PS2 style gamepad: many (noob) questions. (Free look, yaw, throttle, yaw to roll...)
I was going to avoid posting a gamepad thread since I'm sure it's been done to death, but I haven't been able to locate any threads with people directly explaining their control set up and why it is what it is. Most threads have been something like "I use template XYZ but change ABC to DEF" without really summarizing what their buttons actually are configured to do. At best we're looking at 12 "buttons", two sticks, and a d-pad, so I'm not sure how I've missed it... that and for whatever reason, I don't seem to have any templates in my game for gamepad configurations... just a generic "Default" gamepad.
Additionally, though I'm interested in configuring this thing to be as effective as possible with a gamepad, and I'm not sure what the best options are, or what scenarios I'll encounter in the game. Regarding other control schemes (Keyboard + Mouse, HOTAS)... I will have a keyboard & mouse nearby for quick things, but I'd rather avoid touching them. I don't have a HOTAS, and though I'm not inherently opposed to one, I'd like this discussion limited to dual stick (PS2 or XBOX) style controllers.
With that in mind, I have some pointed questions...
1) What are effective/common ways of managing throttle?
Right now I'm using my left triggers to increment the throttle up and down by 10% increments, but it feels a bit dodgy. I tried the "continuous" mode but it felt imprecise (and I was accidentally backing up often when I just wanted to throttle down)... is there another way that may work better, or am I just doing it wrong? I tried using the right stick for throttle + yaw, but when the stick resets to zero, the throttle goes to zero, so that's a bit problematic, though it is much faster that the shoulder buttons.
2) During some demos (on YouTube mostly), I've seen a left and right context menu come up within the cockpit... if I recall, the left one had options regarding the current scenario/situation/station/system, and the right one had more in depth ship control options (such as scoops). What are these called in the keybinding setup? I'd like to put these on my select and start buttons which are center-left and center-right on my gamepad (think PS2 controller).
3) If I map my common functions to the sticks and shoulder buttons (throttle, pitch/roll/yaw, primary & secondary fire), that frees up my d-pad and four buttons for other functions ...
- What would the most used functions here be?
- Is redirecting power to various parts of the ship a common thing to do (the default mapping seems to be the d-pad)?
- What about targeting buttons? Which functions would be most important to have handy?
- What does the "next fire group" function do? Would I ever want to manually deploy my hardpoints without firing? Couldn't my fire button just do that?
4) For the sticks, I'm sure I want a few things, but I'm not sure of the smartest way to do it...
- Pitch & Roll need to be on the same stick most of the time
- Yaw can be exchanged/blended with roll as the situation calls for it, but should be togglable between either Pure roll & yaw into roll, or Pure roll & pure yaw
- Throttle could be on a stick, but there must be a way of making it hold its position (using the stick more like "change vector" instead of an absolute sensor with 0 throttle in the neutral position)
- Thrust "sliding" (?? where you control lateral and vertical translatory thrust) should also be somewhere on one of the sticks, but it can be togglable with some other function.
- Free look and Flight Assist toggles are also important to have somewhere nearby, ideally on the stick clicks.
So, given those thoughts, here's what I have so far, as well as areas that I haven't filled out yet.
Stick Toggles: FA, Y2R, Free Look
Left stick:
- X: Roll w/ Yaw into roll (Y2R) (set to "low")
- Y: Pitch (inverted)
- Click: Toggle Yaw/Roll ..
-- X Roll w/ or w/o Y2R
-- X Pure yaw
Right stick:
- X: Vertical thrust
- Y: Horizontal thrust
- Click: "FA" toggle... such that the following two states exist...
-- FA on, Y2R on, Free Look on
-- FA off, Y2R off, Free Look off (so the Y2R stick now just rolls)
Lclick + Rclick: Toggle Y2R
Left Shoulder:
- Top: throttle up
- Bottom: throttle down
- Both: Throttle zero (?)
Right Shoulder:
- Top: Primary weapon
- Bottom: Secondary weapon
- Both: Stealth mode?
D-Pad: Power redirects
Buttons:
- Top: ???
- Right: Fire group (?) (IDK what this actually does)
- Bottom: ???
