Okay, I need a Professional. :(

[XeoWolf]

Normally, I'm fairly handy when it comes to anything computer related. All my friends, co-workers and family always come to ME for help with computer related stuff & things.

With Star Citizen though... I'm going to be bald by the time I get this figured out on my own, and maybe by the Avatar you can tell that I've taken a lot of time growing this mop.

There's all those settings in game... Mouse settings for flying, walking and chewing gum... Not to mention there seems to be like 4 of everything... HOTAS 1, 2, 3 and 4? (WTFrack?? How do I know which one is for the freakin HOTAS I'm using? How many HOTASESESES' could one person use??)

Then there's the freakin Saitek profile thinga-ma-doodler over by my clock, which I was told I shouldn't bother with so i haven't except to try and figure out which button was what number and so on.

THEN... because There's SO many functions in the game and its much easier for me to remember words and phrases rather than multiple key strokes, combo's, presses and holds... I use Voice Attack with CEDAR 1.3 voicepack.

So there's all those settings spread out all over the damn place and I'm yanking clumps of hair out every time I get into game.

-------------------

IF by chance someone is available AND has the patients of Mother Teresa, I'll be around pretty much all weekend. I could use someone kind enough to pull me into discord (which I could use some help with too, btw) and guild me from the beginning, getting my controllers set up.

I'd like to get the controllers sorted out and any functions left over that I cannot comfortably control with my hands, I would like to leave to Voice Attack.

Humbly
~Xeo

 

[Printimus]

I have the Saitek X56, dont use the saitek profile editor. Use the in-game settings.

 

[XeoWolf]

Yeah, someone told me not to use that so I've only used to as a reference for the buttons.

 

[Blind Owl]

I have the x55. I started at "movement", and slowly started editing everything to suit me. It was a pain the ass, took a while, but I got there. Go into free flight or Vanduul swarm as your doing it. That way you can test everything as you go.

Do NOT forget to export your file under a unique name, and then sae that mapping file somewhere outside of your USER folder, so you don't loose it when you update the game.

 

[XeoWolf]

Okay, so should I just totally turn off the Saitek software from the task bar, then ONLY use the in game settings?
And how do i know which of the 4 hotas settings to work with? That part in there where they have:
Mouse> Keyboard> HOTAS1> HOTAS2> HOTAS3> HOTAS4
is confusing as hell... why are there 1 thru 4?

 

[BUTUZ]

Manually rebind all the joystick commands so you get to know what they are and which one is button 1 and 2 and 5 etc.

 

[Dalarast]

Normally, I'm fairly handy when it comes to anything computer related. All my friends, co-workers and family always come to ME for help with computer related stuff & things.

With Star Citizen though... I'm going to be bald by the time I get this figured out on my own, and maybe by the Avatar you can tell that I've taken a lot of time growing this mop.

There's all those settings in game... Mouse settings for flying, walking and chewing gum... Not to mention there seems to be like 4 of everything... HOTAS 1, 2, 3 and 4? (WTFrack?? How do I know which one is for the freakin HOTAS I'm using? How many HOTASESESES' could one person use??)

Humbly
~Xeo

Xeo I'm right there with you. Ever since 2.0 dropped I stopped mapping my keys and my HOTAS hasn't even been plugged in. The frustration of remapping or figuring out which key is what drives me away from playing.

Nothing is more entertaining to my wife when I show her the latest release of SC and I can't figure out how to take off or jump to another system.... I swore it was this button last time.... :/

I'm very happy for all the new bindings and functions and I foresee even more changes to come.... If you do find something that works please post what you end up doing to help the other lazy/overwhelmed people's... I'm trying to hold off till 3.0.... But this current build looks amazing.

 

[fiarce]

Manually rebind all the joystick commands so you get to know what they are and which one is button 1 and 2 and 5 etc.

I agree 100% with this as well. I went through and removed all bindings and then went into free flight and began toying with the bindings until everything was set just where I wanted it, and where it made the most sense to me. The one thing I will say, is if you do end up dual sticks, just remember to bind both coupled and decoupled strafes :D

 

[AstroSam]

Do NOT forget to export your file under a unique name, and then sae that mapping file somewhere outside of your USER folder, so you don't loose it when you update the game.

