Partial Flight Assist
- Thread starter Frenotx
- Start date
It really isn't hard to get to grips with canceling out roll/pitch/yaw commands. All it needs is a bit of practice
While it's certainly possible to "get to grips with it", it is excruciatingly awkward with mouse and keyboard.
In all honesty mate I can't see how it is that much harder with mouse and keyboard. I fly purely FA-OFF with a HOTAS, but when flying my Anaconda I often fly the ship using voice commands through Voice attack, in order for it to work, FA has to be off. I am basically steering the ship from departure to dock purely on voice, the commands are using timed keyboard shortcuts.
honestly mate, it's just down to practice
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For some of us it's no walk in the park using HOTAS either, believe me! The tendency to overcompensate is almost irresistible. I can just about manage approaches to, and flights around, stations and outposts with FA Off but not the actual docking. But in combat I'm like a leaf on the wind, and not in the good Serenity way either.
I think this would be a clearly beneficial mode, which is why I don't think FD will ever implement it, even if an intermediate option would make sense, because they want obvious trade offs.
Aiming fixed weapons at range with FA off is very tedious, even after considerable practice.
Isinona, arguably one of the best FA off pilots, still has noticeably worse aim with FA off than I do with FA on. If I have to become the best technical pilot in the game to not suffer penalties for the ability to drift...well, that's more than a bit of practice.
Because that's not what Frontier wants.
I play with mouse and keyboard, and it takes some getting used to but it isn't really as awkward you actually have pretty precise control, and I'm not even that great at it still, a little trick you might find helpful is doubleclicking the headlook button, as long as you have auto centering of headlook end enabled, a quick doubletab will center your mouse perfectly afterwards.
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Isinona fly's 100% FA-OFF, I love his videos, but it's not the best way to get the most out of your ship. I fly around 80/90% FA OFF, enabling FA in short bursts is essential in dog fighting.
Pure FA OFF is great for honing your flying skill, but you'll find those that use both modes effectively, are far more dangerous in combat
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I fail to see how your finding FA off to be easy to use with a hotas and / or carefully timed computer controlled bursts has any bearing on the difficulty of using FA off with a keyboard and mouse.
I was also wondering the same as OP. Having advanced computer on board with 1200 year to evolve technology and not being able to use them to fly the way you need seems pretty dumb. It wouldn't be beneficial mode like some say since every pilot would have this opportunity.
Frontier simply lack in the field of putting in the game what should be there(from a logical point of view) simply because they think it could change how the game is played and it isn't what they first decided.
Pandora box. Oh no, we can't do this we didn't planned it first.
Just like credit transfert which has been everyday wireless technology for a few years. Yet 1200 years later and that's too advanced for them?
Frontier simply lack in the field of putting in the game what should be there(from a logical point of view) simply because they think it could change how the game is played and it isn't what they first decided.
Pandora box. Oh no, we can't do this we didn't planned it first.
Just like credit transfert which has been everyday wireless technology for a few years. Yet 1200 years later and that's too advanced for them?
They don't have credit transfer for a number of good gameplay reasons; it's secondary what they use to justify it not being there inside the game. Also, "well we have it now" is not an excuse to add anything to any game set in an imaginary future. Technology is not a linear progression with no sidelines or backpedaling. We did have a space program on Earth based around shuttles, but did we move to more advanced shuttles? Nope, rocket power again.
My point being that if you setup a macro or shortcut to enable short bursts of Flight assist ON, you have the stabilization the OP requires. When I issue steering commands via voice attack, the ships thrusters are being controlled by the keyboard. If the ship can be flown FA OFF by voice, it can easily be controlled directly with a keyboard.
The entire flight model is based on as much game as physics; and you can't disregard gameplay in a game. We don't yaw like crazy because game; there isn't a real reason outside of that. FD likes the Star Wars-y feel of planes-in-space combat.
Making a hybrid of the two current modes just makes that one the default mode and is imo a less-interesting flight model to learn to use than what we have now.
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FAoff is a pain to fly with a mouse, overcompensating is easy to avoid when each burst of motion is just a tap in one direction, but with a mouse you have to move in the direction you want, re-center, then move in the exact opposite direction and re-center before your rotation changes again. It's just that little bit harder to avoid your ship getting into a headbanging routine just trying to straighten up. I use FAoff to turn better sometimes but I wouldn't fly it full time without a HOTAS.
Ah I see, I didn't realize people actually steered the ship with the mouse :/ I played on a cheap laptop for a few weeks back in beta, mouse was used for headlook, keyboard was used for roll/pitch/yaw/thrusters.
I have pitch/yaw bound to the numpad as well as the mouse for fine tuning my course in supercruise, and it is a little easier to use FAoff like that, but the tradeoff comes in aiming accuracy and reaction times.