Newcomer / Intro HOTAS or DUAL STICK?

[MicLima]

Just bought the game this past weekend and played a couple of the training missions with K&M; now I'm looking for something else, that experience was miserable.

I'm torn between getting a hotas setup and dual stick. I feel like I would benefit more from the dual stick setup because you can set one strafe and one for p&y. Then what do you do about the throttle? Is there another setup that can be implemented?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Chris Simon]

This may not be of any help, but... It really doesn't matter.
Once you've got used to it, every control scheme is good.

I'm playing with HOTAS, because that's what I'm used to from flight sims and I like the abundance of buttons and switches on the throttle
I know people who play with two sticks and really enjoy it. I also know people who play, KB+M, Mouse and throttle, Joystick and keyboard, keyboard only, console controller... And every one of them will tell you that his method is the best.
Most of us also use Voice Attack for voice commands so we don't need to remember hundreds of button presses.

So that being said - I say go with HOTAS.
It's the most intuitive option.

 

[Morbad]

I'm torn between getting a hotas setup and dual stick. I feel like I would benefit more from the dual stick setup because you can set one strafe and one for p&y. Then what do you do about the throttle? Is there another setup that can be implemented?

Two sticks + a throttle or a single stick and a throttle with a good analog thruster input.

This may not be of any help, but... It really doesn't matter.
Once you've got used to it, every control scheme is good.

While I'd agree that mastering one's chosen control scheme is more important than the specifics of the controls, there are are definitely differences that matter.

A HOTAS with insufficient axes for all thrust and rotational binds, while usable, will be objectively inferior in some regards.

Likewise, two sticks, without a good way to set a fixed throttle postion, will be very exhausting to use for any protracted period of time.

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

Recon it all depends on what device or platform your using. Be aware that though the Thrustmaster Hotas's which are currently the only HOTAS that works on either the Xbox One X or the PS4 platforms, require different versions. Though both work on a PC they CAN NOT play on one another. In addition if I remember correctly, the Xbox One X requires a different one than the Xbox version prior to the Xbox One X.

 

[Para Handy]

Recon it all depends on what device or platform your using. Be aware that though the Thrustmaster Hotas's which are currently the only HOTAS that works on either the Xbox One X or the PS4 platforms, require different versions. Though both work on a PC they CAN NOT play on one another. In addition if I remember correctly, the Xbox One X requires a different one than the Xbox version prior to the Xbox One X.

Good points but if the OP has been playing using KB+M then they can't be on a console can they? (Or can they? - I know nowt about consoles.)

@OP - I have never tried dual sticks but can totally recommend HOTAS.

 

[MicLima]

Thank you all for the replies. I think I'm going to go with HOTAS for the time being and see how it goes. Going to research Voice Attack, it sounds helpful. Any other tips/tricks or helpful hints for a noob? Oh, and I am playing on PC: Ryzen 5 1600, Vega 56, SSD, 24GB RAM.

 

[MicLima]

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between Elite Dangerous, :Arena, and :Horizons on my play menu? Do I start one before the other?

 

[Chris Simon]

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between Elite Dangerous, :Arena, and :Horizons on my play menu? Do I start one before the other?

Elite dangerous is the original game.
Elite dangerous Horizons is a DLC that lets you land on planets, use engineers and all the stuff that's been added since then
You can use either with the same commander (I play the bare game on my laptop because it can't handle planets so I wouldn't be landing there anyway), but if you want a complete game, launch Horizons.
Arena is just "demo" - you can install it even if you don't own ED. It's the same as the CQC in the main menu. A PvP arena fights.

 

[MicLima]

Elite dangerous is the original game.
Elite dangerous Horizons is a DLC that lets you land on planets, use engineers and all the stuff that's been added since then
You can use either with the same commander (I play the bare game on my laptop because it can't handle planets so I wouldn't be landing there anyway), but if you want a complete game, launch Horizons.
Arena is just "demo" - you can install it even if you don't own ED. It's the same as the CQC in the main menu. A PvP arena fights.

Awesome, thanks for the explanation!

 

[Conde]

Hi and welcome! Just to add, once you have your HOTAS up and running, take some time in the training missions to set up all your button and keyboard bindings to your liking.

Don't worry about every last one as you will notice if something isn't right as you encounter more and more situations. It's possible to save the keybindings file. I keep mine on an external USB stick just in case the worse happens so you can replace the default one, saving a lot of time and trouble. Fly safe! o7

 

[MicLima]

Hi and welcome! Just to add, once you have your HOTAS up and running, take some time in the training missions to set up all your button and keyboard bindings to your liking.

Don't worry about every last one as you will notice if something isn't right as you encounter more and more situations. It's possible to save the keybindings file. I keep mine on an external USB stick just in case the worse happens so you can replace the default one, saving a lot of time and trouble. Fly safe! o7

Thank you for the tip!

 

[Chris Simon]

Yeah. Backing your bindings is a good point. Elite is know for resetting bindings upon game update. Not always and not for everyone but frequently enough.

 

[MicLima]

That's good to know. What's this I hear about downloading bindings? How does that work? I ended up going with the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X to start, it'll be here tomorrow!

 

[Chris Simon]

That's good to know. What's this I hear about downloading bindings? How does that work? I ended up going with the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X to start, it'll be here tomorrow!

Some people will upload their bindings file and you can download it and replace the one you have.
Though first I'd recommend trying out the in-game defaults for your HOTAS and see what works, maybe tweaking and experimenting a little before you go and try someone else's setup as it can be quite confusing. Everybody plays the game differently and it they are an explorer, they may not even have bindings for weapons and firegroups and so on..

 

[MicLima]

Some people will upload their bindings file and you can download it and replace the one you have.
Though first I'd recommend trying out the in-game defaults for your HOTAS and see what works, maybe tweaking and experimenting a little before you go and try someone else's setup as it can be quite confusing. Everybody plays the game differently and it they are an explorer, they may not even have bindings for weapons and firegroups and so on..

Gotcha, thanks again!

 

[Ian Skippy]

That's good to know. What's this I hear about downloading bindings? How does that work? I ended up going with the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X to start, it'll be here tomorrow!

Thats a great choice. One of the cool things is you can 'disconnect' them from each other; put the throttle left and the stick right of the keyboard. Then, if you ever want to go for HOTAS+2nd stick you can just buy a new primary stick; connect the throttle+stick again and relegate the HOTAS X to secondary.

Happy flying!