Hold mode for Landing Gear binding

[jellowiggler]

I would love to see the option to have landing gear have a hold mode option as per cargo scoop.

It would be nice to see this option on all of the buttons (is it possible to just allow this to be turned on for any binding?), or at least the functions in the ship tab panel. (external lights, night vision, landing gear, cargo scoop, beacon, silent running, etc.)

Landing gear really sticks out for us commanders with two position throw switches on our throttles.

Thank you for the awesome sim!

 

[varonica]

I would love to see the option to have landing gear have a hold mode option as per cargo scoop.

It would be nice to see this option on all of the buttons (is it possible to just allow this to be turned on for any binding?), or at least the functions in the ship tab panel. (external lights, night vision, landing gear, cargo scoop, beacon, silent running, etc.)

Landing gear really sticks out for us commanders with two position throw switches on our throttles.

Thank you for the awesome sim!

I use one switch, press to engage, press to disengage, does not everyone do the same? It would seem silly having to hold a button to keep landing gear down, surely if you have extended landing gear it should remain down until landed and not raise until leaving, so press hold doesn't seem to make sense to me.

 

[HRDiagram]

I use one switch, press to engage, press to disengage, does not everyone do the same? It would seem silly having to hold a button to keep landing gear down, surely if you have extended landing gear it should remain down until landed and not raise until leaving, so press hold doesn't seem to make sense to me.

The point jellowiggler is making is not to have a hold function so that the landing gear sticks out so long as you keep pressing (which is indeed quite silly), but to have that function introduced so that two way switches could be used.

 

[jellowiggler]

Bingo!

Every throttle that has two way switches would benefit.
Including Virpil, TM Warthog, Winwing, Honeycomb, Logitech/Saitek flight sim gear, etc..... all sorts of button boxes.

They already have cargo scoop and some others with 'hold' option. Lights and landing gear would be great! But why not have the option to just turn it on for every binding if the programming is already there?

 

[varonica]

The point jellowiggler is making is not to have a hold function so that the landing gear sticks out so long as you keep pressing (which is indeed quite silly), but to have that function introduced so that two way switches could be used

It doesn't have a hold function in my setup. Press to extend, press to retract, no hold required.

 

[Gauntlet]

It doesn't have a hold function in my setup. Press to extend, press to retract, no hold required.

I think OP would like to assign landing gear to a switch though, like the 2 way toggle switches on many throttles.

 

[Taifu]

It doesn't have a hold function in my setup. Press to extend, press to retract, no hold required.

Varonica, image someone had installed the common light switch onto a joystick set up. Most light switch's have two possible positions, ON and OFF, because no one wants to hold a light switch in the ON position to be able to light up a dark room.

Now image that someone with a light switch on their joystick wants to use that light switch to operate the ships landing gear. They can already use the light switch to operate the cargo scoop, so why not have the same functionality added for other ship functions?

Edit: Ninga'd with a picture that speaks a thousand words.

 

[Gauntlet]

@jellowiggler If you're after using your 2 way throw switch to control landing gear, you could fake it.

If you have profiling software for your throttle then you can programme each position of the switch to be a momentary keypress of the landing gear keyboard bind. Flick it one way the gear deploys, flick it the other way gear retracts.

 

[varonica]

Varonica, image someone had installed the common light switch onto a joystick set up. Most light switch's have two possible positions, ON and OFF, because no one wants to hold a light switch in the ON position to be able to light up a dark room.

Now image that someone with a light switch on their joystick wants to use that light switch to operate the ships landing gear. They can already use the light switch to operate the cargo scoop, so why not have the same functionality added for other ship functions?

Edit: Ninga'd with a picture that speaks a thousand words.

Ah ok, difference in how the switches work, fair enough.

 

[Mark Zero]

Ah ok, difference in how the switches work, fair enough.

Exactly. Flipping one of those red two-way switches basically is equivalent to holding the key down if you flip it one way, and releasing it (and possibly pressing a different key) if you flip it the other way. I use those switches for things like the cargo scoop, alternate flight controls, and silent running, because all three of those can be bound in a "hold" mode. I was actually originally going to do my landing gear that way too, but it wouldn't work correctly (I'd have to toggle the switch back and forth twice).

