[Stormy Fairweather]

Those shaders are awseome.

How exactly does the medal thing work? I have two accomadations and have gotten four others.

Also, welsome beams are no match for sarcasm shields.

[General Battuta]

You could always try playing sans mouse and joystick... aka full keyboard only. 

Though I feel like the odd one out being the one who plays with both hands on the keyboard (it is surprisingly precise given practice).  One hand on yaw, targeting, firing, and thrust with the other hand controlling pitch, roll, and GSE.  It takes less movement for the fingers compared to large hand movements with a joystick but the downside is that very small maneuvers tend to be rapid series of taps rather than a single continuous motion.  However, there are a lot more "buttons" at your disposal compared to a regular joystick, useful given the amount of commands that Freespace has.

I play keyboard only. It's the only way to fly.

[TrashMan]

Those shaders are awseome.

How exactly does the medal thing work? I have two accomadations and have gotten four others.

Also, welsome beams are no match for sarcasm shields.

You get medals for completing bonus objectives. You don't always know what they are form the mission.

But you can see them in the wiki:
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Awardable_Medals

[Dilmah G]

I play keyboard only. It's the only way to fly.

Get out. Right now.

* Dilmah G throws several crosswind and short circuit scenarios at Battuta and his keyboard.

Well done. FreeSpace is a game that takes practice, and usually makes you earn your medals, so good on you for persisting.

Yeah, that's what I love about Freespace. The flying may not come too naturally (though it isn't *really* flying), but once you get a feel for the combat and pace at which it takes place, it's even more rewarding.

[newman]

Best way to fly is with a full HOTAS setup, nothing beats that. I use a cheapo one but it still served me well for a long time. I wasn't terrible in multi either on the rare occasions I'd play it. Single player posed no problem at all. I can't imagine flying with a keyboard only. I can understand the mouse fliers to a degree, as it does allow you some finer control over the keyboard. But keyboard only? Press the "bank left" key, and it simulates the "stick" being pushed all the way to the left. You can't really make fine adjustments (say simulate the stick being pushed only 1/3 to the left), it's all 100% or nothing.

[General Battuta]

I play keyboard only. It's the only way to fly.

Get out. Right now.

* Dilmah G throws several crosswind and short circuit scenarios at Battuta and his keyboard.

Never had a problem with those in Falcon.

[Dilmah G]

Best way to fly is with a full HOTAS setup, nothing beats that. I use a cheapo one but it still served me well for a long time. I wasn't terrible in multi either on the rare occasions I'd play it. Single player posed no problem at all. I can't imagine flying with a keyboard only. I can understand the mouse fliers to a degree, as it does allow you some finer control over the keyboard. But keyboard only? Press the "bank left" key, and it simulates the "stick" being pushed all the way to the left. You can't really make fine adjustments (say simulate the stick being pushed only 1/3 to the left), it's all 100% or nothing.

I agree. You lose all sense of tactile connection with the aircraft, you mechanize and destroy what should be a beautiful process with a keyboard! Okay, no really, stick and rudder's what I've grown up with, and I don't see enough of an appeal for k/m replacing stick to warrant my active efforts in learning it. I've done alright with keyboard on a few occasions though, but it just felt wrong.

Never had a problem with those in Falcon.

I'm going to call your bluff on this one.

I think it's actually impossible for you to fly a perfect short circuit with a keyboard unless you have three hands/keyboards. Unless of course the keyboard or your fingers can tolerate upwards three-four different inputs simultaneously (lookout before turning whilst conducting rejoin checks/prelanding, checking engine torque psi reading to downwind whilst observing downwind position and doing the start of the pre landing checks, or pulling the base to final part of the second turn whilst manipulating views and PCL to maintain perfect descent with runway reference point and checking descent speed to make the threshold at relevant TS as well as lowering flaps to maintain aforementioned, off the top of my head). And a short circuit in a crosswind? Don't get me started.

And to think a buzz and break, the kind of pattern entry/landing you're meant to be doing in an F-16 is doing most of that in a few seconds, I'm really beginning to doubt whether it's possible to fly the aircraft perfectly and do all of that when the throttle isn't an axis lever that can be manipulated whilst performing other functions and most of those functions have to be done through tapping keys instead of with both hands concurrent to flying the aircraft when you fly with a keyboard.

