Thrustmaster HOTAS WartHog: How does it handle Elite?

[Arya]

Thrustmaster recently reduced the price of the HOTAS WartHog in Australia, and with little direction competition and a raft of good flying games to play I'm seriously considering buying one.

The only thing holding me back is the WartHog's basic design. It'll be perfect for other flying games I play, but with it's profusion of Rocker Switches I'm not sure how well suited it is for playing Elite and other arcade type games.

So - to anybody out there with a WartHog - how well does it work with Elite, and what are your opinions of it having actually used one? Thanks.

[bbfloyd]

I love and adore my warthog HOTAS set, but I've had mine 2-3 years now, bought originally for DCS A-10C simulation; you'll need pedals to go with it. It lets you go hands off mouse and keyboard for flying and combat.

I only use mouse/keyboard for in station menus and some of the in-cockpit information displays and communications.

ED has one of the easiest ingame controller configuration mapping interfaces I've ever used, and one of the most flexible. I actually have my Saitek flight pedal toe brakes (full range analog axes) assigned as toggle for next/previous weapon set. Way cool.

Only downside is if you want to hand edit configurations: ED files are very cryptic, as are DCS modules. Only Falcon 4 made hand editing controller configurations easy in my recollection.

[Arya]

Thanks for the information. I actually have a set of analogue pedals I could use, so that's no biggy.

The simple fact yours is still alive and kicking after 3 years is a massive recommendation - I really like my hardware to last.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Using it for like 4 months now, and in general it has a nice, solid feeling. There are some design points you should be aware of.

It doesn't have a yaw axis on the stick, so I use an X-axis of a little nub joystick on a throttle instead. Requires getting used to.

Most of throttle base controls are switches, not buttons, and only several game controls can be set to a switch mode, so you need to switch on and return the switch into its original position. I don't even use all the provided switches, some I didn't even bind.

The primary fire trigger has 2 positions: slightly pressed and fully pressed. You can bind it to primary and secondary weapons, but then you wouldn't be able to fire them both simultaneously (unless you create another firing group with all weapons bound to primary, and switch the group). Or you can use another button on a stick for the secondary.

The whole HOTAS is very, and I mean very heavy. Don't you ever drop it on your feet - it will break your toes. I think it's about 8kg boxed. But if you put it on a table, you don't even need to fix it - it wouldn't move.

The stick has some initial resistance when you move it, like being a little sticky. It's noticeable if you come from another joystick. Just another thing to get used to. It didn't go away with hundreds of hours of use, stays the same.

And, of course, with hall effect sensors it's pretty precise and requires no dead zones. I don't use the TARGET software that comes with it, prefer to have as little "middle men" as possible. All buttons are recognised by Win7 as they are, no need for a special software.

In general, I'm very happy with it on Elite. It took me a while to find the binds that I find optimal, and at first I had a cheat sheet with my binds near by.

P.S. I don't use any pedals with it. That nub joystick on a throttle works well enough for yaw controls.

[bbfloyd]

Never liked the second trigger press, it has a very specific usefulness in the A-10C simulation, but is awkward to use for almost anything else. Would be nice if ED would let you keep your multicannons spun up...

It is heavy, but I have my joystick bolted to my computer desk and my throttle bolted to an office chair - poor man's simpit...

If you think that is tough, I have a Microsoft Force Feeback 2 going on 15 years now, still use it for Independence War 2, and Descent 1&2, and the Egosoft X3/TC/AP series. Irreplaceable...

[Arya]

Thanks a lot both of you.

Dolphin, I may have a solution for your Stiction issues. Some WartHogs seem to leave the factory without enough lube on the column's rotational bearings. You can fix that yourself by removing the stick and accessing the bearings, adding more lube and reassembling the stick. That should solve your Stiction issues and make the stick last longer.

Can be done fairly easily, you get the feeling Thrustmaster actually designed this thing to come apart like this.

https://forums.starcitizenbase.com/topic/11259-important-for-all-thrustmaster-warthog-owners/

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by 狼 Wolfey:

https://forums.starcitizenbase.com/topic/11259-important-for-all-thrustmaster-warthog-owners/

Thank you for the info, I will take a look into it!

