Right.
In an attempt to make it as impersonal as I can, and summarising so that it's less likely that the rage I have over this shows through...
It doesn't matter what control interface you use in FreeSpace, they are all balanced, none is lesser than the other, (with the slight exception of a lot of effort put into joystick settings and hardware modifications for a ..5%? if that? (and most of it comes from the throttle tbh..)performance advantage over the others), everyone in SquadWar season 3 had come to the peak of this games player performance, some plateau'd because there is some limits to the game that simply cannot be surpassed, that plateau was met most closely by three players.
I was one of the three.
I ranked in at a close #2, on the keyboard, #1 was a joystick user, and #3 was a mouse user (if it matters any, #4 was a track ball thingy user).
Having been playing this game for well over a decade, with thousands of pilots in multiplayer, I am thouroughly convinced that the interfaces are equal, and that player skill is the single most important factor. Why? - Because through all the generations of people playing this game, the good players (I sort of exclude myself from the current generation slightly.. same as fubar..) have surfaced regardless of interface, in fact, at the moment they are mostly mouse users, online (very small majority). If you count the people who have only known FSO multi, the mouse users are DEFINITELY the best pilots out of everyone currently flying and the difference is EXTREMELY obvious in a dogfight.
Even though I'm summarising I have gone through great lengths to detail out that the mouse is not in any way the weaker interface.
Why? - Because this is the general perception, however, this is the general perception for two related reasons.
The mouse is also the most commonly used interface.
The mouse is the interface most commonly used by the people who are not as good at the game.
The idea that the mouse is bad is a complete logical fallacy, and those that believe that it is in any way should do a lot of soul searching and ask themselves if it's really the mouse that's failing them, and if it is, why they haven't migrated to the keyboard (which is just as universal as the mouse), or the joystick (which most tout as clearly superior).
The reason this script has been requested was because people want to pamper to the lowest common denominator, well, that is wrong. It is wrong because people who are /not/ bad, already use that interface, and they will gain from the script as well.
The reasons this is wrong are a few fold;
1) People already build mods around the mouse as a control mechanism - and this will make it worse, for those who do not use the mouse, certain ships, and certain mods, are virtually unplayable, simply because the mouse can exert too fine a degree of control for the other mechanisms to be able to emulate.
To prevent this second one, as long as I have any say in project multi there will be no such scripts existance in proper gameplay, period. You wanna use this script? No stats, no stats means no squadwars either, upon it's return.
2) People will use this to gain a competitive edge over others in multi, and this will force anyone who was on the same level as whoever it is they're competing with before, will have to follow suit, or be left behind. Very likely after a time, me included.
3) People will use this control interface and learn the game in this playstyle, and if/when they ever want to play multi, be forced to turn it off and learn to play the game properly all over again.
This is a major anti-noob stopping problem, because there is absolutely no way to marry up a script that can swap between the best turning and perfect aim with multi-play. Period. It will NEVER work.
Gonna stop there because it will really erupt into flaming again.
Wasted over an hour on this and I'm still pissed.
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