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Joystick suggestions

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kylekatarn77:
I have been fine up until now using a mouse and a keyboard, nothing wrong with that. But lately I’ve been getting that old nostalgic pull of banking and turning and strafing with a good joystick in hand.

At this point in time with the current version, are there any joysticks in particular that I should avoid? Any that work just fine on a good budget? And are there any that, for a little extra money, will deliver a noticeably superior performance?

Trivial Psychic:
My current stick of choice is a Saitek Cyborg EVO, and its the second one I've used.  At one point I used a Saitek X52, which have a huge number of button features and with software is fully programmable, but it is quite pricey, even with more advanced Saitek models out there.  For me, the Cyborg has always been my budget stick of choice, but that's because I found both of them at Value Village for under $10 each on 2 separate occasions.  It's a solid stick with a decent number of buttons, twist axis, and throttle, but I doubt it can often be found at the same price I did.

Novachen:
Actually i can recommend the Logitech G940... because it is a HOTAS with Force Feedback :).

Other wise... i would still prefer a Force Feedback Joystick, not only for Freespace, but for flight sims also. The extra price is absolute worth it IMO.

But if you can imagine to buy a used one... even older FF joysticks like the extreme durable Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 are not very expensive.

Herra Tohtori:
For an affordable, entry level single-unit controller, get the Thrustmaster T.16000m. It has the same sensors as the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog, and although it isn't nearly as sturdy mechanically, it will do the job. Has throttle and twist handle axis.

For something a bit more involved, the HOTAS version of the T.16000m comes with a throttle, and can be expanded with Thrustmaster's rudder pedals - although they are not the best of pedals, having quite a narrow base.

This would be perfectly sufficient for most space sims there are, including FS2 and Elite:Dangerous. However, with older games like FS2, you need to ensure that your controller setup is handled as one logical controller, because the game can only handle one controller at a time.


For flight sims, you would ideally want to have a passable set of rudder pedals with nice wide base for comfortable use, some kind of throttle, and a decent joystick. Personally, I use Saitek's Combat Rudder Pedals (which are not the best, but good enough for me), old Saitek X52 throttle (with stick disconnected), and CH Fighterstick USB joystick. Almost any combination works with almost any semi-modern flight sim, but this particular configuration does not work in FS2 because it's seen as three separate controllers, though, so just keep that in mind.

If I had all CH gear (CH pedals, CH throttle, and CH joystick) I could combine them into one controller with the CH Control Manager. But I don't really like the style of CH's pedals or throttle...


The *ideal* setup for me would be something like Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog joystick + throttle, and SLAW Device pedals (either the Bf 109 or F-16 version)... but that all gets seriously expensive.

hirmuolio:
You can get multiple controllers working on FS2 with UJR + vJoy combo. UJR allows you to merge multiple controllers into single virtual vJoy controller that the game sees.

I have the Thrustmaster T.16000m and it is great. But the throttle is really awkwardly placed and not so good so I use another (broken) joystick with better throttle for throttle alone.

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