The Joystick/Controller discussion thread

[Castodas]

I really like my Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. and it is relatively cheap.
I will say that you may get a bit annoyed that that joystick (at least the one I have) has a hard time finding its neutral position, so my ship likes to turn ever so slightly when hands off. It isn't' a consistent issue, it hasn't been problematic and to my knowledge it hasn't affected my abilities in combat; you just might get a bit annoyed. (although, that could be because I had it packed away for a lengthy period of time during a move)

 

[nosscar]

Thrustmaster T.Flight is robust and good for the price (I picked up mine new for £30). I've used mine for over a year with no issue (last famous words). My only concern with it is the number of buttons you can map. I would have preferred a few more, although you can get away with creating new custom bindings depending on your ship's role, and swap accordingly when swapping ships.

Well my old stick had 9 buttons + 2 fire buttons, 1 hat switch and the twist rudder, & a throttle, so from what i read the T-flight has 12 buttons, but does this include the fire buttons, so which one over all has the most buttons, and i know the t flight has a large throttle, but does it have a twist rudder.
Does anyone have an example picture with Elite mapped out for the t flight so i can compare against the Ligitech.

Edit: found one here. Not sure what the 5-axis is used for though.

 

[Pufferfish]

Well my old stick had 9 buttons + 2 fire buttons, 1 hat switch and the twist rudder, & a throttle, so from what i read the T-flight has 12 buttons, but does this include the fire buttons, so which one over all has the most buttons, and i know the t flight has a large throttle, but does it have a twist rudder.
Does anyone have an example picture with Elite mapped out for the t flight so i can compare against the Ligitech.

I would say it has 10 including the fire buttons. It has 2 more to the right of the joystick, but I couldn't map those if I remember correctly (because they switch between profiles and stuff or something...) so I don't use those. It also has an extra axis though on the throttle (so it would count as 2 buttons I guess), which the Logitech doesn't have, so I use that for horizontal strafing. Then I can use the thumbstick on the joystick for vertical thrusters and switching subsystems. That's pretty much what I like better about it over the Logitech as I used the thumbstick on that for both vertical and horizontal thrusters.

Edit: The 5 axix button (in your pic) just basically turns the axis on the back of the throttle on and off, so it's not really a button either.

 

[SpeakerToAliens]

Excellent left hander's joystick!

ED killed my trusty Sidewinder Pro after just a few months of playing . It was only 20 years old. So I mourned for a while, while trying to play using keyboard and mouse. Gave that up after a few minutes - didn't even try to re-dock, just logged out a few clicks from the station and headed down the shops. The thing is, I'm left handed and finding a joystick that I can use is difficult (the Sidewinder was technically for right-handers, but wasn't too awkward for me to use).

I tried Maplin and though they sell ambidextrous joysticks (for about £40) they had none in stock. Others didn't sell ambidextrous or left-handed-usable joysticks. In desperation, and without any hope, I finally tried PC World. They had a Mad Catz v1.0 for only £20! It's brilliant. All the standard X-Y-Z controls plus throttle lever, 2 fire buttons, POV hat and 5 extra programmable buttons. ED recognises all of them. Yes! I could fly again!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826618025.

 

[PGleesonuk]

A thrustmaster T16000M is also a good choice. Super precise loads of button.
Weak point is the smaller throttle slider.

So now I have a combination of a thrustmaster hotas-x (using just the throttle) and. t16000m as my main stick.

ED has no trouble recognising 2 sticks. The hotas-x stick is not used and sits behind the monitor.

 

[TheHusk]

How do i increase the sensitivity when using a joystick?

Maybe i missed it, but I cant increase the sensitivity and this thing turns waaay to slow.

 

[Frop]

Try that again with your throttle in the blue area and/or more pips in Engines.

 

[Daxk StarCrasher]

Roll or yaw?

 

[Cody]

... but I cant increase the sensitivity and this thing turns waaay to slow.

In all axes?

 

[Mohrgan]

I believe your turn rate is based on the ship you fly. I have found a 'mouse sensitivity' slider, but nothing for a joystick. What ship are you flying?

 

[TheHusk]

im just using the starter ship. the roll is slightly faster but everything is still really slow. ESPECIALLY yaw, that is slow as hell

 

[Mohrgan]

The Yaw is intended to be slow. It's for minor adjustments, not general navigation. Navigate using Roll, and Pitch. For the best maneuverability make sure your speed is set so that your indicator pointer is within the 'Blue Zone' on your throttle gauge.

 

[Ozmodion]

try using this:

http://www.xedocproject.com/joystickc...

 

[Tweakz]

Good Joysticks also offer software to adjust that.

