Which Joystick do you currently own/plan on getting?

  • Black Widow

    Votes: 47 1.5%
  • Saitek AV8R-03

    Votes: 8 0.2%
  • Saitek F.L.Y. 5

    Votes: 93 2.9%
  • Saitek X52

    Votes: 381 11.9%
  • Saitek X52 Pro

    Votes: 653 20.4%
  • Saitek X55

    Votes: 455 14.2%
  • Saitek X65

    Votes: 45 1.4%
  • Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X

    Votes: 654 20.4%
  • Thrustmaster Warthog

    Votes: 364 11.4%
  • Logitech G940

    Votes: 52 1.6%
  • Other ... (Leave details on the comments)

    Votes: 690 21.5%

  • Total voters
    3,205
  • Poll closed .
Well I've had a joystick disaster today, finally got my hands on Alpha, did the first couple of scenarios, then was really struggling on the sidewinder dogfight, couldn't roll and get it back in my sights. First I thought I was just rubbish, but I then realised I was constantly moving to the right. Tried recalibrating, reinstalling drivers rebooting until I was blue in the face.

Turns out I've bought a faulty Saitek FLY5, looks like I'm not the only one either when you google it!

Oh well hassle free instant amazon refund and I've ordered the Thrustmaster t-flight Hotas, but it won't arrive until monday.

Just tried playing with mouse and keyboard - not for me :(
 
I'll probably get a few laughs but this is what I played the original Elite with and I still think it's the best JS I ever had.
Was that on the BBC Micro?

As a Spectrum owner I was always jealous that the BBC supported analogue joysticks from day one while most of the other 8-bit machines were digital only. I remember seeing a demo on Micro Live or a similar TV show in the early 80s where they'd networked two BBC Micros together and were playing a head-to-head combat flight game. Really basic stuff, flat delta shapes for the aircraft and dotted lines for the horizon and gunfire, but really fast and responsive with the analogue sticks.

I had to wait until I got an Amiga in the early 90s before I experienced the joys of analogue control. Birds Of Prey and F-18 Interceptor with an analogue stick were amazing. And even then I had to buy a cheap PC joystick and hack the connector pins around because the most popular Amiga joysticks were still digital.

Any suggestions? Reading this thread the X52 seems really popular but I'm not sure how much that is from actual performance of the stick vs authentic looks.
Difficult one. At the risk of sounding heretical I'm still finding the X52 and throttle combo a little more difficult to use than my trusty old Microsoft Sidewinder Force-Feedback 2. Even with games that don't support FF that stick always felt really well balanced and comfortable in the hand, and operating the throttle lever with the left thumb became very natural and precise.

Of course the X52 is absolutely bristling with buttons and sliders and dials, which is where the FF fails. With only one hat switch, four stick buttons and four base buttons there just aren't enough, sadly. Annoyingly the almost identical stick it replaced, the Force Feedback v1, had a sort of 'shift' key behind the throttle that doubled the number of effective buttons to 16 which might just have been enough for most Elite functions. But that was a gameport stick and for some reason, when everything went to USB, Microsoft dropped the 'shift' button for version 2.

The X52 isn't perfect but it if you want total HOTAS it's about the best at the moment unless you wait for the X55 which looks amazing but is likely to be twice the price if not more. If you feel you can get away without full HOTAS, a cheaper smaller stick with a throttle in the base might be the way to go. A lot of people swear by the Thrustmaster T.16000M, which is broadly similar to the FF2 (without force-feedback of course) and also ambidextrous.
 
A lot of people swear by the Thrustmaster T.16000M

Yes because of that and the fact it can be set-up for left-handed use I've just ordered one!

Actually other key reason is cost. Budget is limited and I don't really know how well I'll take to it, but I've picked one up for £33 inc P&P so too tempting to resist!
 
Was that on the BBC Micro?
Commodore 64. I think it was...let's see I was 14 I think...circa 88. It was analog too - I couldn't stand the binary ones.

Based on what I've read I think I've narrowed down to the following, though I'm not sure which order...

- Thrustmaster T.16000M
- CH Combatstick or Flightstick
- Saitek X52

I'm a little wary of Saitek as the stuff I bought from them in the past seemed to be more gimicky (knobs everywhere for a sophisticated look but none were particularly useful) than productive and reliable. But as popular as the X52 is it surely isn't too bad.
 
