With regards to the apparent superiority of the mouse over all other controllers in Arena Commander, I have to wonder if the majority of the backlash has to do with PvP concerns.
I mean, I would greatly prefer a better HOTAS experience, too, but that's not because I'm worried about being disadvantaged in a PvP duel. It's more that I just like my x52 and want to play that way. I enjoyed Freelancer back in the day and that game was most definitely built around the mouse at the expense of everything else. It wasn't my favorite Roberts game, but it was a fun little title.
So, my question is: Would some of the posters here actually enjoy a mouse-centric Star Citizen for the single-player (Squadron 42) portion at least, or does the PvP concern trump that? For me I would probably still really enjoy SQ42 even if I had to use a mouse.
This Freelancer stuff reminds me of the arguments that were going on over there early last year.
IIRC CR was surprised at the number of Freelancer fans that started getting involved and there were all the usual mouse/KB v Hotas arguments (to be fair we've had the flight model original Elite v Frontier arguments here ad nauseam).
Also I think CR expressed surprise at some point at the poll results that showed so many people wanted to "explore".
Can't help wondering if these 2 "surprises" (I can't source the quotes but I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it) had some impact on the development as we see it now...