My old keyboard arrangement for FreeSpace 2 and Descent 3 stretched out my fingers; numpad for sliding (D3) or ETS allocation (FS2), the six buttons above the arrow keys for pitch and bank (both), arrow keys to move the ship like a car (both), and the Z and X keys to fire weapons (both). I was quite good at using this control scheme.
After my switch to Mac, I changed my FS2 layout such that it resembles the Freelancer control scheme, because I have no numpad or above-arrow-keys. It works pretty well, in my opinion. I've yet to get a decent keyboard layout for Descent II.
While playing Tyrian 2000, I attach a mouse and use that for everything.
