10 replies to this topic

[George Ripper]

Looking into buying a new joystick or other similar peripheral to make things a bit easier on myself control-wise. Looking for suggestions on what to pick up. Keep in mind i don't have hundred$ to dump into this. LOL.

[Loc Nar]

Thrustmaster T16000 ($40), Cougar ($>180), or Warthog (>$350) are by far the shortest path to functioning stick, and I already have numerous scripts for them all. However, easier it will not be, unless you take drastic steps and build your own joystick using one of the above as the starting point. I have a mutant Cougar that works fantastically well, but it's an anomaly as you can see from the album. Airplane sticks make less than stellar mech controls.

Until sticks are available that: a) describes the motion a mech does (pitch/azimuth) has no spring centering, allowing absolute inputs (like a mouse uses), the nod of functionality goes to the mouse. Best control setup without fabricating this critical bit of hardware is throttle/mouse combo, pedals optional.

[George Ripper]

throttle/mouse combo?

[Oy of MidWorld]

I do very well with this:

http://www.saitek.co...rod/x52pro.html

I use it to emulate the mouse however, which only works with a very precise stick. It's around 150 bucks. It took a hell of a lot of practice though to get as good with it as with a mouse (about two years, including Living Legends...). A jostick only makes sense if you really dig the feel of piloting your mech with it.

The most general advise would be to get a fairly decent gaming mouse.

Edited by Oy of MidWorld, 26 February 2013 - 09:00 PM.

[George Ripper]

So does that allow you to control throttle, manuevering, AND weapons with the 2 peripherals? Or do uh still need the mouse on top of them?

[Zolaz]

Well, mouse will give you torso twist and arm movement. Throttle will give you throttle. What you need then is something to move your legs left and right. You can use some buttons on the throttle, use the keyboard or get some foot pedals.

[ego1607]

Has anyone tried using joystick in the left hand for throttle and leg movement and mouse for rorso/arms twist/? It seems great on paper, but I don't know how hard would it actually be to controll the throttle by constantly pushing the stick forward.

Edited by ego1607, 04 March 2013 - 07:24 AM.

[Loc Nar]

Quote

Has anyone tried using joystick in the left hand for throttle and leg movement and mouse for rorso/arms twist/?

There are several people doing it, but I don't think you would have any edge over a throttle/mouse combo, but likely would do better than those still clinging to keyboard inputs for their left hand for whatever reasons...

[ego1607]

Loc Nar, on 04 March 2013 - 01:51 PM, said:

There are several people doing it, but I don't think you would have any edge over a throttle/mouse combo, but likely would do better than those still clinging to keyboard inputs for their left hand for whatever reasons...

Well, I stick to my keyboard for now because throttles with enough keys to bind leg movements and other important stuff all come bundled with a high end joystick and cost 150€ or over. A middle class joystick I could get for less then 40€so that would be a much more afordable solution.

Edited by ego1607, 04 March 2013 - 02:44 PM.

[Loc Nar]

Hmm, I didn't mean that to sound as arrogant as it does. There are reasons, but bottom line just like 99.9% of sticks are no match for ease and precision of a mouse, a keyboard is no match for a throttle that removes the need for your left hand to touch it outside typing in chat, however just like analog turning is going to be a game changer for viability of various control schemes, they didn't forget about kbm users and throttle will now be able to behave in 'decay' mode, meaning it works like the gas pedal in a car, making mech driving with a keyboard an actual contender to match the speed and ease of a throttle, so as of tomorrow my argument will be invalid.

For standalone throttle, CHPro has enough to get the keyboard out of your hand and can be had for closer to $100, but people also use the very inexpensive T-Flight HOTAS setup without the stick to good effect, but you likely still need to peck at the keyboard here and there as well for functions that didn't fit on the unit. X52 Pro has enough I believe, and those can be had for $100 as well. Moving up to a Warthog or Cougar is best, but yeah not wallet friendly.

My own solution was reasonably priced since my Cougar was purchased ratted out and I made my own gimble with quite different properties (pitch/azimuth/absolute) from standard airplane (pitch/roll/relative) sim sticks; distinctions I feel are fundamentally important components for a truly viable stick solution for MWO or anything that moves like a tank for that matter. I can use either mouse or stick or both, since the stick operates as a mouse emulator anyhow and they're both active.

tl;dr: as of 3/5/13 keyboards will be nearly on equal footing with a dedicated throttle, but decent throttles can be found for reasonable costs but I'm a nut that built his own stick and loves it

edit: relevant post to March 5 changes to controls etc...

Edited by Loc Nar, 04 March 2013 - 03:50 PM.

[CyBerkut]

It appears that the control changes did not make it in to the 3/5/2013 patch. <sigh>

At least we have the training grounds now, to test tweaks out in without messing up other people's matches.