I have a G13 that I modded, similar to this, but I put on a 360 thumb stick (which did require glue and some sanding).
At the time, I got it for the occasional fps, so I could use my thumb for moving.
On the mouse hand I like to put things related to shooting. Besides the usual suspects, it's things like grenades and "toggle fire mode" on the thumb buttons, etc.
The reason I'm speaking in terms of fps is because I have not played a flight game since Descent 2, and I haven't really played one since Decent 1, and I mostly played that with no mouse (not really supported, IIRC).
Here's what I've come up with for Elite after around 10 hours of gameplay, much of it tweaking the controls:
Right Hand - G700s Mouse - Aiming / Targeting / Shooting:
(G700s, not the layout I'd go for.)
Obviously, I'm used to aiming and shooting with a mouse.
At this stage in the game I have a fairly benign laser, so I have not programmed most of the buttons on the face of the mouse. I assume like other games, at some point the wheel will switch weapons or weapon configuration. Wheel left/right, and four buttons on the top of the mouse are not bound to anything right now, because I don't know what I'll be using a lot of, and I don't want to commit to anything right now. Any insights as to that would be appreciated.
I have four buttons on my thumb. I'm currently using them for targeting on their own, and landing gear or cargo scoop when used two at a time.
I could not stand roll on the X. It consumed too much of my attention to keep it centered, and just lifting my hand would set me spinning again. Relative X causes me to flail like a crazy person in dogfights, and while I did not mess with the deadzone setting yet, the description did not read to me like it would fix my issue. Maybe I'm missing something obvious.
I like yaw on the X from my FPS experience. Even though roll is used more for aiming, yaw gives me a little bit of fine tuning when chasing moving objects.
Left Hand - G13 - Aiming / Thrusting / Throttling / and the rest:
(G13 with three keys mapped to numpad keys.)
I use the thumb stick for roll on the X and Thrust on the Y. Importantly, the two buttons next to the stick get used for digital thrust +/-. So I can set a cruising speed with those buttons, and tweak it gently or violently reverse it with the stick. When I'm off the stick, it returns to the speed set with the digital buttons. It's like a temp override, but I'm guessing most of you knew that.
At times it still seems counter intuitive to not pitch with the thumb stick as well. My wires become crossed, and I need a quick moment to remind myself that pitch is on the other hand, and then I have my bearings. This is happening less and less often, and increasingly it starts to feel very right, for instance when docking, which is a cinch. Dog fighting in this way also has it's advantages. I can reverse throttle, reverse roll direction, and reverse horizontal and vertical thrusts, while having two free fingers.
One of those free fingers is G15, or where SHIFT would be on a normal kb, which I use as a modifier. E.g. SHIFT plus Throttle+ brings up Galaxy Map, and T- the System Map, and I can modify mouse inputs as well.
In general, the right side of the G13 is for speed control (Phase Shift at top, throttle presets at the bottom, and throttle as described around the stick). G1 is ESC.
Much of the prime real-estate, like E and R is still unbound. At this point I'm thinking of moving some targeting there and to the two buttons outside of those. That would complete my top row. LCTRL and LALT (G20 and 21) on the bottom row are also unbound. So is TAB (G8). I don't know enough abut the game to know what I will be using a lot of yet. Please feel free to enlighten me.
So far this is working so well that I have a G610s KB that I don't use. It has 18 programmable buttons. I have sensor zoom on it right now. I think I'm going to move that to mouse wheel L/R since Mouse 3 is already headlock. I think I bought it for no reason.
I was looking into 'HOTAS' (a new word I learned today), but even the high-end ones are not obviously superior to me. I can see the benefit of having 5DOF on the stick hand and throttle on the other with a few fingers to spare on both hands, but I'd have to try one for myself to be absolutely convinced. Keyboard and mouse layouts (for everything besides WASD) are very natural to me.
If anyone is thinking about the G13 or just setting it up, hopefully this is useful. If anyone with some experience has some pointers for me, I'd appreciate it.
