The Joystick/Controller discussion thread

[p.opus]

Thrustmaster T Flight Hotas X: Not the "best", but IMHO the "best bang for your buck". For little more than the cost of a standard thumb throttle joy stick, you get a full sized hand grip type throttle and an additional axis rocker on the throttle.

The center detent makes forward and reverse thrusting a breeze. I simply love this stick for elite.

 

[masopa]

This thread is of interest to me as well as until now I've been using K+M. Perhaps weirdly, I've also bound roll to the keyboard and my mouse is responsible for pitch & yaw (not great for my current Annie but worked really well on my Vulture as well as my previous Python).

My mouse is a pretty decent Corsair gaming mouse with a nice clicky wheel and four proper buttons. Still really hard to use lateral thrusters in flight though and FA-off has never really been tried.

Later in the week a Thrustmaster T Flight Hotas is arriving, so it'll be fun migrating to that. I'll probably park up my Annie and switch back to the Vulture to get used to it PvE. My objective, ultimately, is to be able to fly completely using FA-off, if I want to (including docking, just because I can). Clearly weeks, if not months away from that goal though.

Acquiring the new muscle memory will be difficult - especially flipping back to having roll controlled by my right hand. The bonus of having the lateral thrusters at my fingertips will be great though.

 

[Tarman]

Like people have said, it's all about the retraining of your muscle memory to use the new hardware. Go through your setup until all the controls feel right; even with auto-assignment, things can be in weird places for you personally. For myself I can't recall what decade I would have used vanilla controls in any rebindable game. Also smart that you're testing your new setup in the tutes till you can relearn how to fly. It'll just take time and practice.

 

[Nonya]

I'm just the opposite. I've never played with just keyboard and mouse.
I've always had my HOTAS Warthog and a gaming keypad.
The only time I use the mouse is for the menus in-game.

 

[Dreamcaster]

So, I have been playing ED using a Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X since Beta.
I now feel I need something more.
I want to be able to fully utilise vertical thrusters during dogfight.
What would you recommend? X52 pro, X55? Other?
Having the rudder/yaw axis command under the fingertips rather than under my toes would be a plus...

 

[Gegner]

Just got my X52 Pro yesterday. Loving the throttle and how much easier it feels to move around in combat. However I do feel handicapped due to the lack of buttons at my fingertips. I'm coming from a mouse + keyboard setup using a razr naga.

 

[p.opus]

So, I have been playing ED using a Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X since Beta.
I now feel I need something more.
I want to be able to fully utilise vertical thrusters during dogfight.
What would you recommend? X52 pro, X55? Other?
Having the rudder/yaw axis command under the fingertips rather than under my toes would be a plus...

On the Thrustmaster, you can either bind the rudder to the stick twist, or the rocker switch on the throttle.

Also, if you utilize the "two button" combo in elite, you can put a lot more commands on the stick.

I use the hat for up down, left right thrusters. And then use the buttons on my throttle as targeting commands in conjunction with the hat.

 

[Poseidal]

I got the T-Flight, but man, I'm bad with it compared with the mouse. How long does it take to get used to/improve your aiming?

 

[Dorohedoro]

I got the T-Flight, but man, I'm bad with it compared with the mouse. How long does it take to get used to/improve your aiming?

For me... Never :-(

Im back with the key+mouse

 

[peetabix]

Using a Xbox 360 controller. Mainly because my computer is connected to my tv.

 

[RMORTI]

I've had the same X52PRO for many years, started using it with IL-2 Flight sim. I think the joystick has seen better days; the twisty stick seems to always want to indicate right yaw input despite a large deadzone setting. This forced me to not use joystick for yaw. Instead i set it to the throttle hat switch.

Biggest problem I am having with the X52 PRO joystick is pitch and roll. It seems very rough and requires a large amount of input to make a movement. I would have like to be able to apply slight pressure and have a small accurate response, but this is not the case. I don't know if the game has a way to setup a profile using a bell curve response setting or not. This might solve my problem.

Perhaps the joystick is just worn out and needs replacing. Has anyone else noticed poor response to stick input or does anyone know a method to improve stick response?

 

[RMORTI]

To expand, I was hoping in the control settings section of options, that there was a way to set up response curves and modify joystick input to game output. Thus allowing small input on the joystick to provide a small accurate output and the harder you pull or push on the stick the greater the ingame response. As it is right now, I find the mouse to be far more accurate; although nowhere near as practical because of all the other button and hat features available on a joystick.

Since I have TrackIr, I don't need the hat switch. In the hope of improving joystick accuracy, I decided to use the 8-way thumb hat switch on the joystick as the input for pitch and roll. It is a much smoother and accurate input than the joystick itself. Once I get over the tendency to move the joystick body, I think it will be an acceptable setup until I find a better solution.

 

[cryon1cang3l]

Just got the FLY5 for 39€ which is fine for a local shop. Still feels a bit cheap, the adjustments are nice, but i still want to figure out a good config to actually use it with both hands and move over to my keyboard only out of fight. I think with some makros and voice attack + astra it should be possible. Any ideas?

