I am an Elite Dangerous player currently using a VKB Gladiator and CH Pro Throttle. I am a Star Citizen backer but I don't play because my gaming time is somewhat limited and I want everything I do to count towards something, just messing about in a beta doesn't really interest me.
I used the following joysticks/hotas in the following order:
-
Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X (babys first hotas ) -
Saitek X-52 (upgraded to X-55 - jealous of a friend) -
Saitek X-55 (wore out the shitty switches in the grey hat control in 6 months, twice) -
CH Pro Throttle (to part-replace the X-55) -
Cobra Defender M5 (to part-replace the X-55, replaced by VKB Gladiator) -
Thrustmaster T-16000M (experiment with dual joystick) -
Logitech Extreme 3D (experiment with dual joystick) -
VKB Gladiator- How would you set up your twist axis if both grips would offer twist? What purpose for the left-hand twist, and what purpose for the right-hand twist? When I experimented with dual sticks, using the T-16000M on the left and the Logitech on the right, both had twist.
- The right hand was set up for X (pitch), Y (roll), and twist (yaw).
- The left hand was set up for X (thrust forward/backward), Y (thrust left/right), and twist (thrust up/down).
Note that in elite you can bind throttle or thrust foward/backward or both, in my setup I bound thrust and not throttle.
The first thing I did not like was the increased concentration/attention required to maintain the exact thrust I needed. In Elite holding 50% thrust/throttle gives you maximum turning speed/efficiency and so I would attempt to hold that position while applying other thrust and not always manage it as effectively as I do with a standard throttle.
I have since heard that many people configure a separate throttle which they set to 50% more or less permanently and then use the X axis thrust fwd/back to add/remove speed, this might have resolved my issue here. That said, it's "nice" to be able to put a throttle in a position and know it will stay there without conscious effort. What you lose by doing this is any haptic feedback of the throttle position, which would be nice.
The next thing I did not like was the left stick twist axis for thrust up/down. It doesn't really feel right to twist for a thrust up/down, is twist left up, or down, why? I am sure I could get used to one particular set up, but it bothered me that the input device motion did not track the in game motion.
I stuck with this for a day or so, just to see what it was like, but for the reasons above I went back to my CH Pro Throttle which is a throttle and has an ANALOG input on the THUMB (important, more precise than index finger etc) which is oriented such that it feels right to use it for thrust up/down and left/right.
On the right I was using the Cobra Defender M5 which IMO has the "right" number of inputs for space sim (2 hats, 2 buttons, trigger (dual stage is a plus), and a pinky button). The other thing I really liked about the Cobra was a mode selector I could access without taking my hand off the stick itself. Whether flying dual stick or hotas, and this would be even more true if I had VR (I have Track IR instead), you don't want to take your hands off the controls for any length of time if you can avoid it.
I have since replaced the Cobra with the Gladiator. The stick itself is superior to the Cobra. I now realise the Cobra resistance was "too light" and provided little to no haptic feedback of the stick or twist position, it was also very easy to apply unwanted twist. The Gladiator is an improvement in that respect. My only issue with the Gladiator is the reduced number of buttons/hats available on the stick itself. The buttons on the base are "ok" but require taking your hands off the stick and finding them in VR is probably a bigger issue.
My Elite configuration uses the pinky button as the UI focus button (press it and a direction on the hat to look at a UI panel) and I also overload it as a modifier button. As such I had to remove all the lovely built-in modifier combinations (so Elite would see it) which reduces the logical buttons available to me by a fair whack. I don't currently use the mode button (I need one on the stick itself) although I could potentially .. especially if it was possible to 'press' a button as I entered a given mode - I need to dig into the software a bit more to see if this is possible.
Then I could have it drop the landing gear as well as modifying the other buttons for things. One issue with doing this in Elite is that you often land, then deploy the surface recon vehicle and this has several bindings in common with the ship in flight mode so it often doesn't work all that well.
- Follow-up question: Would you prefer a twist grip over rudder pedals? If so, why? If not, why? I prefer a twist grip.
Reason #1 is because I am used to it. My left hand just does what it needs to do to guide the ship without any thought any attempt to move the pitch roll and yaw from this hand has me totally confused and I haven't been willing to spend my limited gaming time adjusting to a very different setup.
Reason #2 is a lack of space in my small study where my computer is set up and the requirement that the computer be usable for work as well as gaming. Had I the space, or no requirement for work, I might well build a flight chair in which case pedals would be a natural progression.
This is why I have the non-pro Gladiator, because it has a twist. In addition I didn't want to spend that much on a stick before a
more suitable space sim grip was available.