If you have been playing Quake II for a while, you probably know all about binding keys and modifying your autoexec.cfg. If you know what to do, you can just download my autoexec and look at it or copy it, --whatever. My WOD autoexec.cfg, , my alias file (called from my main autoexec in baseq2 dir)

If you don't know what an autoexec.cfg file is, I'll try to explain a little. If you still don't understand, go to some other Quake and Quake II sites and you will find more info. When I get around to it, I will post all the links you need on my Quake II page.

Why mess with this at all? Well there are a lot of things you can do in Quake II that are not built into the interface, but are very useful. You can have a single key select a rocket launcher, point down, jump, then fire creating a perfect rocket jump so you can reach those impossible ledges. In W.O.D. you could bind a key to switch to napalm grenades and the bazooka at the same time, making it easy for you to pick up the launcher and immediately fire a napalm grenade. There ae lots of things you can do. I can't explain it all, you can find more about it on other sites.

Ok, first of all, Quake 2 will keep its own config.cfg file that you can change but, the game will rewrite anyway.So don't change it .  You can learn a lot by reading this file to see what keys are bound to what functions. The file will be located in the baseq2 directory, OR in the game directory of the modification you are playing (i.e. weapons). When you play a modification like Lithium or W.O.D., another game directory is created and the config.cfg is written there. This way when you change game settings like crosshair or playername or video settings or even key bindings, and you exit the game normally (no crash), the game will rewrite the config.cfg file, but will write it under the specified game directory. So if you bound something under Lithium but you did it from the console (not an autoexec) that binding will be saved under the Lithium directory in a config.cfg file. This file will not be read when you play a regular Quake II game, only when the game is set to Lithium (either by you or by the server).

Anyway, the thing to remember is that you should probably not do your bindings from the console, but rather write them in an autoexec.cfg file. You may not have an autoexec.cfg file already, but if not,  you can just create a text file in notepad and call it autoexec.cfg. If you put the file in the baseq2 dir, it will always be read, even if the game is set to a modification. If you want to write a separate set of configurations for a specific mod, then write another autoexec.cfg and put it in the mod's directory. The game will read the main one first then the mod's config second, and any changes in the mod config will overwrite the main config in memory. (I think--It may not read the main one at all if another one is in mod directory)

To do things right, you should just have a complete configuration in your autoexec starting with an "unbind all" command then binding every single key individually. This makes it easier to change later, and I have seen some configs written this way. I never did this. My config is kind of messy. I am posting it only as an example of what can be done, not how to do it.

I play using the mouse and keyboard. Ipreviously  used a sidewinder 3d joystick with the keyboard, but I found that the mouse was better. (Although the sidewinder is a pretty good stick, and my mouse constantly gets dirty). My movement keys are bound to the number keypad because it is easier to "feel" you way around. I never have to actually look down at the keyboard unless it is one of those few keys I haven't properly bound. Here is a quick run down of my bindings:

(these are mostly from the numeric keypad)
forward-8, back-5, strafeleft-4, straferight-6, crouch-1(not the best), tripbomb-/(above the 8), sniperzoom-9, sniperzoomout-3, use inventory-enter, hook-kp_plus, decoy-right arrow(just left of keypad use side of pinky to press it), hookshrink-uparrow(I rarely use),  hookgrow-downarrow, the leftarrow is a special macro, (walk/run toggle macro)-shift key,  kamikazi-pageup, ( best weapon macro)-delete key,  next weapon -pagedown key,  previous weapon-end key,tractor push-kp delete key,tractorpull-kp insert key..

I generally select weapons with the best weapon macro (alias), or I cycle through available weapons with the pgdown key. You can easily feel over to the left of the keypad to hit this key. I rarely select weapons individually. I have a napalm bazooka macro on the (kp *) key and a plasma bazooka macro on the( kp -) key, but this is a problem on servers where these items are fragbanned.  I sometimes rewite these from the console on the fly, but I should probably write a little script (alias) to cycle through alternate bindings.

I use  a sniperzoom macro that also adjusts mouse sensitivity. This lets you smoothly zoom in on far away targets by adjusting your FOV (field of vision)- if you dont change the mouse sensitivity, the mouse is over sensitive and difficult to aim. W.O.D comes with a zoom cycling feature but my  macro works in other mods and regular Q2 so I never bothered to use the WOD version of the zoom.

The best weapon macro defaults to the homo rockets (again a problem for servers that fragban this), and had to be written specifically for WOD. I have a different macro for regular quake and for chaos. It has to be written with the specific weapon names from the inventory list. I have it broken into multiple lines because thats how I copied it from someone else. I don't know if there is a character limit or some other reason that he broke the list of weapons down like that. If you are writing one of these just remember that last is first. (the last weapon in the list is the first one you want to use).

I got rid of my rocket jump macro. It just stopped working one day. It used to work, then maybe some of the other changes I made affected it. You don't need it if you play a mod with a hook anyway. I have a macro for changing skins during play. I use it occasionally to amuse myself. I don't know if anyone else ever noticed. I sometimes hit it when I am being frozen to death to try to distract the guy freezing me. Sometimes I will use it to switch into sniper skin to hide in the dark. If you are looking at this macro, you will see that I did it in two steps. I don't think this was necessary, I just started it that way and never changed it.

I wrote a macro that I don't really want to share because I really hate when people do this. Sometimes people will keep hitting the hook key as a weapon. Whenever I get upset at one of these fools, I hit a macro that binds my fire key to the hook simultaneously, and I start fireing back. Please don't do this. It is very annoying. It is alright once in a while but don't walk around fireing your hook constantly. I actually had  a lot of trouble getting this to work. I eventually had to call a command from a separate text file. I wanted to create a toggle key that would bind another key to two functions one time then bind it to only one function. There was a problem with nesting the binds or something, so I eventually had to use an exec command to call the bind from another file. Dont worry about it. If you ever tried to nest bind commands and had a problem, just put one of the bind commands in another text file and call it with an exec command. There may be another way but I couldn't figure it out.

I am posting this description as a work in process. I do not pretend that you will be able to rewrite your autoexec.cfg file based on what I have written here (so far).  There are other pages that give more detailed explanations, and I will try to link them in when I get to it. You will most likely find something through planetquake or telefragged. Look for stuff called console commands.