The Joystick/Controller discussion thread
Started with my old Saitek Evo Force, but apparently it got too old. After just two weeks ED the Z-axis failed me, causing my ship to go into a rolling frenzy. Considered a HOTAS, but both price and limited room got me to decide against it. Looed at the available single stick solutions and was shocked at first how much the market has imploded. Finally went with the 3D Pro. Plenty of buttons and working well. Although it requires a bit too much force for my liking, my old Saitek was adjustable. But that's the only thing I miss a bit.
If you have 2 stick (one for speed & one for move your ship), you REALLY should use it !
Personally i use Xbox pad cause i can't play well with a mouse, same for fiew friends.
I think in order of maneuverability there is like :
1) Stick
2) Pad
3) Mouse
Of curse, it depends about the feeling of the users ^^
I've tried Elite Dangerous with a Saitek stick X52 pro flight + Oculus, it was amazing !
Then i try at home with mouse and it was so hard to aim and move, but pad seems to fit well for me
But, KillALF is right, just try and pick the best for you !
Whatever you try it pays to take a bit of time to play around with the options to find a set up that suits you best.
For instance with mouse I changed Yaw to the mouse X axis and Roll to keys A and D, I turned off the auto centering. Other people have posted about keeping it on, just depends what works for you.
I also have a joystick attached and sometimes grab it when in combat as it's easier to move and use the thrusters (set on the POV hat) at the same time.
However for general flying around I prefer m+k.
I will try a full Hotas setup at some point as my aim is eventually to use the Oculus Rift and keys are going to be difficult with that!
For instance with mouse I changed Yaw to the mouse X axis and Roll to keys A and D, I turned off the auto centering. Other people have posted about keeping it on, just depends what works for you.
I also have a joystick attached and sometimes grab it when in combat as it's easier to move and use the thrusters (set on the POV hat) at the same time.
However for general flying around I prefer m+k.
I will try a full Hotas setup at some point as my aim is eventually to use the Oculus Rift and keys are going to be difficult with that!
I have the Logitech Extreme 3d pro and it's crap. It was fine for the occasional bit of chopper piloting and jetting in Battlefield but ED required a lot more use out of it and it hasn't stood up to it because the build quality is rubbish. There's a lot of play in the stick now that its actually seen a little use and the buttons on the base are awful. In fact the one I had bound to switch between forward and reverse throttle no longer works reliably but I'm so used to the binding now it's going to take some real work getting used to a new config. And the little throttle on the back is just a pain in the backside to use.
If value for money is a concern, I can tell you I purchased the HOTAS X and I like it quite a lot. You can bind combinations of keys, so I chose one button as a 'shift' key and it doubled the rest of the buttons which eliminates the need to touch the keyboard.
I'm sure the others are nice, too!
Yeah, that's the good thing about Xbox controller: the triggers. My old Xbox controller has crappy sticks though, if you pushed it too far up/down/sides if stayed there. So in the end I went for my cheapo flight stick, will buy X-52 pro when my paycheck arrives in 4 days though
I find the throttle to be very easy to use with my left thumb. I just rest my fingers on the baseplate buttons and my thumb controls the throttle easy enough for most stuff. The build quality isnt rubbish, its £30 stick. The only other stick thats any use in the same price range is the t-1600. Everything else is useless or has far far lower build quility.
As I said earlier around the center its a little soft, but a small deadzone resolves that. I agree on the baseplate buttons though, these tends to get a bit bad if you bash at them. They are bolted to the underside of the plate the buttons are on, so bashing them results in weakening the mounts. That causes them to slip off center or push further away than intended.
But the most important thing with this stick is to NOT use the logitech software for it. Its junk and years out of date and critically will not allow you to calibrate the stick in windows, which causes a LOT of problems with its control level. Remove the software and absolutely ensure you have it calibrated via windows. When not calibrated its floppy and has very little range in games. As I said mines is over 6 years old and seen plenty of action in its time. The stick itself is in perfect condition, but the baseplate buttons need a tweak. I had Saitek sticks that lasted 6 months tops, and my mates Thrustmaster stuff always seems to go on the fritz.
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Started ED in Beta with the Logitech 3D Pro. By the first of the year, there was so much dead slop in the middle and the yaw was skewed left that it had to go.
I'm now using the T.16000M and the difference is night and day. Unless you're getting a stick with professional quality potentiometers in it (CH Products line), hall effect sensors are the way to go. The only fault I have with it at this price point is the throttle slider. The twist throttle tab on the Logitech was the best part of it and is better than this slider.
The T16kM was $48 USD. I've ordered a CH Products Throttle to go with it. It should be an excellent combo for about $50 to start and another $100 for the throttle.
The Hotas X, very well liked and reviewed, is probably the most bang for the buck, but I have no direct experience with it.
-WV
I'm now using the T.16000M and the difference is night and day. Unless you're getting a stick with professional quality potentiometers in it (CH Products line), hall effect sensors are the way to go. The only fault I have with it at this price point is the throttle slider. The twist throttle tab on the Logitech was the best part of it and is better than this slider.
The T16kM was $48 USD. I've ordered a CH Products Throttle to go with it. It should be an excellent combo for about $50 to start and another $100 for the throttle.
The Hotas X, very well liked and reviewed, is probably the most bang for the buck, but I have no direct experience with it.
-WV
It's a pain in the backside to use in this game, where you need to use a whole load more controls than you could possibly fit on the stick alone. So if you're using joystick and keyboard, as I am, rather than having your hand jump from the left (keyboard) to the right (tiny little throttle) all the time you'd be better off just using the keyboard for the throttle. But even in the likes of BF4 it's such a tiny little lever that it can be quite hard to have any fine level of control over it.
Yeah, fair enough. I think it's crap that you use it a couple of times and half the buttons stop working but if you think that's good for thirty quid fair enough. Everything I've heard about the T-1600 puts it head and shoulders above the Logitech.
I simply must stop mashing at these buttons with my fat, clumsy, barbarian fists.
I find I have almost everything I need on the stick buttons. I have my toggles on left side keys on the keyboard (landing gear/scoop etc) so I only need to press them once in a while. 90% of the time im two hands on stick. I do use the UI focus mode and only a few targeting commands. Funny thing is in Star Citizen I have MORE buttons than I need, because of the extra keybinding modifiers it has (double tap/press & hold). ED could use a few of those.
Here's the thing with joysticks in Elite, if you don't go for a Hotas system it's better to just stick with the keyboard or controller. I use the X-52 pro, but before that I had a 3D extreme, great stick and I still have it as a back up but I would not use it in Elite.
Reason why I would not go back to the 3D extreme for Elite is because its ALL about throttle control and the 3D extreme just doesn't cut it with that dinky little throttle control on the base, and its a bit short on buttons. Hat switches! You want hat switches for this game the more the merrier.
Reason why I would not go back to the 3D extreme for Elite is because its ALL about throttle control and the 3D extreme just doesn't cut it with that dinky little throttle control on the base, and its a bit short on buttons. Hat switches! You want hat switches for this game the more the merrier.
ah, ok... oh well.
wonder what shipping costs are from aus to us.
I wouldn't do it.
Aus will be more expensive then US because the cost of living down here is higher than US atm. Plus goods are normally more expensive here.