Alright, There is a lot of discussion on mapping controls but for myself I always duplicate real controls (for atmospheric flight sims at least).

If SC ships were real (just roll with it), what do you think the controls would be? We can discuss this per ship based on the in game art. What I'm really interested in is dogfighting controls so I'll focus on the three most obvious dogfighters.

RSI could also consider how they might alter the appearance of the in-ship controls to make more sense. We are operating with the understanding that in space you need five axes of directional control instead of three like in atmospheric flight. We still need throttle control as well.

Hornet: Standard HOTAS very similar to X52 plus pedals

My assumption would be that the typical fixed wing airplane controls would be the starting point, but additional axes need to be added. This means pitch and roll on the stick, and yaw on rudder pedals (which could be twist stick for most joystick players). With this setup it would seem that the only way to add vertical and horizontal thrusters would be to use a HAT. I would place this on the throttle. This setup works but lacks precision on those last two axes. The throttle could also possibly be a completely different setup, the forward back motion could be vertical thrusters (straight up and down) and a HAT or throttle mounted paddle (like the t-flight HOTAS has) could be horizontal thrusters giving in effect the same general setup as dual sticks. Still there is one axis missing (either vertical thrusters or throttle).

300 series: flight column style plus pedals

This setup really doesn't seem to make sense. I can't imagine any good way to add the vertical and horizontal thrusters to this control setup assuming we start with real aircraft column controls.

Avenger (and Aurora): dual joysticks plus pedals

This setup seems to make sense but to emulate it with PC peripheral hardware you would have to actually use two joysticks unless a special dual stick controller became available. We can start with standard fixed wing controls on the right stick. The left stick left/right axis would be horizontal thrusters (think strafe), and the forward/back axis could either be vertical thrusters or throttle. Whichever of those two was not accounted for would need to be controlled by other means.


Other thoughts:

In reality my (limited) experience in space dogfighting tells me that a Nostromo, G13, or similar works great on the left hand. This could be represented in game, but if we are going for realism you would really want analog (variable) control of those horizontal and vertical throttles... not just "on-off" operation as provided by this type setup.


My initial conclusions: Two good options are available and represented in the Hornet and the Avenger in-game interfaces. HOTAS throttle with a HAT for thrusters would work well with most available HOTAS PC controllers and be effective. A dual stick setup would provide more accurate thruster control, the throttle control would have to be via a HAT or finger operated buttons/triggers.


I'm looking for intelligent discussion of opinions and ideas. Thank you.

Trip