Joysticks for macs?

[FSOneblin]

I've been interested in getting a joystick for Oolite, but I know nothing about joysticks and don't know what I should be looking for. I am a mac user and a poor academy student. I'm also an American, but I'm not sure if that will limit my choices or not. What do you guys recommend? Will it be possible to get a "good" "cheap" joystick? I've found a few under $60(US) but it seems most are more than $75, and I know that in things like this you normally get what you pay for. I've also found an older topic from some 5 years ago, but it would appear that the models recommended are no longer in production.

Thanks!

[Venator Dha]

I use the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro on a Mac and an very happy with it. It should be in your price range.

[Cody]

I use the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro on Windows, and it's an excellent budget 'stick ($32 on Amazon). Works straight out of the box on all platforms.

[FSOneblin]

Dha and Cody: Thanks so much for your help! It's in my amazon cart. I was just wondering if you had to do anything to get it set up, and if so, what? Also, what did you notice going from keyboard to joystick? It seems like joysticks give you more control over your ship, making docking and dog fighting easier. Sorry for so many questions about this, I'd just like to know what to expect.

Thanks again!

[Venator Dha]

Plug in the usb and it will work with Oolite. If I recall correctly the only problem I had was I needed to reassign the axises sensitivity and buttons to what I wanted. You do this from the f2 screen, can be done in flight after a pause so easy to get it as you want.
I tend to use the buttons on the stick but not the base. Throttle is on the keyboard for me, the throttle on the stick works fine, but I just prefer the keyboard for several controls.
I found that I quickly got used to it after the keyboard, for me I thought it lacks perhaps pixel precision for sniping but it has a more natural feel in dogfighting.

[ffutures]

I think all of the intel processor macs work well with USB joysticks. Since Oolite is currently the only game I play on the mac I just use a cheap gamepad type stick like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331667022095

[CWolf]

I use a Hotas X Flightstick with throttle separate, feels great in Oolite... according to sources it works fine on Mac too.

[FSOneblin]

Update; I've been using the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro since it came in Monday, and it is amazing. I love it! Oolite is almost like a different game now! Everything feels much more natural. Thanks so much for the help everyone!

[Cody]

Cool... $32 well spent, eh? If I could buy one for $32 in England, I'd get another... but they're more like $65 here!

[Fritz]

I'm thinking about buying a joystick too, and was actually looking at the two models mentioned in this thread (both cost between 45 and 50 € in Germany). I think I don't need a thrust lever because one hand would have to be on the keyboard for missiles, ECM, and injectors anyhow, so the Logitech would do. On the other hand, the Hotas does have slightly better reviews on Amazon. It also seems to have an axis for pedals, which would be nice for flight simulators, but I don't see from the pictures how this would work. And probably I'll need pedals anyhow, not for Oolite but for a flight simulator, because you need three hands for more complex planes if you don't have pedals.

So I can't decide...

I'm quite reluctant anyhow, because I never had an analog joystick for any of my PCs, and playing with the cursor keys felt more like playing with the digital sticks used with the old home computers. Actually I've never in my life played anything with an analog joystick!

I can't imagine flying in Oolite to be more precise than using the keyboard with the control key for aiming, especially because - judging from the Amazon reviews - most joysticks seem to be unprecise around the neutral position, where precision is most important when you try to aim at a ship in 20 km distance. Of course the keyboard isn't really perfect for this too, so this wouldn't make the game more difficult, but I would like to read some comments from players who switched from keyboard to joystick!

[another_commander]

I can't imagine flying in Oolite to be more precise than using the keyboard with the control key for aiming, especially because - judging from the Amazon reviews - most joysticks seem to be unprecise around the neutral position, where precision is most important when you try to aim at a ship in 20 km distance. Of course the keyboard isn't really perfect for this too, so this wouldn't make the game more difficult, but I would like to read some comments from players who switched from keyboard to joystick!

Not a player who has switched to joystick here, but stick profiles have been fully configurable in-game since version 1.80. You can define the exact desired response of the joystick by fiddling with its response curves from the Joystick Configuration menu and should be able to correct for any imprecision around the neutral position.

Suggested reading: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Dizzy' ... olite_1.80

[Venator Dha]

I found that the joystick gave a much better feel in dogfighting over keyboard, but lost a bit of precision. With 1.82 the need to dogfight has risen so I've not really felt it as a loss. I took some time with the profiles to get the feel just right for me. One thing I noticed is that thargoids are easier to keep targeted than with the keyboard

[Fritz]

Probably I'll simply have to try it. 50 € probably won't kill me...

And I know what you mean with the Thargoids: Using the keyboard is probably easier with my Python, because it turns more slowly, but with Thargoids and other heavy ships (pirate Pythons) it is still to fast to keep on target. I keep hitting the down key intermittently in these cases, but I can imagine that this will be easier with a joystick.

[kanthoney]

Suggested reading: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Dizzy' ... olite_1.80

I'm sure it took Dizzy longer to write that than it took me to write the thing in the first place...

[Cody]

I'm sure it took Dizzy longer to write that than it took me to write the thing in the first place...

<chortles>