So I've been playing a little more Elite: Dangerous lately, using just an Xbox controller, and.... it's frustrating.
My hope was to be able to use Elite: Dangerous as a universal game to play, either in my rig or using my bedroom PC. I didn't want the hassle of setting up controllers, setting up TrackIR, looking at more cables that I'm never going to manage properly...
But the Xbox controller just doesn't feel like it's cutting it. It feels like you can set the controller up to do a thing, but the it lacks versatility. Every button is capable of having a sub-menu, but certain things are still missing. If anyone has a better ".binds" file for an Xbox Controller they'd like to share, I'd love to try it, but it wasn't the experience I was hoping it would be. And that's not all-together unsurprising, or anything against the game. I was just hoping this game would be a lot more Ace Combat when it's trying to be more DCS-FC.
I'm eyeballing an upgrade to joysticks. I gave my Warthog HOTAS to a co-worker, who was getting into flight-sims. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and it absolutely was worth every penny I spent on it, but now that Warthog has moved on, and is living it's best life in someone else's hands, using it for what it was intended for. And what it was intended for, IMO, is NOT space combat. The multi-position switches, dedicated switches and flight controls are tailor-made for fighter jets. I'm sure people use them for space combat, but it's not the aesthetic I'm looking for, it's a level of complexity beyond what I'm looking for, it's bulk demands more space than my "desk" can accommodate, and it's beyond the budget I'm hoping to spend to replace it, for fewer axis than a space sim requires.
I REALLY enjoyed using my Saitek X-55, when I had it. So much so, that when the first one failed, I bought a new one. It's abundance of momentary switches allowed for simple mapping. It's size fit in the same space that I'm still using to this day. And it failed exactly the same way a second time, and so I'm not buying a third one. It's awesome, right up until you pull the tiny wires out of the throttle, because they made them just too short, and didn't give them enough room to move with the throttles. And, from what I've read online, the X-56 is just a coat of paint over the same problems, so I'm not doing it again.
For the right-hand joystick, I think I'm pretty sold on trying out the Thrustmaster SOL-R1 (Or SOL-R3+SOL-R5, if it's the only way to get it in black because white seems like a terrible idea in my life?). It's almost all simple momentary switches, the button quality is highly praised (supposedly due to a collab with a premium DJ soundboard manufacturer), all using the same H.E.A.R.T. HallEffect sensors from the Warthog.
The left-hand joystick is where I'm stuck. I don't like the traditional HOSAS layout for a couple reasons;
So what are my options?
The coolest looking thing out there, imo, is the VKBSim STECS Space Throttle System. I'd probably stick with the Mini, due to it's small footprint. It has the fewest buttons, but the button quality of VKB doesn't look very good, and even some of the buttons that it does have are specifically designed for use in Star Citizen. Maybe there is a way to use them in Elite: Dangerous, but that is added complexity that isn't really a benefit. The Thrustmaster already has 44 buttons + 38 more on my button boxes. The entire focus is on getting a high-quality, hemispherical throttle, but with the bonus twist-grip providing that 6DOF space control. The downside; most reviewers seem to complain about input bleed when operating the throttle. What, on the surface, looks like an elegant solution to add mobility to the tried and true HOTAS concept, may inadvertently make things worse when it provides that mobility at an inopportune time... maybe you're trying to accelerate/decelerate through the letter-box of a space station, but moving the stick forward/backward also twists the stick slightly up/down, causing you to scrape against the top/bottom of the letter box...) I've heard rumors that space port controllers frown upon those kinds of mistakes... all rumors, though, definitely all rumors.....
A version of this with a way to lock the grip-axis, and a simplified button offering would be nice, but probably not in the cards. The final issue with this setup is software. I don't know what kind of software and drivers VKB uses, but if I get this, then I'd have to deal with Razer, Logitech, Corsair, Fanatec, Thrustmaster, AND VKB software and drivers, all co-existing on the same Windows install... enough that one more probably wouldn't hurt, but could equally result in a recipe for tearing my hair out.
The smartest option would probably be to go with the SOL-R 6 HOTAS. And so I probably will.
I wrote this whole thing out to basically come to that conclusion. There is no "pros and cons" of the Thrustmaster SOL-R 4 (seriously, who the hell named this whole line... it's the dumbest thing ever. I'm about to have an aneurysm working out the SOL-R #'s) and this throttle is basically a slightly improved version of the TM16000 throttle.
It's the simplest solution, which is always the best solution... as long as it's not absolute crap....
....
Oh my god, that looks like absolute crap... that's not even what I was looking for... I was looking for the throttle, not the joystick... and that's not what the other joystick comparisons looked like... or sounded like...
I should have stuck with Ace Combat.
I was supposed to go to bed hours ago...
My hope was to be able to use Elite: Dangerous as a universal game to play, either in my rig or using my bedroom PC. I didn't want the hassle of setting up controllers, setting up TrackIR, looking at more cables that I'm never going to manage properly...
But the Xbox controller just doesn't feel like it's cutting it. It feels like you can set the controller up to do a thing, but the it lacks versatility. Every button is capable of having a sub-menu, but certain things are still missing. If anyone has a better ".binds" file for an Xbox Controller they'd like to share, I'd love to try it, but it wasn't the experience I was hoping it would be. And that's not all-together unsurprising, or anything against the game. I was just hoping this game would be a lot more Ace Combat when it's trying to be more DCS-FC.
