So I've been practicing using a joystick a bit for the last couple of days. My initial attempts cause stalling at an impressive rate (until I realized the HUD has a stall indicator when you get close), but after overcoming that hurdle here are my initial impressions (keeping in mind I'm not that good at it yet): 1) Main issue, as everyone says, is aiming. Your accuracy does take a hit until you get very good at the controls. Hitting a target consistently requires good use of rudder (I have a Z axis on my joystick). Analog rudder is a must, if you can only map it to keyboard buttons it won't be enough for what you need. Rudder is needed for those fine adjustments while firing. 2) Maneuverability is much improved, you'll pull off moves you can't with mouse and flying is much more FUN. 3) Biggest issue is visibility and situational awareness. I don't have track IR, so currently the only way I can look around with joystick is via the hat buttons on my joystick, but it is a poor replacement for mouse look. Its much more difficult to pull off a maneuver, try to look around for the enemy simultaneously, and still keep on track with the maneuver without accidentally pulling up or down too much. This is probably the biggest hurdle I have to overcome to become decent at joystick piloting.
Whenever I fly with a joystick I tend to use the mouse for looking around. New long term goal in WT: Get all the members who have a joystick learn to fly with it if anything its a preparation for SC.
Also, I just got a webcam for my desktop, so I'll give this a go: http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/home/default.htm It may also work well for Star Citizen, if you have a webcam I've heard its ok so you don't have to pay for a more expensive face tracking system.
WOOOO!!! First joystick kill in HB!! Killed a Yak in my KI-61-1b. By the way, the 61 is great for joystick practice, you literally can't stall.
Just got a T16000M and can confirm that learning to aim is a bitch. Still working on calibrating but so far I seem to be much slower in pitch changes. I've changed my ratio multiplier to 1.1 which has helped some, I can pull about as hard as I want and be right on the edge of blackout. My planes also want to naturally pitch down, can't tell if that's a calibration issue or something in-game I need to deal with.
That's normal, although it's speed-related; at a certain speed most planes will generate enough lift that you can leave the joystick alone and stay in level flight, or even start climbing.
Also, while this really only applies to simulator level as its a cockpit visibility trick, I have my looking around set to my hat switch on my joystick as I don't have a good track software. In addition, when you do this, there is a head leaning option in the view options of full controls that allows you to set the pilot to lean left or right as well. If you put the view axis of the hat to match with the leaning axis, when you look to your right or left you can actually get your pilot to first lean right, then look right, and if you're looking behind you it means on some planes you can look around your actual seat and see cleanly behind you. Without it you wouldn't be able to see your own tail and would have to wiggle your plane back and forth to get a clean look at if anyone's on your tail. But I'm getting better at joystick, flew the Guardian Angel even a few days ago on Simulator and nailed about 5 P51/P47s over 5 games.
