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Recently, while looking at Loc-Nar's battle station, I saw that some people were using a stick left handed. Since my flight stick can be be set up for ether hand, I decided to give it another try.
The Stick: I'm using a 10 year old Saitek Cyborg Evo. This stick features a hand rest that can be moved from side to side, so that it can be used with ether hand. The buttons on the crown of the stick can also be tilted, and turned, so that you can place then in a natural position. If your stick is a right hand only model (like the ThrustMaster Loc-Nar showed in his cockpit), it will not work. I do not know if Saitek still makes this model, but a quick check of Ebay showed them going for $10-20.
Previously, when I used this stick in flight sims, I just placed it between my legs and under my thighs. This gave it me the "I'm in a plane" feeling that I was looking for. I didn't think this was going to work while using a mouse in my right hand, so I secured the stick to my desk top with some scrap wood and clamps. I added a armrest, made out of packing foam and gaffers tape, for comfort. I hope to come up with a cleaner mount later, but this works fine.
I then spent a couple hours in the testing grounds trying to set it up, and get a feel for driving with it. I should point out that you are still aiming you mechs weapons and upper body with the mouse, the stick is used to drive the mechs legs, in place of the WASD buttons. Pushing the stick forward accelerates the mech, pulling back puts it in reverse, and just letting go stops you. You don't need to use the "full stop" button with the stick. I am not using the "torso twist" option, that is still controlled by the mouse. My goal was to make it so that the only reason I had to take my hand off the stick was to type in the chat. After much trial and error, here is the control layout I've settled on.
- Trigger: AKA button 0 toggle zoom
- Center bottom thumb: AKA button 1: Strategic overlay (show names)
- Left bottom thumb: AKA button 2: Toggle weapon chain fire (normally backspace)
- Right bottom button: AKA button 3: Next Target
- Left top button: Center Torso
- Right top button: Jump jets
- Analog throttle: Axis Y
- Analog turn: Axis X
- D-pad up: Override
- D-pad down: Show scoreboard
- D-pad right: Map
- D-pad left: Center legs
The stick has 6 buttons on it's base, I've used them for toggle ECM, shutdown, arm lock, etc. Flavor to taste. The throttle, which I can't use due to my ghetto mount, should be used for weapon group 5/TAG. The stick twist, normally used for rudders, is not used.
I put together a little demo video to show you what it's like. I used one of the fastest, jumpiest, mechs I owned, figuring that if it worked with that, it would work with an Atlas, and everything in between.
http://youtu.be/naJHfXQskOc
Conclusion: When I started this, I said to myself, "if this doesn't work as good as a keyboard, I wont use it." I'm happy to report that it works just as good as the WASD, and in some respects, notably the throttle control, and ability to make "soft" turns at less then 100%, it's better.
Comments and feedback are welcome. Enjoy.
Tarmac
Edited by Tarmac, 10 July 2013 - 01:09 PM.
