[Black Wolf]

I'd say the best way to do it would be through a modifier button, probably one of the shoulder buttons. As an example, Down on the DPad might be switch secondary banks, but hold down, say, L2 and press down and you link your secondary banks. This'd effectively double the number of buttons. So I'd have:

	Standard	With Modifier
D Pad Up	Switch Primaries	Link Primaries
D Pad Down	Switch Secondaries	Dual Fire Secondaries
D Pad Left	Cycle Turrets	Reverse Cycle Turrets
D Pad Right	Cycle Subsystems	Reverse Cycle subsystems
Triangle	Equalize Shields	Target in Reticle
Cross	Accelerate	Target Nearest Hostile
Circle	Countermeasure	Target Bomber
Square	Decelerate	Escort Target
L1	Afterburner	N/A
R1	Fire Primaries	N/A
L2	Modifier Button	N/A
R2	Fire Secondaries	N/A

Select - Pauses action, brings up the Comm menu.
Start - Pauses action, brings up Objectives (with tabs for Messages, options, quit mission etc - basically the esc and F keys on a keyboard.
Left Stick - Steering
Right Stick - Controls allocation of shields to individual quadrants.
No use for L3 and R3.

[Blue Lion]

Well this has certainly run off on a tangent, hasn't it?

[Snail]

Well this has certainly run off on a tangent, hasn't it?

Nah not really, still related. At least we're not talking about creationism or underwear sizes yet.

[headdie]

Well this has certainly run off on a tangent, hasn't it?

Nah not really, still related. At least we're not talking about creationism or underwear sizes yet.

lets face it to make a game today like FS3 it would have to be exposed to the maximum audience possible which means consoles so it would need to be possible to have the control scheme fit on a control pad

[Titan]

Well this has certainly run off on a tangent, hasn't it?

Nah not really, still related. At least we're not talking about creationism or underwear sizes yet.

lets face it to make a game today like FS3 it would have to be exposed to the maximum audience possible which means consoles so it would need to be possible to have the control scheme fit on a control pad

... yeah 

That's already been established

[Scotty]

SEVERAL times.

[IceFire]

Not really, many of the buttons are used for targeting.
A little creative use of the D-pad, etc. would work great for a console game.

This is true.  Some smart targeting could be brought in so that the targeting aspects were less time consuming.  Targeting has already been simplified since the early space combat days.  Anyone remember incessantly locking your target in in Wing Commander so you wouldn't loose track of your target? Much of what we have in FS2 isn't necessary if the core targeting scheme is modified.

[Pred the Penguin]

Not really my point, but still works.
Even slightly simplified, FS would still be fun to play.
Now we just need FS3 made.

[Colonol Dekker]

Freespace made simpler would be less fun. It would be less than Freespace.
 
If I can't do everything in freespace 3 that I can in the previous 2, somethings wrong.

[TopAce]

How can one simplify FreeSpace any further?

[Colonol Dekker]

Removing advanced target controls like the G key. Other little insta shortcuts like Shift and P. Taking away Fred most importantly.

[Bobboau]

fred and freespace are two completely separate entities.

[Colonol Dekker]

All the more reason i'd not buy it for console.

[Snail]

Taking away FRED would kill it for me.