Hardware & Technical Isn’t it about time FD developed and sold a good quality HOTAS?

Does anyone know if the x56 build quality is any better than x55, most specifically the throttle?. I have seen the insides and they LOOK the same but maybe they use better wire or something?. I love my x55 but my 2nd throttle is failing
 
Well Scam Citizen got its own HOTAS (hilariously its literally unplayable with this kind of set up) so it would be cool to have Elite theme one. But as mentioned, there are sets that are literally plug and play perfect for the game atm too.

Does anyone know if the x56 build quality is any better than x55, most specifically the throttle?. I have seen the insides and they LOOK the same but maybe they use better wire or something?. I love my x55 but my 2nd throttle is failing

I saw few reviews online reporting the same trash wire system in X-56 unfortunately. X-55 was the last product from this mark that I bought. Not risking it anymore.
 
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The title says it all. Why don’t FD get together the best brains from amongst the user base and design a stonking twist yaw HOTAS using quality components? I’d buy one if they managed to make it for less than £250.

You do realize this game is designed by devs who think that having a limited number of fire buttons is a "challenge" and not a limitation? They've gone on record stating that having us push an excessive amount of buttons to change weapons is like a "Street fighter button combo" and they think this is part of how they want the game to work. Until they can demonstrate that they understand why we need more than 2 fire buttons and implement this very basic control functionality they are quite simply not qualified to even begin to design a HOTAS. They apparently wouldn't know what to do with all the buttons.
 
You do realize this game is designed by devs who think that having a limited number of fire buttons is a "challenge" and not a limitation? They've gone on record stating that having us push an excessive amount of buttons to change weapons is like a "Street fighter button combo" and they think this is part of how they want the game to work. Until they can demonstrate that they understand why we need more than 2 fire buttons and implement this very basic control functionality they are quite simply not qualified to even begin to design a HOTAS. They apparently wouldn't know what to do with all the buttons.
Exactly.

As a player who 99% of the time plays in VR I don't care much what it looks like as long as it works without having to take my Rift off to see whats what.

I bought a Thrustmaster Hotas back a year and a half ago it was great did almost everything I needed.... But lasted 3 days untill it just stopped working. They were apparently stumped as to why it stopped working and just said send it back. The supplier told me they were having issues with supply and it was not the first to come back with that issue. Money returned that's the last time I will even look at Thrustmaster.

To that end I went back to my 16 year old MS Sidewinder presiding pro 2, it fits well the buttons although too few work fine. I am building my own throttle set up as the silly little one MS give is well just silly. I also went out and bought a force feed back version and a spare, to mod.

Yes it not a £200 stick but it works and with some software based adjustment has near to zero slack.

So anything that could be produced would for me have to look like a Saitek x52 but be as resilient as a tank or I will just stick where I am thanks.
 
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The T16000 is a cheap stick, the Saitek stuff is just badly engineered garbage that'd need to be made to a higher standard and sold at a much higher price to work (power issues, incompatibility with anything but the most select USB2 ports, bad software, crap connectors, and generally insufficient materials, are all long-standing issues in the entire line-up that neither Saitek nor any of its subsequent owners bothered to acknowledge or fix, and even so they never managed to sell that stuff at a profit).

Yep, agree with all that.

What I was trying to say is that the X52 is about as ED as it gets and it's a "budget" stick (in performance, if not price) so if you're going to produce an ED-focused stick which is just as ED-specific as the X52, basically it's going to have to be an X52... but better - and therefore more expensive.
If you see what I mean.

I'd certainly take a TM T1600m over an X52 any day - simply as a general-purpose stick - but it's not terribly ED-specific.

Having said that, personally I'd prefer to have something that looked more contemporary, like the VKB mamba or the old TM f22, and then just figure out a control-profile that worked.
I'm not keen on "space-age" joysticks.
 
I upgraded to the VKP Gladiator MK II from the T-16000M and matching throttle set up. I still use the TCWS Throttle. It's an excellent throttle.