At the time, I got it for the occasional fps, so I could use my thumb for moving.
On the mouse hand I like to put things related to shooting. Besides the usual suspects, it's things like grenades and "toggle fire mode" on the thumb buttons, etc.
The reason I'm speaking in terms of fps is because I have not played a flight game since Descent 2, and I haven't really played one since Decent 1, and I mostly played that with no mouse (not really supported, IIRC).
Here's what I've come up with for Elite after around 10 hours of gameplay, much of it tweaking the controls:
Right Hand - G700s Mouse - Aiming / Targeting / Shooting:
(G700s, not the layout I'd go for.)
Obviously, I'm used to aiming and shooting with a mouse.
At this stage in the game I have a fairly benign laser, so I have not programmed most of the buttons on the face of the mouse. I assume like other games, at some point the wheel will switch weapons or weapon configuration. Wheel left/right, and four buttons on the top of the mouse are not bound to anything right now, because I don't know what I'll be using a lot of, and I don't want to commit to anything right now. Any insights as to that would be appreciated.
I have four buttons on my thumb. I'm currently using them for targeting on their own, and landing gear or cargo scoop when used two at a time.
I could not stand roll on the X. It consumed too much of my attention to keep it centered, and just lifting my hand would set me spinning again. Relative X causes me to flail like a crazy person in dogfights, and while I did not mess with the deadzone setting yet, the description did not read to me like it would fix my issue. Maybe I'm missing something obvious.
I like yaw on the X from my FPS experience. Even though roll is used more for aiming, yaw gives me a little bit of fine tuning when chasing moving objects.
Left Hand - G13 - Aiming / Thrusting / Throttling / and the rest:
(G13 with three keys mapped to numpad keys.)
I use the thumb stick for roll on the X and Thrust on the Y. Importantly, the two buttons next to the stick get used for digital thrust +/-. So I can set a cruising speed with those buttons, and tweak it gently or violently reverse it with the stick. When I'm off the stick, it returns to the speed set with the digital buttons. It's like a temp override, but I'm guessing most of you knew that.
At times it still seems counter intuitive to not pitch with the thumb stick as well. My wires become crossed, and I need a quick moment to remind myself that pitch is on the other hand, and then I have my bearings. This is happening less and less often, and increasingly it starts to feel very right, for instance when docking, which is a cinch. Dog fighting in this way also has it's advantages. I can reverse throttle, reverse roll direction, and reverse horizontal and vertical thrusts, while having two free fingers.
One of those free fingers is G15, or where SHIFT would be on a normal kb, which I use as a modifier. E.g. SHIFT plus Throttle+ brings up Galaxy Map, and T- the System Map, and I can modify mouse inputs as well.
In general, the right side of the G13 is for speed control (Phase Shift at top, throttle presets at the bottom, and throttle as described around the stick). G1 is ESC.
Much of the prime real-estate, like E and R is still unbound. At this point I'm thinking of moving some targeting there and to the two buttons outside of those. That would complete my top row. LCTRL and LALT (G20 and 21) on the bottom row are also unbound. So is TAB (G8). I don't know enough abut the game to know what I will be using a lot of yet. Please feel free to enlighten me.
So far this is working so well that I have a G610s KB that I don't use. It has 18 programmable buttons. I have sensor zoom on it right now. I think I'm going to move that to mouse wheel L/R since Mouse 3 is already headlock. I think I bought it for no reason.
I was looking into 'HOTAS' (a new word I learned today), but even the high-end ones are not obviously superior to me. I can see the benefit of having 5DOF on the stick hand and throttle on the other with a few fingers to spare on both hands, but I'd have to try one for myself to be absolutely convinced. Keyboard and mouse layouts (for everything besides WASD) are very natural to me.
If anyone is thinking about the G13 or just setting it up, hopefully this is useful. If anyone with some experience has some pointers for me, I'd appreciate it.