This.

Anything else will come by further development progress. Keep calm, stay tuned - have a cookie ;)

 

[XeoWolf]

All cookies must be Peanut Butter to qualify.
m'k?

 

[XeoWolf]

Yeah..... the hair is coming out faster than I expected...

HAAAALP!

 

[marcsand2]

First you must determine which controls you want to use.

Not to mention there seems to be like 4 of everything... HOTAS 1, 2, 3 and 4? (WTFrack?? How do I know which one is for the freakin HOTAS I'm using? How many HOTASESESES' could one person use??)

Most of the time I use 3, flightstick, throttle and rudder, but sometimes I also use the 4th, G13 :D

First and most important: get your controls right. I'm sorry for the mouse users, I am a HOTAS/rudder user so not allot useful tips here. You can't combat while looking for the right button. First prioritize. You must have primary and secondary controls under direct control.
Primary:
- Pitch
- Yaw
- Targeting
- Fire
- Counter measurements
Secondary:
- Strafe
- Boost
- Zoom
- Throttle
- Roll
- Missiles
Some people like to keep their desk functional, other @Just Jake like to go to the limit and create a real good cockpit. I'm somewhere in the middle.
Since I use rudder, a turning chair is out of the question, you can't roll while your chair turns the opposite side.

Second, also not unimportant, how to use your controls, a few are obvious, but other are underrated.
The obvious ones
- Pitch
- Yaw
- Fire
- Missiles
- Counter measurements

The underrated:

Targeting:
I use a 4 way hat switch for targeting:
front: Reticle focus
back: Pin focused
left: Cycle all
right: Nearest hostile

If you fight with more people a swarm, then it doesn't make sense to pick all the same target. Choose a group of targets and go for them.
If you kill one, then you might go after the closest, but the closest gets chosen the moment you killed your target. If the new target was flying in the opposite direction, then it may not be the ideal target any more. You must make a 180, while doing that losing your speed and be a perfect target for other enemies. Since speed is one of your best evasive actions, you rather want to keep it up.
A better approach would be to kill a target and choose manually a new target with reticle focus. Choose a target in front of you, if possible a target going in the same direction as where you are turning to, but closer is better because you can do more damage. Too close is not good because the chances are great that the target will pass you and then you must turn / loose speed to keep it in your reticle. Also never turn in to a target if its wingman is flying behind him, in case of 2 targets, always pick the last one. You can approach them in 2 ways, head on firing all guns or pass them on some distance to turn into them so you will get behind them. Head on means a tight turn, if more enemies are close then you will be a perfect target for them.
That is why the reticle focus is always under my thumb, always try to get the best target and that is often not the nearest hostile.

Pin focused is good to pin your allies, In 2.3 the pinned target always had a pointing arrow towards them, so you always knew on which direction they are. If you want to work as a group, then a good target not always is the best you can kill. If you can prevent that an ally gets shot down, then it will help you too to progress. Allies have 2 functions, the obvious is that they help you to defeat the enemy. The second function is that they will spread the focus of your enemy. If every enemy is aiming at you then you are more concentrated on evasive actions then killing enemies. Your primary target is killing as fast as possible as much a possible enemies, because if they get time to concentrate their fire on you, then you will be death soon. This implies, your primary target is killing as much as possible enemies and try to keep your allies alive. Help them if possible

Strafe:
If you engage an enemy head on, then you will get closer. There are 3 types of distance to your target: too far away, firing distance and too close. When engaging and using strafing and strafing, you primary are avoiding enemy fire, but if you strafe away from your enemy, you are also increasing the time that you are in firing distance, meanwhile keeping up distance so your turn into the enemy will be wider so you loose less speed. If enemy anticipates your strafe, then you will get hits. An opposite tactic is strafe towards your enemy. You will get a short time in the line of fire, but your enemy will loose target and must turn in the opposite direction to catch up again.
Another advantage of strafing is that if an asteroid is in your path while keeping your guns focused on target, you can alter your path without loosing focus.
Strafing also helps turning tighter without loosing speed. If I engage a target and strafe away, then I will reverse strafe while passing the target to speed up the time to get that target in my gunsight without loosing too much speed.

