Setting up my sticks

[ItsDarthChaos]

So, the one issue that's kind of kept me from getting into the game is that I couldnt find a config that works well with my setup, and was hoping maybe someone had a similar setup that they have bindings they could share. I got a dual set of T1600Ms, which I thought would be nice for space sims...

[AISTHESIS]

I got those and love them. Get a pen and paper. You should do this in groups.

MOVEMENT: You rotate the ship in 6 directions up,down,left,right,roll, and roll. You move in 6 directions - up,down,left,right,forward, and back. You have 3 travel modes - cruze,supercruze,hyperdrive. You also have boost and drift (FA off). You have +25%,-25%,100%, and 0% throttle buttons to consider. Open the controls list and write all the movement controls you think you want on a paper. On another paper draw the controllers and buttons. Go somewhere safe and try different settings rotations and movements then try some short travel. Program and tune your movement controls before any others until you love them.

I put all movement controls I can on the right stick. I have all menu controls on the left stick. I use the left trigger like a shift key. All this allows me to control the ship with one hand and drink coffee or navigate menus with the other. This also gives enough buttons that I can keep both hands on the sticks most of the time. You don't want to loose control or aim because you needed to reach the heatsink button on a keyboard or something.

I have right stick analogs as all rotations. (aim)
I have left stick forward and back as up and down thrust. (move)
I have left stick left and right as left thrust left and right. (move)
I have analog foot pedals as forward and back. Probably the only one doing this.

Three buttons on right controller.............
Left button is +25% throttle
Left trigger and Left button is 100% throttle
Right button is -25% throttle
Left trigger and right button is 0% throttle
Lower button is super cruise
Left trigger and Lower button is hyper drive
I use right trigger for drift (fa off)
I use left and right trigger for boost

With movement done what do you need to access most easily? Weapons? Targeting? Wingmen stuff? You have to make a few group lists, decide order of group priority, and try some programming. I fly very different, mostly FA off, no combat, rarely touch pips, so my setup will be different but I will list some of what I use.

Right hat switch is tools. (hard points)
Hat up is fire 1
Left trigger and hat up is fire 2
Hat down is store tool (hard points)
Left trigger and had down is mode for tools.
left hat and right hat alternate tools.

Left hat is all menus.
Left trigger and hat left opens the nav panel.
Left trigger and hat right opens the ship panel.
Left trigger and hat up opens comms panel.
Left trigger and hat down opens hangar (role panel)
Left hat switch navigates menus up,down,left,right.
The botton right of the hat switch is select in menu.
The button left of the hat switch is back in menu.
The button below the hat switch is tab.
You can do menu everything with left hand and still fly with the right.

Left hat switch while flying does targets.
Hat up is target ahead.
Hat down is target next hyper jump in route.
Hat left is last target.
Hat right is next closest target.
I don't use any other target buttons.
Button below left hat is lights
Button right of left hat is orbit lines
Button left of left hat is night vision

So all my movement and rotations is analog.
Most ship movement is right hand.
Most ship tools are right hand.
All my targeting is left hat switch.
All my menu stuff is left hat switch.
I like left for display stuff and info and right for the physical ship.

Pips got moved to buttons on the left base. I can not use my latteral thrusters when changing pips but I can still aim and change throttle. I use camera keys the least but have a few on the right base keys. With the trigger as a shift key I do not accidentally open a panel in combat, boost in a station, hyper drive and others. I have no idea how you want to have your throttle. You get good control using the left analog twist but it will hurt your wrist if you use it often. Reaching for a slider in combat is not good at all. It may be best to use the preset speeds like 75% for combat turns and such or just stay at 75% during combat. I absolutely love using my racing wheel with the buggy and using the pedals for ship throttle gives unbelievable throttle control. I am using a Logitec Driving force that I bought for a Playstation maybe 20 years ago. I use the left slider up AND left slider down for landing gear. Slide it down gear goes down. Slide it up landing gear is triggered and retracts. I use the right slider with HOLD to lower and raise the cargo scoop. My galaxy map controls are same as flight so I fly around the galaxy map. Left stick twist I use to zoom galaxy map in and out and zoom the ship radar in and out.

