Joystick / HOTAS recommendation

Bottom Hat

Bottom Hat
Hi everyone,

I've been playing with my Thrustmaster HOTAS on t he PC now for I think about 2 years, and it is beginning to 'wear out' at times; often I find pulling up with the thrusters to tail somebody, will become jittery at times.

I presume this example is from the switches being a bit dusty or dirty some how, and I can probably clean it up at some point to make it a bit more reliable though. Either way, I spend so many hours playing this game, that I am thinking I may look to purchase a new stick to play the game with, and I wondered if you had any suggestions please?

So in the UK, the one I have costs I think around £30-40, and was a little more when I bought it. There were others available [like the Warthog??] that costs significantly more, but with a purchase like this I have decided that spending a bit more will increase my game-enjoyment massively!

Do you guys have a preference on manufacturer, or the stick model itself, and would your recommended stick be a product that you would go back and purchase again if you were in need of replacing your primary stick? Do you think it is value for money, and would you feel it is something that would also stand the test of time iykwim?!

Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions; I think it is time for me to treat myself to a new toy!!
The Hat :)



PS: I am not sure I was that accurate initially - this is the Thrustmaster that I have, only the basic one - https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/v57/Thrustmaster-T-Flight-Hotas-X-Joystick-PC-PS3/B001CXYMFS
 
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shadragon

shadragon
NW3 said:
I've been happy with my Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, which I've had for over a year. It is inexpensive, but well-made. It has twist for yaw and a paddle for thrust. It only has 12 buttons (not including the 8-way hat), so I use the buttons in combination with the Shift and Ctrl keys.

It's currently on sale where I bought mine, at a company I've been using for over a decade: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...ogitech_extreme_3d_pro-_-26-102-204-_-Product
Click to expand...
An excellent joystick. I used one with a throttle from a Thurstmaster X HOTAS.

I swapped it in for a Thrustmaster 16000M FCS HOTAS. My first impressions review is here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...16000M-FCS-HOTAS-Controller-First-Impressions
 

Strangepork

Strangepork
andicoombes said:
Hi everyone,

I've been playing with my Thrustmaster HOTAS on t he PC now for I think about 2 years, and it is beginning to 'wear out' at times; often I find pulling up with the thrusters to tail somebody, will become jittery at times.

I presume this example is from the switches being a bit dusty or dirty some how, and I can probably clean it up at some point to make it a bit more reliable though. Either way, I spend so many hours playing this game, that I am thinking I may look to purchase a new stick to play the game with, and I wondered if you had any suggestions please?

So in the UK, the one I have costs I think around £30-40, and was a little more when I bought it. There were others available [like the Warthog??] that costs significantly more, but with a purchase like this I have decided that spending a bit more will increase my game-enjoyment massively!

Do you guys have a preference on manufacturer, or the stick model itself, and would your recommended stick be a product that you would go back and purchase again if you were in need of replacing your primary stick? Do you think it is value for money, and would you feel it is something that would also stand the test of time iykwim?!

Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions; I think it is time for me to treat myself to a new toy!!
The Hat :)
Click to expand...

My x55 was good for two years solid use.
 

F4ANTOM

F
Been using an X-55 since launch, and have not had any of the other problems some other folks have seen. To be fair, I am mostly a carebear space trucking and mining and so on, so don't do much Yank-N-Bank, even in DCS world or Aces High III..
 

Marklar_

Marklar_
I like my X52 Pro a lot, it's well set-up for this game in particular.

It's Saitek so you get:

Loads of features
Good value
Poor build quality

Mine has held up well, my old X52 lasted about five years before breaking.
 

Roken

Roken
I'm on my second x52 pro, to be fair the first lasted over 3 years and I bought a second purely because I am too inept to fix one myself.
They can be a little creaky but otherwise sound joystick.
 

ph1Lt0r

ph1Lt0r
I've had my x52 pro for 13 years. I fixed it up when it broke 6 years ago by making a brand new wiring harness for the throttle and stick. Also put wire looms throughout to ease the stress on the wires. The rare earth magnet upgrade was worth it as well. Great joystick!
 

