I've had several people mention HOSAS setups. I'm not quite sure how I would adapt to them, but the bigger problem, especially for the gladiator NXTs is that VKB can't even keep them in stock. I'll keep watching videos and see if I can wrap my head around the HOSAS setup. Thanks for the feedback.
I'd vote against HOTAS for two reasons.
1. You need to be able to use all six degrees of freedom (forward/backward, left/right, up/down, pitch, yaw, roll) equally easily. None of them is less important than the others.
2. Throttles put buttons you will want to use (even if only eventually) on the base, where you have to take your hand off the throttle control to reach them. Why do you have to take your hand off the input device controlling three of your degrees of freedom of movement in the middle of a dogfight, to quickly change your power balance, shield priority, fire off countermeasures etc? Wouldn't it be better to keep your hand on the stick while you do that?
Look at u/BuzZz_killer's dual joystick bindings for Star Citizen, such as the ones below (he supports other sticks). The most recent post I can find is
announcing his bindings update for 3.15, but if you look at his Dropbox folder, he has made minor updates to the bindings files for 3.16, for the following:
- Dual Thrustmaster T-16000Ms
- Dual Virpil Constellation Alphas,
- Virpil Alpha + Mongoose CM3 HOTAS
- Thrustmaster FCS HOTAS
- Dual VKB Gladiator (Waiting on updated files from SubliminalsTV)
No x56 HOTAS, but he does do the FCS HOTAS. Look how it uses that little tiny joystick on the throttle for strafe up/down and strafe left/right. You have to control both with a single finger. In a fight, or for a tricky landing, you'll have far less precision for those two input axes than you would get with a proper joystick axis - you'll tend to slam them to their max range of motion more.
For a space sim, I can't understand why so many people prefer a HOTAS (stick and throttle); HOSAS (two sticks, preferably both with twist) makes far more sense and gives you MUCH better control.
Here's how they work for arguably the best sticks available commercially (Virpil Constellation Alpha grips with Virpil WarBRD bases) - which are really expensive but I LOVE them and I've tried at least four kinds of sticks for HOSAS:
[Edit: for some reason I can't get this image to show like the one above does, sorry, you'll have to click on it to see it :( ]
View attachment 1645699076960.png
Start by looking only at the labels below each stick image. In BuzZz_Killer's mappings (which I think are not unusual, just good, free, and regularly updated):
- The left stick controls translation: forward and backward thrust on its forward and back axis, left and right thrust on its left/right axis, and up/down thrust on its twist axis. A real-life plane only has 'forward more' and 'forward less', so a throttle makes sense. Space ships have engines that can make them thrust in all directions, so you need a way to command your ship to thrust backward, left-right and up/down in addition to forward, and arguably all need equal precision.
- The right stick controls orientation: pitch up/down on its forward and back axis, yaw on the left/right axis, and roll on the twist axis. Some people like rudder pedals for either yaw or roll (or even both - the freaks!
). I have MFD Crosswind rudder pedals. They're gathering dust. My chair has castors because my gaming chair/desk is also my office chair/desk, and with rudder pedals, I slide around and it's not very comfortable to use. If you have a dedicated gaming space, or a simpit, pedals might be really great for you.
I found the twist axes hardest to get used to. It took me
nearly 20 minutes of flying for the strafe up/down on left stick, and roll on right stick to begin feeling natural. After several hundred hours flying the same sticks with more or less the same mappings, it's second nature :) I don't think about my inputs most of the time, I just think where I want my ship to be and where I want it pointed, and it sort of just happens smoothly by itself. (I'm not saying I'm a good pilot - I'm crap - but it's an easy sort of being crap).
If you can get two sticks - even Thrustmaster T.16000s which are a good entry-level twist stick, you can try HOSAS out cheaply.
To get them set up with mappings, there are some default ones for several sticks built into Star Citizen now, but I haven't tried them and I believe they're not perfect. It might be easiest to start with BuzZz_Killer's YouTube videos where he explains how to set the mappings up - it's not at all hard, and he documents it in his README well, but there are a couple of steps and some folks find a video easier:
BuzZzKiller - YouTube. He uses a freeware/pay what you think it's worth tool called
JoyToKey which is simple, neat, and allows you to have a lot more commands mapped to the same number of physical buttons.
HOSAS > HOTAS for sure!
