13 replies to this topic

[cam135]

Hey guys how many of you use joysticks instead of keyboard and mouse or control pad? I use a joystick and was wondering how to change the speed and sensitivity in MWO or if that is even a supported controller?

[Hammerfinn]

Honestly, while JS can be a lot of fun and pretty immersive, it's at this point pretty much gimping yourself to use. The precision of Mouse/KB or Mouse/Throttlestick provides a significant advantage to most players. I've looked into it a little bit, and it seems that there's no front-end JS sensitivity adjustment available--you may be able to change it in a user.cfg but since I don't do that stuff, I'll leave it to someone else to explain.

Short and sweet: Mouse is almost always better than JS for everything except immersion.

[Koniving]

There's user.cfg controls to adjust that. One moment.

http://mwomercs.com/...joystick-users/

There ya go.

Some notes:
Assign joystick throttle, look, etc. to these controls. Regular movement controls with the joystick are very bad for you.


If you go with an actual joystick to go with your throttlestick... remember it must be a "Zero-Channel" "Zero-Order" joystick. If not, you'll be miserable as heck with one and better off with a mouse.

90% of joysticks are "First-Order" and thus absolutely worthless for MWO.

(Order, not channel.)

The difference:
Imagine a marble on a glass panel. The marble is the crosshair you are aiming with.
Zero-order, you have your hand directly on the marble. This is the control of a mouse or zero-order joystick.
First-order, you are trying to move the marble by picking up the panel and tilting it. That's your average joystick.
Which gives you more control?

Edited by Koniving, 11 October 2013 - 07:15 AM.

[Kaosity]

Depending on the JS you use and the software support from its manufacturer this may or may not help. Sensitivity is adjustable on some and not on others. I assume you're running Windows. If so, try this:

Open your control panel.
Click on Game Controllers.
If you have more than one controller select your JS.
Click on Properties.

At this point adjusting the sensitivity will or will not be supported.


Good luck.

[Amsro]

I use a Joystick and Mouse combo, works great!

[Napoleon_Blownapart]

i use the tflight hotas x with both the stick and weapon controller.and finer aim with a trackball between them.

[StarGeezer]

I use a flight throttle control for speed/direction, and a mouse for torso-twist/aiming. Many also have some success using a "throttle-stick" set-up. While there are some die-hard folks out there, most consumer joysticks aren't set up for the sort of precision you need for aiming weapons. High-end sticks and a few custom-made jobs have reported some success, but that's way outside my pay-grade to experiment with for a game.

[Buckminster]

I'm a huge fan of joystick and mouse (HOJAM?) - using the joystick as analog throttle and turning, and mouse for aiming. It's nice that the joystick also has all the extra thumb buttons - it lets me assign buttons for vision modes, jump jets, etc.

I definitely have an old school sim background, and I did not want to play MWO without a joystick. I tried using it exclusively, using the throttle on the stick for throttle, and using the x,y and z axis for aiming and turning. It was really gimpy - it was very difficult to make the minor aiming adjustments I needed to accurately use direct fire weapons, I was basically relegated to using LRMs or streaks. But I just couldn't handle the idea of using WASD for movement - I wanted MWO as a sim, not a mech-themed Call of Duty game.

I use a Sidewinder 2. It's technically molded for the right hand, but works fine in my left.

[cam135]

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I can't seem to find the USER.CFG file do i have to make it?

Edited by cam135, 11 October 2013 - 09:29 PM.

[Kaosity]

cam135, on 11 October 2013 - 09:06 PM, said:

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I can't seem to find the USER.CFG file do i have to make it?

Yes. Create in "...\Piranha Games\MechWarrior Online"

[Reaper One Nine]

I think it warrants pointing out that most of the joystick users that enjoy their setup are using the joystick non-traditionally with their left hand... so if anyone knows of left handed joysticks, now that would be cool.

[Loc Nar]

If anyone is curious what a working zero-order control joystick like Koniving was talking about being acceptable for reticule aim is like, check out my pit projects.

...my zero-order mechstick -custom gimbal makes full use of absolute inputs, so as such has no spring return or detentes, and instead uses heavily damped friction joints. It moves in pitch/yaw with a large range of motion, and says in whatever position it is left it.

Mech's torso remains oriented with stick position, so for instance if I pitch the stick down and yaw it left and leave it there, the mechs torso will also be pitched down/yawed left and will stay there until the stick is moved again, but I can feed inputs faster than even the fastest mech can react.

This stick is mounted in my current mechpit... pit can be driven HOTAM -hands on throttle and mouse (BTW, anyone using left hand joystick/mouse, this is what your scheme is called and a throttle is really just a joystick mechanically optimized for holding position...) as well since stick un-mounts and armrest/mousepad flips forward in it's place.

My joystick is mechanically optimized to directly manipulate target position, whereas a regular stick is optimized to generate velocity commands, and these two different tasks breed mutually exclusive mechanical arrangements to avoid ergonomic shortcomings. For these reasons, my stick is as much a fish out of water in a flight sim as a flightstick is in MWO. The marble on a glass analogy is good. Here's another... imagine playing chess:

Zero-order control -using your hand to move the chess piece to it's new square.

First-order control -strap the piece to a tiny rc car and drive it to it's new square.

Control orders actually continue to climb in number, and complexity/response time with each progression, although games only require attention focused on zero and first-order since those are so very common in games and so different from each other. That said, some axes are technically second order inputs (like steering a mech for instance), but their behavior in game is nearly identical so the differences academic. Continuing the analogy above:

Second-order control -using a robot arm to manipulate the controller driving the rc car

Third-order using a robot arm to manipulate the robot arm that is manipulating the controller driving the rc car

Fourth order -add another robot arm to control the robot arm controlling the robot arm... ...

...and some background on zero-order vs first-order control and why it's important, in case these are unfamiliar terms since this is what is at the heart of all controls; however most mouse vs joystick discussions usually omit this vital component. Whether surfing your browser or piloting a mech or flying the space shuttle, all control schemes all into a system called order of control, and understanding it allows one more freedom of controller choices.
Controls Demystified(?)

[StarGeezer]

Love your mechpit, Loc Nar, and I routinely link your "Controls Demystified(?)" thread, so thanks for putting that together. Your work is cool as all get-out, and waaaaaaay past my paygrade!

[Mogney]

Joystick and mouse will really improve your scores after a short adjustment period. Joystick on the left hand, mouse in the right.