What's up with the lack of joystick support?

[Nomad]

Imagine my surprise when I installed this and looked through the options screens and saw no sign of joystick support. A space flight game with only mouse and keyboard control. I thought we learned our lesson with Freelancer.

I did a search for this subject, and seem to have found an announcement of joystick support being in development... in October 2013.

So where is it? I mean I can see an announcement that DX11 support is coming, and I'm all in favor of that, and I'd especially like to see planets.

But it doesn't take a year to implement joystick support.

I've got a six axis controller (spacenavigator) that would be ideal for this game. I mean okay, flying a spaceship with what feels like a hockey puck doesn't have the same satisfiyng feel as using a proper throttle and joystick setup, but it's pretty close to the ideal for a newtonian physics based space game.

[zgrssd]

Originally posted by Nomad:

Imagine my surprise when I installed this and looked through the options screens and saw no sign of joystick support. A space flight game with only mouse and keyboard control. I thought we learned our lesson with Freelancer.

You make it sound as of the mouse control of Freelancer was bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact people are still playing it and making mods for it.
Heck, it works so good Joyticks stopped being a requirement for Space Sims as long as they have FL mouse control.

This is a game about constructing stuff in space first, space combat simulator between 3rd and 15th. So it has a naturally low priority.
We already use the mouse and keyboad for everything else, having to switch to a joystick for flight would not really be that helpfull...

[[IFC]Mjollnir]

My best "guess" (/sarc) would be, it's because the game is still in alpha and the devs focus more on alpha things like adding more stuff instead on things that can be done later during beta?
On the other hand, there are programs out there, maybe one came even together with your controller, that let you put keyboard commands onto the controller..

[Nomad]

Originally posted by IFCMjollnir:

My best "guess" (/sarc) would be, it's because the game is still in alpha and the devs focus more on alpha things like adding more stuff instead on things that can be done later during beta?
On the other hand, there are programs out there, maybe one came even together with your controller, that let you put keyboard commands onto the controller..

They're focused on "adding more stuff" instead of adding one of the most basic and universal vehicle control mechanisms that there is?

This is exactly what worries me.

[Galbi3000]

As this is a sandbox construction game, not a space flight game, it is suited more for mouse and keyboard control due to the high use of the in game GUI.

As zgrssd said, switching between using your mouse/keyboard and going to joystick just for the flying of ships is a hassle for many players. I know it would be for me with my chunky flight stick, moving it out of the way for mouse/keyboard use then back again if I want to fly!

I'm sure it is a low priority for the devs because of that very reason. Not much demand for it.

If you bought this based on thinking it is a space flight game then maybe you should read game descriptions and reviews more instead of researching if they have joystick support before purchasing games in the future :)

[Freakus Geekus]

I managed to get a config working that maps the various axes to the default Space Engineers controls. If you're using the 3DxWare driver you can drop it into C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg\ and it should just work.

Here's the config: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9362996/Space%20Engineers/SpaceNavigator/SpaceEngineers.xml

[Nomad]

Originally posted by Freakus Geekus:

I managed to get a config working that maps the various axes to the default Space Engineers controls. If you're using the 3DxWare driver you can drop it into C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg\ and it should just work.

Here's the config: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9362996/Space%20Engineers/SpaceNavigator/SpaceEngineers.xml

Interesting stuff, but it looks like it's limited to the few analog axes that the game already gives you. I was hoping that with the apparent modability of the game that someone would have exposed the controls to full analog input, but sadly not.

[Nomad]

Originally posted by Galbi3000:

As this is a sandbox construction game, not a space flight game, it is suited more for mouse and keyboard control due to the high use of the in game GUI.

As zgrssd said, switching between using your mouse/keyboard and going to joystick just for the flying of ships is a hassle for many players. I know it would be for me with my chunky flight stick, moving it out of the way for mouse/keyboard use then back again if I want to fly!

I'm sure it is a low priority for the devs because of that very reason. Not much demand for it.

If you bought this based on thinking it is a space flight game then maybe you should read game descriptions and reviews more instead of researching if they have joystick support before purchasing games in the future :)

I'll quote from the game description on steam:
"Players build space ships and space stations of various sizes and utilization (civil and military), pilot ships and perform asteroid mining."

Players pilot spaceships... but it's not a spaceflight game. Okay then.

[BRRM]

while i agree with this. as i would love to see a joystick system in place but for now i want some ai in it and such before its needed.

[BRRM]

plus would it not say on the right or what ever if a controller and what not is supported?

[Nomad]

Originally posted by BRRM:

plus would it not say on the right or what ever if a controller and what not is supported?

This is true, but the thing is it seemed so obvious that a game in which you fly spaceships would have support for a joystick that I didn't think to check that list to see if controller support was mentioned.

I do agree that AI is needed to give any kind of depth to the gameplay. But to me, it makes sense to have proper controller support before you're having to engage in dogfights with enemies.

I can always hope that controller support bleeds back over after the console port happens, I guess.

[BRRM]

yeah that why i like playing elite dangerous and when done, starcitizen. :)

[Ξ︎∨○︎L∨Ξ]

Originally posted by Nomad:

A space flight game with only mouse and keyboard control.

It's not a space flight game, it's a block building game in space. Joystick support is really not needed, but who knows, maybe they will add it.

[VanGoghComplex]

Originally posted by Nice Guys Finish First:

Originally posted by Nomad:

A space flight game with only mouse and keyboard control.

It's not a space flight game, it's a block building game in space. Joystick support is really not needed, but who knows, maybe they will add it.

They will add it.

They will need to, as it's being ported to Xblax.

[AlexMBrennan]

What's up with the lack of joystick support?

This is just speculation, but maybe it's because Space Engineers is a game about building stuff first, and a space flight simulator a distant second?

Secondly, the game's movement mechanics aren't even remotely suitable for joystick - you change the direction the ship is facing with the mouse, so all a joystick would let you do is also control roll this way (if you have a three axis joystick, that is). Actually moving the ship requires throttles for three axis (currently WASDC and space)... or maybe two joysticks, one of which is tied to throttles and the other to orientation/gyros.

For a joystick and throttle to be useful, you'd need either a traditional (space-)flight sim, or stick to traditional flight sim design (i.e. gyro and forward thrusters only)

[Galbi3000]

Originally posted by Nomad:

Originally posted by Galbi3000:

As this is a sandbox construction game, not a space flight game, it is suited more for mouse and keyboard control due to the high use of the in game GUI.

As zgrssd said, switching between using your mouse/keyboard and going to joystick just for the flying of ships is a hassle for many players. I know it would be for me with my chunky flight stick, moving it out of the way for mouse/keyboard use then back again if I want to fly!

I'm sure it is a low priority for the devs because of that very reason. Not much demand for it.

If you bought this based on thinking it is a space flight game then maybe you should read game descriptions and reviews more instead of researching if they have joystick support before purchasing games in the future :)

I'll quote from the game description on steam:
"Players build space ships and space stations of various sizes and utilization (civil and military), pilot ships and perform asteroid mining."

Players pilot spaceships... but it's not a spaceflight game. Okay then.

You said it yourself in your description quote. First players build space ships and space stations. But it is very interesting how you also happened to leave out the first part of the game description: "Space Engineers is a sandbox game about engineering, construction and maintenance of space works." This fully backs up what I said before :-)