A matter of flight sticks
 

So I picked up a Cyborg F.L.Y. 9 from Amazon because I had some credit with them and from the world of you-get-what-you-pay-for, I expected it to be an upper end item.

It's an OK stick, but I'm a little disappointed overall. There seems to be a massive dead zone, so minor adjustments are near impossible. This is very noticeable in Realistic and Sim where you can stall into a spin.

Is there any hope for adjusting the dead zone? I'm guessing not.

Do any of you fellows use sticks with BoP, particularly on Xbox? Is there an ideal stick out there?

Hi mate, I'm on the 360 and I went for the saitek AV-8R. It's not the most expensive, nor the cheapest by it does the job well enough for me. Some reported that I broke easily, but I've not had that problem. I can only recommend that as I've not used any others.

Never found any major issues myself with it though.

James.

The deadzone is not the fault of the stick, it is inherent in this game, regardless of what the developer tries to tell you. I've experienced the same problem with my AV8R in IL-2, yet when I use it in other games the deadzone is neglible or nonexistent.

that dead zone wrecks havoc with marksmanship for me at least. you cant get the plane to make those minor adjustments to put the pipper where you need it. i honestly think the guys who use a controller have an easier time. i just cant get used to them. i have tried both saitek sticks and have not had great result. i really wrestle with my stick though. i broke the twist off of my AV8R....and the wires for the rudder on my Fly 9 as well. I ended up buying a used Ace Edge off of ebay and that has served me very well for well over a year. i just recently experienced a problem with the POV top hat and scored another one on ebay. they wont be cheap...$100usd+ but i think well work it in the long run. thats just my 2 cents

The M00ps is correct.

The large deadzone is needed for gamepads because the sticks are very short which makes them very sensitive to small movements. Without the deadzone you would be moving and wobbling all over the place without any movement of the stick becuase the mechanism to hold the stick central is weak so you can easily move it with just your thumb and is cheap so will wear quickly making the stick not always sit at complete center.

Pre-patch/xbox BoP did not take the lowered thus more acurate sensitivity available with a long joystick into acount (the leverage of a long stick meaning the mechanism to hold the stick central can be much stronger like a big spring allowing the use of a much smaller deadzone)

BoS will have specific control schemes for popular joysticks which you can then customise. The Joystick control schemes will have a much smaller deadzone than the gamepad control schemes.

This is exactly what I wanted to hear. I bought the stick with BoS in mind so I'm thrilled it will be adjustable.

Can the sensitivity be cranked up in BoP to counter some of the problem?

So what order would you rate the flight sticks for xbox from best to worst, and what would their prices be?




Please excuse my usernme I do not intend to offend anyone.

1. ace edge ( by far but you will only find used $100usd+)

2. saitek fly 9.....i have 1 for sale if you want it $80usd + shiiping

3. saitek AV8R if you are gentle on the controls, dont have much to spend. AND dont fly much

I guess I didn't realize that my Fly 9 was a Saitek product. A Saitek Cyborg was my first flight stick on PC. I should have known it considering all the adjustments that can be made.

Of course my first Cyborg died on me rather quickly and I replaced it with a MS Sidewinder 2 that worked for many years. Not sure if it still works since it's on the bottom shelf of a bookcase five hours away.

i honestly dont know if the sidewinder will work with BoP....very well may.

The sidewinder 2 was a USB stick so it might work for the PS3. Not much use to Crash on the xbox though.

Oh I'm fairly certain it doesn't work with the Xbox.

Its such a shame MS stopped making their sidewinders. They were top quality. MS would make a lot of people very happy indeed if they relaunched the forcefeedback Sidewinder for both xbox and Windows.

I'm a little surprised they haven't, but flight simulators have become a serious niche product. What once probably held a large part of the gaming market share is a shadow of what it once was thanks to increased consumers (a good thing) and the Call of Duty-ification of everything under the sun (a bad thing).

No one is interested in open-ended simulators and flight sticks just don't sell when everything can be done with a gamepad.

Look at what's new from Madcats/Saitek, a new AV8R...

http://damageincthegame.com/wp-conte.../XBOXstick.png

Ah ha! At least one company has its eyes open to the market. Even notice the US Navy theme which no doubt is to match the Pacfic theme of BoS and Damage Inc.

Interesting layout with those switches on the bottom. Not sure what buttons/assignments would work as toggles outside of flaps and gear, but those were assigned to normal buttons in BoP.

I guess that's fairly consistent with the other AV8R sticks, but I've grown comfortable with my FLY 9. The dead zone doesn't bother me as much any more in BoP, but it's a nightmare in Ace Combat 6.

I use the older av8r and I really hate the deadzone in BoP (xbox). Sure hope they got it fixed in Birds of Steel.

Waiting less and less patiently...:-P

New edition HORI HOTAS coming soon for Xbox 360 and PS3...

http://www.hori.jp/us/Products/XBOX3...e/topimage.jpg

http://www.hori.jp/us/Products/PS3/p...topimage01.jpg

Now THATS what I'm talking about! Release that at a realistic price and i'm buying.

I'll be lookin' hard at one of these when I see a title that supports all those buttons and knobs on the PS3. It's listed at $149 which seems about right for this stick if the quality is there. Can't find any detailed info on them right now though.

StiC

Hori's product page for the 360 HOTAS with links to their other product details:

http://stores.horiusa.com/-strse-141...ick/Detail.bok

I was actually looking for a new arcade fightstick for Soul Calibur V when I discovered these new flightsticks.

if its the same quality as the ace edge it will be worth it.

I'm hoping it will be available to buy in the UK. For some reason it isn't on the Hori uk site?

Pope, I'll ship you one if you cant get them there....

where did you find that.I looked on the saitek website and all they had was the old one.

Here you are bucket http://damageincthegame.com/gear its being advertised for use with this game (which looks pretty bad I must say). They would do much better if they promote it more to BoS.

thanks pope.it does not give much info though.is the rudder controled by twisting the handle?the av8r that i had did not have a removable stick and as has been discussed before here the plastic peice that controlled the rudder is very weak.maybe for someone that does not twist to hard thats not a problem.if they fixed that problem i would be a customer.

It looks like the HORI FS EX2 is now available for purchase.
Check the product page;
http://stores.horiusa.com/-strse-141...ick/Detail.bok

Can't wait to get my hands on one of these.:grin:

seems like a pretty good price considering it looks similiar to the hori ace edge.you can still buy a used ace edge in the U.S. for around 100$ but the same non ace edge hori was over 300$.maybe the av8r and fly 9 will have some competition in countrys that that don't have many used ace edge sticks floating around.

Have you looked at the button layout Bucket? How is this new Hori stick different to yours. Yours doesn't have the button mode swiches right?

no it doesn't pope.yeah it looks like they made some changes but i just checked amazon and they have the same stick for ps3 but not xbox.is this new for ps3 also?

Yes they are both new. Looks like US Amazon just haven't got any of the 360 sticks yet and they have already run out of stock on PS3 ones?