On the bright side, the landing gear can be bound to those metal switches at the bottom of the box, since they re-center and pushing up or down is a key press.

Also, in theory, you could use up both bindings to bind both sides of the switch to the same landing gear function, which would mean the landing gear triggers if you flip the switch in either direction. But that's a little messy, and would cause a problem if you used something like Voice Attack to tell your ship to raise or lower the gear.

 

[varonica]

But that's a little messy, and would cause a problem if you used something like Voice Attack to tell your ship to raise or lower the gear.

Like those mutli-switches in houses that control the same light or function, you can never tell if it's on or off by the position of the switch, you always have to press it to see what happens, very annoying!

 

[Mark Zero]

Like those mutli-switches in houses that control the same light or function, you can never tell if it's on or off by the position of the switch, you always have to press it to see what happens, very annoying!

Exactly! That's why the hold mode is so helpful for using those switches. Gives it a dedicated "on/off" feel.

 

[Hurdles]

I would love to see this implemented!

It seems like it would be a really small change but would make such a huge difference to immersion. As well as this I'd love to see a dedicated input for 'switch to exploration mode' and 'switch to combat mode'.

I have a couple of three-position switches and if one of them gets in the wrong place I need to switch out to a menu and reposition it to the right starting point, which is a small thing but can really break the flow of the game

 

[Riverside]

I agree that adding a hold option for a lot more functions would be an excellent QoL feature, but I can imagine there would be synchronisation logic that would need to be taken into account too, even if only to give a warning message to cycle the toggles to the correct position (eg while landed or docked where the gear cannot be retracted, or in supercruise where it cannot be extended).

More indicators in the HUD (eg for night vision) would be handy too.

 

[Misty_Dark]

I would love to see this implemented!

It seems like it would be a really small change but would make such a huge difference to immersion. As well as this I'd love to see a dedicated input for 'switch to exploration mode' and 'switch to combat mode'.

I have a couple of three-position switches and if one of them gets in the wrong place I need to switch out to a menu and reposition it to the right starting point, which is a small thing but can really break the flow of the game

I just got a vision about you entering your ship, and all of a sudden, the ships jolts as the landing gear retracts and your ships falls on its belly... would have been hilarious sight...

Or the funny message from the Flight Control to tell CMDR about their cargo hatch is open (again...) perhaps want to complete the checklist for take off/landing...


And of course, you should be able to recover these kind of misshaps from inside the game.

 

[Mark Zero]

I would love to see this implemented!

It seems like it would be a really small change but would make such a huge difference to immersion. As well as this I'd love to see a dedicated input for 'switch to exploration mode' and 'switch to combat mode'.

I have a couple of three-position switches and if one of them gets in the wrong place I need to switch out to a menu and reposition it to the right starting point, which is a small thing but can really break the flow of the game

I definitely can understand why they wouldn't want a dedicated "hold" function for the landing gear. The only way that'd work is if the game could confirm that you have the right kind of toggle switch to keep the gear down. Having "hold" modes for other switches like the cargo hatch or silent running makes a little more sense because you can logically see somebody with a controller or keyboard be okay with holding down a button for that and then releasing it.

But your second suggestion about dedicated keybinds for "switch to exploration mode" and "switch to combat mode" are interesting. I'd definitely love to be able to have a two or three position switch that lets me swap modes consistently with specific positions. My current solution is to just use a button to toggle it, rather than a switch. But the switch would feel a lot better and would absolutely be the logical way to toggle modes if it were possible.

 

[Sylow]

Like those mutli-switches in houses that control the same light or function, you can never tell if it's on or off by the position of the switch, you always have to press it to see what happens, very annoying!

Except you don't have the multiway switch connection, which results in the confusion you experience. It's merely "forward is on, backward is off".

And, after all these years i got used to have the landing gear on one of the two-way switches on my throttle, so i personally would not need this option any more. That being said, years ago i also would so much have prefered to have the hold option, so i could use the state switches for extending and retracting the landing gear.

Thus i still think this suggestion is a good one. Unfortunately, knowing that it was already mentioned during this games beta, i fear that it happening now is quite unlikely.