A single question regarding mouse and keyboard control.

JustSomeCMDR · Feb 19, 2015

This is the only question I will most likely ask on these forums and then disappear forever.
Simple: Is mouse and keyboard viable for everyday play or is it the source of frustration?

krysohmyz · Feb 19, 2015

Yes, it's perfectly usable. Maybe not as comfortable as joystick, but it won't put you in disadvantage.
I've seen many awesome pilots kicking butt with Kb+M and I saw many really bad pilots with awesome HOTAS setup.
Once you've got some training, you'll be good with anything. Elite is very skill-based game when comes to flying itself.

CdrTwisted · Feb 19, 2015

It is viable. It takes some getting used to and I need gimballed weapons to make it work for me but its's definitely an option.

Headspin · Feb 19, 2015

I haven't tried anything else yet and I am reasonably happy, so much so that I haven't yet tried the controller my wife got me recently.

Lord_Itchybum · Feb 19, 2015

I'm too scared to buy a HOTAS setup, even the $70 Thrustmaster one in case I don't like it. But so far KB+M is working well for me.

Dommarraa · Feb 19, 2015

Even kb only is fine

JustSomeCMDR · Feb 19, 2015

Seems I was proven wrong.
I expected it to be nearly impossible, just curious, can you preform advanced maneuvers, such as maintaining line of sight to a target during tight turns, or am I stuck to pretending that I'm a regular fighter plane?

changtau2005 · Feb 19, 2015

JustSomeCMDR said:
Seems I was proven wrong.
I expected it to be nearly impossible, just curious, can you preform advanced maneuvers, such as maintaining line of sight to a target during tight turns, or am I stuck to pretending that I'm a regular fighter plane?

YMMV depending on past experience. I'm a long-time KB/M user in space sims and I can control all thrusters just fine, but KB/M needs some love in the FA-off department, as there is no way to switch between relative/absolute mouse control, and there is no way to set throttle in FA-off mode unless you use a throttle stick. You can do almost just as well by controlling your thrusters well in FA-on, so I'm not too bothered tbh.

What's most important is that you would want a keyboard that does not ghost i.e. fail to register more than a few simultaneous keypresses. For example, rolling + thrust up + thrust left + thrust forward (+ firing) etc. A mouse with thumb buttons is useful too, since one hand has to be on the mouse, leaving you with five very busy fingers on the other.

Hope this helps.