Get a stick and learn to fly - it's the only way!

The mouse may be OK for arcade games but no decent sim is point and click. 3 axis control needs a stick. There is, as far as I know, no mouse interface on Starlancer.

Ban REVERSE THRUST! Fly something other than a phoenix for a change!

Yep, Starlancer requires a joystick. Keybord control is possible, but you have to be really good at it to make it work. No mouse. Sorry.

I played an finished Starlancer using the keyboard. It's not hard at all.

omg how can there be any need for sooooo many controls?!?!?!?

must be 20 odd on freelancer that are necessary, and many are groups, whereas on starlancer theres just hundreds of em.
button for this, button for that. keeping track of a few but effort required!

any tips on wat is vital and wat can be left alone???

Life... a game of chess, 1 wrong move and ur mated!

ps, all kiddies with mods stop screaming on forums ur givin me headache n gettin nowhere

Easy. IF you're using a joystick that is . . . The more buttons on your stick the better. Mine has Trigger, three buttons and a 'hat' on the stick plus a throttle with a further four buttons.

Fire guns - essential! use the joystick trigger. Probably don't need to tell you that, eh?
Fire missile - essential! Use the most comfortable button on your stick after the trigger.
Target Closest enemy - essential. Use one of the top buttons on the joystick
Target Next Enemy - useful. Depends how many buttons your stick has or use a key that you can easily remember and use on your keyboard.
Rotate missile display - useful. I use left and right on the 'hat'
Afterburner - essential! I use the hat for afterbuners and reverse thrust (not that I would ever dream of using RT!)
Target torpedo and target next subtarget on cap ships are useful to remember too. The rest of the controls are basically redundant when I play.



Ban REVERSE THRUST! Fly something other than a phoenix for a change!

starlancer without a joystick is nearly impossible and definitely not as much fun
a good one isnt too expensive and its well worth it for some of the other space sims as well
i wouldnt like to try freespace 2 again without one
ah i remember when joysticks were 1 button and that was all

I think that Microsoft has shot itself in the foot with Freelancer's mouse control interface. Now I'm not going to re-hash all the arguments for and against - we've all read 'em! - but I don't know anyone who has bought Freelancer. I do know half a dozen who have downloaded the demo and then NOT bought it. Reasons? They all hate the interface. To cut to the point, the space sim fans (well the ones I know, anyway) despise Freelancer as a dumbed-down sim for those who haven't got the nous fly properly. Meanwhile the non sim players that I know aren't interested in Freelancer because they percieve it as a sim and therefore something they aren't going to want to play. One big FP shooter player I know tried the Freelancer demo for ten minutes before proclaiming it to be "boring to the point of suicide" before going back to castle Wolfenstein. I have a sneaking pleasure in the fact that Freelancer hasn't been a big hit while realising that it will probably mean that another, quality space sim will now be less likely.

OK, I've got that off my chest, back to our regular service!

Ban REVERSE THRUST! Fly something other than a phoenix for a change!

that's a rather generalized statement, pure, unless you honestly believe every 3d game in the last 7 years was strictly of the arcade variety. the mouse is just as effective a peripheral as a joystick for perspective manipulation in a 3d space.
i prefer the precision a mouse affords, some people prefer the hands on nature of a stick. i probably will end up buying a stick at some point to play through starlancer and tachyon just because they look good enough to warrant it. i havnt used a keyboard only scheme since quake in 96 and really find it impossible to return to after years of wasd.
personally i believe space combat as a genre could have widespread appeal if developers didnt limit their market to a niche crowd by default by soley supporting joystick control.

If you think that Starlancer has too many controls on the PC, think about it on the DreamCast for a minuet

"A TopGun through and through"

Yes, it was a general comment, I admit!

I couldn't imagine playing a FPS with a stick - ludicrous idea!

Look, folks, this is just what I've gathered from talking to my friends. We're all Flight Sim players, European Air War being our collective favourite. What we all hated was the the 'point and click' flying of Freelancer. As sim players we hated Freelancer since it disapointed us on almost every level. This is a personal view, obviously, and all I was commenting on was the possibility that a game, such as Freelancer, might have done better appealing to the traditional sim people who like to fly with sticks rather than trying, and possibly failing, to draw in the other gamers. It's just a thought, and an idle one at that.

Ban REVERSE THRUST! Fly something other than a phoenix for a change!

I don't have a problem with Freelancer's mouse interface. You simply have to seperate it in your mind from true flight sim games. Freelancer isn't really a flight sim, it's a free-form space adventure game, that happens to incorporate flying space ships. Since it isn't a hardcore flight sim, it's perfectly acceptable to have an arcade interface. Like it or not, you have to admit, it is easy to use. You'll always be able to use your joystick for Starlancer, ATF, Mechwarrior 4, or any other flight or mech game. Just deal with it. Good times.

-Jazz

"Well boys, I reckon this is it; nuclear combat toe to toe witht he Ruskies!"
-from Kubrick's Doctor Strangelove

Elite was a Freeform space adventure game and I played that for years - literally!. I still play it now and again since I have a PC version.

I didn't find the flying easy since I couldn't get my damn ship to do what I wanted! Obviously thats my fault . . .

I play Battlezone II quite happily with the mouse and awsd . . .

Ban REVERSE THRUST! Fly something other than a phoenix for a change!

Edited by - Pure on 23-10-2003 15:08:46

Edited by - Pure on 23-10-2003 15:10:29