PC Flight Stick aiming handicap is real

I also use flight stick. I agree with your comments. I have tried to tweak the settings by lowering sensitivity which has helped slightly but not great still.

MercenaryHG

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@AnArKey223 wrote:

So, to convince you try this. Enable mouse flight, and set the range to 100%. Map a key to "mouse recenter." Now, turn as fast and you can. Hit the recenter key. Notice the ship stops turning instantly?

Now, do this with a flight stick. Turn as fast as you can, then recenter quickly. The ship keeps drifting for another half second or so in the direction of the previous turn.

This is what flight stick people are fighting. It's the reason I cannot drop on someone's tail without having to spend 2-3 seconds fighting my aim as I over correct left, then right, then left. It also is a MASSIVE disadvantage for head on engagements, which are a major portion of kills.

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Yup, like the previous guy said. I made a video about it, just to try and get the advice out there to folks:

Hope it's helpful. Likes and subscribes are appreciated 🙂

Oh wow.

I was complaining about this same issue (too much angular momentum, too hard to aim) for the first couple weeks of this game. Several people agreed, but I doubted we would ever get any headway in getting it changed, so I just let it go and started to get used to it.

However, I had no idea that mouse players could get around it with the "mouse recenter" key / function.

Question: Can flight stick players not find a way to also use that function, mapped to the keyboard?

It's still not ideal, but I dang sure will be trying, if it will help with this major flaw in the game.

What REALLY needs to happen is they need to reduce the angular momentum effect when centering your controller on every ship across the board. I am fairly sure it is a function of ship type or "maneuverability" rating, but hopefully one that could be adjusted by programmers without also changing the other aspects of maneuverability (i.e. actual turning speed / maximum angular velocity). 

Possible arguments about "realism" aside, angular deceleration needs to be much quicker.

The sluggishness of the turn-and-shoot aspect of Squadrons makes it a very STRANGE game. It may have been done to "flatten" the competition so that people with really good reflexes and hand-eye don't have as much of an advantage (perhaps?) but it didn't work. Those who want to be pros develop other advantages to smash noobs, and good for them, but the frustrating effect is that skills transferred from other games do not apply immediately in Squadrons, or to a very dampened level, which has a negative effect on how much / little people like this game when they try it.

That said, I shall be experimenting with that "mouse recenter" function now...

Hey Billkwando I watched your video and I think I see what you mean, but want to be sure:

Are you saying that lowering sensitivity to 0 make she ship drift less coming out of a turn while using Mouse? Do you know if this works for Joystick too?

Could it be that you are actually just *turning more slowly* due to the lower sensitivity, and that is why you are drifting less coming out of the turn?

Good point on "angular momentum." However, I don't think it's that. That term denotes physics right? Which is to say, it's like "rotational inertia." I'm turning, there is energy in that, and it can't just.....stop. Which should apply equally to every control type, and be a function of the ship mass and the rate of turning.

But, we know, that's not how the game works. I think rather, it's all in the functions deep in the configuration that treats the inputs from a flight stick fundamentally different than a keyboard or mouse input. I don't have a thumb stick controller, so I can't test that.

What I think we are experiencing is a "smoothing factor" to the input for flight sticks ONLY. This seems to work in both directions. When you go from center stick to full turn, it takes a brief moment to be at "full turn." Try it, if you map a key for yaw left, you will notice your initial turn a starts a little bit faster using that key than your flight stick doing the same thing.

And, as explained above, when you go from full turn to center stick, the smoothing factor actually keeps the input going for another brief moment.

EA, please let us turn this crap OFF. I'd be willing to bet it's a simple number buried in a config file somewhere.

As noted, reducing the sensitivity down does help some, to the point where I'm at 0% sensitivity now. But it's still there.

I posted about this on reddit a while back: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsSquadrons/comments/jb7xg5/rotational_inertia_mouse_vs_joystick/

TL;DR: For mouse input, the game automatically applies counter-steering input on an axis when deflection is reduced without changing the direction of deflection.  You can see this by watching the ship's 3D flight stick model.

I have gone to hit and run tactics to minimize this effect and it’s making the game more fun for me. If I build a ship with maximum speed and less maneuverability I’m limited by the ships physical limitations more than my ability to quickly adjust. It’s easier to set up a strafing run rather then trying to outmaneuver in a close range circling fight. 

for an a-wing for instance I use:

standard laser

rockets

seeker mine

particle burst

reflec hull

scrambler shield

thrust engine

It’s pretty solid head to head with the rockets and you can do a ton of damage on even a drive by strafing run, even if you don’t get the kill. 

main problem is that without trackIR I die from crashing into things as often as I do from getting shot