To start off I just want to say that I was a huge fan of Morrowind (not so much Oblivion) and I was really looking forward to this new chapter in TES.
However, upon loading the game I discover that something seems to be wrong with the ability to remap the control keys. Why are all the numpad keys I use for movement reserved? Wouldn't it be better to give the user the ability to choose what each key does? I realise a lot of people probably don't even see this as an issue, but for me it will probably be a game-breaker. I refuse to learn a new set of keys, especially considering I play on a pc with a mouse and keyboard (for which there is no such thing as 'standard').
Anyway, I really can't believe that a new game from such a well known developer could even have such a flaw. Maybe I am overlooking something.

Any advice on how to fix these problems would be much appreciated, as I would really like to start playing this game.

Ever since that patch 1.3, my keymapping's been messed up. Most notably, my enter no longer works, and even though I have my movement set to my arrow keys, I all of a sudden have to use the wsad keys for my favorites when I could use my arrow keys for it in the patchs prior. It's really annoying.

Welcome to the club! In my case I'm left-handed and use the mouse on the left side of my keyboard. Using WASD is pretty well not an option for me (it can be done, but ends in tragedy and hand cramps), so I'm still beyond disappointed that Bethesda hasn't seen fit to at least offer a left-handed toggleable control scheme.

The reason you can't rebind keys to the numpad at the moment is because they moved the favorites over to there from their traditional position of 1-9 on the top row. I still can't fathom why they did this, but they did. Because favorites/hotkeys are traditionally hardcoded, those keys then are simply not available.

I'm not sure what the current favored fix is, but I installed http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=88# and haven't looked back. I still recommend using it if all you want to do is free the numpad from the shackles of Bethesda's anti-left-handed conspiracy. (FWIW--I've never used the Skyrim Key Helper part of it. I just stick the numpad bindable controlmap.txt in my data files and go.)

I know some people have reported weirdness with rebinding keys away from their defaults in the latest patches, but I haven't had an issue with this mod and the bindings I picked with it. The game will still display the defaults in menus and the like (IE, R to take/use as opposed to whatever you've reassigned it to...numpad 9 in my case), but that's always been the case.

Basically, you can't remap Q, E, R, T or F and you cannot assign new keys to functions they perform by default. If you do you will break those commands. For example, reassigning Q or assigning a new key to "Favorite" completely breaks favorites functionality. Reassigning T or assigning a new key to "wait" will break your ability to recharge weapons with soulgems. Nothing in the 1.4 patch changelog suggests that Bethesda has any intention of fixing this issue. Either learn to play Bethesda's way, or play with a gameboard that has it's own software. That way you could remap the gameboard keys in the software and keep the default key mapping in game.

That's not 100% correct anymore, I don't think. I think the issue of R breaking when you rebound it was fixed in an earlier patch. 1.3, IIRC. T and the like may still be broken. I know I rebound R (it now opens the spell menu), and nothing untoward has happened. Everything there still works like it should.

I kept T the same (since it's always been "wait" in prior gamesas games; it's a muscle memory thing), though, and I just don't use favorites, so I never messed with F/Q/whatever it is. Those may still break if you try to reassign another function to them.

I think you are right. E and R can be rebound but I think menus incorrectly display the default key.

My keys are as follows (was caught off guard by the fact that the labels don't change to what the key really is when I started playing but eventually figured out which key was which function). No issues whatsoever with this mapping. Reason I don't like WASD and prefer ESDF for the same is that I like having multiple small close keys around my char movement keys or the keys I used the most in a game.

WASD = ESDF
R = Jump
W = Crouch/Stand
T = Action (open door, chest, etc.)
G = Sprint/Run
Q = toggle always run/walk
M = map
Y = favorites menu
J = put wpn/shout/spell in fav menu
V = sheath/unsheath weapon
CTRL = recharge weapon

Yup, that's the one I use too. It keeps the hotkeys on the number keys at the top of the keyboard but frees up the number pad for us lefties. Works great!

@Tyraa Rane - Thanks for the heads-up regarding that mod. I will look into it later today. You mention that this is all a reuslt of hard-coding the favourites. Well, why must any of it be hard-coded. Just let us players map all the keys. I play numerous games that use alot more keys than any TES game, yet they are all easily remappable. One of the benefits of using a pc for gaming is the customisation options. Ever since games have been released as multi-platform it seems like the pc releases are always missing something.

Either way, all of this still seems like so much effort just to setup my key-bindings that I am able to easily setup in any other game I've played before. It should be a plain and simple procedure.
1) Buy game - Should be finished and bug free requiring no patches or updates ever.
2) Install game - From the disc I bought, without even looking at the net.
3) Play game - This includes the important part of setting up my keys the way I want them to be setup.

...in a perfect world mate, in a perfect world....

That was how it was for years- at least the part about being able to freely bind whatever keys you want to whatever abilities you want, in most PC games. Lately, I see more and more games either severely limiting or completely denying us PC users this ability, and it is very frustrating. I don't know if it's a symptom of devs making games more for consoles than PC's now (where there isn't any ability to remap, I'm guessing)... dumbing the control abilities down, as it were... or just thoughless/lazy programming where they assume they know best and the player's desire for customization doesn't count? Whatever the reason, it is a very bad choice, period. We are PC- let US choose the keys we want to map to- it's just not that hard to figure out. Even amateurs have been making games that way since Doom, fer cripes sake.

I use arrow keys as well (for movement) wasd is just horrid...

For me, Delete is jump, Page down is weapon draw and put away (and take all ' since R no longer works)
Page up is ... umm.. Some menus it'll exit, other menus it'll close and not take all.
0 (# pad) is my enter key
Ctrl Right is Sneak,
Shift is Run
. on Number pad is force walk.
/ on Number pad is auto-run/walk
/ on (left of shift key) is Fave menu.

and sadly... Alt Key right is Shout. It should be #1 on Key pad... but no..... I know need to stop moving to get my pinkie over there. >_<

W, J M and others i left untouched. If it wasnt for Shout key being goofed.. I'd be happy.
I'd love to set 4 and 6 for Fave left and right, 7,8,9 as my hot keys for other items.

Amen, brother.

Say What!

Does this mean that once you install the patch you can no longer use the traditional 1-9 keys to navigate your favorites?
That will svck really hard.

I am not running the beta as I havent had any major problems.

For the Love of God, Mods, Sticky one of the Keybinding Issues threads.

People constantly ask about this because every new player runs into it.