5punk

Elite Dangerous was released today and I was fully aware that it should be played with a stick, yet I have made no effort to get one. I haven't really thought the whole space driver thing through. Anyway, I've been looking out them out of morbid curiosity. They're ugly and large, and probably very useful in the coming days of ubiquitous space sims. I had to Google what HOTAS stood for (Hands On Testicles And Shaft if you're wondering), so I've really no idea. So what do you people use? I might not get one (I can't afford one at the moment anyway), but I doubt I'm the only one looking at them. I had the Thrustmaster* T16000000000000000m recommended to me, and the Speedlink Black Widow looks ugly but compact for a HOTAS.


*Come on, Thrustmaster? Joysticks? Hotass? These people are taking the piss.

I have the Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X, I think I paid about 40 odd quid for it and while I haven't played elite I'm sure it'll be fine for that. Before I had the regular T. Flight stick but the speed control thingy of the hotass is way cooler and makes it a bit more immersive and the ability to pry them apart so you can put one on the right of your screen and one on the left makes it, eh... cool, I guess. The few extra buttons help, too.

I'm currently using a borrowed Saitek Cyborg after my venerable Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital 3D died earlier on in the year after over a decade of use.

I do own a Saitek X-55 HOTAS, but quite frankly, it's been a fucking nightmare to get working on the driver front (Driver installation software point blank refuses to accept I've plugged the stick in half way through and stalls, not installing other drivers/software) and after lots of swearing and effort (got around driver installer by using winrar on the driver.exe as it's just a repacked zip, and installing most of them manually) I think it might be broken anyway as the sensors report that you're violently yanking the stick back when you slowly and gently push it left or right at about the 25% of travel mark. Not impressed for £150 and I don't think I'd recommend one due to the software and it's overall design, even if the stick and throttle worked fine.

It's also massive yet light, to the extent that if I keep it I'll be opening it up and putting some steel or lead in it.

I have a Trust Predator QZ500 which I paid a tenner for nearly 15 years ago. I use it mainly for racing games but it has all the buttons for flying

I have/had a thrustmaster oneofthese (well, the older silver version)

Worked nicely enough, but it died of something, eventually.

I will try Elite with an XBox controller and give up if that doesn't work.

I've been told it's perfectly feasible. I'll be doing the same until I get a stick.

Ive been using the 360 controller myself. It makes it playable (don't try playing with keyboard and mouse if you value sanity) but I do spend the whole time with a nagging feeling that it would be so much better with a joystick. I'll be getting myself a non-insanely priced one after chrimble.