[Mongoose]

The joystick ramping behavior in FS does leave much to be desired (though I think one or two of the coders have taken steps at fixing it up), but I could never see myself playing the game any other way.  As far as I'm concerned, it's the best interface for making smooth broad motions in multiple directions, and you just can't beat the sense of immersion that it provides.  Plus, given my skill level, I don't rely so much on fine aiming as getting right up in the rear of the enemy and jamming down the primary trigger.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

The joystick ramping behavior in FS does leave much to be desired (though I think one or two of the coders have taken steps at fixing it up), but I could never see myself playing the game any other way.

In the same way that I can't see myself playing FS2 or D3 with anything other than a keyboard.

[Mongoose]

But seriously, though?  Flying around a kickass interstellar spaceship with on-or-off keystrokes?  Hell, the only thing worse than that are Star Trek's touchpads, which is why Tom Paris made the brilliant decision to outfit the Delta Flyer with good ol' analog controls in Voyager.

[stuart133]

I really can't think of playing any flight or space sims without a joystick. It would be like playing a race sim without a wheel.

[QuantumDelta]

For the longest time I played only with keyboard/mouse. I've got a joystick now, but I still need the mouse for long-range shots. The problem is the stick's too noisy to be set to zero-deadzone effectively... despite the Logitech software that will let me tweak the joystick settings directly.

...If there would be one neat piece of hardware to have for FS... it would be a custom-configured external numpad. Slave all the comm functions to it and you'd have a much easier time! It would be quite cool to build a full-scale FS cockpit console; makes me think of a thread a while back where they were putting FS in a VR environment... can't remember which one it was though...

It's in the code forum, the guy who spoke to me about it still wants to do it but for the most part it'd be up to us(and by us, I mean the coders) to get it done I think, well, most of it anyway.


I would suggest you guys who think joysticks are superior and required come play some multi ;p
For those of you that prefer it, I've found quite a few people end up complaining (if they're not hyper competitive anyway) that they end up extremely tired after a good tvt.
Meanwhile us keyboard users have barely inserted any physical effort, just a lot more judgement and skill.
'Course, I similarly swap over to the mouse for extreme-range maxim de-turreting and stuff.

[Mongoose]

Like I said, I'm not in it for the aim accuracy or mad skillz or fatigue reduction or anything like that.  Spaceships should have a real control stick, and that's that.

[Zacam]

I think the topic title should replace "sadist" with "masochist".

Just saying.

[Droid803]

Yes that has been noted.

You surely mean masochists?

Sadists would be people who make super-hard missions.

[Narwhal]

... or players that would disable enemy fighter before shooting them down.

[Dilmah G]

Or mod the Cyclops to be usable as a dumb-fire warhead and let it loose on fighters.

[TopAce]

Or mod the Cyclops to be usable as a dumb-fire warhead and let it loose on fighters.

With its nonexistent shield damage, give me a Rockeye any day against fighters.

[Goober5000]

I only play in Insane / Joystick now. Even User-made campaigns.

...

I have just finished the ST:R level in which you escort a group of 3 Science Vessels.

Oy.  Well done.  Let me know how you do when you get to Chasing Shadows.

[Narwhal]

Took me 50 tries, and the final technique involve more knowing the exact spawn time and the relative spawn points of the shivans.
I should really carry on on hard. I have no played since I finished that level (MMP2 on Europa Universalis III got released in between  )

[ChronoReverse]

I usually start on Insane until I get tired of dying dozens of times per mission before beating them and going back to Hard (lol).  However, if a campaign has a recommended difficulty level, I would start with that first.

As for the controls, I map the pitch axis to the extra buttons on my mouse so that I could DIVE DIVE DIVE when needed while maintaining the aiming precision the mouse affords.  Therefore I have the capability to smoothly rotate in (arguably) the most important axis while still having minute control.