Joystick vs controller

[SoloFlyer]

I know that everyone must have feelings about this, so any feedback is welcome. I currently switch between keyboard and mouse for ground ad a controller (its modeled on the playstation controller) for flight. I haven't flown enough to the point where i'm developing muscle memory with the controller yet so that's not an issue. Would I be better setting up some sort of joystick/thruster/pedal combo or should I stick with what I'm doing now? If I did pick up some sort of joystick etc setup what would be a good value for money suggestion as to models? One thing I'm trying to keep in mind is that flight is probably still being worked on, so what I get used to now might not be the best come release.

 

[Deroth]

Thrustmaster has some inexpensive sticks and HOTAS setups that have sensors that other manufacturers only use on much more expensive sticks.
I personally prefer dual sticks but many people also recommended HOTAS.
I recommend checking out Thrustmaster's dual stick and HOTAS packs built around the T1600m.

 

[Radegast74]

So, if you ask 10 different people their opinion on this, you are going to get about 11 different answers. I think that you probably get the highest level of accuracy with a mouse and keyboard (if you are good), but that a joystick, and dual joysticks, will give you the overall most immersive feeling.

Why not start with a cheap joystick, and work your way up (the sky is the limit, btw, the Virpil's that everybody is going crazy over are well over $300 each....).

The good old Logitech 3D Pro stick is ...holy cow, they are on sale for $25 a piece...grab a couple now!
https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-3D-Pro-Joystick-Windows-x/dp/B00009OY9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542910560&sr=8-1&keywords=logitech+extreme+3d+pro+joystick

 

[Mich Angel]

Mouse an keyboard accurate mm.. well not so much ...

But okay prove me wrong and let me see you do this with mouse and keyboard please : - D

CHEERS! "HOTAS / HOSAS for extreme accuracy "

Thrustmaster T16000 best buy for buck when you want a good starter stick and come with throttle, ruder or as dual stick or you buy one piece at a time.. ;-)

 

[Radegast74]

Mouse an keyboard accurate mm.. well not so much ...

But okay prove me wrong and let me see you do this with mouse and keyboard please : - D

CHEERS! "HOTAS / HOSAS for extreme accuracy "

lol, I suck at a mouse and keyboard, but I have seen people who excel at it. Me? I suck at it, which is why I use dual joysticks!

 

[Mich Angel]

lol, I suck at a mouse and keyboard, but I have seen people who excel at it. Me? I suck at it, which is why I use dual joysticks!

Yeah I did okay on keyboard and mouse but well... you now ... ha ha ha!

Dual stick (HOSAS) is unbeaten in right hands and close followed by (HOTAS)..
Yeah I seen those who do awesome in a dogfight with mouse (keyboard/joystick) in closed quarters for simple reason they are using gimbaled guns but that's not all there is to flying, there is a lot more to flying than pointing a ship gun. Right !

: -P

 

[Printimus]

you can hook up any and all amounts of controllers/joysticks/buttons to do things in the game

 

[SoloFlyer]

I wasn't having much luck using mouse and keyboard for flight, that's why I had gone to controller. I'll take a look at some joysticks to see if any look tempting. I have a feeling that by the time SC finally does get released we'll be controlling our ships directly with our minds
*edit*
Just took a quick look at the T16000 set. The joystick says it has twist rudder control, so would the pedals be redundant?

 

[Deroth]

I wasn't having much luck using mouse and keyboard for flight, that's why I had gone to controller. I'll take a look at some joysticks to see if any look tempting. I have a feeling that by the time SC finally does get released we'll be controlling our ships directly with our minds
*edit*
Just took a quick look at the T16000 set. The joystick says it has twist rudder control, so would the pedals be redundant?

Not necessarily, as using three directions of staffing burns up axis.

 

[marcsand2]

Would I be better setting up some sort of joystick/thruster/pedal combo

Yes, definitely!!!

