Hello.
A little over two years ago - more exactly on Jan 18, 2017 - I had made a rather detailed thread about some serious problems and limitations we have with the controls on Elite Dangerous. It drew some attention - even from a moderator - but didn't achieve anything! With all the updates that came after simply NOTHING was fixed or improved, rather some things got even wrose as we are, as of now, unable to select "Cancel", "Confirm" or "Confirm All" when mapping an already mapped-to-another-function button and doesn't seem like this annoying bug is getting fixed any time soon as well - way to go!
Anyway, back to the topic at hand, I'll be doing some small changes to my previous thread, but in it's core it's pretty much the same. So I'll be pretty much posting it again, trying to draw some more attention for one last time and hopefully having the Devs doing something about it, not ignoring it completely again.
I feel that for a "Space-Sim", our controls on the xbox one are simply way too limited, and I'll go over some points suggesting what could be done to make the game better:
1. The game, for some reason, thinks that our trigger axis (LT and RT) are two different axes, therefore one cannot map them as if it were a Throttle in the "Throttle Axis" function under "Flight Throttle" section in the controls options. The idea was having RT being Forward Throttle and LT being Reverse Throttle, having a zero throttle change condition when both LT and RT are released.
So I suggest the devs that they allow us to Merge/Separate Axis or that they create both "Forward Throttle Axis" and "Reverse Throttle Axis" options on the controls screen instead of a single "Throttle Axis" option which only allows you to have 1 axis mapped to.
On the other hand, you can map RT and LT to Forward/Backward thruster, but they will act as buttons, not as an axis, and won't have any effect until you hold it with a certain pressure (AKA.: achieve the rather unconfortable preset and unchangeable deadzone) - this also doesn't allow me to have precise controls with Flight Assist Off, since I can't have a fine control of the thrusters, but only toggle between max power and off.
As default, the triggers are mapped to the hardpoints fire keys, which makes no sense for me. Why using an axis as a button if it's an axis? What a waste. If I have an axis, I'd like to use it as an axis for finer ship controls, not as a fire (on/off) button. (Note: Even if this is added, it will still be broken, see reason 4.)
2. Disable headlook autocenter:
There should be a option where you could turn off the headlook autocenter so the camera stays pointing to where it was after you turn headlook off (RS click as default). Since we have so limited controls and don't have a headtracking device, we should at least be able to have our camera pointing somewhere else while still having some control over the ship. More often than not when dogfighting you will have a ship that's right above your field of view, slightly off screen. Naturally, you'd simply look slightly above so you can maintain visual contact, but the problem here is that you CANNOT look up with headlook while flying - for it shares the same axis you use to control the craft - neither leave the camera poiting up, since it autocenters the camera straight ahead when you toggle headlook off.
The problem, in this scenario, is that I cannot see the enemy ship rolling and breaking it's turn to another direction like I would if I maintained visual contact with it, resulting in a delayed counter maneuver by me, not only allowing him to gain angles on me and turning the fight over, but also making me miss my changes to get some shots into him.
Other uses for not having headlook autocentering is when flying with FAOff. Most of the times the ship is flying slightly sideways, but I cannot see where it's going and fly at the same time because of this limitation.
3. Use of USB keyboards:
USB keyboards are recognized by the console now and allowed to be mapped to in game functions in many games - they weren't by the time I wrote the original thread. Yet, God knows why, you are NOT allowed to map any of the control funtions to a keyboard key in Elite Dangerous! Even though you can navigate the menu screens and do everything else with a keyboard without any issue at all.
Keyboards would come in handy so I could map less immediate functions to it while leaving most important functions to the controller. One such idea is that I could map the Power Diverter to my keyboard arrow keys while having the controller D-PAD free solely for headlooking (assuming reason #6 is fixed as well).
And before anyone comes saying the reason keyboards are not enabled is because they would prove to be an unfair advantage against other players - like people have said in my previous thread - you must know this is completely false. If hardware advantage in consoles was a thing (except for first/third person shooters when talking about the Mouse), people would not be allowed to play elite dangerous with the HOTAS X and the Elite Controller!
4. Cumulative Throttle when using an axis as "Throttle Axis"!
In the hopes to have a better control of my throttle, I've mapped the Right Stick Y-Axis as "Throttle Axis", the problem is that there is no option to set it to "Cumulative".
This basically means that if I stop holding my stick forwards, the throttle will return back to zero. I'd suggest an option to allow the throttle to remain where it is after the stick is released, then if you held the stick up you'd throttle forward, and if you held it down you'd throttle backwards, just like it happens with Flight Assist Off but still having the computer to help you making the turns.
