After 2 1/2 years with X52, I changed to twin Virpil MongoosT-50s. The setup was relatively straightforward, but learning the new button layouts and sorting out all the bindings was a nightmare. It was like being a beginner all over again; however, after a few months, the new muscle memory took over and I've been very happy for the last 2 years. Unfortunately, the Virpil CM2 throttle kept calling out to me from its web page until I finally cracked and ordered one with the Delta flight-stick. This has led to two days of sheer frustration. Nothing is straight-forward anymore.
Most of the buttons on the throttle didn't work because ED can only handle 32. The solution is to use Joystick Gremlins, which doesn't work until you've installed Vjoy. After lots of messing about, I finally got that sorted, so, full of excitement, I was ready to try them out. From past experience, I know it's not a good idea to start the game with new sticks, so I opened the training. Immediately, my ship was spinning wildly out of control, so I had to close it and go back to setup. AFAICS, it was only the right stick main axes that were malfunctioning. Buttons and analogue head-look were fine. The Virpil calibration software showed everything centred, but the Joystick Gremlins showed the axes fully at one end. After many hours of trawling through forums and Youtube videos, I finally found the answer, that you have to do a Windows 10 Joystick calibration as well.
Finally, everything was working as it should, so back to the training. After 10 minutes, and a couple of visits back to the bindings to reverse axes, I'm wondering why I had spent all that money to send me back to beginner mode. Chasing down that harmless Sidewinder was really hard.
Last night, I did nothing more than travel from station to station. I must have had to interrupt it about 50 times to redo bindings when I could see that the keys that seemed logical on paper were impractical, until after 4 hours or so, I have something that seems to be workable. I think it's going to take a long time to get the muscle memory for the 11 axes, 9 hats, 5 encoders and 39 other switches. Just about every one of them is bound to something, and I haven't done the bindings for the SLF, camera or DSS yet. Now I can't play without having to make frequent reference to my crib-sheet.
Was it all worth it? Not at the moment, but we'll see in a month's time. My only thoughts so far is that twin sticks are better for combat and throttles are better for non-combat.
Changing sticks is a bit like playing Ed. There are loads of things they don't tell you about that you need to know and do, then you go through all the frustration of figuring out how it all works, and finally, you get it all figured out and you want to try something new.
I've had one other problem once. I dropped out of supercruise and the screen flashed continuously for a few minutes while I was locked out of everything. When it stopped, everything was back to normal. I hope it doesn't do that in the middle of combat. Does anybody know what causes that?
Most of the buttons on the throttle didn't work because ED can only handle 32. The solution is to use Joystick Gremlins, which doesn't work until you've installed Vjoy. After lots of messing about, I finally got that sorted, so, full of excitement, I was ready to try them out. From past experience, I know it's not a good idea to start the game with new sticks, so I opened the training. Immediately, my ship was spinning wildly out of control, so I had to close it and go back to setup. AFAICS, it was only the right stick main axes that were malfunctioning. Buttons and analogue head-look were fine. The Virpil calibration software showed everything centred, but the Joystick Gremlins showed the axes fully at one end. After many hours of trawling through forums and Youtube videos, I finally found the answer, that you have to do a Windows 10 Joystick calibration as well.
Finally, everything was working as it should, so back to the training. After 10 minutes, and a couple of visits back to the bindings to reverse axes, I'm wondering why I had spent all that money to send me back to beginner mode. Chasing down that harmless Sidewinder was really hard.
Last night, I did nothing more than travel from station to station. I must have had to interrupt it about 50 times to redo bindings when I could see that the keys that seemed logical on paper were impractical, until after 4 hours or so, I have something that seems to be workable. I think it's going to take a long time to get the muscle memory for the 11 axes, 9 hats, 5 encoders and 39 other switches. Just about every one of them is bound to something, and I haven't done the bindings for the SLF, camera or DSS yet. Now I can't play without having to make frequent reference to my crib-sheet.
Was it all worth it? Not at the moment, but we'll see in a month's time. My only thoughts so far is that twin sticks are better for combat and throttles are better for non-combat.
Changing sticks is a bit like playing Ed. There are loads of things they don't tell you about that you need to know and do, then you go through all the frustration of figuring out how it all works, and finally, you get it all figured out and you want to try something new.
I've had one other problem once. I dropped out of supercruise and the screen flashed continuously for a few minutes while I was locked out of everything. When it stopped, everything was back to normal. I hope it doesn't do that in the middle of combat. Does anybody know what causes that?
