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[montaropdf]

Hi,

Are joystick usable and if yes, how to "activate" them and assign commands to them in the settings?

Thanks.

[Alex]

Hi - I'm... actually not sure. Not directly, certainly, but there may be some software you can run to map joystick inputs to keyboard ones that the game would pick up. It'd be weird, though - it's really designed around using the keyboard to steer and the mouse to aim/move your view around.

[montaropdf]

Is there any plan to add support for joystick and other game controller, like game pads?

I think a joystick is more appropriate than keyboqrd + mouse given the way ships move.

[Alex]

Hmm. I think people have had some success using gamepads with Xpadder.

As far as the game supporting either natively, no, I wasn't planning on doing that. The game is designed around keyboard + mouse, and to support gamepads/joysticks "officially" would mean new considerations for the UI everywhere. I'm also not much of a gamepad person, so I don't think I'd do a particularly good job there. Dev time is also a consideration.

I think a joystick is more appropriate than keyboqrd + mouse given the way ships move.

A joystick is good when there's a range of inputs, right? I.E. "turn left slowly" vs "turn left quickly" etc. It's great for flight sims etc (obviously), but ship controls in Starsector don't work like that. Plus you'd need to use the mouse with it anyway, and that seems awkward.

[montaropdf]

Hmm. I think people have had some success using gamepads with Xpadder.

As far as the game supporting either natively, no, I wasn't planning on doing that. The game is designed around keyboard + mouse, and to support gamepads/joysticks "officially" would mean new considerations for the UI everywhere. I'm also not much of a gamepad person, so I don't think I'd do a particularly good job there. Dev time is also a consideration.

I do understand the dev time consideration and the impact on the UI.

A joystick is good when there's a range of inputs, right? I.E. "turn left slowly" vs "turn left quickly" etc. It's great for flight sims etc (obviously), but ship controls in Starsector don't work like that. Plus you'd need to use the mouse with it anyway, and that seems awkward.

You are right with the range of inputs, but for whatever reason, I don't feel at ease with the commands so far, I have a hard time strafing and turning at the same times and selecting a weapon seems also odd. So, while there is no need for "turning slowly" or "turning quickly", the way joysticks and gamepads are designed make it easier to perform that kind of "parallel" action and selecting a weapon would feel more natural. Or maybe I am getting to old for that ***

[Alex]

Thanks for understanding!

Just to make sure you're aware: if you hold down shift, your ship will turn towards the mouse, and A/D will strafe instead of turning. Most of the time you're looking to circle-strafe, that's how you'd want to do it. The dedicated strafe left/right keys (Q/E) are only really useful in a few cases, such as with larger ships, and even then it's situational.

[montaropdf]

Then I will have to spend some times in the simulator in the refitting screen of a station to get used to it.

[Midnight Kitsune]

One note: You can use joy2key or even steam to map the commands to a gamepad. I don't know how it would work with a stick but it works somewhat decently with a 360 gamepad

[xenoargh]

if you hold down shift, your ship will turn towards the mouse, and A/D will strafe instead of turning. Most of the time you're looking to circle-strafe, that's how you'd want to do it.

Also note that there's a setting in the Settings panel that reverses this behavior so that ships auto-turn towards your mouse cursor, rather than having to hold Shift key down all the time.  A lot of us actually play the game that way most of the time; the Mechwarrior-like control system and constantly having to hold down Shift is rather awkward.

[montaropdf]

if you hold down shift, your ship will turn towards the mouse, and A/D will strafe instead of turning. Most of the time you're looking to circle-strafe, that's how you'd want to do it.

Also note that there's a setting in the Settings panel that reverses this behavior so that ships auto-turn towards your mouse cursor, rather than having to hold Shift key down all the time.  A lot of us actually play the game that way most of the time; the Mechwarrior-like control system and constantly having to hold down Shift is rather awkward.

Thanks, effectively, way more controlable this way.