Should Flight Assist Off always use Relative mouse mode?

[SentineI]

Since my old thread got archived (even though it's still relevant 6 months later), I'm creating a new poll thread.

I created a ticket asking for Flight Assist Off (FAO) to use Relative mouse mode, because it is unplayable with either Absolute mouse mode, but Frontier asked me to create a thread to discuss this, so here I am. I have made this a poll, so people can vote their feelings AFTER reading my explanation, to save everyone having to make one line posts (which people often don't bother to do).

FAO is unusable with any Absolute mouse mode, because if you are stationary & push (say) upwards by distance D, the only way to stop moving is to push downwards by distance 2D (yes twice D), and then push upwards by distance D again! i.e. If you push Up, then you must push Down+Down+Up to cancel your initial movement! And if you slightly misjudge the distance, then you will still be moving a bit (either down or up), meaning you have to push Up+Down+Down+Up (or Down+Up+Up+Down) again by a smaller amount! This basically results in your ship zig-zagging like a demented bubble bee on drugs.

But if you use Relative Pitch/Roll, then FAO suddenly becomes a joy to use, or at least as intuitive as Newtonian physics can be. If you are stationary & push (say) upwards by distance D, to stop moving you only need to push downwards by distance D. In other words, you push in the direction you want to go, and due to Newtonian physics (and a lack of friction in space) you keep moving in that direction until you push in the other directions. This is pretty intuitive if you've flown a ship in Frontier Elite 2 using just it's thrusters (no autopilot), or Infinity Combat Prototype.

However, with Flight Assist On, I prefer to use Absolute Pitch/Yaw mouse mode. Therefore I'd like it to switch to automatically Relative mouse mode when Flight Assist is turned Off (and back again when it is turned On). This change would only be done internally (not visible in the Control panel) to avoid confusing users. And this change could even be made optional, but I doubt anyone uses FAO with either Absolute mouse mode.

OK, please debate, and vote in the poll once you have reached a decision. Frontier will then hopefully use this to decide whether to implement my request...

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CLARIFICATION on my original post:

With Relative mouse movement you still have to counteract inertia, by thrusting in the opposite direction of your initial movement, just like you have to with a joystick or joypad.

The problem with Absolute is that it makes mouse control UNIQUELY super difficult. e.g. Instead of up to start moving then down to stop, with absolute you have to push up then down JUST to start moving, followed by down then up to stop, and all four parts of your movement (of up+down then down+up) must be of exactly equal length otherwise there will be some residual motion that must then be cancelled with more wiggling madness.

So all I am asking for is that mouse users (who happen to like using Absolute mouse mode) are put on an equal footing with joystick & joypad users, not to mention mouse users who use Relative mouse mode anyway.

ALSO, user "mindfaQ" mentioned that he'd much rather use relative mouse controls for FAOff:
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showpost.php?p=618709&postcount=86

 

[popuptoaster]

Get a stick and play the game the way it's designed to be played rather than bother the devs with stuff that's irrelevant to almost all of the player base and let them get on with making more new cool stuff instead.

 

[Hank]

^^ ??
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I use a marble mouse w/4 buttons. I can use 3 fingers on the mouse and left hand on ASDF and do anything a stick jockey can (and I don't even move my right arm - much less effort).
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I voted yes, with option to disable.
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good luck
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PS: I fly stick with flight sims so I know how they work and that they are better for some things ... not so much others.

 

[Druid]

I dont use a mouse but I will vote to help get what you want as it seems silly to have a mechanic that stops players using the kit they like.

 

[Altissimus]

Get a stick and play the game the way it's designed to be played rather than bother the devs with stuff that's irrelevant to almost all of the player base and let them get on with making more new cool stuff instead.

I use a mouse. A significant proportion of us do.

 

[SentineI]

Get a stick and play the game the way it's designed to be played rather than bother the devs with stuff that's irrelevant to almost all of the player base and let them get on with making more new cool stuff instead.

Sigh. So predictable, and yet so wrong. If you wish to whine about the majority of players (who use a mouse), then please start another thread. This thread is about how mouse control can be improved.

BTW, these days I actually use Relative Mouse control, because it's feasible using a Trackball (so Flight Assist Off is OK for me), but the majority of people use a mouse not a trackball, so this poll is for them. (IMHO a trackball gives me the advantages of a joystick, but using the interface intended for a mouse.)

Finally, you don't get to decide what's important, the Frontier devs do. This is just a friendly reminder to them, since the old thread got archived (and thus no-one can reply to it anymore).