thrust forward necessary?

[smanj440]

I'm using Jcygua's excellent guide for a mouse and keyboard set up. I am happy with it, except am wondering about the use of W for thrust forward and S for thrust back. Are these keys that you use much? I control the throttle with my mouse wheel, and use Boost for speed surges. Instead I am considering using W for thrust up, and S for thrust down instead, but would like to hear if you use the thrust forward or back for more than landing? It's clear that I probably don't know how to efficiently fly my ship ha ha Thanks again

[Ildryn]

I use a HOTAS.
More immersive and more control.
Some use KB/M to great effect and it's able to get very fine tuned shots with fixed weapons.
I would you suggest logging in to the Elite Dangerous discord. A lot of active people with a ton of advice.

https://discord.gg/elite

[Laurreth]

I've never forward/reverse thrust, but I haven't used "stepped" throttle either. I'd say if you can reliably land your ship without those, you'll be fine.

[AirborneMuffins]

Nah OP that's weird as hell. Mouse wheel is plenty sufficient.

[Mousey]

Man, I want a HOTAS but my Xbox controller works GREAT with my PC.
I know that didn't help the OP but I had to chime in.
Merry Christmas, Commanders.

🤘😀🤘

[Minty]

I combo the keyboard with a Logi 3D Pro. I have thrusters bound to the cap wheel. Makes docking and tight maneuvering a breeze.

[smanj440]

thanks

[Arc]

Isn't Thrust Up/Down just strafing forward/backward using small thrusters instead of main ones ?

Personally i have W/S on Up/Down strafe, A/D on Left/Right Strafe, Q/E on Roll, mouse Y-axis on Pitch and X-axis on yaw which works best for me.

[Minty]

Originally posted by Arc:

Isn't Thrust Up/Down just strafing forward/backward using small thrusters instead of main ones ?

Personally i have W/S on Up/Down strafe, A/D on Left/Right Strafe, Q/E on Roll, mouse Y-axis on Pitch and X-axis on yaw which works best for me.

There's a difference between throttle and thrusters. Throttle is a defined and continuous forward or backward propulsion paradigm. Thrusters only move you in any given direction for as long as they are active. This is why I cut throttle to 0 when launching or docking and use thrusters to position the ship. Same in combat. If you are close to an NPC enemy, especially in a standard conflict zone, you can maneuver around them using thrusters. Human pilots and very high difficulty NPCs are much more likely to employ throttle in order to create spaces between us and them and to position themselves behind us by doing so.

[Arc]

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

..

So the answer is yes then.

[Minty]

Originally posted by Arc:

Originally posted by Good Whiskey:

..

So the answer is yes then.

Oh, yes, I was just pointing out that a forward thrust and throttling up have two different inertial effects.

[Bubba Fett]

The only time I've ever used thrust forward/back is to center myself on a pad when I'm landing and sometimes when I'm core mining and trying to circle an asteroid to plant charges. (vertical thrust is much more useful then though)
Since you can have landing overrides to change your controls when your gear is down, one idea might be to map your mouse buttons to thrust forward/back when landing. (you don't need them for guns then anyway. I'd turn off "firing deploys hardpoints" to be safe though and use the deploy button when you want your guns.

[Noob Van Noob]

thrust forward/back are necessary for flight assist off flying, especially for full FA off. otherwise you really only need it for landing or finer positioning

[Arc]

Originally posted by Bubba Fett:

The only time I've ever used thrust forward/back is to center myself on a pad when I'm landing and sometimes when I'm core mining and trying to circle an asteroid to plant charges. (vertical thrust is much more useful then though)...

I was thinking about it for landing but then i typically dive into a pad, flip myself using pitch, and then carefully bump throttle + strafe to get into correct position.
It takes me couple of seconds and i would not say thrust forward/backward would do me any difference.

As for core mining, it's the same thing there, i'm using main thrusters (throttle) to move myself around and then strafing into sides and up/down which is more important then strafing back and forth.

[smanj440]

Thanks again everyone