Come to think of it, I don't think Falcon actually teaches half of that stuff to you to begin with.

[The E]

Pointless derail is pointless.


Everyone knows Mouse + KB is the only way to play anyway.

[General Battuta]

'bluff' implying i am bluffing

Landing in crosswinds was always a bit of a *****, but since idgaf about doing it right I never had any particular problems. Don't know why you have to bother with all that drama, just point plane at runway, hope there's not an APC on it. If you go into the grass it's cool, you'll probably be fine. You can always eject zero-zero.

I remember playing with a bunch of guys online and they were a) annoyed that my tactics were so effective in dogfights because they were totally unrealistic and b) insisted I could not be playing with a keyboard because I was able to kill them and you need a joystick to get any kills god damn it

Pointless derail is pointless.

Everyone knows Mouse + KB is the only way to play anyway.

mice are for rodents!

[Sushi]

BTW, I looked at the threads in the modding forums, but I couldn't find a code to make the mouse LIKE a joystick, IE: deadzone, move outside it to move, return to stop. But the only threads I found either A) didn't have a code that I could make work, B) seemed to do much more than what I wanted. I even tried to find a program to emulate this. I had zero luck. It was failing at this that made me go and buy the joystick, but if anyone has a simple script that can do that without screwing up anything, please please please post it here.

There are two ways to do this:

1. http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Script_-_Scripted_Mouse
2. PPJoy (fake your system into thinking your mouse is a joystick)

[Dilmah G]

Pointless derail is pointless.

Yes, it is, so I won't say anymore on the merits of precise flying in an F-16 beyond this post for the thread's sake.

Landing in crosswinds was always a bit of a *****, but since idgaf about doing it right I never had any particular problems. Don't know why you have to bother with all that drama, just point plane at runway,

Oh jeez, you're doing it wrong already, and procedure is there to make sure you don't, you know, break the plane. Although plane breakage generally occurs during ejections and collisions with static APCs on airport runways. ;D

I remember playing with a bunch of guys online and they were a) annoyed that my tactics were so effective in dogfights because they were totally unrealistic and b) insisted I could not be playing with a keyboard because I was able to kill them and you need a joystick to get any kills god damn it

I believe it. Dogfighting in the game is only realistic if you play it that way, since it's a video game of course; you're just as capable of devolving dogfights into some kind of simplified FPS where the only objective is to move the pipper over the target.

[General Battuta]

I believe that all IRL militaries need to adopt my methodologies immediately or face tremendous disadvantages in wars to come.

[Rodo]

Why do you even use the mouse?, I just use the Keyboard most of the time, mouse is kinda slow to reactions.

[IronBeer]

I used to use stick, but in more recent years I've gravitated towards a 360 gamepad. May not be for everybody, but I love it. Mouse I use occasionally for maxim sniping, and since we're throwing accuracy stats around here, I typically score around 35-50%.

[SypheDMar]

Left handed mouse and numpad. Best of both worlds.

[Dragon]

Keyboard cannot possibly beat a good HOTAS in a simulator.
Sure, it and mouse may be more precise, but I don't imagine looking for all these functions and keystrokes.
Also, precision only matters in a gunfight, on longer ranges where missiles are used, ability to manage the radar, scan, lock targets, controll the plane and ECMs simultanously gives a tremendous adventage. That's what a real HOTAS can do, for example CH Fighterstick+CH Pro Throttle, Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar, Logitech G940 or any similar high-end HOTAS system.
On a keyboard, you can do only two of these things at the same time (at least, with default configuration) .

[General Battuta]

Really? Never had much of a problem with it meself. Push buttons with two hands, one way or another.

[Dragon]

Yes, but even a basic HOTAS allows you to do at least 3 things at the same time, since you don't push buttons to steer (and mouses I know don't really have enough buttons to fully controll any of the aircraft's systems). And it's difficult to have all fingers on some meaningfull functions on a keyboard, while on CH Pro Throttle it's natural.

[Rodo]

We should have a multi some time, see what happens with different gameplay styles.

I suck anyway so I don't care but I would be up for some multi fun, just to get away from SinglePlayer campaigns.

[General Battuta]

Control method would be conflated with pilot skill and connection.

QD said the old SquadWar elites tended to go pure keyboard with occasional mouse, though.