The problem

I've been thinking hard about controls for Star Citizen, and conventional solutions all seem lacking. HOTAS or dual stick setups have lots of buttons, but don't have enough analogue axes for full control. A mouse and keyboard has even fewer analogue axes.

Although it may not offer a huge advantage to have analogue strafing, it might be important for precise maneuvering.
I think the more important neglected control aspect is articulated turrets, which some fighters will have. This might be controlled by AI, with the turret locking on to a target within the cone of fire, but manual control might be required or may be better.

The controller

My solution is a kind of hybrid gamepad/yoke, which will comprise of an Xbox 360 controller rigidly attached to a twist joystick, which will be mounted at a near-horizontal angle like a steering wheel. The PC will just see 2 stock controllers, but the game will support multiple devices for inputs.
For games that don't support multiple controllers, I've used Universal Joystick Remapper to combine the inputs into one virtual device. This is limited to 8 analogue axes though, so I can't use the slider on the t16000 or have split axes for the triggers.

The joystick will have 3 axes of control, and is held in front of you like a yoke. You are basically using it to point the nose of the craft:

You twist the gamepad like a steering wheel to roll in the same direction.
You lift the pad to pitch down, and lower the pad to pitch up.
You move the pad left to yaw right, and vice versa.

The gamepad has 5 or 6 axes of control, depending on whether the game supports the triggers as split axes.

The left stick will control strafing. You will be able to strafe left and right like in a normal FPS, and will also be able to strafe vertically in the same way.
The left analogue trigger will control thrust, with the right trigger to reverse thrust.
Left button will be for afterburner.
(All the flight controls other than reverse are on the left hand only, and so the ship can be flown with just the left hand)
The right stick will control articulated guns in a very familiar way.

There are also 6 buttons on the right side which can be used for combat and other functions. LB could be used as a shift to give more options if required.

The project

The stick and pad together will cost a maximum of £55, but it might take lots of work to build the controller. It should be a fun project though.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and criticisms, and join in if you want to build something like this. We can share our experiences and work together to make this work.

Update 12/08 - The Thrustmaster T16000, and Thrustmaster GPX gamepad have arrived - Pictures in a post below!

Update 17/08 I've made an album at imgur.com/a/sq3qy that shows all the images from this project.

Update 15/09 I've finished and tested the stick. Complete success!


Videos here:
The controller: youtube.com/watch?v=vqzKLdSf4jM
In game footage: youtu.be/tCZhFkzStGE