Note with engineered drives some ships are crazy sensitive. You can be patient as you adjust to this or be patient with programming the stick sensitivity or be patient with adding another program like joytune or what ever it's called. If you adjust sensitivety or add a program Elite will not read your stick as analog it will read the virtual analog sent after tuning. Elite thinks it's a different controller and all your controls will be wiped. I chose to get comfortable with super sensitive thrust and never need to reprogram if I loose data or something.

The absolute most accurate you can aim is with a large trackball. The absolute best control you can have is analog for all rotations and movements including throttle. I believe these sticks have laser sensors giving good accuracy and long life. If you want to go ultimate control try some foot pedals for throttle and mount a trackball close to the stick. You can switch to the ball and get some serious long range hits in no one would expect possible but remember damage falloff is bad with some weapons.

It seems almost no one has tried a speed pad with hat switch, no one uses a wheel with the buggy, and almost no one is using twin sticks for a full on zero gravity space game. Be proud that you wanted more than HOTAS and for the love of zero gravity don't pretend you have an airplane rudder and steer with your feet.

[Xmerwynd]

A well written and thoughtful answer given by Aithesis (bravo for him). I have a T-16000M FCS. I have not mapped the rudder / toe brakes at this time. I use Voice attack for immersion with HCS Voice packs which "automate" via the on-board computer to execute the external, comms, role & internal info panel functions, deploy landing gear, launch, engine speed in 10% ,25 % increments, booting, Pip and fighter control and many other functions. I have the voices of Data, Warf, Capt Kirk and t=other from the Star Trek world,.Its great for immersion should you get addicted to the fantasy of the ED world as I have. Fly high, fast and above all dangerously

[Ting Ting]

How do you get the star trek covas?

And also how do you adjust the sensitivity of the sticks?

[AISTHESIS]

Thrustmaster created TARGET for use with advanced and basic users but it's more that I am willing to learn now. Joystick curves seems easier but you must rely on this program running and working with Elite. When I start Elite I need to manually start my Tobii tracker and Game Hub for tracker then re-enter Elite. Using 2 sticks, a wheel, speed pad, eye tracker, trackball, and wireless keyboard with touch pad on my PC I can not rely on another program startup and such so I did nothing about sensitivity beyond self control. I love the tracker with a big screen in a dark room. I can't stand to play without it. I skipped VR because I can write notes and drink coffee with the tracker. Still the tracker is not VR, anyway. This video link has information about your questions. I forgot about voice commands. They sure help reduce how many buttons you need to access. If you don't know, you can make a backup of your control settings for easy restore later. I strongly suggest making a backup and if trying other programs remember you may have all controls wiped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqzoJPCZM0w

[Ting Ting]

Thanks

[ItsDarthChaos]

Thanks for this. I'll have to take some time going through and setting it up. haha. Cheers!

[Xmerwynd]

Originally posted by CMDR Ting o7:

How do you get the star trek covas?

And also how do you adjust the sensitivity of the sticks?

you have to purchase the HCS Voice packs and Voice Attack (paid version on steam). It's an English company, Each sound pack is less than $20. A.S.T.R.A. is easily worth twice that to me as exploration is my passion at times.

[Ting Ting]

So you have to buy va on steam then you buy sound packs inside that program for the voice packs? I'm not interested with voice attack for the moment, that could change in the future

[Xmerwynd]

Originally posted by CMDR Ting o7:

So you have to buy va on steam then you buy sound packs inside that program for the voice packs? I'm not interested with voice attack for the moment, that could change in the future

Or you can Install EDDiscovery which has a plugin with over 130 voice commands which you may use for free, initially I used a profile called KICS 4 Free download. Play the game any way that you like.

Fly High, Fast & Dangerously

[Ting Ting]

Originally posted by Xmerwynd:

Originally posted by CMDR Ting o7:

So you have to buy va on steam then you buy sound packs inside that program for the voice packs? I'm not interested with voice attack for the moment, that could change in the future

Or you can Install EDDiscovery which has a plugin with over 130 voice commands which you may use for free, initially I used a profile called KICS 4 Free download. Play the game any way that you like.

:cozyhoi4eagle:Fly High, Fast & Dangerously:cozyhoi4eagle:

nice one ill check that out, thank you

o7

[Xmerwynd]

This is the link for KICS https://www.alpha-orbital.com/kics