 

[RMORTI]

After flying the training mission to dogfight a sidewinder using only the hat switch, I quickly realized that while accurate and wonderful for travel or docking; it is not that great for frequent maneuvering. Combined with a need to use the thruster hat switch that I mapped above it, and the enemy was quickly having me for lunch.

I needed the joystick to function, but still wanted the fine control afforded by the hat switch. I was able to map both on the X52. So now in combat, I have the utility of the joy stick input (poor as it is) with thrusters mapped on the joy stick's top hat switch and yaw mapped on the throttle hat switch. Buttons 11, 13, and 15 on the joy stick base handle assigning pips to sys, eng, weps as required.

I killed that training mission sidewinder, after a very long fight. Too long, more practice is required. I would like to see more training scenarios for combat, but where you can select your craft and the enemy craft and then go one on one.

 

[HerrBaron]

In answer to the original post, I own CH FighterStick/Pro Throttle/Pro Pedals, have for many years, and will never bother with anything else.

Best regards!
HerrBaron

 

[CYB34]

So, I have been playing ED using a Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X since Beta.
I now feel I need something more.
I want to be able to fully utilise vertical thrusters during dogfight.
What would you recommend? X52 pro, X55? Other?
Having the rudder/yaw axis command under the fingertips rather than under my toes would be a plus...

I have both the X55 and the T.Flight and I find the X55 uncomfortable, in comparison.
I use the twist rudder axis often during pitch/yaw, and I can't seem to the able to grab the X55 properly because of the thumb and pinky buttons placement.
The twist on the X55 is much stiffer than the T.Flights, you need to apply more force to turn the stick.

The feeling I get, after hours of combat, is that I'm pushing and pulling the stick without actually grabbing it in my fist, like you do with the T.Flight.

It is indeed way more precise than the T.Flight and the throttle is much better, even if its forward only, but I can't get past the comfort. I'd really like to try an X52 Pro.

If you think about buying an X55, I suggest do it from a store that accepts returns with no questions asked.

LE: on the T.Flight, I find the 5 and 6 buttons to work very well for vertical thrusters, plus youre able to use the horizontal thrusters and engine boost at the same time.

 

[cdj2k10]

Saitek cyborg X joystick problem

im new to flight sims and elite dangerous is my first sim. I started out playing with keyboard and mouse, got bored quick. ended up buying a cyborg X (fly 5) stick. it was good for a day or 2 then during a signal exploration my ship started to yaw right and nothing I did would stop it. I removed drivers and got the latest from Saitek restarted elite and had the same problem. to make sure it wasn't just a game problem , I downloaded DCS World. it was ok in there for a couple of minutes then it started doing the same thing, continuously turning right. also it was disconnecting a few times before it would come back on and start to turn right again.

does anyone know how to fix this? is it a hardware problem?

 

[Daeron]

I think it is possible to make the dead zone a bit wider, and reduce the problem that way. At the cost of losing some responsiveness sadly. I've got the exact same thing going.

Edit: Making it a bit wider on the X-Axis solved it for me, had to look it up, as it's been a while since I did it. There should be a control panel for the stick that can be downloaded if need be.

Edit2: My problem is more of a drifting center preferring the right, if the stick is going hard to the right no matter what, it is obviously something that can't be fixed in this manner.

 

[bigtaff]

I've been having the same problems for the last few years with the Fly.5 stick. The good news is that they come with a 2 year warranty, so just send it back to Saitek returns dept in the UK, (get an RMA from them first) and they will send you a new one. I'm currently on my 3rd replacement in 4 years. Shame really as they are quite a good stick, with a fair bit of customisation available.

I have noticed that you cannot buy them form Saitek any more, so maybe they have realised that there are problems with them.

 

[scottrish]

I just started playing ED with the Mac release, although was a big fan of Elite on an Amstrad CPC6128 back in the 80s! I'm not a regular game player these days, just don't have the time, but ED is one that I'm going to carve out some hours each week to play. Loving it so far, and that's on a below spec 13" MacBook Pro with KB and mouse.
So I decided to go all in on the control side and just got a rush delivery of an X-55 for the weekend.
First impressions, before I even put it together, were not great. I think my hands are of average size but the position, size etc of the buttons on the hat don't seem to be well thought out. If I position my hand on the rest the the two pinkie buttons, forefinger trigger, thumb button are all fine. Then it starts to go wrong. The buttons on the hat are either spread too far apart or block usage of other buttons. POV is OK, but hard to get to A without triggering POV. B also isn't reachable without adjusting my hand position upwards or I risk triggering the pinkie button. H2 is too far to the right, but worst of all though, is higher than H1 making it impossible to use H1 without lifting my hand of the rest. Only comment on the throttle is it seems stiff even after dialing down the stiffness but otherwise it seems solid and smooth.
I still haven't had the chance to use it for any length of time in game but I'm wondering if I was a little rash in buying it.


Lest I sound overly critical of a stick that others love, I don't have any experience of any hotas or joystick in the last 15+ years, so take all the above with a good pinch of salt, however, any advice from anyone? Anyone had the same first impressions and worked through the issues to get to a good place, or should I call it early and return it for something else?


What should that something else be? X52 Pro, Thrustmaster T-Flight? My aspirations are to fly in flight assist off mode, at least some of the time, and not use pedals, if that should inform any decision.

Thanks!