Im learning DCS and Hornet. Use VR mostly (Rift). Last time I spent any significant time with a flight sim was F/A-18 Interceptor. Its good to be back!
I will note here some things that have really confused me as a beginner.
1. I struggled with the plane not being stable and wanting to turn to the right. I could not enable the auto pilot also. Then I read somewhere that a small deadzone need to be configured. I put in a deadzone of 4 on Pitch and Roll and that solved it. Why isnt this added by default?
2. I use VR, and for now using an Xbox controller I had lying around (I know!!). I use the left hand on the mouse with VR Zoom to flip switches etc. Xbox controller / mouse combo kind of works, except for one issue: Both trigger buttons cant be configured for anything. I want to have them for gun trigger and weapon release button but it is not possible since they seem to be recognized as axis controls only?
3. Why is the VR "head cursor" and mouse cursor one and the same? It makes it hard to flip switches using the mouse since I need to keep my head completely still. It should be possible to disable "head cursor" completely and be able to move the mouse freely independent of head rotation.
4. I have used "Fast mission" a lot, and I think that is great for some free flight. One issue I had difficulty with was to load on any weapons. Have to drop into the full mission editor for that. And although Im learing how to use the mission editor now, it is daunting at first to even find the weapons loadout. Maybe add an option to add some weapone already from the fast misson screen?
5. Its weird that Axis controls exists both on General and in the Hornet section also. Many times when setting up controls I changed in the wrong place, leading to the controls not being active in the Hornet. For beginners I think getting over the controller configuration hurdle is the biggest one, and I gave up several times, but came back a few weeks later.