They cancelled so many things to get the game shippable, and yet you still want such a huge coding addition? I say nay. The game definitely needs improvements, but adding joystick is not one of them.



Aku. Soku. Zan. (Kill. Evil. Instantly.)

How is flying with 2 joysticks more realistic? And you can do this stuff already by getting a keyboard-joystick mapping program. It's been linked quite a few times here...

And aiming offscreen isn't very useful, as you can't SEE offscreen. Use turret/rear view.

Edited by - Aerundel on 13-03-2003 23:29:25

Yeah, but I was really hoping for the ability to use a joystick. I bought a Saitek a few months ago, and miss the force feedback.

There's no reason to not put in the joystick control. All they need to do is lock the reticule in the center of the screen (which is easy to do). Every other space-flight game since the dawn of computer games has done it this way. It is easy to code and works very, very well.

The developers themselves, in an interview I read, even said that implementing the mouse controls were MUCH more difficult, and that adding joystick support later would be "trivial". They have had joystick support in previous builds, and have removed it before. I'm sure they still have the joystick code laying around. And even if they didn't have the code, it wouldn't take much to implement it.

Adding joystick support would be an easy matter. The developers do not want to do this because they are stubborn, and want people to play the game with the nifty mouse system that was harder for them to implement. Basically - they want you to use the control system that they slaved over to make (and argued about internally as well). I guess they feel like, if they add joystick support, and some gamers use the joystick and have fun playing the game that way, then all of their hard work making the mouse system is ignored, and they must feel like that was a huge waste of time...

I fail to see why removing the joystick, and forcing me to play with an inferior control system that is less fun to play with, is a better solution...

Lock the reticle to the center, are you crazy? That would suck. It'd cripple the main "coolness"-factor of the weapons in this game - their turret function. This game doesn't need to be like every other one before it.

The mouse is a lot more diverse than a joystick. If you set your sensitivity right you can make quicker reactions with the mouse and it doesn't jar you're whole arm like with a joystick. You can also be a lot more accurate than with most joysticks.

I remember playing the X-Wing Alliance with a joystick and trying to target something small and far away. It was a pain. Ditto with targetting turrets and the like in Wing Commander games. A mouse provides the best of all worlds. Quick reaction, detailed accuracy, and less strain on the arm.

Guys, read the post at the top of this forum about joystick discussions....if you start to get negative about the pros and cons or start bashing the devs then guess what? This thread will be closed....

Yeah, I was about to add something to my post but I left it as it was, not referencing anything but locked vs. unlocked reticles. I agree this shouldn't go down the JvM road...