What type of controller will you be using for Elite Dangerous

Adept

Adept
Bobbydylan said:
I had one of those, and I don't recommend it. There's nothing wrong with it functionally, it's fine. However, there's a cable connecting the stick to the throttle. And it's not long enough to cross a lap (so you can't even sit on it).
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What's wrong with using it as a solid unit? I also suspect a mini keyboard would fit between them.

Was the stick ok otherwise? It looks really interesting to me, but I'm not sure about the quality for that price. How strong is the centering spring? I prefer a very... erm, limp stick myself.

Here's a possibly useful video for all in this thread. Comparisions between the major alternatives for a HOTAS setup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DPDHUuoyHs
 
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Shigawire

Shigawire
I thought initially of my trusty Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar, modded with Ian Johnston's ÜBER2NXT gimbals and Cubpilot's Hall sensors. Uber HOTAS!

Sagan Ross said:
I plan to use one of these In my left hand and a joystick in right https://www.kickstarter.com/project...mbly-a-computer-mouse-full-of-awesome?ref=irc

Because i have a glass eye so rift and trackIR is useless - but this controler will allow me to use the stick for lateral/vertical thust and use the mouse movement to look around the cockpit.
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That's quite brilliant. A friend showed me that a few months ago. I'm still concerned with having to learn everything from scratch. But that is definitely a great idea..

You convinced me. If I'm going to be using my Oculus Rift in Elite Dangerous, and I need to use both keyboards, mouse and joysticks - there is no way in hell I have space for all those on my seating arrangement.

King's Assembly it is!
 

ste

S
I'm thinking about using just keyboard, like I did the original, but I dont know what problems that might give me.

Another option is PS4 controller, but I have never managed to configure a PS controller to work as well on a PC as it does PS games specifically programmed for it.

Like pushing it forward gently makes you move slower and then speeding up the further you push it, it feels like a keyboard joystick key press, either all or nothing. I might as well use keyboard.

Mouse isnt an option in my opinion, it just doesnt feel right, not for a game like this.

Maybe this.. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Competition_pro_first_version_45deg.png like the amiga version.
 
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Chock

Chock
Adept said:
How strong is the centering spring? I prefer a very... erm, limp stick myself.
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On the Thrustmaster T Flight it has a dial under the base to allow you to slacken or tighten the spring centering. It's a pretty good stick and throttle, the cable between the two is fairly long, you certainly could get a keyboard between the throttle and the stick. You could do a lot worse than have one of those for ED, it's well worth the money.
 

Adept

Adept
Chock said:
On the Thrustmaster T Flight it has a dial under the base to allow you to slacken or tighten the spring centering. It's a pretty good stick and throttle, the cable between the two is fairly long, you certainly could get a keyboard between the throttle and the stick. You could do a lot worse than have one of those for ED, it's well worth the money.
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It's actually very tempting now. How well does it keep it's centering? I'm a little spoiled by having used only force feedback sticks (with FFB turned off) which center with electric motors and never lose their centering.

I'm also _still_ unsure what pedals to get :( Many use the Saitek ones, but they are also often given the worst review by people who try out several options. The CH pedals have no centering spring if I remember it correctly, but apparently they are very good otherwise. I just don't know :(
 

Chock

Chock
Saitek Pedals are pretty good value and fairly robust, I have a set of them and think they're okay. They did actually jam on full right deflection once when I gave it full right rudder whilst demoing an aeroplane for a video review, but I took em apart and they were easy to unjam. Not had a problem since that and I've had them for years.

I do fly for real and I think they aren't too bad a representation of real aircraft controls, if perhaps a little stiffer than how a real aircraft rudder feels. They certainly do add a lot to what you can do and are pretty good for the price.

