I just picked up ED for the PC after playing it for many days on Xbox and wanted to use my Joystick (Logitech Attack 3) with the game.
After searching for quite a while for a good hotasless joystick setup I couldn't find any that didn't sacrifice head look or some other essential feature of the game so I took an hour and managed to setup what I think is a not bad configuration.
Instead of using my keyboard on the left hand and holding my HOTAS with the right I used my Joystick on the left and my mouse on the right with the keyboard on the side for nonessentially controls like landing gear and supercruise jumps.
I use my mouse (Razor deathadder) for headlook and yaw while assigning the scroll wheel to throttle in 10% increments and the side buttons to select target and headlook toggle. I deploy hardpoints by clicking the mouse wheel.
I use the top four buttons on my joystick for power management and boost and I use the trigger to reset my speed to the 50% sweet spot. The throttle axis is obviously used for pitch and roll.
I use the bottom harder to access buttons of my throttle for important combat toggles like chaff, SCBs, and FA Off/On.
The rest of the controls are bound to the right side of my keyboard and I use the arrow keys and mouse to navigate menus.
I really like this setup as it lets me effortlessly track my targets and maneuver simultaneously, however it's one flaw is that I don't have any easy way to thrust.
Sorry if this is hard to read but I hope this helps you quickly get a solid control layout!
After searching for quite a while for a good hotasless joystick setup I couldn't find any that didn't sacrifice head look or some other essential feature of the game so I took an hour and managed to setup what I think is a not bad configuration.
Instead of using my keyboard on the left hand and holding my HOTAS with the right I used my Joystick on the left and my mouse on the right with the keyboard on the side for nonessentially controls like landing gear and supercruise jumps.
I use my mouse (Razor deathadder) for headlook and yaw while assigning the scroll wheel to throttle in 10% increments and the side buttons to select target and headlook toggle. I deploy hardpoints by clicking the mouse wheel.
I use the top four buttons on my joystick for power management and boost and I use the trigger to reset my speed to the 50% sweet spot. The throttle axis is obviously used for pitch and roll.
I use the bottom harder to access buttons of my throttle for important combat toggles like chaff, SCBs, and FA Off/On.
The rest of the controls are bound to the right side of my keyboard and I use the arrow keys and mouse to navigate menus.
I really like this setup as it lets me effortlessly track my targets and maneuver simultaneously, however it's one flaw is that I don't have any easy way to thrust.
Sorry if this is hard to read but I hope this helps you quickly get a solid control layout!