Air without Joysticks

[=[AOD]=Ken]

I use to always (in other games) fly with a stick, but there is no room on my end table to put a stick, in fact theirs hardly enough room for my mouse. I play on my laptop while I site in my recliner…

At first when I tried to fly with the mouse & keyboard I would always lose control, and well, crash.
Then we got our own “Ranked” server and would sit in there waiting for enough people to get in before the round would start, so I jumped in a Cobra and just practiced, & practiced, & practiced.
Now I can fly fairy well in any helo, still working on the low level hover over flags next to objects, I can get it 50% of the time with out bumping into something, working for a 100%, well ok maybe I’ll be happy with 90%.

I can fly the jets ok, I just can’t hit anything with them yet. I’ll leave them to the guys that know what there doing with them for now.

So the key is to practice, practice, practice

[1Sgt.Kenny-R2K]

I use my keyboard and mouse for flying and for me its alot easier for me than a joystick, When I need to get away from some1 on my tail I go up high and use the arrow keys for faster moves

[Yellonet]

Can anyone recommend a decent joystick? Not a hugely expensive one, but one that does the job fine! thanks.

http://www.saitek.com/row/prod/cyborg_evo.htm

[Wynterheart]

http://www.saitek.com/row/prod/cyborg_evo.htm

yep, thats the same one i got. really nice joystick. i think i got mine for $33 on newegg.

i find that if i'm the only person flying or the other team sucks bad or just ignores me, i can do well with just the mouse and kyb. if i'm up against a good pilot, forget it. mouse just isn't responsive enough. i tried adjusting the sensitivity but i can't get it right.

[seth87]

That one looks good, but bloody complex! Its £29 on amazon.co.uk. Anywhere I can get it cheaper (in the UK) ?

How long does it take to get used to using the stick?

[imported_Soda]

I play with just keyboard and do fantastic.

[Wynterheart]

That one looks good, but bloody complex! Its £29 on amazon.co.uk. Anywhere I can get it cheaper (in the UK) ?

How long does it take to get used to using the stick?

the saitek cyborg evo? nah, its pretty simple to use. it has 13 buttons i think but its easy to use.

i haven't used a joystick in probably 10 years so its hard for me to get used to it for actually doing bombing runs and such. general flying is cool but i can't hit anything with it yet, lol

[Bob_the_Insane]

k/m work great for the choppers in my opinion because they require fairly light and percise control inputs...

For the jets it is not quite the same, I use the mouse for bombing but just the keyboard for dog fights. I should really try setting up my joystick for it...

[imported_xRandoMx]

If you get used to using a joystick with a throttle, you'll find that you can do things you never could with the keyboard and mouse, and do them naturally. Being able to instantly set your throttle to a certain percentage, and have that setting be in the same place every time is a big plus for me when I am coptering.

Hehehehe, i can put the copter in a hover and go to the bathroom and it'll still be there when I come back. :-)

[HicRic]

I've found mouse-keyboard for choppers works well for me, but I much prefer using my joystick for flying jets. Could be due to the flight sims I've played in the past (even 'fantasy' ones like TIE fighter) endear me to using a joystick in these situations.

Thinking about it, I actually use keyboard-joystick for flying jets!

[IVfluids]

using a mouse is just fine, when it comes to being able to do moves with mouse while flying a jet, you just have to work on moving the sensitivity up a bit every day. My keyboard and mouse setting is at 8 right now, i just have to twitch and the jet is twisting and bending anyway i want.

the one nice thing that gives a skilled pilot with a joystick an advantage, being able to hold a continous movement for a long period of time, unlike a mouse, you don't run out of pad to push on. then again, unless your chasing someone, you should'nt be doing the same continous movement for any length of time or you will get pwnt.

[Wranger4400]

The joystick actually made it worse for me.

[BigBadBob]

i have a joystick, and can't do very good at all with it.

Sure i can fly a jet or helo with it, but i just can't seem to get it right.

Now, when i fly it with Keyboard, i can do all right, great dogfights (still not very good, but i try) and helos.

It's all personal preference. Me, while not very good at flying, i do better with keyboard. Some people do better with mouse, some with sticks. And a few oddballs do it with gamepads.

[fubz]

The joystick actually made it worse for me.

me 2, i can't hit crap while using it. And then also sometimes the game doesnt want to know that its there even though its plugged in.

[Warthog]

I started with K/M but then got a Saitek Evo. It took me a while to get used to flying the jets with the Evo, but I was really annoyed by doing continuous turns with the mouse, so I forced myself. Now I'm as good with the joystick as I was with the mouse as far as accuracy goes. I still use the keyboard for throttle and sometimes even rudder through.

K/M still seems like the best way to go for helis to me, though. I didn't see much advantage to using the joystick.