The best control method in Elite Dangerous for a noob?

SirScarecrow

SirScarecrow
Hey all,

This is regarding what type of control system to use for ED for a new guy. I did play the beta a bit, but due to real life issues had to give it a break. I did however remember having played a bit with mouse and keyboard, all worked great except combat.

What is to you the most fun way to play it? What would you recommend to a new guy that doesn't know how to set up special joysticks and download several patches, manually assign keys and what not, what would be the best bet to go for in terms of getting in the game fast and enjoying it on a up to date computer on a 27 inch screen :)

Thanks in advance, as always, I have a great deal of respect and admiration to you forum users that help newer less experienced people.
 

Dash

Dash
Joysticks and joypads work out of the box. You don't need to do anything special to get them to work.

Joystick is generally the preferred for flight stuff as you have a great deal of control - but if you're more used to a joypad (e.g. an Xbox 360 controller) then use one of those.
 

Bambi

Bambi
It's not so difficult to set up the controls. I prefer the gamepad myself, but really, everything works well with this game. Try out some of the preset control schemes in the combat training and see which ones you like.
 

atomic7431

A
personally i love my X52 pro and all of its control options it gives you. I never have to touch the keyboard whilst flying about etc, and best of all you can customize the controls to how you like them if you so desire. IMO a H.O.T.A.S feels more natural to use with ED.
 

streki

streki
HOTAS!

I struggled for ages with an xbox controller, but I bought a Thrustmaster HOTAS X and it improved my ability to fly immediately.

Might treat myself to an X52 after christmas.
 

AgentGB

AgentGB
would highly recommend voice attack, especially for having some preset weapon/engine/system layout, e.g evasive/combat/full shields (although i have 7 different preset for different minor situations). Takes a little while to set up voice attack, but its worthwhile.

Can also have your aircraft stop, jump into supercruise/hyperspace in one word, the same with deploying scoop, jetting all, landing gears and lights. Not to mention letting of chaffs, deploying hardpoints, and the varies targetting.

Get voice attack. I usually have one hand on the joystick, and use my thrusters on the keyboard.

If you use voice attack, run some test in the tutorial, firing all yur guns while speaking the commands, to fine tune your options. Last thing you wanna be doing is shouting commands and voice attack not quite hearing you. There are options to tweak this, and i have mine perfectly, with sound playing through my speakers but not affecting my head mic. Since i use my headset for teamspeak. Game plays through cpu speakers.
 
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S.H.A.D.O

S
I went from kb/m in Alpha, to a 360 controller and then to an X-52.

..I would never play the game with anything other than my X-52 now, its utterly amazing!
 

AgentGB

AgentGB
Just import this file into voice attack.

saved in a rar
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/101469143/Elite Dangerous-Profile.rar

saved without rar might in case you don't have winrar
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/101469143/Elite Dangerous-Profile.vap

these are the commands and keys that they are bound too, most are vanilla keys, but check through your controls to be sure.

Combat
target - t - say target = targets whatever is in front
hostile - h = say hostile = targets the nearest hostile
chaffs - c - say flares = countermeasure/binded this myself
hardpoints = u = say hardpoints = disable auto trigger when you fire and use the voice command to avoid arming by accident.

power management
say combat = which i use for if shooting and being shot at
say bulldog = which i use if wishing to keep agility but give more power to guns

say spitfire = for extreme agility, small power to shields and weapons, good for hanging on someone tail (1/4/1)
say evasive = if wishing to get away while keeping power to shields, or get on there tail, generally use it to let them over shoot me (3/3)

say leg it = full power to engines, half to shields
say Hoorah = full power to weapons (spelt in voice attack as who rar due to my london accent)
say shields = full power to shields

MISC
say scoop - home
say jet all - end
say landing gears - insert
say lights - L


say supercruise - personnal bind to O
say hyperspace - personal bind to I
say stop - x = drops speed to zero


also somthing worth looking at in your options, depending on if your using teamspeak or still enoying having sound coming from yur cpu speakers instead of a headset.
C49O60r.jpg
 
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virosh

virosh
During the Gamma i tried the training missions with keyboard, then my old gamepad - it didn't work for me.
The next day i ordered X52 (not Pro) and i am really happy with the controls now. :)
 

YeOldeMiller

YeOldeMiller
I've been using an X52 Pro since day one in Beta and I cannot imagine a better, more natural way to play E:D. You don't need any special skills and knowledge to set it up. Sure, it takes quite some time to work out a layout that is comfortable for you, but so does keyboard, you just start with the default scheme and improve it as you gain experience. Some of my friends decided to skimp on controllers and got regular joysticks such as Logitech Extreme 3D or M5 Cobra; now they're kicking themselves because they didn't save that much and controlling throttle with keyboard turned out to be an ultimately inferior experience.
 

YeOldeMiller

YeOldeMiller
SirScarecrow said:
just to make sure, the X52 pro that you guys are referring to is this one?
Click to expand...
Not exactly. The one you linked is the regular version, not Pro, but there's not much difference, so either will do. AFAIK Pro has more of its mechanical parts made out of metal and is supposed to be more reliable in the long run, but gameplay-wise they are identical.
 

bambam_ofc

bambam_ofc
To balance the sexy controller votes so far, A vote for keyboard+mouse:

Put throttle on the mouse wheel, 12.5% increments forward and back.

Make all of A-D,W-S,Q-E thrust keys (yaw left right, up down, left right).

Mouse move is pitch and roll.

Make Frameshift hyper/supercruise jump much nearer WASD keys, i.e. 'F' for frameshift not 'J' for jump.

Make gear up/down nearer WASD keys - I use 'C' for gear, 'V' for lights.

Change UI menu 'Next Tab' key to the actual 'Tab' key (I think default is Q).

I haven't done it yet but I really should put Target/Next Target as a mouse button...
 
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TUXER

T
joystick with yaw or joystick with pedals.

I have the x-55 and although its neat having the HOTAs I really don't need it, but the joystick I do.
 
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