk Chart) do not remap (it's not really critical that they do, honestly). Also, here's a big one I just found the hard way--the remapped key for Bash/Grenade does not work for Hold Breath when sniping. When I try it, I continue to sway, and throw a grenade as soon as I release either the Bash key or the Aim button. Left-Alt is hard-coded to Hold Breath.

Arrow Keys

These keys can be mapped to functions like movement, but they remain hard-coded for menu navigation in Workshop Mode. This is obviously a problem for people who use them for movement, since they can't move while building settlements. Workshop Mode seems to have in fact retained all of its hard-coded keys. E, Q, R, TAB, mouse buttons, and arrow keys will not work for any remapped functions in this mode.

Anyway, that's what I've found so far in my testing. I'll add anything else that I come across as I play the game. Also, if anyone else finds other remapping functions that don't work, post it and I'll add it to the list in the OP. Thanks to schlumi for pointing out the broken mapping in the VATS interface.

The TAB stuff is probably the biggest remaining annoyance for me personally at this point, since there is a lot of going into and out of menus. Workshop Mode is also quite awkward, as is lock-picking, and sniping is pretty much broken if I can't reach the Hold Breath key.

In a lot of cases, the prompts at the bottom of the menu screens can be mouse-clicked, so as long as the game is in a paused state (most menus other than VATS), the remaining hard-coded keys are minor inconveniences (for me personally). Still, it would be nice to see them addressed when the patch goes fully live.

Hey, nice list. Just wanted to add that switching targets in VATS also remains hard-coded to WASD with remaped movement.

Hey, thanks for that one, that's a doozey. I'll add it to the OP.

Do the remapped WASD keys allow movement in build mode???

They do, as long as you haven't remapped them to the arrow keys. The arrow keys are hard-coded to navigating the Build menu, and this overrides any user mapping on these keys. I map my movement to Numpad 8456, and I can move around in Build Mode just fine. I use Down Arrow for Jump and Right Arrow for Crouch, so I can't do those actions in Build Mode.

Well I have a weird keymap.

right mouse : forward

Q : left

W : right

E : backward

Space : jump

Been using this since Duke 3D days.

The only key ATM that works for movement in build mode is W.

I suppose the mouse buttons are also hard-coded in Build Mode, since they're used to rotate your active item. That mode seems to be the trickiest special case, where trying to remap any of they keys that the game defaults to for functions within the mode can break your binding set-up.

Looking at the game files, keybinding is spread across at least 15 different files for the various game and menu modes. It seems like the hard-coding was fixed in some of the files, but not all of them.

Edit: Okay, so it looks like E, Q, R, TAB, and mouse buttons are all over-ridden in Workshop Mode. It's the one case I've found where the Activate remap doesn't work. I'll update the OP.

Many thanks for doing this testing!

Alas, it appears that I will be using AutoHotkey for a while yet to get around these hardcoded keybinding issues (I use the arrow keys to move myself, and those keys around them). I still can't believe that this can happen on a AAA title in 2015. Someone dropped the ball big time.

And continue to do so with the paltry list of changes mentioned in this thread. Bethesda knows a lot of players are furious, yet their offering for this first patch barely touches the problem.

Yeah, it's a good start, but at present too much is still not working properly, so I've gone back to my Auto Hotkey script to actually play the game. Hopefully they'll revisit some more of the keybinding before the patch is finalized.

I think its pretty clear whats going on. Its a hastily thrown together piece-meal offering to make it appear like they're doing something for the pc users. The real reason for this patch is the optimisations that will primarily benefit the consoles.

Remember that once the dust settles, F4SE will facilitate fuller key mapping...

By the way, having mapped the movement keys to numpad, how are you handling the dialog choices on the arrow keys? Are you using the mod that moves them to 1, 2, 3 and 4? At the moment since I am using the arrow keys through AutoHotKey, I have mapped shift-arrows for dialog.

I usually mouse-click the dialogue choices, but sometimes I use the arrow keys. They're close to where my hand is anyway.

I tend to use the arrow keys more with companions (especially Dogmeat), since they keep moving around while I'm trying to trade with them, which makes it harder to mouse-click the dialogue choices. In cinematic dialogue, it's much easier to use the mouse since the NPC tends to stay still.

