Frankly, I'd say forget about the joystick. theg ame is played perfectly well and fine on the default controls - I haven't needed to changed anything in the options, minus some graphical options up to the max they can go.

"In space, no one can hear you yell YEHAW - Only your coworkers frowning at you."

I want to try the game with a joystick no matter what.

Look at the post in the general discussion forum (that hasnt been locked)

http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/forum/t ... er&M=False

There seems to be some success using the Logitech joysticks and software (my success was limted due to my joystick being old and dodgy), but nothing said yet about Sidewinders or other brands.

Good luck

Just my $0.02, but it could just be the cardamine talking.
Nil Mortifi Sine Lucre
aka Shaman - gameArena Server

thank you, it seems this is the right way, I'll try finding some better software for my stick

In the developers discussion they note how they made the game with the particular desire NOT to have it played with a joystick. They thought that would somehow limit the players who would use it if they included that option, because it would inhibit the way or proscribe the code used to interface with the game as it is now. So... they made it this way to avoid a joystick.
I like joysticks for flying things, and yet haven't really missed it that much in this game. Joystick/throttle combo's like the Saitek have a lot of buttons and can be programmed and would have been neat to use, but I have to attach them to the arms of my chair, and then they get in the way of normal activities on the computer, so this is OK too.

JustSomeGuy

I have to say that i don't know why you bother with joysitcks, but if you need help i think i saw a utility on the microsoft sidewinder website for joystick to keystroke emulation. I am not certain on this though. Also i don't know if it works on the Axis'

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X-Treme