Also, another problem that arised when I was trying to play this way is that when the headlook is active, my throttle goes back to zero instead of staying where it is. Therefore again, I'm limited wheter to look around or fly the ship, forbidding me of looking at my target in a dogfight.
Trying to map RS to "Thurst Forward and Backwards Axis" also doesn't work, since whee I release the Stick the throttle will return to a random setting (more often than not, a non-neutral/zero position, but moving forwards or backwards on it's own).
5. I've been trying to have more complex button combinations to activate something, and tried not only mapping the bumpers to it - as default (Y + RB = Flight Assist Off), but also tried mapping the triggers ( B + LT = Chaffs - just a random example). I've done it in the hopes of having a <button> + D-Pad key to control the power pips settings and leaving the D-Pad alone for camera controls, only to find out that this is broken as well and doesn't work like it should.
I've created a bug report over here describing the issue in details (https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/2656). This bug report is based on another one I had already submitted back in Dec 11, 2016. That one even got acknowledged by a moderator, who said the devs were "aware of this issue", but the problem remains unfixed as of yet! Lovely!!!
It would therefore be interesting for more people to check the bug report, reproduce the steps if you are not sure if it's really a problem, and then confirm that you're also having that problem in the hopes of drawing some proper Devs attention and perhaps leading them to fix the problem sometime in the future...
6. There's no way to map headlook to digital buttons, only to an Axis. So basically, we cannot use the D-Pad keys for looking around, only one of the Sticks, which makes no sense AT ALL! Must be quite funny to see someone flying with a HOTAS, holding/pressing a button to activate Headlook and having to move his whole bloody stick to pan the camera around (while losing control of his craft), instead of moving the camera solely through the Hat Switch like you'd do in every single flight simulator out there when you don't own a Tracker IR. Even more funny is how this is not fixed yet, as it's a pretty obvious limitation for anyone that checks the controls options for the first time...
Ps.: is there a "bug" section in the forums? I couldn't find anywhere, the only section coming close to it was this suggestions section I posted here; and the issue tracker probably doesn't allow me to report all these 6 problems, some dependent on others, in a single issue due to the lame words limitation there is.
Thanks.
A little over two years ago - more exactly on Jan 18, 2017 - I had made a rather detailed thread about some serious problems and limitations we have with the controls on Elite Dangerous. It drew some attention - even from a moderator - but didn't achieve anything! With all the updates that came after simply NOTHING was fixed or improved, rather some things got even wrose as we are, as of now, unable to select "Cancel", "Confirm" or "Confirm All" when mapping an already mapped-to-another-function button and doesn't seem like this annoying bug is getting fixed any time soon as well - way to go!
Anyway, back to the topic at hand, I'll be doing some small changes to my previous thread, but in it's core it's pretty much the same. So I'll be pretty much posting it again, trying to draw some more attention for one last time and hopefully having the Devs doing something about it, not ignoring it completely again.
I feel that for a "Space-Sim", our controls on the xbox one are simply way too limited, and I'll go over some points suggesting what could be done to make the game better:
1. The game, for some reason, thinks that our trigger axis (LT and RT) are two different axes, therefore one cannot map them as if it were a Throttle in the "Throttle Axis" function under "Flight Throttle" section in the controls options. The idea was having RT being Forward Throttle and LT being Reverse Throttle, having a zero throttle change condition when both LT and RT are released.
So I suggest the devs that they allow us to Merge/Separate Axis or that they create both "Forward Throttle Axis" and "Reverse Throttle Axis" options on the controls screen instead of a single "Throttle Axis" option which only allows you to have 1 axis mapped to.
On the other hand, you can map RT and LT to Forward/Backward thruster, but they will act as buttons, not as an axis, and won't have any effect until you hold it with a certain pressure (AKA.: achieve the rather unconfortable preset and unchangeable deadzone) - this also doesn't allow me to have precise controls with Flight Assist Off, since I can't have a fine control of the thrusters, but only toggle between max power and off.
As default, the triggers are mapped to the hardpoints fire keys, which makes no sense for me. Why using an axis as a button if it's an axis? What a waste. If I have an axis, I'd like to use it as an axis for finer ship controls, not as a fire (on/off) button. (Note: Even if this is added, it will still be broken, see reason 4.)
