Oops - sorry, incoming wall of text...
Another TM T.16000M with TWCS user here - in fact experimenting with a kind of HOTASAS setup at the moment (A throttle and 2 sticks - trying to become better at FA-off flying and I find operating the lateral/vertical thrust axes with the analog ministick on the TWCS throttle a bit awkward). Reasonably happy with the setup and the possibilities offered, but in all honesty a few caveats apply:
- The buttons on the base of the stick units are of little use, except if you have lots of time to find them, which can be limited when in combat. First off, their arrangement doesn't lend to their functions becoming intuitive, at least to me (YMMV though). Second, the ones on the far end from where you're sitting are difficult to find or reach. (There are users who have modified their units to incorporate up to two additional micro-hat switches and four fixed buttons at various locations on the stick itself to compensate. Unless you are simply rerouting (wiring from) the available base switches, you'll need an additional separate USB controller board.)
- On my first stick unit I've had a QC issue in that the twist axis started to get noisy (in dependence on the trottle slider position) only weeks after installation - and I'm an occasional player at best. I haven't sent it for RMA as I have other plans for it.
- The TWCS throttle unit has loads of additional controls (one analog 2D ministick, one analog 1D paddle, three digital hat switches, one digital two-way switch and three buttons) and works very nicely as a single-direction throttle with perhaps almost a too long stroke - but it has no centre detent, which makes two-directional operation (i.e. including half a stroke for reverse thrust) hit-and-mostly-miss. (I plan to modify this using a couple of strong magnets, one on the throttle slider and one on the base.)
- However, the stick units only have one hat switch, which I found a bit wanting for a game with as many functions as ED. One can set up any other button as a modifier, but even then I find that the stick hat switch acquires at least three layers of functions. My muscle memory has difficulty getting used to that.
- As I wrote, I currently have an extra stick for my left hand set up for lateral/vertical thrust, which gives much more precision - I have found out the hard way that my left index finger lacks the precision to operate the analog ministick at the index finger position on the TWCS throttle (this has little travel) and this may apply to other die-hard right-handers. (However, I'm unhappy with the fact that I have to move my left hand between throttle and left stick - I'd much rather leave it on the throttle so I'll probably end up ditching the left stick. I now plan to mod the right stick by adding at least an analog thumb joystick).