 

[TheHusk]

now my yaw is inverted... not quite sure how. i tried inverting it in the controls and its still inverted, i tried uninverting it and it still was inverted... weird

 

[Mohrgan]

I think you should check to be sure you have the Joystick assigned to an Axis, rather than a button press. When I first installed my joystick, I assigned each of the cardinal points to the corresponding WSAD keys. Big mistake. Set up that way, I only got action when I had the joystick maxed in one direction or another, with zero sensitivity. Be sure you you have each direction assigned to an axis.

 

[jack23011]

Hi commanders. When Elite Dangerous came out, I dusted off an old Logitech Freedom 2.4 Wireless Joystick. To my delight it still worked and I have been enjoying reclining leather sofa based flying for nearly 6 months in front of a 50" 3D TV. Surely this is the only way to play!

To my dismay, my wonderful old Freedom 2.4 has begun to develop some dead zones and erratic signal output. I understand this is common with joysticks using "Potentiometers" to determine positioning. No problem, I thought its ok, I'll treat myself to one of these fancy new CH or Saitek baby's. Except none of them are wireless as far as I can tell. In fact several days of Googling has provided no evidence that you can actually still buy a new wireless PC Joystick / Flightstick anywhere in the UK.

I found some second hand ones on ebay, plenty of wireless console style gamepads (urgghhh not for ED please!) but nothing wireless and flight stick shaped for the PC. Logitechs Extreme 3D Pro Joystick is only wired USB so even they have abandoned wireless technology.

To add insult to injury, you can buy the Mad Catz Cyborg FLY 9 Wireless Flight Stick for £25 but its only for the Xbox or Playstation!!!!! OMG

The Saitek Cyborg Evo Wireless PC Flight Stick - PS30looked promising but its out of stock on Amazon UK and I can't find anyone else selling it here.

What happened??? Did all the worlds joystick manufacturers secretly decide to stop producing wireless joysticks for the PC????

There was more choice available back in 2002! What is going on?

Please tell me I'm missing something. Maybe the terminology has changed and I'm looking for the wrong thing??? I just can't believe how hard it is to find a replacement for my Freedom!

I assume I'm not the only one desiring a wireless Joystick. Anyone else think there is now a gaping hole in the marketplace? Logiteck are you listening?

Hey there, new to the game and i too use the Freedom. Mine is in excellent shape after all these years compared to my friends who seem to think it has a 2nd life as a hammer when not in game, so they tend to self-destruct. My only complaint, ever with the Freedom, is the short, on time and seeming lack of polling. When mine gives up the ghost I will go back to wired as I did for my keyboard and mouse. For gaming, wireless just gets on my nerves. You can get USB extenders, both cabled and wireless so, theoretically you could still sit on your couch, lol, you may just have to reel in/out your cable. When it is time, I will go back to CH products like I had for my flight simulator--I am real sorry I sold those years ago. I wouldn't pay the crazy prices being asked for sticks today, I understand the quality is quite poor considering the ridiculous prices being asked.

I was curious, do you know if there are any Logitech Freedom ED profiles out there? I have mapped mine out but I's like to see how others with this stick config'd their stick/board/mouse, thanks.

 

[lowlife]

Controller or Joystick?

Hey guys,

I've been following this game for like last 5 months and after the Steam Sale, i finally bought it.

I'm playing flight sims for decent time. I have few joysticks but they are pretty cheap models. I have this one but it's horrible. There is huge deadzone, i mean its unplayable, i won't play the game with this:
http://www.simflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Saitek_aviator.jpg

Other one is my cheap and first joystick but because it's Logitech, it has great controls. But it has another problem, there is no z axis and no analog stick so no camera controls. I'm talking about this:
http://en.konsolinet.fi/tuotekuvat/a2.jpg

Last option is a XBox controller. I know it sucks to play with this but it has great controls (again, Logitech i love you). It also has two analog sticks so i can control camera with it. I can control rudder controls with triggers, so it seems like the best option.

Those are my 3 options, before buying something new i just gotta try the game because i wasted my money on that Saitek controller. Also here where i live even cheap models are expensive. So, what do you think, playing with XBox controller is stupid?

 

[Senex VII]

I tried combined throttle and joystick controls but it wasn't fluid and it's uncomfortable when playing hours on end. May I suggest some kind of set-up that splits them? That's what I do. I now play both FSX and Elite with separate throttle quadrant (Saitek 3 lever on left) and joystick (Thrustmaster 16000M, on right, with throttle control disabled). Much more comfortable. Twice as many buttons too!

 

[highpsiturbo]

I had a thrustmaster Tflight hotas X which for the money was pretty damn good. The throttle especially as it had a center detent. However the buttons started snapping off their mounts after about six months. Moved up to X52 and am quite happy with that(more than 6 months now) after modding a center detent on the throttle. It has been a total Biarch to set up though mainly due to drivers/mode programming.(all good now thanks to some posts on this forum)

Oh and I wouldn't touch a console controller with your barge pole let alone mine!