What type of controller will you be using for Elite Dangerous

Pupu

P
yeah buying a joystick or hotas is a real pain. Searched the last two weeks for a hotas but there are just few out there.

Got an old Cyborg 3D Gold USB and its awesome, but it has no throttle with buttons.
Throttle only from CH Products is too expensive for me, so iam considering buying the Thrustmaster T.Flight hotas, but using the Cyborg 3D with the throttle.

How man Input devices are allowed?
Mouse+Keyboard+Hotas+Joystick+maybe ED Tracker= 5 input devices
 

Doomus

Doomus
I think I'll go with a CH Fighterstick and CH Throttle Pro. The Saitek X55 just looks like it has too many potential issues and for the money I'm not sure I want to be faffing around getting it to work as it should out of the box.
 

HDRhineland

HDRhineland
Currently mouse/keyboard (and it works perfectly fine). Later X55, but I was too lazy to configure it yet. I am used to that stick in DCS and I love it, but for ED I need to take the time to create a good profile or the X55 is only half the fun... I think I wait at least until Gamma with that.
 

calculon68

calculon68
Doomus said:
CH Products have excellent build quality but the throttle has no indents and is very light to the touch.
Click to expand...

Throttle detents are important in military flight simulators; having a notch between 100%/Full Military Power and Afterburner/War Emergency Power is extremely useful. I don't think they're entirely necessary in ED. Yes, you can split the throttle range (0-50% is reverse, 51-100% is forward) and a detent at 50% for full stop would be handy. It would prevent accidental reverses.

But you're sacrificing fine control and granularity once you reduce your range in half, and you're going to spend most of your time in forward. And a lot of ED combat is at corner speed (~50%). That blue range is smaller to find on a split throttle. Veteran HOTAS users depend more on knowing where the physical throttle's position is than glancing at the speed indicator.

And I wouldn't characterize the CH Pro Throttle as "light to touch". There certainly is no resistance through the entire range. The travel is very fine and smooth throughout. But the actual handle is fairly bulky and weighty- and actually provides some inertia to prevent it from being twitchy. I couldn't dock or scoop cargo without fine throttle control, and the CH PT has that in abundance.
 

I_am_Jon

I_am_Jon
Been using xbox controller but finally caved into buying a X52 Pro.

Looks like a fresh batch has just made it into the UK as a few places now have them in stock.
 

Cmdr Moschops

C
TM T-Flight HOTAS X
Homemade IR head tracker (Facetracknoir, iToy)
Voice Attack

I love the HOTAS but the throttle detent on mine doesn't quite line up with 0. If you imagine the throttle moves about 4-5mm within the detent then I have to pull it to the back of the detent for 0, which is fine when you get used to it, but another 4-5mm back from there is still 0. It's like 0 needs moving forwards a bit and it would be perfect.

Ideally I'd like a hat on the throttle but for £40 it's already great value. No upgrade plans yet.
 

Pennyblack

Pennyblack
I'm keyboard and mouse. But I've just dug this out of my old junk box looking for an old PCI card for a mate, so just might give it a try. :)

Attack3-0.jpg
 

marcmy

M
For those that are "stuck" using keyboard/mouse, try this setup.

From default:
Change Mouse X axis to YAW instead of ROLL
Remap keys A and D from YAW left/right to ROLL left/right
Remap W and S to THRUST up/down
Remap Increase/Decrease THROTTLE to MOUSEWHEEL with 10% increments
Remap 0% speed to Mouse3 (middle-click)

I find this setup to be VERY precise. I have no trouble aiming whatsoever, even with fixed weapons. I've seen posts that are saying mouse/kb aren't as precise as a joystick/HOTAS, and I have to disagree. I have a Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS and I can't aim with it to save my life. I admit though, I never had any experience gaming with a joystick until now, and I've played mostly fps/arpg games. This is my first real space/flight sim. I thought about getting a Saitek X52 Pro, but I suspect I will still be just as bad with it as I am with the Thrustmaster. :p

Edit: I'm using voiceattack too, which helps a lot for power distribution, never have to take hand off the mouse to hit arrow keys :)
 

Kuro

K
Haven't played it yet, waiting for release, however I'll be trying initially with keyboard and mouse adn see how that goes, then maybe an xbox controller is the former feels to iffy, if both fail then I'll consider buying a joystick.
 

JayJ

J
marcmy said:
For those that are "stuck" using keyboard/mouse, try this setup.

From default:
Change Mouse X axis to YAW instead of ROLL
Remap keys A and D from YAW left/right to ROLL left/right
Remap W and S to THRUST up/down
Remap Increase/Decrease THROTTLE to MOUSEWHEEL with 10% increments
Remap 0% speed to Mouse3 (middle-click)

I find this setup to be VERY precise. I have no trouble aiming whatsoever, even with fixed weapons. I've seen posts that are saying mouse/kb aren't as precise as a joystick/HOTAS, and I have to disagree. I have a Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS and I can't aim with it to save my life. I admit though, I never had any experience gaming with a joystick until now, and I've played mostly fps/arpg games. This is my first real space/flight sim. I thought about getting a Saitek X52 Pro, but I suspect I will still be just as bad with it as I am with the Thrustmaster. :p

Edit: I'm using voiceattack too, which helps a lot for power distribution, never have to take hand off the mouse to hit arrow keys :)
Click to expand...


This! After a few days messing around I came up with this same setup and it works great.

I'm a budget gamer with wife and kids and can't get all the toys I'd like, so have to make due with mouse keyboard. Though I did try a 360 gamepad and I was much better with the above setup.
 

xxiii

X
Smithy2501 said:
Well I'm probably in a vast minority here but I use a Logitech TrackMan Trackball.
Click to expand...

I'm also using this (except mine has a blue ball, and two additional buttons in the upper-left: Wireless Trackball M570), I've found it more convenient to map roll to A/D keys, and yaw to the trackball x-axis. I've mapped track to the upper button and supercruise/jump to the lower button.

I'm still experimenting with what to map the wheel to. I tried throttle up/down, but it didn't work very well (it required lots of spinning to make small changes) I'm thinking of trying thrust up/down.

I'd like to see the GUI support either more than one custom, or just let us create/name new presets by copying/modifying an existing one.

I'm also hoping to be able to use a 3dconnexion Space Navigator (and hopefully one of their other controllers; it would be really neat if the one with the LCD display was supported and able to use the LCD for the game).

So far, getting the Space Navigator to work has been very problematic.

p.s. Ok, I can hear the snickering from here...
 
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Biteketkergetek

Biteketkergetek
Matt OJ said:
This is the default control setup when using "advanced control pad"
https://sites.google.com/site/matts...D-Advanced controller 1080.jpg?attredirects=0
Click to expand...

Thank you for this. The advanced layout makes much more sense for me now.

I tried using the two sticks for roll and yaw, too, but I find them confusing. So I ended up using a yaw to roll toggle on the left stick. I might give this idea a try.

This is my layout with configuration and profiler available here. Most of it could have been done without a profiler, but I wanted to use double taps (quick 0% and 100% throttle setting) and also adjust the stick sensitivity (and not only deadzone).

layout-mini.png
 
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