To give a real world example: Has anybody turned on the feature in Tank Commander that allows you to use the left arrow key to go to the left when you are in reverse gear? I forgot what it is called, but it basically removes some realism from the game in favor of ease of use.
And for my own game, I may have to do something similar. If it was up to me, I would go with the realistic mode, but I'm afraid that people will not like the game because of this key set. I fear they won't try long and hard enough to get the hang of it. And on the other hand, I think that once you got the hang of it, the key set will be way more fun to use.

I think you should go with the realistic set, or implement both. have the system tell the user what mode the other player is using, if they go online, to prevent confusion. but, then there's the cheating. with realistic mode you could probably accomplish more moves, with the easy mode you won't really be able to do much -- it'll kind of be like alien outback thrusters or something, so i think the realistic mode would be better as you can icrease and decrease the speed of thrust and such.

my suggestion, if possible, is to implement the 2 types of control, so wen you are going online
for example, it'll check, and only allow users to play in the same mode that who hosts the game
chooses.
what do you guys think?

Okay, I will be thinking about all the cool suggestions that have been made. Yeah, this is going to be hard...
Meanwhile, could anybody tell me some more about mainstream games and what controls they use? How extended are these?

Basically I am wondering if sighted people complain about hotkeys just as much as we, visually impaired people do. Or, well, it's not really complaining, more having difficulty to work out the various game hotkeys.
What also surprises me is that most GMA Games have loads of hotkeys, yet they seem fairly easy and straight forward. And that while many people found the Rail Racer keys too hard to get used to. I personally liked them very much, but I have heard other stories.

I could of course make Mission #1 all about learning the different keys that you need. Oh yeah, really cool!

Innocent customer: "So, what is Excalibur all about? I heard it was a spacefighter simulator?"
Harsh developer: "Why yes! But before the fun starts, I must tell you that we implemented another challenge. As we feel that education is very important for blind and partially sighted people, we built an enhanced keyboard trainer!"
Innocent customer (whispering closeby): "So, are there any well-kept secrets that I, as a loyal customer, am allowed to know?"
Harsh developer: "Surely! Let me go ahead tell you the best kept secret that I can think of." (Innocent customer starts bouncing up and down by now) "The best kept secret is that almost nobody has come past this keyboard trainer. It has been created because of the many keys that a player needs to learn. But in fact, this keyboard set-up is so crazily hard, that it has driven many people, including yours truly, totally insane."

Seriously though, I think I have found the best keyboard layout for Excalibur. I will probably let the user choose between Realistic Mode and Easy Mode, as both modes will use the arrow keys for main fighter control. I have changed the spacefighter's control interface, the physics and the intelligence behind the whole system to make this possible. Now it's time to start coding!

Now there's a fun idea for a game. Create a boppit style game to learn the keys of a more complex game, and keep adding more keys until someone's mind breaks under the strain!

It'd save devs a lot of time in actually making the games, ---- lol!

while I do miss the days when I could pick up any generic Snes platformer and just learn the basic buttons, i do accept that audiogames require different approaches.

Obviously in game audio reference is always a good idea, and if the first mission was a key tutorial of some sort (perhaps in context of a space academy), that would shorten the learning curve.

while I personally actually enjoy reading manuals for the in depth look at the game it gives, I stil occasionally do feel mildly impatient with them when looking at a new game.

I do really like that second idea, cx2!
I will explain what keyboard input system I chose to use later, when things have been developed a little further.

In game help is handy though, particularly as it saves looking through the manual if you want to pick up a game you've not played for a while.

Generally I find I can remember most of the commands in Gma games, however occasionally I'll just want one of the basic ones for some reason, ----- like sector coordinates or look ahead.

At those points, the ability to quickly review commands in game really helps.

So, I'd also agree with Cx2's suggestion.