Hotas is obviously great tool to immerse yourself in ED universe. Sadly console players have only two options available, Thrustmaster hotas 4 or HORI for Ace Combat. Neither is great, but online reviews told me one thing - Thrustmaster is ok, but faulty and HORI is bad and overpriced. Also i found only one info on HORI regarding ED, and that is no good for the game. Since i own hotas from Thrustmaster already, and i must say... it's doing it's job fine but i was never fan of it's design. Thrustmaster 4 looks like cheap toy and it's known for catching drift (mine got roll drift after two months - fixed with contact cleaner and lubricant).
Since in some online store i found a new HORI hotas, in the same price as Thrustmaster 4 i decided to get it and test it, specially for Elite Dangerous. In box we get stick with quite long usb cable and mini jack port for headphones, throttle that we connect to the stick base via cable (also quite long), 8 suction cups for mounting and rubber handrest extender. First things first is the design, much better in my opinion, hotas looks more "grown up", not like a kids toy, it's also much more resembles actual throttle and stick that we would find in a plane. It's made from better quality plastic, nothing here squeaks under pressure. Big minus for three fake buttons on throttle, two rollers and one button are just decoration
While we are on buttons topic, we can quickly notice that this hotas in not actually a hotas, it's repacked dualshock 4 so we can use it in any game. Throttle is R2 up, L2 down, it's got L1 and R1 on "pendulum" same as Thrustmaster, there is also R3 and L3 button, R2+L2 button, D-pad, button for function changes with three possible sets and PS button on base. On the stick is much more interesting. There is second D-pad but serves the same function as the one on throttle, stick itself is left analog stick, the is square, triangle and circle buttons, L1 + L2 under the pinky finger, L3+R3 under the thumb, x as a trigger, share and options button. What's a nice touch is an functional analog sick (right analog) on top and touch pad on base witch acts as 4 additional buttons.
So how it works in game? First since is repacked dualshock we have to rebind most of controls, for example on controller we use R2 as primary fire, but now R2 is on forward throttle. This whole setting up is not much fun, but after i got all i wanted and where i wanted it i've noticed that it offers me more possibilities in terms of buttons and ship control than thrustmaster. Everything set up so lets fly, first thing we notice is that there is no twist on stick, sadly our yaw left and right will be on L1 and R1 so not good but it's not unplayable, just something to get used to. Second thing is throttle, we can manually set on base how hard it is to move it back and forward, it moves smoothe and it's stays on position, not like thrustmaster that with light touch jumps right back to middle point or full forward/backward (on Hori there is no fixed middle point, but it's got big enough "no input" area in the middle that makes no problem to stop your ship). The sick nicely vibrates in hand adding to the immersion but big thing is dead zone on the stick, yes there is deadzone that for many makes this HOTAS a no go from the start. On the stick base we find button for manual deadzone set (narrow, normal, wide). Narrow mode makes stick react to move after around 5mm to 1 cm movement in any direction. Now this is very individual thing and not a problem with more "calm" play styles (trading, mining, exploration) but for me if you want to be a combat master or do regular pvp then... stick with controller
After a month with this HOTAS my verdict is that it's biggest problem is it's price. This thing should cost the same as Thrustmaster 4 form the start. Even with more buttons possibilites, vibrations, built in mini jack and nice design we loose things like twist and more precise maneuvering on stick. In my opinion if you happen to find this HOTAS on sale, with price similar to Thrustmaster 4 you can easily go for it, especially if you are in for more immersion. If you are focusing on combat gameplay then i think no hotas will give you as precise control as classic controller.
Hope someone, somewhere, sometime will find it informative... O7.
Since in some online store i found a new HORI hotas, in the same price as Thrustmaster 4 i decided to get it and test it, specially for Elite Dangerous. In box we get stick with quite long usb cable and mini jack port for headphones, throttle that we connect to the stick base via cable (also quite long), 8 suction cups for mounting and rubber handrest extender. First things first is the design, much better in my opinion, hotas looks more "grown up", not like a kids toy, it's also much more resembles actual throttle and stick that we would find in a plane. It's made from better quality plastic, nothing here squeaks under pressure. Big minus for three fake buttons on throttle, two rollers and one button are just decoration
While we are on buttons topic, we can quickly notice that this hotas in not actually a hotas, it's repacked dualshock 4 so we can use it in any game. Throttle is R2 up, L2 down, it's got L1 and R1 on "pendulum" same as Thrustmaster, there is also R3 and L3 button, R2+L2 button, D-pad, button for function changes with three possible sets and PS button on base. On the stick is much more interesting. There is second D-pad but serves the same function as the one on throttle, stick itself is left analog stick, the is square, triangle and circle buttons, L1 + L2 under the pinky finger, L3+R3 under the thumb, x as a trigger, share and options button. What's a nice touch is an functional analog sick (right analog) on top and touch pad on base witch acts as 4 additional buttons.
So how it works in game? First since is repacked dualshock we have to rebind most of controls, for example on controller we use R2 as primary fire, but now R2 is on forward throttle. This whole setting up is not much fun, but after i got all i wanted and where i wanted it i've noticed that it offers me more possibilities in terms of buttons and ship control than thrustmaster. Everything set up so lets fly, first thing we notice is that there is no twist on stick, sadly our yaw left and right will be on L1 and R1 so not good but it's not unplayable, just something to get used to. Second thing is throttle, we can manually set on base how hard it is to move it back and forward, it moves smoothe and it's stays on position, not like thrustmaster that with light touch jumps right back to middle point or full forward/backward (on Hori there is no fixed middle point, but it's got big enough "no input" area in the middle that makes no problem to stop your ship). The sick nicely vibrates in hand adding to the immersion but big thing is dead zone on the stick, yes there is deadzone that for many makes this HOTAS a no go from the start. On the stick base we find button for manual deadzone set (narrow, normal, wide). Narrow mode makes stick react to move after around 5mm to 1 cm movement in any direction. Now this is very individual thing and not a problem with more "calm" play styles (trading, mining, exploration) but for me if you want to be a combat master or do regular pvp then... stick with controller
After a month with this HOTAS my verdict is that it's biggest problem is it's price. This thing should cost the same as Thrustmaster 4 form the start. Even with more buttons possibilites, vibrations, built in mini jack and nice design we loose things like twist and more precise maneuvering on stick. In my opinion if you happen to find this HOTAS on sale, with price similar to Thrustmaster 4 you can easily go for it, especially if you are in for more immersion. If you are focusing on combat gameplay then i think no hotas will give you as precise control as classic controller.
Hope someone, somewhere, sometime will find it informative... O7.
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