Newcomer / Intro Flight Stick Questions for a Lefty (sorta)

[noodlePancake]

So I'm new to ED and I'm loving the game. So much so that I've decided that I'm going to buy a joystick to play it. Price wise and from what I've read with reviews I think I'm going with the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas... it retails near me for $68 Australian dollars which is the cheapest I've seen it around my area or even online. My questions (and this is going to sound kinda gumby) is this. I'm not sure if I'm left or right handed lol. I use a mouse with my left hand, write with my left hand, but play guitar with my right, kick with my right, play cricked right handed. I've never used a joystick before so I don't know on which side of the coin I'm gonna land. I feel as though I could use either. Anyway, my question is, I've noticed the T-flight kind of links together. Thrust on the left and control on the right. Will this be a problem to turn it around if need be? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

No0dL3.

 

[Mike Evans]

If you're not familiar with joysticks for gaming then it doesn't matter whether your left handed or not, you'll be required to learn a whole new set of muscle memories to use it properly so you might as well just use it right handed as it was designed to do. I don't think you can hold the stick or throttle comfortably with opposite hands with that stick.

 

[Derpster Frey]

Left handed pilots use regular joysticks as well, there are no "left handed" hotas.
As Mr. Evans said, it's about muscle memory.

If my HOTAS was ambidextrous, I'm sure I could just as easily have learned to have the joystick in my left hand instead of right.

By the way, the Thrustmaster T.Flight isn't "stuck" to the throttle, you can detach it.
They are connected by a wire.

You can't use the throttle in right hand, the buttons and curve of the throttle won't allow it.

 

[who?]

Any HOTAS setup obviously requires use of / skill with both hands, so in some ways it removes the bias towards right-handers that would exist if there were just right-handed joysticks. Everyone, lefties and righties, needs to be good with both hands. It probably is slightly easier for people to play with control stick in the "primary" hand and throttle in their other hand, since you probably require slightly more fine adjustments with the stick. Most HOTAS systems I've seen aren't switchable too, you have to use the throttle with the left hand and stick with the right.

I'd never used a joystick before this game, and - as said above - that in itself takes a lot of learning, which probably outweighs the "handedness" issue.

 

[noodlePancake]

wow... well thanks heaps to you guys for replying so quickly... obviously a good community here I'm gonna pick up my hotas on saturday so goin by what you guys have said I think I'll stick with my original decision. Its strange but I kinda feel like right handed with a joystick works for me... Its like I'm the version of being ambidextrous lol... can't use both hands for the same thing but random hands for different things... anyway, really appreciate the replies and its given me some perspective on the whole thing.

Cheers

No0dL3.

 

[cmdr lowest]

Good to hear you are enjoying the game.

As others have said, there are no LH HOTAS joystick setups - they tend to be 'moulded' to fit a RH scenario so you don't have a lot of choice if going for a joystick.

If you find you don't get on with it an alternative would be an Xbox controller. That's what I'm using and it works really well. I sometime add to this setup with voiceattack software and ROCCAT powergrid on the ipad too.

I'd like to give a true HOTAS setup a go but I don't really want a great chunk of plastic taking up space in my house. It's more an aesthetic decision for me and as I am getting on so well with the controller I don't see a need for much change.

Fly safe commander.

 

[Ulysses_W]

I want to chime in here and add something that might murk up the waters a little. Muscle memory doesn't always cut it.

I'm left handed inasmuch as I write with my left hand. But I could never in a million years operate a joystick with it. The reason being that my left and right hands mirror one another. If I try to use my right hand for anything my left hand does natively, it insists on doing it in a mirrored way. For instance, I can write perfectly well with my right hand but you'd have to use a mirror to read it. I have no control over this and have to think really hard to write normally.

I don't know how many leftys 'suffer' with this problem, but it's something to consider when buying a HOTAS.

I use a joystick in my right hand. Flippin' barmy.

 

[the100thmonkey]

I want to chime in here and add something that might murk up the waters a little. Muscle memory doesn't always cut it.

I'm left handed inasmuch as I write with my left hand. But I could never in a million years operate a joystick with it. The reason being that my left and right hands mirror one another. If I try to use my right hand for anything my left hand does natively, it insists on doing it in a mirrored way. For instance, I can write perfectly well with my right hand but you'd have to use a mirror to read it. I have no control over this and have to think really hard to write normally.

I don't know how many leftys 'suffer' with this problem, but it's something to consider when buying a HOTAS.

I use a joystick in my right hand. Flippin' barmy.

It's a well-recorded phenomenon. One, incidentally, that I have no affinity for. I'm totally left-hand-dominant and write like a drunk child with my right hand, even mirrored.

Ironically, with three things: golf clubs, computer mice and joysticks, I'm totally at sea with my left hand.