That bit you just quoted about F4SE--have they made it that simple, to just edit a text file like Skyrim? I read yesterday about that Arrow Key mod, but to change things yourself you still needed to edit .SWF files.

What I'd really like to do is just fix all the hard-coded keys to point to the user-assigned mappings, like they've mostly done with the Activate key in the beta patch.

Yeah, I've been poking around with the F4SE CustomControlMap file today at work. I'm trying to set it up so that I can still rebind keys in-game, but all the hard-coded keys will use the remapped keys like they should (and like Beth has done for the Activate key in the beta patch). I think I have it all sorted out, so I'll do some testing tonight.

Okay, so using F4SE, I was able to fix all the hard-coded instances of keys that are rebindable in the menu. I went through the CustomControlMap.txt file that comes with F4SE, and did a "Search and Replace" for all bindings that reference any of the rebindable keys (like WASD, TAB, E, Q, R, etc). I changed all references (except the initial default bindings) to call the keybind variable instead of the actual key. Now anything that I remap in-game will use the remapped key for all instances where the default key was hard-coded.

(i.e. Forward defaults to 0x57, which is the code for W. I changed all other references to 0x57 to !Forward instead, so whatever I mapped as Forward in-game will always work in place of W.)

This doesn't fix the on-screen prompts, however. Holding your breath while sniping still prompts for Alt, even though my remapped Bash/Grenade key now performs the function.

Unfortunately, this fix doesn't help for cases where you've mapped keys that get hard-coded to different functions in some modes, like trying to use the arrow keys for movement in Workshop Mode. That would require either hard-coding different keys in the CustomControlMap file to the functions that use the arrow keys, or modding the in-game control mapping menu to allow the user to remap those functions.

What exactly does this patch fix? Making the Num keys bindable is a joke...a serious joke. I can easily tell because I have inside into the whole mechanics. Basically all they did was changing 12 digits from 0 to 1 in their control map file, and then added 12 new strings so the numkeys will proparly show in controls menu. This "fix" took less then 10 minutes to forward. It's an embarrasment and a smack in the face of all arrow key and left handed players. They just don't care.

Only way to solve is, tie Todd to a chair, and force him to play the game with arrow keys on a keyboard/mouse setup.

I'd happily fix it for anyone, all they'd need to do was handing over flash source. Darn it, I wouldn't even demand money to forward such a fix. There are developers in your team that get 40$ an hour for adding 12 strings and changing 12 digits? You can't be serious. Obviously I've made the wrong choice of job back in my time.

So, after having some success with fixing the hard-coded binds through F4SE, I was wondering: if I changed the "keyboard bindable" flags for Up, Down, Left, and Right from 0 to 1 the first time they show up in the CustomControlMap file, would that make the arrow keys rebindable in the in-game menu? If so, then I could replace subsequent calls to the arrow key codes (0x25, 0x25, 0x27, 0x28) with calls to the bind variables instead (!Left, !Up, !Right, !Down), and that would allow people who use the arrow keys for movement to remap the functions that use arrow keys (Workshop Mode and dialogue) to something else.

Edit: No, that didn't work. If only it were so easy...

Nice one Lefty, was going to throw up a thread after some indepth testing of the new beta patch but you beat me to it. Pretty much covered everything I tested so far. Nice work mate and thanks to Bethesda for listening to your customers. Keep up the good work both community members and Devs alike. Let's hope we can get all hardcoded keys free from their shackles. =D

A+++++ Thread!

Thanks for the support. I figure, since they've opened up the patch to beta testing, we might as well give them thorough feedback in hopes of improvements.

For now, I'm playing the game using the new in-game numpad mapping options, plus my tweaks to the CustomControlMap file from F4SE. I've fixed all instances of hard-coding for WASD, E, Q, TAB, R, and SPACE so they use the remapped keys. I've also fixed Hold Breath so that it uses the Bash/Grenade key. I've left the other menu keys (Z, X, C, T) alone, since they don't really interfere with real-time gameplay.

Clearly these things are fixable, since I did it for myself with a few hours of tinkering and testing. I hope, before the final release of the patch, that someone at Bethesda will go back and do what they did in the beta patch for the 'Activate' key mapping a little more thoroughly for the other controls. That way those of us who play with non-standard layouts can play the game comfortably without resorting to third-party fixes.