- Left: Target (something)
- Left + Top: Target something else (harder to hit this button combo)
- Left + Right: Target something else (hardest to hit this button combo)
- Left + Bottom: Target something else (easiest to hit this button combo)
- "Select" (Left center)
- "Start" (Right center)
- Select + Start: "Esc" pause menu
I was going to avoid posting a gamepad thread since I'm sure it's been done to death, but I haven't been able to locate any threads with people directly explaining their control set up and why it is what it is. Most threads have been something like "I use template XYZ but change ABC to DEF" without really summarizing what their buttons actually are configured to do. At best we're looking at 12 "buttons", two sticks, and a d-pad, so I'm not sure how I've missed it... that and for whatever reason, I don't seem to have any templates in my game for gamepad configurations... just a generic "Default" gamepad.
Additionally, though I'm interested in configuring this thing to be as effective as possible with a gamepad, and I'm not sure what the best options are, or what scenarios I'll encounter in the game. Regarding other control schemes (Keyboard + Mouse, HOTAS)... I will have a keyboard & mouse nearby for quick things, but I'd rather avoid touching them. I don't have a HOTAS, and though I'm not inherently opposed to one, I'd like this discussion limited to dual stick (PS2 or XBOX) style controllers.
With that in mind, I have some pointed questions...
1) What are effective/common ways of managing throttle?
Right now I'm using my left triggers to increment the throttle up and down by 10% increments, but it feels a bit dodgy. I tried the "continuous" mode but it felt imprecise (and I was accidentally backing up often when I just wanted to throttle down)... is there another way that may work better, or am I just doing it wrong? I tried using the right stick for throttle + yaw, but when the stick resets to zero, the throttle goes to zero, so that's a bit problematic, though it is much faster that the shoulder buttons.
2) During some demos (on YouTube mostly), I've seen a left and right context menu come up within the cockpit... if I recall, the left one had options regarding the current scenario/situation/station/system, and the right one had more in depth ship control options (such as scoops). What are these called in the keybinding setup? I'd like to put these on my select and start buttons which are center-left and center-right on my gamepad (think PS2 controller).
3) If I map my common functions to the sticks and shoulder buttons (throttle, pitch/roll/yaw, primary & secondary fire), that frees up my d-pad and four buttons for other functions ...
- What would the most used functions here be?
- Is redirecting power to various parts of the ship a common thing to do (the default mapping seems to be the d-pad)?
- What about targeting buttons? Which functions would be most important to have handy?
- What does the "next fire group" function do? Would I ever want to manually deploy my hardpoints without firing? Couldn't my fire button just do that?
4) For the sticks, I'm sure I want a few things, but I'm not sure of the smartest way to do it...
- Pitch & Roll need to be on the same stick most of the time
- Yaw can be exchanged/blended with roll as the situation calls for it, but should be togglable between either Pure roll & yaw into roll, or Pure roll & pure yaw
- Throttle could be on a stick, but there must be a way of making it hold its position (using the stick more like "change vector" instead of an absolute sensor with 0 throttle in the neutral position)
- Thrust "sliding" (?? where you control lateral and vertical translatory thrust) should also be somewhere on one of the sticks, but it can be togglable with some other function.
- Free look and Flight Assist toggles are also important to have somewhere nearby, ideally on the stick clicks.
So, given those thoughts, here's what I have so far, as well as areas that I haven't filled out yet.
Stick Toggles: FA, Y2R, Free Look
Left stick:
- X: Roll w/ Yaw into roll (Y2R) (set to "low")
- Y: Pitch (inverted)
- Click: Toggle Yaw/Roll ..
-- X Roll w/ or w/o Y2R
-- X Pure yaw
Right stick:
- X: Vertical thrust
- Y: Horizontal thrust
- Click: "FA" toggle... such that the following two states exist...
-- FA on, Y2R on, Free Look on
-- FA off, Y2R off, Free Look off (so the Y2R stick now just rolls)
Lclick + Rclick: Toggle Y2R
Left Shoulder:
- Top: throttle up
- Bottom: throttle down
- Both: Throttle zero (?)
Right Shoulder:
- Top: Primary weapon
- Bottom: Secondary weapon
- Both: Stealth mode?
D-Pad: Power redirects
Buttons:
- Top: ???
- Right: Fire group (?) (IDK what this actually does)
- Bottom: ???
- Left: Target (something)
- Left + Top: Target something else (harder to hit this button combo)
- Left + Right: Target something else (hardest to hit this button combo)
- Left + Bottom: Target something else (easiest to hit this button combo)
- "Select" (Left center)
- "Start" (Right center)
- Select + Start: "Esc" pause menu
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