[Ribbon]

Also you can keep an eye on this, best quality out there and there is grip swapable option with twist and without it, there is new grip being made for space sims "Kosmosima grip".
You can buy gimball base and choose grip by your needs, even warthog grip can be mounted.
http://vkbcontrollers.com

[Arya]

Originally posted by redribbon:

Also you can keep an eye on this, best quality out there and there is grip swapable option with twist and without it, there is new grip being made for space sims "Kosmosima grip".
You can buy gimball base and choose grip by your needs, even warthog grip can be mounted.
http://vkbcontrollers.com

Beautiful build quality, but I'm lefting wondering about prices. That's already more expensive than a Warthog, and that doesn't factor in shipping. It would also take at least two months to arrive.

If VKB had a pressence in Australia I'd probably order a Gunfighter right away, unfortunately they don't and the logistics of getting one out here make it an impractical option.

Thanks though.

[57]

Previously I had used 2 x52-pro's, after the 2nd died I decided on the Warthog. The stick is stiffer to move but it feels real. Buttons also harder to press due to it being based on an actual stick, you don't want accidental shots fired. Took me a short while to get used to it, yaw being the main thing, I kept trying to twist the stick still for some time. The default for yaw is on the throttle and very easy to get to grips with although it's nowhere near as smooth/sensitive as using actual pedals (I'm using RX Vipers) ..ObsidianAnt did a review of it for Elite, no doubt already seen it though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=530deMgrchk

[Ildryn]

"How does it handle Elite?"

Like a joystick.....

[Arya]

Originally posted by 57:

Previously I had used 2 x52-pro's, after the 2nd died I decided on the Warthog. The stick is stiffer to move but it feels real. Buttons also harder to press due to it being based on an actual stick, you don't want accidental shots fired. Took me a short while to get used to it, yaw being the main thing, I kept trying to twist the stick still for some time. The default for yaw is on the throttle and very easy to get to grips with although it's nowhere near as smooth/sensitive as using actual pedals (I'm using RX Vipers) ..ObsidianAnt did a review of it for Elite, no doubt already seen it though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=530deMgrchk

Thanks for the info. Hadn't seen the review yet, but it's all but made my mind up. Although if you weren't a moderator I would feel compelled to make a joke about that second sentence.

Originally posted by 57:

The stick is stiffer but it feels real.

Hmmm.

[Ribbon]

Originally posted by 狼 Wolfey:

Originally posted by redribbon:

Also you can keep an eye on this, best quality out there and there is grip swapable option with twist and without it, there is new grip being made for space sims "Kosmosima grip".
You can buy gimball base and choose grip by your needs, even warthog grip can be mounted.
http://vkbcontrollers.com

Beautiful build quality, but I'm lefting wondering about prices. That's already more expensive than a Warthog, and that doesn't factor in shipping. It would also take at least two months to arrive.

If VKB had a pressence in Australia I'd probably order a Gunfighter right away, unfortunately they don't and the logistics of getting one out here make it an impractical option.

Thanks though.

Yeah! I become a bit of flight sim sicko lately so i'll go for gunfighter, it didn't come in europe yet so i'm still waiting!
But warthog is beauty too and for the price of gunfighter you can buy warthog+throttle which looks insane.
What pedals do you have?
I just got ch pedals from my friend, they are nice but i'll have to mod it a bit to remove neutral stop friction, it can iduce to much input moving it from neutral and decrease precision.

[57]

Originally posted by Ildryn:

"How does it handle Elite?"

Like a joystick.....

Like a A-10C joystick...

Originally posted by 狼 Wolfey:

Thanks for the info. Hadn't seen the review yet, but it's all but made my mind up. Although if you weren't a moderator I would feel compelled to make a joke about that second sentence.

Originally posted by 57:

The stick is stiffer but it feels real.

Hmmm.

Believe it or not I did edit that, sounded much worse the first time :D

[Arya]

Originally posted by 57:

Believe it or not I did edit that, sounded much worse the first time :D

To be fair, it's difficult to discuss Flight Sticks without double-entendres.

[funkynutz]

And here I am, waggling one about in each hand