Tips for using rail guns / gauss with xbox controller.
I’ve spent a while doing AX recently, which means fighting pretty much exclusively with gauss, and then having got back to the bubble, mostly switching most of the things to rails. This was extremely hard at first but is now really natural.
Xbox controllers have the rep of being the hardest way to control a ship, but actually there’s a big advantage in having all of the controls at your fingertips all the time.
So, top tips from most to least important. Your mileage may vary…
Always use night vision.
Don’t roll and pitch (left stick by default) to the target. While aiming a shot, pitch with the left stick and yaw with the right. This is the exact same action as the “cargo scoop” minigame.
Practice with fixed beams is good. Burst lasers have a rhythm that matches rails. Also, in AX, shooting scouts with gauss is great practice. Or just do many pirate massacre missions with rails.
Beam turrets (long range thermal vent) can help as a literal laser pointer to guide you to the target.
Small movements, and move the reticle slowly to the target, rather than snatching at it and hoping to time the shot. You can gently drift the reticle with the target, with a bit of practice, so you stay mostly on top of it, and the timing becomes less important.
Move both pitch and yaw sticks at the same time. You’ll probably be holding both sticks just off-centre while shooting. Don’t move-then-release; stay in direct, engaged control all the time. This is also essential for fa-off.
In fa-on, this pitch-and-yaw aiming can be combined with pitch and roll to reposition or line up for another attack run. But with the xbox controller, try to stick with pitch-and-yaw for aiming.
This is a skill that takes practice. Expect to be bad for a while.
Always select a subtarget when using rails and gauss, because of the microgimballing. (Sometimes you can’t do this with AX, without a an AX scan)
Map shortcuts for at least “next hostile target” and “select previous subtarget” so you can select a target, and a subtarget with a couple of button clicks, without needing to use the left panel.
Likewise, map shortcuts for countermeasures like chaff, heatsinks and shield cell banks. Don’t use firegroups for these.
Thermal vent beams help with the heat of both rails and gauss.
Don’t get hung up on fa-off. Fa-on is fine. Fa-off has a bit more stability when aiming sometimes. It’s helpful for AX, with cold orbiting, and it’s handy to use for a swift reverski in a fight, but you can manage without it.
There’s lots of other stuff about engineering, AX and other waffle but these are really the things that have made the biggest difference to me.
I’ve spent a while doing AX recently, which means fighting pretty much exclusively with gauss, and then having got back to the bubble, mostly switching most of the things to rails. This was extremely hard at first but is now really natural.
Xbox controllers have the rep of being the hardest way to control a ship, but actually there’s a big advantage in having all of the controls at your fingertips all the time.
So, top tips from most to least important. Your mileage may vary…
Always use night vision.
Don’t roll and pitch (left stick by default) to the target. While aiming a shot, pitch with the left stick and yaw with the right. This is the exact same action as the “cargo scoop” minigame.
Practice with fixed beams is good. Burst lasers have a rhythm that matches rails. Also, in AX, shooting scouts with gauss is great practice. Or just do many pirate massacre missions with rails.
Beam turrets (long range thermal vent) can help as a literal laser pointer to guide you to the target.
Small movements, and move the reticle slowly to the target, rather than snatching at it and hoping to time the shot. You can gently drift the reticle with the target, with a bit of practice, so you stay mostly on top of it, and the timing becomes less important.
Move both pitch and yaw sticks at the same time. You’ll probably be holding both sticks just off-centre while shooting. Don’t move-then-release; stay in direct, engaged control all the time. This is also essential for fa-off.
In fa-on, this pitch-and-yaw aiming can be combined with pitch and roll to reposition or line up for another attack run. But with the xbox controller, try to stick with pitch-and-yaw for aiming.
This is a skill that takes practice. Expect to be bad for a while.
Always select a subtarget when using rails and gauss, because of the microgimballing. (Sometimes you can’t do this with AX, without a an AX scan)
Map shortcuts for at least “next hostile target” and “select previous subtarget” so you can select a target, and a subtarget with a couple of button clicks, without needing to use the left panel.
Likewise, map shortcuts for countermeasures like chaff, heatsinks and shield cell banks. Don’t use firegroups for these.
Thermal vent beams help with the heat of both rails and gauss.
Don’t get hung up on fa-off. Fa-on is fine. Fa-off has a bit more stability when aiming sometimes. It’s helpful for AX, with cold orbiting, and it’s handy to use for a swift reverski in a fight, but you can manage without it.
There’s lots of other stuff about engineering, AX and other waffle but these are really the things that have made the biggest difference to me.
