My thoughts on this product:
My personally favored control scheme is Joystick-Mouse. For this purpose I use my old favorite 'Mech stick, the Logitech Ext. 3D Pro, and my ambi gaming mouse the Razer Lachesis. Purchasing the new stick and key pad aren't terribly interesting to me because they do not appear to offer configuration options flexible enough to provide the type of control I like.
I can't help but notice images of multiple USB ports on the rear of some parts of the equipment. My ability to use the SCREEN with my current setup as an additional situational awareness/immersion tool would be AWESOME! I would even go so far to say that I would dump $100 on the screen, more if it included touch functionality.
I think the more flexibility options we have for our controls the greater value any type of peripheral will have to the player. Forinstance, my Logitech stick has a throttle imbedded in the base. I use only one hand on that stick, as my other is on my mouse, and so I am not able to very efficiently operate that throttle. The stick controls most of my primary 'Mech functions including maneuvering tools and fire control group hotkeys. The thumb throttle on the keypad would be useful, but it would sacrifice my other options. I would much rather be able to assign throttle control to my Y-axis than buy a new peripheral and potentially lose performance.
It definitely looks great! That's a plus.
Edited by TrentTheWanderer, 08 June 2012 - 01:37 PM.