I own a X52 Pro and can say that it really does live up to what I expected it to be. It does have a lot of keys on it that are not used but depending on how you play and with added features with later builds you may find yourself using all of them. Only problem I had was my own fault but since then I have logged 4+ straight hours on it and have not ran into any problems.
 
Am glad I read this thread, it seems there is a lot of raving about the X52. But also a lot of good reviews for the 360.

I know from experience that joysticks can have build issues and fail after a short while. So I ordered a 360 controller confident that they are bullet proof in comparison.

I'd still like to try the joystick/thruster but will see how the 360 gets on before I shell out for one.
 
Am glad I read this thread, it seems there is a lot of raving about the X52. But also a lot of good reviews for the 360.

I know from experience that joysticks can have build issues and fail after a short while. So I ordered a 360 controller confident that they are bullet proof in comparison.

I'd still like to try the joystick/thruster but will see how the 360 gets on before I shell out for one.

If you like it, that's all the justification you need. But keep in mind that you can make more miniscule/subtle movements with a joystick than you can with a pad because the arc of movement is a lot bigger on a stick. On the other hand, you can probably make 'twitchy' snap movements a bit better on a thumb stick. You can equate that difference to driving with a small racing steering wheel as opposed to driving with a bus or truck steering wheel. I guess which one suits you best will depend on your 'style' to some extent.
 
I've posted this in answer to a guy asking about razer hydra setup, but the post is 2 weeks old and been moved and the OP probably won't find it again :D But I'd like to get some feedback on a possible control scheme and how good the razer hydra will work out for Elite Dangerous. I can still cancel the order since it's waiting to be restocked. Anyone played a flight or space sim with the razer hydra?


---------------
I have ordered a Razer Hydra, mostly because you have a lot of axis and can use it as an absolute pointing device, so like a hybrid between mouse / joystick. Plus its great with the Rift. But for ED I guess you can't use absolute pointing since there is no mouse aim for the guns.
You probably have seen this?

The Razer hydra theoretically has 16 DOF. I know proud owners of the X52 Stick will laugh at me, but I'm a believer in new input devices. I WANT to believe :D
You COULD fully control 2 space ships with the left and right controller! Theoretically you could control strafe up/down and left/right and speed up/down by movement and turn (yaw/pitch/roll) all with one single controller, before even touching the analog stick.
What I hope it will be good for is flight assist off mode, to have full control over all axis without having to move finger/thumb positions on the input device.
On a gamepad you'd only have two analog pads (4 axis) instead of 6 axis. I don't know if the accelerator on a XBox controller is good enough to steer with, or if it would be good because you have to move both your hands, giving you less rotation / movement range than with a single hand controller.
With a joystick you'd have 3 axis plus a coolie hat. So it's "theoretically" better than any of those, but I have no real clue how well the "moving in space" really works. Maybe rotating it works better than moving it around.

My initial idea for a control scheme would be this:
  • Yaw/Pitch/roll on right controller rotation
  • Strafe horiz/vert on left analog stick
  • Speed up/down on left controller rotate forward/backward (possibly absolute)
  • Left trigger and shoulder button as a shift / control button (to have like 24 key combinations with the 8 top buttons)
  • Fire primary / secondary on right trigger and shoulder button
  • Look around cockpit on right analog stick
  • Select / Back / Afterburner / Hyperspace / Map / Scan on top buttons and combinations
  • Recenter your orientation / zero position on one top button

This is of course totally theoretical since I haven't got the razer hydra yet (on reorder) nor the alpha :eek: I hope this scheme is somewhat similar to my movement in FPS/WoW in terms of function groups for my "muscle memory". It's possible it's gonna be complicated to setup and tweak, or that the razer hydra appears as two separate game devices which ED alpha doesn't support atm. How the software works I have no clue. Maybe you can adapt one of the existing flight sim control profiles for evochron mercenary or something.

If you could share any experiences with the razer I'd be very curious to know!
 
Have you considered the TrackIR for your look-around function? Based on what I've seen in videos and testimonials it sounds great to me. It's on my list for sure, unless I hear differently.

