The Joystick/Controller discussion thread

[Seren77]

I have a logitech extreme also, I can only play for an hour or two and need a break. It's ok for the price but not adjustable tension wise (some of the more expensive HOTAS come with various springs or can be ran with no spring)

Tendon issues and arthritis can definitely make gaming difficult, hope the 360 pad works out for you.

 

[lex524]

I have a logitech extreme also, I can only play for an hour or two and need a break. It's ok for the price but not adjustable tension wise (some of the more expensive HOTAS come with various springs or can be ran with no spring)

Tendon issues and arthritis can definitely make gaming difficult, hope the 360 pad works out for you.

I think i was fine until I started combat. The tutorials especially took me a lot of flying round in circles (am a bit better now so battles quicker). Maybe should stick to trading...!

 

[Melvoid]

Mouse to roll is very unnatural ,rebind it to yaw and roll left/right to Q and E on keyboard, and R and F to thrusters forward and back.
W and S for up and down works well for docking, there a re many guides on here that go into more depth but this worked for me, but if you get on with the pad then go for it.
Good luck out there.

 

[NEUTRAL]

Have an CH products Fighter Stick and Pro Throttle, and love the feel of them, Have as many buttons, hats etc as I could want.
Also bought the pro peddles, have been wanting to get them as soon as I could afford and after 20 minutes use realized I can't
get my tiny brain in using yaw on the peddles or what ever else I had programmed into them while managing HOTAS at the same time.
So they're sitting in the closet.

Have had an X52 in the past and it just felt too flimsy in play. No doubt the X55 is another story.

You could have used the CH Pro Pedals for forward and reverse thrusters (not the throttle),
similar to how it would be on a car.

 

[CMDR Saari]

Finding it tricky to find a decent option for the thrusters, so docking is a bit of a pain...

Landing control overrides! For instance, as soon as my landing gear drops, Right Stick switches to control forward/reverse left/right thrusters. RT and LT are up and down thrust. Line up with pad, deploy gear, thrust into position, drop into place. Hope this helps!

 

[JohnLot]

Hi

I picked up a copy of ED this week, alongside a logitech extreme 3D pro joystick. All going great for a couple of days, then my hand started to hurt. A lot. Turns out the joystick has started to damage tendons in my wrist...! This is annoying.

Have had a rest and all now better, but need to find a new control mechanism! I found having easy access to the manouvering thrusters (up / down / left right) really handy for docking. So, does anyone have any recommendations? Am thinking of:

a) a really light joystcisk (i.e. require v little force - the logitech is quite "heavy" compared to the ones i used 20 odd years ago)
b) PS3 or Xbox 360 controller - which is best? this eliminates use of the keyboard for anything quick - are there enough controls?
c) Mouse / KB - how is best to configure this? using a mouse to "roll" seems quite un-natural - is there a way to just use the mouse to move to ship about "normally"?

Thanks for any suggestions - want to start playing again!

Possibly you could look into using an older "arcade" style joy stick with pad and buttons. They usually come with a rather large base though. It may take up a lot of surface area on your desk.

 

[CMDR Sidewinder]

xbox 360 pad with advanced gamepad as the control config is very satisfactory.

 

[VincentD]

I use the 360 but the more I use it the more a want to by a X52 JUST for the throttle!!! you get used to it but the moment you try to start hunting targets it's a huge pain and very inefficient. And you'll want to customize a few buttons, don't leave it at default setup.

 

[NEUTRAL]

You want a joystick that requires very little force to push it around ?

These fit the bill:
CH Products Fighterstick
CH Products Combatstick

this requires slightly more force :
Thrustmaster T.16000M

I have the T.16000M right now, but aiming for the Fighterstick for future purchase.

 

[Kowie]

The way i see it this game is a space sim not a flight sim = HODJS(hands on dual joysticks) is perfect for ED imo .

(Star Citizen on the other hand is better with a Joystick + mouse combo imo).

 

[Grimjakk]

There are a few things you can do to ease the possibility of repetitive stress injuries from controllers...

1) stretch out wrist and fingers before a session

2) raise your chair or place the stick on a lower surface so that you're not reaching up to grip it

3) consciously relax your grip and pause to flex and stretch periodically


Basically the same sort of thing industrial safety guys are constantly telling anyone who operates machinery for a living...

 

[bcat1]

I use an old wii balance board for up,down/lateral thrust if your looking to free up some buttons on your new controller. You can pick one up for £10 and a usb blue tooth dongle for £1, works really well and easy to set up.

 

[Lasse B.]

You could also get a SpaceNavigator or SpaceMouse and use it alongside your mouse & keyboard setup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRi03r9DvgA

Getting it to work can be a bit of a hassle as these devices aren't gamer friendly out of the box, but the whole process has been streamlined so people should be able to have it running in a couple of minutes. More info here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=35024

 

[lex524]

Landing control overrides! For instance, as soon as my landing gear drops, Right Stick switches to control forward/reverse left/right thrusters. RT and LT are up and down thrust. Line up with pad, deploy gear, thrust into position, drop into place. Hope this helps!

Ah great idea! Stupidly I never worked out what that bit of the control menu meant...

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I use an old wii balance board for up,down/lateral thrust if your looking to free up some buttons on your new controller. You can pick one up for £10 and a usb blue tooth dongle for £1, works really well and easy to set up.

Never thought of that.. oddly I have an old balance board next to my desk propping up the bin! Does it need drivers etc?

 

[Pandemik]

Im using an Xbox 360 Wired controller in the Advanced Controller With Yaw setting.

Works a treat!

 

[bcat1]

Yes you need the "wii balance walker- version 1.4" driver and a blue tooth dongle. Set up the keys to mimic in the actions tab then deselect the "disable all actions". Click the "Add Bluetooth wii devise" and hit the sync button in the battery bay of the board while clicking on the "search and add wii devices" then after that hit "connect to wii balance board" then you put your feet on the board and hit "set balance to center" keep the app running and start the game. Lateral thrust etc controlled with your feet not my idea it was posted somewhere else but can't find the post anymore.

 

[matbard]

Hi all,

Does it make sense to sell my old Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar and get a Saitek X52 Pro for playing ED? I'm mainly a Mac user, so the X52's Apple compatibility would be a useful feature when the native version will come out(meanwhile I'm playing in Boot Camp).

 

[stephen_usher]

Hi all,

Does it make sans to sell my old Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar and get a Saitek X52 Pro for playing ED? I'm mainly a Mac user, so the X52's Apple compatibility would be a useful feature when the native version will come out(meanwhile I'm playing in Boot Camp).

As far as I'm aware, the X52(pro) doesn't have any MacOS drivers and isn't recognised as a normal joystick, unlike the Microsoft Force Feedback 2 I have. I don't know if your current stick is recognised.

I'm guessing that Frontier will need to roll their own X52(pro) driver for the Mac version.

 

[matbard]

As far as I'm aware, the X52(pro) doesn't have any MacOS drivers and isn't recognised as a normal joystick, unlike the Microsoft Force Feedback 2 I have.

Well... Saitek says that is compatible:

"Connectivity: USB 2.0
Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, XP64,Windows Vista (all versions), and Mac OS X"

 

[malicious1]

surprised t1600 isn't on that list