[Jubalitn]

Alright, I know your going to roast me for asking but it's bugging me.

I played the original Freespace a few years back (I got the jewelcase one), and didn't have a joystick at the time so I just used the mouse, which worked fine.

Recently I purchased a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, and even more recently got into FS2.  I've been playing it with the joystick for about two weeks now.  The problem though, is that even though I've gotten used to using the joystick I still totally suck with it.  I've switched back to trying the mouse once or twice, and I find I'm accuracy is increasing ten fold.  So my question is which is better?  Do you guys think the joystick gives a level of accuracy that's just not achievable with the mouse?  Should I just keep at it with the joystick and eventually I'll get better?  Or should I just give up and use the mouse?  Or maybe do I just have a really bad joystick ?

Thanks for the responses.

[Shade]

Mouse is definitely more accurate for aiming. But a joystick is better for flying. Guess it's a matter of style really, if you're a sniper go with the mouse, but if you like to dogfight, I'd definitely stick with the joystick.

[Blaise Russel]

Keyboard all the way.

[Polpolion]

I've been using my joystick for two days and I've gotten okay with it, ya' know not great, but not bad. I tried going back to the mouse to kill some of those pesky dragons on that mission where you hunt the Azrel, but I was even worse with the mouse than with the joystick! and I used to be decent with the mouse! You should stick with the joystick, you'd probably start getting better and anyway, if you purchased it, you probably spent a buttload of money on it. I know mine cost .

[firestarter]

I use the keyboard. It's a lot easier for me, especially when my wireless mouse runs out of batteries so quickly.

And contrary to my name, I don't start fires  .

[ShivanSpS]

I Always use the Keyboard, ou only need to configure the keys well...

[[DW]-Hunter]

Recently I purchased a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, and even more recently got into FS2.  I've been playing it with the joystick for about two weeks now.  The problem though, is that even though I've gotten used to using the joystick I still totally suck with it.  I've switched back to trying the mouse once or twice, and I find I'm accuracy is increasing ten fold.  So my question is which is better?  Do you guys think the joystick gives a level of accuracy that's just not achievable with the mouse?  Should I just keep at it with the joystick and eventually I'll get better?  Or should I just give up and use the mouse?  Or maybe do I just have a really bad joystick ?

I personally just use pure keyboard and mastered it, you cannot bank with mouse, so give up the mouse. Without banking its gunna be pretty difficult to dodge every missle comming at you. if you play multi, your deffinity going to need that technique.

[Eightball]

Joystick just feels better, plus the seven buttons makes killing things easier.

Unfortunately, my banking axis is too jittery to play with, and I'm too lazy to look up with keys use it.

Somewhat OT, but what is the key for spinning?  IE, not banking but rotating the ship around the axis created by the pilot's forward view.

In X-Wing/Tie you held down the "targeting" button on the joystick and then could spin yourself around, but I don't know how in FS...

[Starks]

I personally just use pure keyboard and mastered it, you cannot bank with mouse, so give up the mouse. Without banking its gunna be pretty difficult to dodge every missle comming at you. if you play multi, your deffinity going to need that technique.

Can't a multi-button mouse (5+ buttons) allow banking?

[S-99]

I used to play fs with only keyboard.
Then i got the gamepad i fell in love with (gravis exterminator).
I sort of sucked at accuracy with the joystick, until i just sort of got better, then next thing i know, i was awarded the ace medal.
Then i moved over to mouse, supremely accurate, like everyone says as the sniper, and also good for spraying a target with automatics
I don't see why you can't bank with the mouse?
It's the exact same control scheme for basic movement as the keyboard and the joystick.
Anyway, you can steer left right up and down with the mouse, keyboard, and joystick.
You roll your craft with two other buttons.
So i don't see how the mouse wouldn't apply to no banking anyway.

[Jopi]

Joystick just feels better, plus the seven buttons makes killing things easier.

Unfortunately, my banking axis is too jittery to play with, and I'm too lazy to look up with keys use it.

Somewhat OT, but what is the key for spinning?  IE, not banking but rotating the ship around the axis created by the pilot's forward view.

In X-Wing/Tie you held down the "targeting" button on the joystick and then could spin yourself around, but I don't know how in FS...

Banking is spinning around the forward-backward axis, pitch is up-down, yaw is left-right. IIRC, you can bind a key to bank, it's in the options under "Bank when pressed."

[Turnsky]

joystick all the way, i'm a bit of a barn-raiser in terms of flying ability in most games 

[Unknown Target]

Stick FTW!

[Backslash]

Can't a multi-button mouse (5+ buttons) allow banking?

Not yet.  I'm working on this 

Yeah, the bank-when-pressed control is what you need, but there's precious little room on a 3-button mouse.

I must say the joystick is my favorite option (and I think in many cases the people that don't like joysticks haven't tried a good one), but in some games I use both at once :-D  Haven't come up with a perfect setup yet as Freespace has too many useful keys, but it's got the potential of best-of-both-worlds.  (Especially if I can figure out a viable way to get the code to treat the mouse and joystick buttons separately  as an option...)

[S-99]

Oh man
Banking buttons on a 5 button mouse?
That's possibly going to be good when you're not shooting
I don't know how that's going to go

[[DW]-Hunter]

Joystick just feels better, plus the seven buttons makes killing things easier.

Unfortunately, my banking axis is too jittery to play with, and I'm too lazy to look up with keys use it.

Somewhat OT, but what is the key for spinning?  IE, not banking but rotating the ship around the axis created by the pilot's forward view.

7 and 9 are banking, and spinning around IS banking btw.

[S-99]

The absolute best to way to play fs2 was with a gamepad that has dual L and R buttons
If it's only got one set of L and R buttons, it sucks
Obviously one set of the buttons is for primaries and secondaries
The second set of L and R's is for banking:)
If a gamepad doesn't have that(like my new one), then uggghh:(
Damn i need to get a new gamepad
And having dual joysticks is just utter ****
The other joystick gets setup by default for banking:(
How the hell does that work when i need to shoot and bank at the same time?
My gripes about my new control only being good for super nintendo emulation

[[DW]-Hunter]

I personally just use pure keyboard and mastered it, you cannot bank with mouse, so give up the mouse. Without banking its gunna be pretty difficult to dodge every missle comming at you. if you play multi, your deffinity going to need that technique.

Can't a multi-button mouse (5+ buttons) allow banking?

Nope. Freespace doesnt support mice with more then 2 buttons

[Dark Hunter]

I use the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro as well. As to the accuracy arguement... well generally my hand is steady enough to make extremely precise movements, so that I find myself making long-distance shots with ease. I tried using a mouse... and the controls went haywire! I moved it just a little bit and my ship would flip upside down, or I'd try moving up and to the left, and I'd move down and to the right. I am not a fan of mice in space sims for this reason.

[castor]

I personally just use pure keyboard and mastered it, you cannot bank with mouse, so give up the mouse. Without banking its gunna be pretty difficult to dodge every missle comming at you. if you play multi, your deffinity going to need that technique.

Can't a multi-button mouse (5+ buttons) allow banking?

Nope. Freespace doesnt support mice with more then 2 buttons

In reality it isn't quite that sad, as mouse drivers/software often allow one to map the extra buttons to any keypress.
There tend to be some issues though, like buttons getting "stuck" with certain keypress combinations