While I was considering HOTAS it was the absence of twist rudder that was decisive not in favour of Warthog.
Same here. Heck, even when I had rudders, I still liked having the twist axis for other things. Having sold off my old X52 and rudders literally just days before the Elite Kickstarter happened (and I didn't find out about
that for quite some time, either, or I'd have supported it instantly), I ended up picking up an X55 for Elite and NMS. I've got my eye on a Slaw device eventually, but that's probably quite some time away yet. Even though I have the room and rig for it, it'd be in the way as much as it'd get used.
And as for X52, I heard so much bad press about it... hope it holds up for you. Hard to beat all those buttons and hats, for sure. But I heard that reliability just isn't there.
While Saitek has some QA issues here and there, most notoriously when they release a new device, the reliability iis simply not as bad as many would make it seem. I used to support the hardware Microsoft sold, back in the days before and just after their original Force Feedback units. I was also involved in the actual development of some of them. We tested a lot of different devices and what we found was that pure plastic builds would get abused and broken quickly by certain folks while being extremely reliable for others. Those who slam their devices around will, of course, wear them out faster! Those who have had actual flight experience (or just tend to be less excitable in general), however, found them perfectly suitable. While that was some time ago, I've noticed the same trend with those who disclaim Saitek's reliability. I owned the X52 and used it daily in flight sims for
years before finally getting bored of the existing sims. I've now owned an X55 for a year and it's held up perfectly fine as well. I've found it to have plenty of switches, etc. The only thing it lacks that I'd really like to have is an analog hat. There's an analog thingie but they made it into a mouse interface, which is a weird choice IMO, and it isn't quite sensitive enough to serve as a thruster input for me. Aside from that one lack, it's a
great choice for anyone. The removable joystick is a huge benefit for storing it, too, if that's something someone needs.
Joysticks on a bridge panel in a space ship I can understand, but BARCODE SCANNERS!
They're great for turning into a sort of scanner interface. They have the added benefit of having a laser already included, which is often repurposed elsewhere. You might be surprised how many pretty ordinary things get used by props departments. A friend's wife is a buyer for movie production companies. She's told many stories about how finding 75 of a particular thing is often way more hassle than you'd think, yet movie production crews almost never buy only one or two of anything. There's more cost in paying someone to acquire stuff for them than in the actual stuff they're getting, more often than not. That's way OT, though.
Edit: Forgot to add that the X55 also lacks a throttle detent at 0. This is actually rather annoying, for me, but obviously I managed to accommodate myself to it. Still, it's something that seems like a pretty major oversight in general, considering how important that can be in many situations. I use the slider switch which, oddly, isn't a real game input but instead simply something that the Saitek software can use for different things. I bound mine to the throttle reverse button I mapped (`) and it works OK. There are a few times I forget to take the throttle out of reverse mode, though, which can be somewhat annoying.
Other than those 2 things, however, I am quite happy with my X55.