I recommend checking out Thrustmaster's dual stick and HOTAS packs built around the T1600m

A cheap and good solution

So, if you ask 10 different people their opinion on this, you are going to get about 11 different answers

Why, I just completely agreed with @Deroth

you can hook up any and all amounts of controllers/joysticks/buttons to do things in the game

Hook up all the things!!! 2 flightsticks, throttle, rudder pedals, racing wheel, mouse, keyboard, gamepad, TrackIR.... nope, no playstation controller

The joystick says it has twist rudder control, so would the pedals be redundant?

nope

Not necessarily, as using three directions of staffing burns up axis.

@Radegast74.... agreed again with @Deroth

 

[Printimus]

Hell, I can use my farming simulator driving wheel to steer my spaceships.

 

[Phil]

I have HOTAS but man setting up the buttons is nerve racking :P

 

[Stevetank]

I do M+KB. I used to do dual sticks. I went back to M+KB because I mostly fly the bigger ships with the big gimballed guns, so using dual sticks was kind of moot for me.

Now that I have a few ships that I'll be flying that are big with fixed guns (600i) or big with no pilot guns (Carrack, Reclaimer), I might go back to using dual sticks. They are just a pain to mount and set up, ha.

 

[Michael]

I do M+KB. I used to do dual sticks. I went back to M+KB because I mostly fly the bigger ships with the big gimballed guns, so using dual sticks was kind of moot for me.

Now that I have a few ships that I'll be flying that are big with fixed guns (600i) or big with no pilot guns (Carrack, Reclaimer), I might go back to using dual sticks. They are just a pain to mount and set up, ha.

This, here is my experience with different kind of ships and innputs:

Whenever possible i prefer dual sticks over every other input method for flying, it gives full 6 DOF with twist axis.
HOSAS:
Dual Sticks is much more immersive than every other input method. (you might want to add pedals i have no experience with that). I think its definitly worth on smaller combat ships to replace gimballs with fixed guns and fly Hosas. Pedals are totally optional here if you're fine using Twist axis.

Good on every ship when flown in non combat, so i'm not going to mention that again.
Combat (fixed guns)
Gladius, Super Hornet, Sabre, Buccaneer ...

For bigger Ships like Caterpillar you might want to use whatever floats your boat since you will rely more on your turrets than your own turning capability -> HOSAS or HOSAM

HOTAS:
I always missed some degree of freedom with my hotas (hotas x was and probably still is a piece of junk, get Hall Sensors). Pedals might be very helpful avoiding that problem.
SInce this isn't my prefered input i would say this might be superior and immersive in athmospheric combat with the same ships as hosas


HOSAM or HOKAM:
In combat with ships which have gimbals (or turrets controlled by the pilot) you will want to prefer mouse (maybe HOSAM). You might want to use a mouse with programmable buttons to add roll or pedals.

Combat (Gimbal):
Freelancer, Cutlass, Constellation,

Game Controller:
I never liked input with game controller, but i'm also not a console player so might be releated to that.

Other input you might want to consider:

Voice Attack:
its really neat, cheap to use but you might want to buy an additional voice pack. Also takes some time to set up. You'll have to remember voice commands / setup duplicates. Also sometimes it doesn't recognizes my voice on the first try. Also Star Citizen might implement its own voice attack (mentioned in one of the recent CAD)

Elcato stream:
deck greatly enhances your keys with visible symbols and nested folder structure.

DIY:
As i wouldn't recommend building your own stick, you might be able to build your own command centre with an Arduino, BUO0836A or other stuff like that. (BUO is probably the easier way)
A Testie made something here: https://testsquadron.com/threads/diy-cockpit-and-custom-controlls.7210/

 

[Stevetank]

This, here is my experience with different kind of ships and innputs:

Whenever possible i prefer dual sticks over every other input method for flying, it gives full 6 DOF with twist axis.
HOSAS:
Dual Sticks is much more immersive than every other input method. (you might want to add pedals i have no experience with that). I think its definitly worth on smaller combat ships to replace gimballs with fixed guns and fly Hosas. Pedals are totally optional here if you're fine using Twist axis.

Good on every ship when flown in non combat, so i'm not going to mention that again.
Combat (fixed guns)
Gladius, Super Hornet, Sabre, Buccaneer ...

