I just bought a Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas X for Elite Dangerous. It's taken some time to get it mostly configured but my first impressions are very positive. The game is really made to be played with HOTAS. Watching your hands move the joystick and the throttle in VR at the same time that your physical hands do the same thing and well as many of the finger movements for buttons such as trigger is amazing. The flight controllers are almost much more interesting. It's a joy to dock now! I don't think I used forward and backwards thrust with the xbox controller before. In fact I did not even realize this was an option since the throttle almost moves forward and backwards but now with HOTAS everything feels very natural.
I am wondering if anyone has any recommendations for the controller configuration. I mostly followed this layout http://imgur.com/rY0aiki But I have not got everything working. Particuarlly the UI panels. Right now I have it bound to the keyboard. This works okay because I have a keyboard without a numpad which fits right in between the throttle and joystick. However, I think this could probably be done with the HOTAS. I am not sure what "Panel Mode Toggle" does.
Do any of you have different suggestions for configuring this HOTAS? I also don't know what to do about distributing to power, weapons, and sys. The Galaxy map is a new subject I think. I never figured it out with the xbox controller either and had to use the keyboard.
Edit:
The flight assist toggle does not work like I expect. Whenever I assign it to a button on the HOTOS I have to hold the button down to turn of flight assist. The movemnt I release it turns flight assist back on. I want to toggle it. I am not sure why this is. I have tried assigning it to other buttons but I get the same effect.
i do use the alternative docking/landing controls and they kick in when you have the landing gear down. the main difference is that i just use the hat on the top of my stick to thrust left and right and to climb and descend. along with the throttle, for forward and back, that should be all you need for a perfect landing every time. well, that or a docking computer. 🙂
I'm saying that forward/backward thrust and throttle are the same. I mean for example if you assign throttle to forward backwards thrust you won't know a difference. I assume forward is only propelled by e.g. the main engines i.e. there are not separate thrusters for forward like there are for lateral and vertical because it just uses the main engine.
the difference will probably depend on what you assign forward/backward thrust to. ie whether it is a button or a different axis control to the throttle. If it is the former, then i would guess that maintaining a fixed speed would be more difficult than using the analog throttle. For making minor adjustments for landing however, it probably wont make too much of a difference, as you will just be looking for short bursts anyway, so a digital switch should be good.
Oh and did i say this before, if your mappings work for you, then it doesn't really matter if other peeps do something different. Having said that, It is probably still good to hear what other peeps are doing, just in case you are missing a trick.
I have forward backward thrust assigned to the rocker buttons on the throttle. And throttled assigned to the throttle. I'm confused though why there is even an option for forward backward thrust or forward backward throttle. Maybe they should have labelled it forward backward thrust option one and two. Maybe some ships support separate forward and backward thrust and throttle engines? I mean the main engine for throttle and smaller thrusters for trust?
as i think has been said, maybe the throttle controls the big engines and the forward and back control smaller-nozzled engines, for finer control. It would be easy to test. Just press your rocker fully forward when out in space and see if you can go as fast as you can with the throttle.
as i think has been said, maybe the throttle controls the big engines and the forward and back control smaller-nozzled engines, for finer control. It would be easy to test. Just press your rocker fully forward when out in space and see if you can go as fast as you can with the throttle.
Isn't there way to look outside of your craft? I am just getting back into ED so I don't remember all the controls. What I mean is when you use lateral and vertical thrust you physically see blue jets from the thrusters. So if forward and backwards thrust is different than throttle I think you would see blue jets for the thrusters. How does the main engine operate in reverse anyway, are there separate thrusters for reverse?
So I just tested forward thrust and throttle and I don't see any difference. The only difference is that when I use the forward thrusters they go to 100% power because it's just a on/off switch. This is useful for giving small impulses for example when landing. Rather than moving the throttle I just tap the rocker lever repeatably sorta like pumping the breaks