2. Disable headlook autocenter:
There should be a option where you could turn off the headlook autocenter so the camera stays pointing to where it was after you turn headlook off (RS click as default). Since we have so limited controls and don't have a headtracking device, we should at least be able to have our camera pointing somewhere else while still having some control over the ship. More often than not when dogfighting you will have a ship that's right above your field of view, slightly off screen. Naturally, you'd simply look slightly above so you can maintain visual contact, but the problem here is that you CANNOT look up with headlook while flying - for it shares the same axis you use to control the craft - neither leave the camera poiting up, since it autocenters the camera straight ahead when you toggle headlook off.
The problem, in this scenario, is that I cannot see the enemy ship rolling and breaking it's turn to another direction like I would if I maintained visual contact with it, resulting in a delayed counter maneuver by me, not only allowing him to gain angles on me and turning the fight over, but also making me miss my changes to get some shots into him.
Other uses for not having headlook autocentering is when flying with FAOff. Most of the times the ship is flying slightly sideways, but I cannot see where it's going and fly at the same time because of this limitation.
3. Use of USB keyboards:
USB keyboards are recognized by the console now and allowed to be mapped to in game functions in many games - they weren't by the time I wrote the original thread. Yet, God knows why, you are NOT allowed to map any of the control funtions to a keyboard key in Elite Dangerous! Even though you can navigate the menu screens and do everything else with a keyboard without any issue at all.
Keyboards would come in handy so I could map less immediate functions to it while leaving most important functions to the controller. One such idea is that I could map the Power Diverter to my keyboard arrow keys while having the controller D-PAD free solely for headlooking (assuming reason #6 is fixed as well).
And before anyone comes saying the reason keyboards are not enabled is because they would prove to be an unfair advantage against other players - like people have said in my previous thread - you must know this is completely false. If hardware advantage in consoles was a thing (except for first/third person shooters when talking about the Mouse), people would not be allowed to play elite dangerous with the HOTAS X and the Elite Controller!
4. Cumulative Throttle when using an axis as "Throttle Axis"!
In the hopes to have a better control of my throttle, I've mapped the Right Stick Y-Axis as "Throttle Axis", the problem is that there is no option to set it to "Cumulative".
This basically means that if I stop holding my stick forwards, the throttle will return back to zero. I'd suggest an option to allow the throttle to remain where it is after the stick is released, then if you held the stick up you'd throttle forward, and if you held it down you'd throttle backwards, just like it happens with Flight Assist Off but still having the computer to help you making the turns.
Also, another problem that arised when I was trying to play this way is that when the headlook is active, my throttle goes back to zero instead of staying where it is. Therefore again, I'm limited wheter to look around or fly the ship, forbidding me of looking at my target in a dogfight.
Trying to map RS to "Thurst Forward and Backwards Axis" also doesn't work, since whee I release the Stick the throttle will return to a random setting (more often than not, a non-neutral/zero position, but moving forwards or backwards on it's own).
5. I've been trying to have more complex button combinations to activate something, and tried not only mapping the bumpers to it - as default (Y + RB = Flight Assist Off), but also tried mapping the triggers ( B + LT = Chaffs - just a random example). I've done it in the hopes of having a <button> + D-Pad key to control the power pips settings and leaving the D-Pad alone for camera controls, only to find out that this is broken as well and doesn't work like it should.
I've created a bug report over here describing the issue in details (https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/2656). This bug report is based on another one I had already submitted back in Dec 11, 2016. That one even got acknowledged by a moderator, who said the devs were "aware of this issue", but the problem remains unfixed as of yet! Lovely!!!
It would therefore be interesting for more people to check the bug report, reproduce the steps if you are not sure if it's really a problem, and then confirm that you're also having that problem in the hopes of drawing some proper Devs attention and perhaps leading them to fix the problem sometime in the future...
6. There's no way to map headlook to digital buttons, only to an Axis. So basically, we cannot use the D-Pad keys for looking around, only one of the Sticks, which makes no sense AT ALL! Must be quite funny to see someone flying with a HOTAS, holding/pressing a button to activate Headlook and having to move his whole bloody stick to pan the camera around (while losing control of his craft), instead of moving the camera solely through the Hat Switch like you'd do in every single flight simulator out there when you don't own a Tracker IR. Even more funny is how this is not fixed yet, as it's a pretty obvious limitation for anyone that checks the controls options for the first time...
Ps.: is there a "bug" section in the forums? I couldn't find anywhere, the only section coming close to it was this suggestions section I posted here; and the issue tracker probably doesn't allow me to report all these 6 problems, some dependent on others, in a single issue due to the lame words limitation there is.
Thanks.
Last edited:
