Following up on this:
I couldn't justify the great expense of the x56 even though it looked like possibly the best option; I settled on getting just the throttle piece from the Thrustmaster. The TWCS.
Now that I've had a few hours to configure and get used to it. I think it might be the case that this is a closer system to what I want than the x56 anyway.
So the scheme I settled on that seems to be working is:
The mini stick on the finger is lat/vert thrust. The paddle rocker axis on the front of the throttle is fore/aft thrust. Throttle is throttle, obviously.
It would be better if there was a center (zero) detent on the throttle so I could reliably hit zero on it, but I basically solved that with some careful application of velcro strips to create extra resistance in the back half of the throttle's throw, and a decent deadzone in the software. I've also applied a bit of curve to the thrust axis so that they start out slow for low velocity precision, but have great response when I put them full out. It feels good.
I would love if the stick was on the thumb because I bet I could steer that better, but I think I'll get gud at this in little time. It already feels pretty natural.
Besides that, I generally love the flexibility of bindings in ED so the game itself handles complicated things really well without me having to dip back into Thrustmasters programming software again. Stuff like having boost be 3 buttons at the same time makes for great economy of buttons without accidentally boosting all the time. I like being able to burry important, but also important not to hit by accident, functions under a triple key.
Also, while I'm here. A big criticism of thrustmaster's TARGET software: They can't just give you a default profile that has all the buttons mapped to their default. So when you run it, it won't work at all until you carefully map every axis and button to what windows is used to seeing from the controller. Only after doing that do you have the controller back to it's default state.
I appreciate the big depth of functionality in programming that software has. And the curves and deadzone control are outstanding. But come on Thrustmaster; have it start at a default that at least works like normal... What a pain.
Anyway. That's where I am and I think I'm happy for now. My old stick will probably break at some point and I'll want something to replace it. I'm hoping I'll find something better than the current T16000m since it lacks on-stick buttons compared to mine, but also has all these silly buttons on the base.... (for real, we don't need buttons on the base...) So maybe a new product will come by then and hey, if it's thrustmaster I'll be happy that it works with my already created TARGET profile. If not, well... My current stick works fine side-by-side so I know I can always do that.
I couldn't justify the great expense of the x56 even though it looked like possibly the best option; I settled on getting just the throttle piece from the Thrustmaster. The TWCS.
Now that I've had a few hours to configure and get used to it. I think it might be the case that this is a closer system to what I want than the x56 anyway.
So the scheme I settled on that seems to be working is:
The mini stick on the finger is lat/vert thrust. The paddle rocker axis on the front of the throttle is fore/aft thrust. Throttle is throttle, obviously.
It would be better if there was a center (zero) detent on the throttle so I could reliably hit zero on it, but I basically solved that with some careful application of velcro strips to create extra resistance in the back half of the throttle's throw, and a decent deadzone in the software. I've also applied a bit of curve to the thrust axis so that they start out slow for low velocity precision, but have great response when I put them full out. It feels good.
I would love if the stick was on the thumb because I bet I could steer that better, but I think I'll get gud at this in little time. It already feels pretty natural.
Besides that, I generally love the flexibility of bindings in ED so the game itself handles complicated things really well without me having to dip back into Thrustmasters programming software again. Stuff like having boost be 3 buttons at the same time makes for great economy of buttons without accidentally boosting all the time. I like being able to burry important, but also important not to hit by accident, functions under a triple key.
Also, while I'm here. A big criticism of thrustmaster's TARGET software: They can't just give you a default profile that has all the buttons mapped to their default. So when you run it, it won't work at all until you carefully map every axis and button to what windows is used to seeing from the controller. Only after doing that do you have the controller back to it's default state.
I appreciate the big depth of functionality in programming that software has. And the curves and deadzone control are outstanding. But come on Thrustmaster; have it start at a default that at least works like normal... What a pain.
Anyway. That's where I am and I think I'm happy for now. My old stick will probably break at some point and I'll want something to replace it. I'm hoping I'll find something better than the current T16000m since it lacks on-stick buttons compared to mine, but also has all these silly buttons on the base.... (for real, we don't need buttons on the base...) So maybe a new product will come by then and hey, if it's thrustmaster I'll be happy that it works with my already created TARGET profile. If not, well... My current stick works fine side-by-side so I know I can always do that.