Mouse & KB vs HOTAS

[Still]

Greetings. I'm hoping I don't cause a ♥♥♥♥ storm with this post.

So I have a few HOTAS setups, all Thrustmaster. I basically own almost all the Thrustmaster stuff, two t1600's, the Warthog, throttles, etc. And peddles. Happy about that.

However, I noticed that with games like Star Citizen it's actually much, much harder to aim with a flight stick. I ended up going back to mouse + KB. The mouse is just such a precise tool and the game doesn't seem really built to use a HOTAS. It's like in a first person shooter: gamepad is just much less precise than my Logitech gaming mouse.

So my question: Is it worth me setting up my HOTAS (no small task) for this game? Am I going to be maneuvering better with a mouse or a flight stick? The typical answer to this is "practice with the flight stick and it will be better" but in my experience this just isn't true. There's nothing that can match a mouse for accuracy. A flight stick is like trying to paint a beautiful picture with a broom. A mouse is like using a set of fine, expensive brushes.

Anybody out there have this experience with DCS? I'm pretty interested in flying and simulators but the lack of accuracy with a flight stick has kind of disappointed me over the years so I have been playing other types of games....... It just sucks to buy an expensive setup and then actually be worse at the game. But I fully acknowledge it's probably a lack of knowledge, experience, or skill on my part..

[Troll Norris]

You will be lucky to take off without joystick.

[Still]

Publicado originalmente por Troll Norris:

You will be lucky to take off without joystick.

lol awesome

[Jel]

Publicado originalmente por tanjo:

So my question: Is it worth me setting up my HOTAS

-> Yes

[Troll Norris]

First of all, DCS does not support using mouse as controller. You need mouse to look around (if you don't have VR or head tracker) or to click buttons, switches, e.t.c. in cockpit. To use mouse as controller, you will need some virtual joystick tool.

Next, using keyboard is not very precise. It does not allow to change the "rate of change of input" and is not very precise. The joystick is absolute position controller. BTW the longer stick you have, the more precise will be. In other cases you will need to set some curves in axis tune menu. Here is more about that:

https://youtu.be/Gs2m-xlyK7o

[Still]

Awesome. Thanks for the responses everyone.

I actually have both head tracking and VR. Was really into sims for a while--mainly Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen (and a little Arma, Mechwarrior..). but as mentioned those games are actually easier to play with a mouse and keyboard unfortunately.

It sounds like this one is going to be better for my HOTAS. Finally a game I can put this stuff to use. We'll see how it goes. Thanks all.

[SSerponi76]

Use your HOTAS.
DO NOT waste your time with M+K