For bigger Ships like Caterpillar you might want to use whatever floats your boat since you will rely more on your turrets than your own turning capability -> HOSAS or HOSAM

HOTAS:
I always missed some degree of freedom with my hotas (hotas x was and probably still is a piece of junk, get Hall Sensors). Pedals might be very helpful avoiding that problem.
SInce this isn't my prefered input i would say this might be superior and immersive in athmospheric combat with the same ships as hosas


HOSAM or HOKAM:
In combat with ships which have gimbals (or turrets controlled by the pilot) you will want to prefer mouse (maybe HOSAM). You might want to use a mouse with programmable buttons to add roll or pedals.

Combat (Gimbal):
Freelancer, Cutlass, Constellation,

Game Controller:
I never liked input with game controller, but i'm also not a console player so might be releated to that.

Other input you might want to consider:

Voice Attack:
its really neat, cheap to use but you might want to buy an additional voice pack. Also takes some time to set up. You'll have to remember voice commands / setup duplicates. Also sometimes it doesn't recognizes my voice on the first try. Also Star Citizen might implement its own voice attack (mentioned in one of the recent CAD)

Elcato stream:
deck greatly enhances your keys with visible symbols and nested folder structure.

DIY:
As i wouldn't recommend building your own stick, you might be able to build your own command centre with an Arduino, BUO0836A or other stuff like that. (BUO is probably the easier way)
A Testie made something here: https://testsquadron.com/threads/diy-cockpit-and-custom-controlls.7210/

I have a small desk and I have to constantly switch around what I have in front of me from my KB+M to my drawing tablet to books. A command center is out of the question for me, ha.

I just don't have the room for dual sticks AND M+KB on my desk, so for when I get up to walk around or fiddle with my ship power settings, I need my mouse. It's only for racing and single seat fighters that I miss my dual sticks. With the bigger ships there's just so much more to do that I end up using my M+KB more. Especially chatting with people as I ascend the 100,000 KM from Lorville to space.

In my 600i I can put it on decoupled and go have a martini in the back as I watch the city get smaller and smaller. In my Caterpillar I have just enough time to get to the front of the ship, open the doors, then realize that I'm losing altitude because the decoupled is broken and it won't keep on flying with decoupled on.

I do say that dual sticks for dedicated fighter pilots is a must. It's SO much fun and well worth the $130 or whatever for a cheap set of T16000m's. More experienced pilots should try the Virpil sticks. I had 2 of them but ended up selling them since I hardly ever used them. I'm just not in a fighter enough to justify putting out the money for those. The T16000m I can swing for. Probably pick them up in the summer if CIG stops selling ships I need (want). CURSE YOU IDRIS K!!!!

 

[Phil]

I am honestly considering skipping the combat in the game because I am just not very good at it yet and I have this feeling like in other games the people who play the most and have the best hardware usually win most of the encounters anyways, I mainly want to be support whether its search and rescue, repairing or just crewing someones ship, I work a lot and my hours are horrible if its anything like FPS games you really need to sink a lot of time into combat, 1vs1 or dog fighting to be at the top of your game and I just feel I can't meet those standards, I am more into the coop gameplay, small groups and fleet play. That being said if you were to mainly fly support ships like an Apollo Triage, Hercules M2 or other medium support vessels does a M+K work better or still go for the hotas setup?

 

[SoloFlyer]

I am in the same boat, I'm probably only going to really have part of saturdays and all of sundays to play due to work. I'm probably not going to be able to get in enough flight time to be competitive against other players but I'm hoping that I'll at least be able to do missions and things going up against npcs and hold my own when that's finally all balanced out. I picked up a T1600m setup and it arrived today. I don't see myself having time to set it up until thursday or saturday but I plan on revisiting arena commander when i do :)

 

[Doggen]

I went back to hotas from hosas, figured with the new flightsystem the strafing would be as prevalent as before in human ships. Plus i think its just cool pushing a throttle forward ;D

 

[Michael]

I went back to hotas from hosas, figured with the new flightsystem the strafing would be as prevalent as before in human ships. Plus i think its just cool pushing a throttle forward ;D

Hotasas ftw ^^

 

[Crymsan]

I have a hotas and pedals and it makes flying so much more fun. I am not saying better but heh fun is fun. The downside is it takes up a lot of space and often sits in the cupboard (I need a new PC for star citizen anyways.)