Here's a vid of me where you can see them working the rudders on an FSX add-on aeroplane, if you look toward the end of the vid, you will see me sideslipping the aircraft in for a landing (that's where you cross the controls using opposite stick and rudder in order to create a lot of drag and lose some lift if you are too high on approach). It would be difficult to do a sideslip in FSX without rudder pedals. I daresay there'll be some ED moves that would be tricky without pedals too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyYnvcmisUc
 
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Adept

Adept
I've lived with the stick twist for rudder, but it leaves a lot to be desired. The thing is that the rudder pedals are an expensive pece of kit, and I want to be sure i get good quality.

People have complained about poor precision with the Saiteks.
 

Chock

Chock
I've not found the Saitek pedals at all imprecise, but maybe I got lucky with a decent set. One thing I will say about Saitek stuff though is that I've generally found the quality of their sticks leaves a bit to be desired, I've had a lot of Saitek sticks over the years and many of them have bust quickly or had buttons fall off and stuff like that, even their supposedly better more expensive ones. They tend to have too strong a centering force too, I actually trimmed off a couple of loops from the spring on my Cyborg EVO stick so it felt more like an aircraft joystick, because in truth aircraft sticks (the real thing) only even have a strong centering force on them when you've got a lot of airflow over the control surfaces at fairly high speed, all the rest of the time they tend to move very easily unless you use a trim lock on them.
 
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Adept

Adept
Btw, I'm used to having only one hat and using it for translational thrust. I suspect that for Elite I should have one for looking around and another one for the thrusters?
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Is what there is a poll on the forums with the main types of controllers, joysticks and keyboard / mouse. A poll in this thread lacks a bit
 

Adept

Adept
I'm thinking about putting up a separate thread for clarity. What I really need is information from well equipped (and less well equipped) Alpha testers.

Those with full HOTA & pedals systems, talk to me about why you chose the equipment you have. Stiffness of the stick (not good!) Precision of the potentiometers / hall-effect sensors.

It looks like Elite would benefit from 2 - 3 hat type switches.

I have bad experiences from a much older Saitek HOTAS setup which I had to send back to the store due to lack of precision and bad ergonomy. On the other hand the videos from Frontier seem to suggest that the current generation SAITEK is their go-to control system. I wonder if that includes the SAITEK pedals.

The Warthog from Thrustmaster is very tempting, but I'm a little skittish as it's been described as "stiff", both regarding the stick and the buttons. Additionally it looks like it has a ton of switches instead of buttons, which may not be quite as useful.

***

Sell me a system guys. Assume money is not an obstacle (I'll save up!). I want to have the best control setup I can have, and be confident that it will last 5+ years.
 

Sibbadd

S
I'll be using my trusty Speedlink Black Widow.

0238883HBO01M.jpg


This has served me well in games like B5 IFH, FS2 and Xwing Alliance.

The only drawback is that it only has 8 buttons and one hatswitch.
 

rlr149

R
Brian said:
What is that button, and where did you get it? I want one! Not sure what for yet but it looks cool!!

In fact I could use it as a foot prestle for teamspeak?

Brian :)
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was a joke present, came with a small install to put a screenshot of a pc screen if you happened to be not working when boss walks in. http://www.getusb.info/index.php?s=usb+panic+button
in the search for that i came across
http://www.techdigest.tv/2007/09/destroy_the_wor.html
which i'm also tempted by, i can't get enough of those chunky switches...... AND a key 'safety'!!!
 

Sibbadd

S
I'm thinking about cannibalising one of these (see below) to suit the game.

20100929_1_SPC-6000_F1.jpg


Replace the joystick with a flightstick (its a twist stick also so yaw/roll would be covered). Blank the left panel and fit a throttle. Set those buttons up to as vital systems controls and use the touchscreen as an MFD.

This is a Samsung SPC-6000 Systems controller. I used one of these at a previous job to control and review CCTV footage.

Any thoughts on this?
 

Adept

Adept
Is anybody using a CH throttle? Unlike most, they seem to sell them separately. It looks like a decent piece of kit.
 

Amorelia

A
I currently have a Logitech Extreme 3d Pro sitting on the desk, but the desk is slightly too high for comfort. I might need to rig up some sort of bracket on the arm of my chair.
 
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