[S-99]

Hopefully the mouse has some keyboard mapping software for the extra buttons
I don't even know if manufacturers make software like that for mice

[StratComm]

They do, though the "five buttons" are fairly standard (the 3rd, 4th and 5th now all mapping to the wheel IIRC).  You can find mouse drivers at the manufacturer's website.  If it's a Logitech mouse then their mouseware drivers, while bloated, will do what you're wanting.

[Eightball]

Hmmm.  What's the term for the following:

1) Looking at Colossus, realizing that I'm looking at it upside down.
2) Making the ship move so that it isn't upside down without moving sideways.

Is that banking?  I though banking was turning just using the "y-axis"...

[S-99]

Yeah you got it, it's called banking
In other words, spinning your ship

[Eightball]

Cool.  Thank you. 

[Mars]

To be honest, I use a keyboard and only touch my mouse when using the Maxim at its maximum range to take out small turrets on large capital ships.

[[DW]-Hunter]

lol why not just use ctrl?

[S-99]

Because when you're firing with the mouse for a long range shot, you use the mouse button
But, if you want to get really technical, if you used ctrl for making a long range shot with the maxim and aiming with the mouse
You wouldn't shake the mouse any clicking the mouse

[Cobra]

i use a joystick, since i've used one my entire life. (started from a Microsoft Sidewinder Pro) most joysticks have tighter control than a mouse, as the mouse tends to coast instead of almost immediately stop.

I use THIS joystick for FS2. it's a total blast. i'd probably own with the maneuverability i get with this.

[Flaser]

Hmm....this calls for the stea....I mean conscious apreciation in SCP code of yet another Lock-On feature:

Response curves.
By assigning rounded response curves to stick devices, one can achieve even GREATER accuracy with a joystick than a mouse.

[Nix]

I've been playing with the keyboard and mouse combo with one layout ever since I got my hands on Freespace 1 in 1998.  Playing vs. another guy who used pure keyboard (used the numpad for the pitch, yaw, roll) I consistently outmaneuvered him, and playing vs. people with joysticks, I've held my own fairly well.  I've never played FS1/2 with a joystick, ever.  I honestly don't want to either. 

[[DW]-Hunter]

i use a joystick, since i've used one my entire life. (started from a Microsoft Sidewinder Pro) most joysticks have tighter control than a mouse, as the mouse tends to coast instead of almost immediately stop.

I use THIS joystick for FS2. it's a total blast. i'd probably own with the maneuverability i get with this.

hehe i have the very same stick.

[Deepstar]

I play Space-Sims since Frontier - Elite II and Wing Commander I on a Amiga 500 with a Joystick.
Joystick is in my opinion a must-have for this Games.

I think with a Joystick the whole game has a better atmosphere

[S-99]

Hmmm, yes, the commodore 64 or 128 My dads 61, and owns several commodores. I always thought they were awesome computers, even to this day. But, i never knew they were actually advanced game consoles either(definition wikipedia gave me). I guess that's why we only had about 500 or so games for the thing, besides using the machine to do taxes, and the fact that it can actually surf the net. I guess this means my dad was a gamer, or he just wanted a really good computer(1980's good). I've always had high respect for the machine, but i never knew it was seriously like one of the best computers of it's kind. The cool thing about the commodore though is that it still gets used for a ton of things. In a way, the commodore has outlasted any pc or mac
I should boot up the commodore and leave a post on here with it...because i can

[karajorma]

Amiga 500 != Commodore 64.

Not by a really long way. The Commodore 64 was basically a decent 8-bit home computer. The Amiga on the other hand was a fully functional personal computer that was somewhere between 5 to 10 years ahead of it's time. It was Commodore's dreadful mismanagement of the Amiga that led to it's downfall in fact.

[S-99]

Yeah, i still like that machine a lot, it still does have some application for some things you can get done. But, of course, everyone remembers it for the games
My family had like 3 commodores, two 128's, and a 64. And we had lots of joysticks for it too. Those things were 8 directional and had a button. The joysticks for the commodore were very interesting in a certain respect. Commodore joystick inputs were the exact same as sega genesis controller inputs. In reality, sega genesis controllers were compatible on commodores, and commodore joysticks were compatible on the genesis. Me and my brother would always plug in the commodore joystick when we lost a sega controller for the genesis, and then we'd play nba jam. Nba jam with one button was actually possible as was sonic the hedgehog. And a turbo sega controller on the commodore was crazy.

[Cobra]

I know, I did that with my old Atari... i think it was a 1600 or something. anyway, i stuck the original sega genesis controller in the joystick port and played to my heart's content.

[Paegus]

originally played Descent with pure keyboard as the mice at my school where clunky in-keyboard trackballs. later we moved on to quake and i was forced to start using a mouse which had been upgraded to actual mice by this time. when we migrated back to Descent after our school's headmaster mysteriously learned about all the pentagrams of protection we were hunting, it being a catholic school and all, i found that i could not go back to keyboarding it.
i do have an old ms sidewinder pro joystick that i've tried to use from time to time but i keep going back to the mouse because the accuracy is just too precise to pass up.
currently using a logitech MX1000 with the Cruise Up/Down keys re-bound for pitch Down/Up and the Tilt Left/Right re-bound for Yaw Left/Right to assist so i'm less likely to run out of mousepad while tracking a target. banking is done with Q and E since i'm stuck firmly in the WASD config from most FPS gaming. but arg if i don't have to suppress the urge to mod all the ships to allow for at least small amounts of lateral, vertical and reverse thrusting...

if the mouse support is enhanced as mentioned here which sounds suspiciously like Freelancer then

[Mongoose]

Mice are for groundpounders.  Real pilots know how to handle a stick.

[Cobra]

Define groundpounder.