I intend to get the oculus rift. Head tracking without a VR headset seems a little bit pointless to me, like a half measure if you know what I mean. It's not bad per se, but still somewhat artificial to turn your head and keep your eyes fixed. I've also heart that in the current alpha looking around with head tracking doesn't enable the menu's. But I'm sure they'll fix that :)
 
Originally, I was just going to try old-school keyboard only control as with the original Elite. I had no intention of buying a joystick but after seeing the FD video where David and co are playing with what looked like 360 controllers, I thought that I'd probably try one of those.
However, a LOT of people here have been lauding the value of joysticks in general and the X52 in particular. I am now VERY tempted to go for that. As I don't even have funds for a new PC yet (awaiting my bonus), I'm gonna have to wait. Good job I didn't pledge for the Alpha or Beta, or I'd be going nuts, not being able to play!

I finished all missions and can consistently get to Wave 7 of Incursions with Keyboard ONLY. without flying backwards. That means NO Mouse even.
I'm waiting for Mike to implement some keyboard sensitivity control so I can improve my aiming.
Here is the thread in alpha forum about keyboard sensitivity http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9767

I always preferred to play FE2 and FFE with mouse & keyboard because of their abstracted yaw heavy control, but in general and especially for games where you need to roll like ED I prefer keyboard only, it also makes it easier to play with a laptop on the couch.

I was never a fan of the orig Elite keyboard layout that also comes with ED, so I made a custom one to be able to use regular cursor keys for flight and throttle on the left hand.
I used the m&k config as a starting point since it had most of the newer keys already mapped which the orig Elite layout is missing.
 
BTW one could wait for driver support for the XBox One controllers. Microsoft promised to release drivers in 2014.
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
BTW one could wait for driver support for the XBox One controllers. Microsoft promised to release drivers in 2014.

That would be good - apparently the One controller is more accurate than the previous '360 version. It's a bit more ergonomic too and the individual trigger vibration is ace!
 

Yaffle

Volunteer Moderator
BTW one could wait for driver support for the XBox One controllers. Microsoft promised to release drivers in 2014.

Yeah I saw that, andhave been unable to pin it down any better than 2014.

It's unfortunate that we seem to be in a hiatus for the X52 as well (does anyone have stock?), I assume because the X55 is coming soon, and the XBox One controllers as the drivers are not there yet.
 
Have you considered the TrackIR for your look-around function? Based on what I've seen in videos and testimonials it sounds great to me. It's on my list for sure, unless I hear differently.

Yeah, Track IR is pretty good. You do get used to moving your head around to work it and the required movements you make to steer it about are not that big, so it's not like you are not looking at the screen. It's not quite a 'must have' for flight sims, but not far off it, particularly since unlike with Occulus Rift, you can actually still use the keyboard. Having said that, Occulus Rift looks pretty cool and I'll be severely tempted to grab that when the full on version is available, I'm usually a sucker for trying crap like that, I even bought some of those 3D shutter glasses, which are okay but it's a bit like looking at a pop up book and it's not good for flight sims when you need to use the keyboard. Hopefully all the cool stuff I need will be mapped to a joystick so I will be able to get lost in things with OR when Elite Dangerous comes out.
 
I bought a cheap logitech joystick today. I really like using the stick for flight, but I didn't like the other buttons/controls on the joystick. So I just did some custom mapping to use the joystick for flight direction and combat and all thrust controls on keyboard. The joystick kept moving around, so I tied it to my desk with a robe belt (elite dangerous). I think I've found my perfect control scheme
 
I intend to get the oculus rift. Head tracking without a VR headset seems a little bit pointless to me, like a half measure if you know what I mean. It's not bad per se, but still somewhat artificial to turn your head and keep your eyes fixed. I've also heart that in the current alpha looking around with head tracking doesn't enable the menu's. But I'm sure they'll fix that :)

I have my eye on the Oculus Rift too, but I'm a little worried I may get tired of that thing strapped to my head. I'm thinking the TrackIR will be great for me because I *always* move my head when I'm playing as if it's actually going to help me look in that direction. I can see how the thing would work well.
 
BTW one could wait for driver support for the XBox One controllers. Microsoft promised to release drivers in 2014.

I would not rely on this. The drivers may not ever be delivered. Or they may be gimped in some manner.

As an example you CAN use the Microsoft Xbox 360 wireless racing wheel in Windows. But there is no force feedback at all.
 
Don't know if it's already been mentioned but the Speedlink Black Widow Flightstick is very cheap and avoids the awkward twist stick control which I don't like. Instead it has a finger bar on the throttle lever which acts as the rudder. Solidly built and weighty too. So long as you don't use the drivers that come with it, it's fine. :eek:
 
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