Heavenly-Hammer

Heavenly-Hammer
Stick with Thrustmaster or consider a CH Products setup. I've put 1800 or so hours on my CH Fighterstick, Pro Throttle and Pro Pedals and all 3 have been plugged in 100% of the time for the last 2.5 years.

No issues whatsoever and a fantastic button layout.

Accept no less. Leave the Saitek junk alone. It has a bad build quality and longevity rep for a reason.
 

wrmiller

W
I'll give another vote for the Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS.

Just recently bought mine, new, and have no issues with stiction. Nice smooth movement on the stick. The throttle and various buttons are a bit stiff when brand new, but are breaking in nicely in the last month of play. I finished it off with VKB pedals and absolutely love these for those sitting at a desk like I do.

It's the spendy solution, true, but I seriously doubt I'll be replacing anything anytime soon which was the goal. Last thing I wanted was to buy another plastic stick only to have to replace it a year or two down the road.
 

Bottom Hat

Bottom Hat
Wow, such a fantastic selection of replies, thank you all very much! I have repped where I am able to :)

The one thing that makes me less keen on the warthog, is the lack of a z-axis on the stick itself, and I don't know how easy it will be to adjust to that from my TM T-Flight HOTAS. Otherwise the warthog is just awesome looking, and again I am attracted to it from the weight/metal construction. I often find myself bending the whole unit over when trying to battle, and thought that weight may be a complication in this quest?

I almost feel that I am pulled between both the Warthog, or the X52 [as it is now the X 56]; this is not to say that I haven't checked out all of the suggestions in the replies which I have, and now I have a stupid amount of tabs open on the browser lol!! I was loathed to start a new thread for fear of annoying people, but there didn't seem to be any pure opinion-based threads that I could find of recent times, and of course the range of sticks available at the moment is different to when I bought my stick, and when many of you guys bought yours as well I don't doubt!

Thanks everyone, and wish me luck!! o7
The Hat :)
 
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Mohrgan

Mohrgan
I have paired a long standing Logitech 3D Pro, with the Thrustmaster TWCS Throttle. I have more buttons than ever before. I kept the 3D Pro, because of all the buttons. It all works together very well. If I end up, at some point, needing to replace the Stick, I will get another Logitech.
 

wrmiller

W
andicoombes said:
Wow, such a fantastic selection of replies, thank you all very much! I have repped where I am able to :)

The one thing that makes me less keen on the warthog, is the lack of a z-axis on the stick itself, and I don't know how easy it will be to adjust to that from my TM T-Flight HOTAS. Otherwise the warthog is just awesome looking, and again I am attracted to it from the weight/metal construction. I often find myself bending the whole unit over when trying to battle, and thought that weight may be a complication in this quest?

I almost feel that I am pulled between both the Warthog, or the X52 [as it is now the X 56]; this is not to say that I haven't checked out all of the suggestions in the replies which I have, and now I have a stupid amount of tabs open on the browser lol!! I was loathed to start a new thread for fear of annoying people, but there didn't seem to be any pure opinion-based threads that I could find of recent times, and of course the range of sticks available at the moment is different to when I bought my stick, and when many of you guys bought yours as well I don't doubt!

Thanks everyone, and wish me luck!! o7
The Hat :)
Click to expand...

Just a FYI, but when I bought the Warthog and VKB pedals, it took a bit of time for me to make the adjustment from twisty stick to pedals. Probably at least a couple of weeks before I was comfortable approaching a station at over 200m/sec. It has been over a month now and I cannot remember what a twisty stick even feels like now. ;)

Oh, and I too used to tip/drag my X52 Pro all over the desk in the heat of battle. I don't have that problem anymore with these monsters.
 
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