I'm eyeballing an upgrade to joysticks. I gave my Warthog HOTAS to a co-worker, who was getting into flight-sims. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and it absolutely was worth every penny I spent on it, but now that Warthog has moved on, and is living it's best life in someone else's hands, using it for what it was intended for. And what it was intended for, IMO, is NOT space combat. The multi-position switches, dedicated switches and flight controls are tailor-made for fighter jets. I'm sure people use them for space combat, but it's not the aesthetic I'm looking for, it's a level of complexity beyond what I'm looking for, it's bulk demands more space than my "desk" can accommodate, and it's beyond the budget I'm hoping to spend to replace it, for fewer axis than a space sim requires.
I REALLY enjoyed using my Saitek X-55, when I had it. So much so, that when the first one failed, I bought a new one. It's abundance of momentary switches allowed for simple mapping. It's size fit in the same space that I'm still using to this day. And it failed exactly the same way a second time, and so I'm not buying a third one. It's awesome, right up until you pull the tiny wires out of the throttle, because they made them just too short, and didn't give them enough room to move with the throttles. And, from what I've read online, the X-56 is just a coat of paint over the same problems, so I'm not doing it again.
For the right-hand joystick, I think I'm pretty sold on trying out the Thrustmaster SOL-R1 (Or SOL-R3+SOL-R5, if it's the only way to get it in black because white seems like a terrible idea in my life?). It's almost all simple momentary switches, the button quality is highly praised (supposedly due to a collab with a premium DJ soundboard manufacturer), all using the same H.E.A.R.T. HallEffect sensors from the Warthog.
The left-hand joystick is where I'm stuck. I don't like the traditional HOSAS layout for a couple reasons;
- I don't like the symmetrical look, it bothers me - The symmetry of the sticks implies a symmetrical amount of input on both controllers. This isn't going to be news to anyone, but I am not a very coordinated person. I am as far from ambidextrous as they come. I can read text better, hanging upside down reflected through a mirror, than I can precisely operate my left hand. Not even a joke, throwing anything with my left hand makes Carly Rae Jepsen's first pitch look spectacular. A three-year-old child could throw farther than I can with my left hand.
- I fly big, dumb, lumbering ships - probably to mask my inept coordination, I prefer the bigger, slower, ships. Not that they have to be the biggest, or slowest, but I like my ships with a bit of meat on the bone, an inability to change directions faster than my brain's buffering rate, and controls that feel like they match. HOSAS feels more aimed at sporty racers and nimble fighters, whose pilots are tweaked out on an unhealthy, well calculated, balance of Adderall, nicotine, and caffeine (meth is optional, but not discouraged).
- I want to set the throttle position, and then be able to get up an use the restroom, or get some food, or just take my hand off the controller and relax. With HOSAS, you always have to keep holding the controller forward. Again, it makes sense for tight spaces and precise movement, but it becomes less useful for medium and long periods of time. I know you can also map buttons to throttle increase/decrease, as well as specific 10% increments, but that leads into the final problem...
- It doesn't match the look of the game - Elite: Dangerous has a cockpit designed around HOTAS, and, while I know this is entirely superficial, I feel HOSAS would feel just as out-of-place for me as mouse-and-keyboard or xbox controller. If it were up to me, Elite: Dangerous could really use an option to chose what kind of controls you're using, maybe offer a "seat choice" where one seat has HOSAS controls and one seat has HOTAS, or something like that.
So what are my options?
The coolest looking thing out there, imo, is the VKBSim STECS Space Throttle System. I'd probably stick with the Mini, due to it's small footprint. It has the fewest buttons, but the button quality of VKB doesn't look very good, and even some of the buttons that it does have are specifically designed for use in Star Citizen. Maybe there is a way to use them in Elite: Dangerous, but that is added complexity that isn't really a benefit. The Thrustmaster already has 44 buttons + 38 more on my button boxes. The entire focus is on getting a high-quality, hemispherical throttle, but with the bonus twist-grip providing that 6DOF space control. The downside; most reviewers seem to complain about input bleed when operating the throttle. What, on the surface, looks like an elegant solution to add mobility to the tried and true HOTAS concept, may inadvertently make things worse when it provides that mobility at an inopportune time... maybe you're trying to accelerate/decelerate through the letter-box of a space station, but moving the stick forward/backward also twists the stick slightly up/down, causing you to scrape against the top/bottom of the letter box...) I've heard rumors that space port controllers frown upon those kinds of mistakes... all rumors, though, definitely all rumors.....
A version of this with a way to lock the grip-axis, and a simplified button offering would be nice, but probably not in the cards. The final issue with this setup is software. I don't know what kind of software and drivers VKB uses, but if I get this, then I'd have to deal with Razer, Logitech, Corsair, Fanatec, Thrustmaster, AND VKB software and drivers, all co-existing on the same Windows install... enough that one more probably wouldn't hurt, but could equally result in a recipe for tearing my hair out.
The smartest option would probably be to go with the SOL-R 6 HOTAS. And so I probably will.
I wrote this whole thing out to basically come to that conclusion. There is no "pros and cons" of the Thrustmaster SOL-R 4 (seriously, who the hell named this whole line... it's the dumbest thing ever. I'm about to have an aneurysm working out the SOL-R #'s) and this throttle is basically a slightly improved version of the TM16000 throttle.
It's the simplest solution, which is always the best solution... as long as it's not absolute crap....
....
Oh my god, that looks like absolute crap... that's not even what I was looking for... I was looking for the throttle, not the joystick... and that's not what the other joystick comparisons looked like... or sounded like...
I should have stuck with Ace Combat.
I was supposed to go to bed hours ago...