Boost:
While turning boost helps allot to gain speed again, Speed is your best friend in dodging fire and missiles. Also if you are heading for the next big rock, make a 180 or whatever is necessary to get away from it an hit boost to speed up the evasive action. In emergencies hit the afterburner, but beware, boost overrides you G-force safety, release it on time to avoid blackout.

Zoom:
If closing in on a target, then Zoom helps allot to improve your aim. remember to zoom out on time, you won't see asteroids in your path while use strafe and zoom at the same time. I tend to stay zoomed too long, need to practice that. Zoom really is fantastic. Before zoom my Gladius was a nice to have but way undergunned, with zoom my Gladius became really effective.

Throttle:
In my 350R I need throttle to avoid blackouts. On all my other fighter I hit full throttle on spawn and keep it that way. I try to maintain target distance with strafe.

Roll:
Realistic roll is on the stick left/right and yaw is on the rudder. I'm an old fighter pilot. In the beginning we didn't had roll, only pitch and yaw, (we also had digital joysticks!!!!) so the stick always was pitch and yaw, you can't do without, roll is luxury. When I got my HOTAS without roll, I missed roll. When I got my rudder pedals I got used to missing roll and more appreciated the left brake pedal as zoom.
Roll is good to keep target focus and to minimize negative G-force effects. Lets keep it simple. If you are turning and your head points to the inside of your curve, then the blood would leave your head. Blackout. If your head points to the outside of your curve, then the blood will go to your head, Redout. You can have more Blackout G-forces then Redout G-forces. Use roll to keep your head on the inside of your curve.
Another good use of roll is evasive actions If you are flying away from or engaging towards your enemy, he will try to shoot at you. If you apply strafe, then he can anticipate. If you use roll and strafe together, then you are flying in a straight line but rolling around that line. Very hard to his. If I'm not mistaking, this is called a barrel roll. I find it not that useful while engaging a target, but it is surely useful while trying to fly away and evade enemy fire. Also very useful while trying to evade a missile.
Keeping your speed and maintain strafe also is very useful while evading missiles.

My suggestion:
Left hand:
- Pitch
- Yaw
- Roll
- Fire
- Missiles
- Counter measurements
- Targeting

Right hand:
- Strafe
- Boost
- Zoom
- Throttle

Remove all joystick bindings and start from scrap.

Okay, so should I just totally turn off the Saitek software from the task bar, then ONLY use the in game settings?
And how do i know which of the 4 hotas settings to work with? That part in there where they have:
Mouse> Keyboard> HOTAS1> HOTAS2> HOTAS3> HOTAS4
is confusing as hell... why are there 1 thru 4?

I don't know how Windows 7 does it, but 8 and 10 give every controller a number, this number changes if you unplug a controller and plug it in again. Best way is: never unplug a controller or your setup will be mixed up :confused:. You can export your bindings, but only the modified bindings will be exported, the not-modified bindings are not exported, so you can't just rename the controllers in your export file and reload it :p

 

[XeoWolf]

I sort of have a good start one getting the stick/throttle set up.
There's still too many other functions for me to do it all by hand so voice attack is probably a must for me.

As of now I'm able to get in and fly... just need a lot of practice.

Stick lean left and right TURN the ship. Twist the stick it rolls, stick forward and back is pitch.

I have a 4 way hat on the throttle I use for strafing. Pull up with my finger it strafes up, push down... well you get it.
I noticed that instead of "jousting" going head to head, using a strafe left or right kind of gets this sliding effect where I can somewhat keep my aim on the target... or at least toward it, for now. More practice and learning when to let off the throttle in that situation will help a lot.

I still have some control issues to work out though. sometimes when I use missiles for some reason it'll drop out of gimbal lock. That I think is a voice attack profile issue.

Also, I'm not sure if its a bug or if it's something screwy with the settings but it seems that if i die then respawn in vanduul swarm I lose the ability to zoom in and out.

Thank you for all the tips and advice.

I really think that if I were to get some multiplayer time in with some of you, while on discord and being able to ask questions as situations arrise. it will help tremendously.

Again, Thank you so much!

 

[marcsand2]

Just try to get comfortable with your basic controls, then expand. I still miss your countermeasure and boost assignments.Vital in missile and asteroid evasion ;)