^
THIS

Is exactly what I'm trying to do. I have the Gladiator. Putting the TCWS Throttle on my Christmas wishlist. Do you use any sort of preset profile in ED, or are you using custom or generic? I need to spend a lot of key mapping config time to get my Gladiator working right. Had to wipe the defaults to rid myself of some annoying counter clockwise spin. Now I'm left with no mapping at all. Can't even request landing in a training mission.

Help a noob out.
 
I've currently got a CH setup and feel dreadfully let down with the software. I would happily buy a Warthog if it had yaw. Id just like a decent stick, good throttle all built with quality components.
 
Well don't feel too bad the Saitek/Madcatz software for the X52 looks like it was designed by accountants in the 80's, no offence to actual accountants. It's just plain awful. I'm sure one of the junior app devs at work could muster better in his lunch break.

Also their "Official" ED profile has all the consistency of covering the buttons with glue and throwing all the commands stuck on bits of paper at the stick, and calling the resultant car crash a profile.

I just used what I had set for my Sidewinder, translated the setting to the X52 and added things I wanted to what was left over button wise.

I know others have said the stick is not up to its price tag, agreed the build could be better, and at that price more metal and stronger plastic would help.

I had mine less than 24 hours and I already modded it and will be making more mods as required when things inevitably start to wear out.
 
I've currently got a CH setup and feel dreadfully let down with the software. I would happily buy a Warthog if it had yaw. Id just like a decent stick, good throttle all built with quality components.

I don't use the software, no drivers, no control manager, nothing. Works great for me - throttle, fighterstick, pedals and a yoke for FltSims.
 
So really what they were/did get was just what is known in the plastic modelling world as a repaint , mixed with some Frankenstein cut and shut work.
 
Does anyone know if the x56 build quality is any better than x55, most specifically the throttle?. I have seen the insides and they LOOK the same but maybe they use better wire or something?. I love my x55 but my 2nd throttle is failing

One of the buttons on my trusty X55 throttle died back in May 2016 but it was inside the 2 year warranty so I contacted Saitek to get it replaced. As it happened, the X55 was no longer in production at that time having being superseded by the X56. Although they had remaining X55 stock their customer relations department asked me if I wanted an X55 right away or if I waited till June they would ship me a new X56 - no brainer right?

As I still had my X52 Pro as a back up I waited for the X56 which duly arrived in June and has been going strong ever since, absolutely no issues. I pair it up with a Cougar MFD and a Xbox controller (for the SRV) - all works well for me.

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I would have thought it'd be a bit of a no-win situation, myself.

A cheap stick is going to be, well, cheap.
The X52 is already filling that segment of the market and it has, shall we say, "mixed reviews".

Conversely, if you're going to spend more than £200 on a joystick, you'd have to be daft to buy anything other than the usual suspects.

There certainly are various ways that a joystick could be made more suitable for ED than, say, a TM Warthog but creating a product that is different to a Warthog and similar quality is going to make it seriously expensive.
How many people are going to buy a joystick specifically intended for ED when they could buy something like a Warthog instead... for less money?

And then there's the issue of design, which is completely subjective.
Personally, I'd be a bit worried that they'd end up trying to make the joystick look "space age" when I suspect that most players really want something that looks like it was lifted straight out of a current military aircraft - which is why sticks like the Warthog and VKB Mamba do so well, even compared to superior products made by outfits like CH.


I'm not convinced CH are superior to the likes of VKB or Virpil, for a multitude of reasons.

Z...
 
The title says it all. Why don’t FD get together the best brains from amongst the user base and design a stonking twist yaw HOTAS using quality components? I’d buy one if they managed to make it for less than £250.

Uh, no?
That is not FD's business.
They should not stick their nose in that hornet's nest.

I would be very happy if Thrustmaster would produce a Warthog with twist axis, or...
... if Logitech would take the basic Saitek X-56 design and improve its quality.
They don't have to make it cheaper. I just want a good HOTAS.
As far as I am concerned the handling and options of the X-56 are magnificent. Its quality is the most worrying part.
 
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