In over my head?

[jireland607]

... and how much did the webcam/wiimote/whatever else cost you?

 

Already had the webcam but its only a cheap one from Argos, I think its Alba or something. Cost me £12 originally. I did try the Wiimote but only because I had one. I did not see any really benefit with it to justify running bluetooth on my PC. I did have to take out the IR filter though but still works as a webcam.

 

The Saitek X45 I was lucky with, I got it for £6 from a Boot Sale. What a steal! I've had it for 5 years now, yes its really sloppy in the centre but other than that, it works fine. After attempting mid-air refuelling I have been thinking about upgrading to X52 pro tbh.

[rud]

I seem to be an odd ball, because I use the keyboard commands and the HOTAS controls interchangeably. One minute I may feel like using my hotas to trim, the next I may want to use my keyboard. The same goes for zoom, slew, locking targets, and pretty much anything else I would need to do.

 

And while I agree that a HOTAS is a wonderful and amazing thing i would never dream of flying without; I would not say that it is completely necessary in order to fly the A-10.

 

Same here. I've got an X-52 and TrackIR, but for an hour yesterday I didn't feel like plugging them in and got 14 kills with my trusty keyboard and mouse.

 

With the A-10C, it's not what you have, it's what you know!

[flybye]

Wow guys thanks for all the replies!

 

HOTAS: Not a problem. I've had crazy key binding configurations all my life. Even with my G5 mouse, I have a weapon even for side and left scroll on this thing and a custom program that lets me flip between 2 weapons when also side scrolling and up/down scrolling. Essentially, I've had 8 guns directly attached to my scroll wheel. Don't get me started with my keyboard. :D

 

I am curious about something, though. Many speak of the amazing things that can be done with the mission editor. Are there any options for surprise placement of enemies? Not sure if I would really like to always know where the enemy is.

 

I do believe I am greatly leaning towards getting a copy now. The only thing stopping me is my computer. I'll be doing an upgrade very soon and A-10 will be one of several games I'll be doing this upgrade for. I just have to do a full upgrade with CPU, MB & RAM. I have an 8800GTX with 768mb of vram and I'll see how that goes in the beginning with an overclocked i7-950.

Edited May 5, 2011 by flybye

[Kenan]

^^<Monty Python>Oh just buy the bloody game! </Monty Python>

[flybye]

LOL I can't play it!

Current specs:

Opteron 165 @ 2.9ghz (Similiar to a core 2 duo @2.5ghz)

2GB of ram.

[nomdeplume]

I am curious about something, though. Many speak of the amazing things that can be done with the mission editor. Are there any options for surprise placement of enemies? Not sure if I would really like to always know where the enemy is.

 

Unfortunately, not really. The best you can do is place several separate enemy groups in different locations, and then randomly activate only some subset of them each time the mission runs. You'll still know the possible locations but if you have several different groups that are 'randomly' placed, you can get a few variations which may require different tactics.

 

The quick mission generator can also be fun - even if you tweak the mission it generates manually to suit yourself, you probably won't be able to remember the placement of every unit.

 

Also, you can add AI flights (friendly and enemy) and if you design the mission right, get a lot of different experiences based on what they do (or fail to do) on any given runthrough.

 

Although I would also point out - spotting targets if you don't already know where they are is hard (as it should be), so most of the time you're going to need to provide yourself with cues to get onto the target anyway. Lack of real random placement isn't really a big issue.

[sweinhart3]

Oh really? Me and my €30 stick do just fine, thanks.

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1122264&postcount=15

 

TIR or Freetrack is more important than a HOTAS IMO.

 

Nate

 

Dang. Id hate to have to remember all the combinations. I thought learning on the Hotas Warthog was hard enough to remember which switches did what. It looks like you have effectively doubled or tripled the number of combinations on a single hat.

[flybye]

Unfortunately, not really. The best you can do is place several separate enemy groups in different locations, and then randomly activate only some subset of them each time the mission runs. You'll still know the possible locations but if you have several different groups that are 'randomly' placed, you can get a few variations which may require different tactics.

 

The quick mission generator can also be fun - even if you tweak the mission it generates manually to suit yourself, you probably won't be able to remember the placement of every unit.

 

Also, you can add AI flights (friendly and enemy) and if you design the mission right, get a lot of different experiences based on what they do (or fail to do) on any given runthrough.

 

Although I would also point out - spotting targets if you don't already know where they are is hard (as it should be), so most of the time you're going to need to provide yourself with cues to get onto the target anyway. Lack of real random placement isn't really a big issue.

Fair enough. I'm really looking forward to it once I upgrade then. Thanks again. :D

[Nate--IRL--]

Dang. Id hate to have to remember all the combinations. I thought learning on the Hotas Warthog was hard enough to remember which switches did what. It looks like you have effectively doubled or tripled the number of combinations on a single hat.

 

Honestly it was easy. When I needed to learn a new function it was added to the hat. Currently it is 5 functions on the one hat with room for more. That is why I'd always suggest that you create your own profile rather than use somebody else's, you will learn quicker..

 

Nate

[cichlidfan]

That is why I'd always suggest that you create your own profile rather than use somebody else's, you will learn quicker..

Nate

 

I agree completely, I am very new to this sim like many of us and I looked at lots of profiles for mine and other brands of sticks but what I settled on is something that made sense to me...and what worked well for each hand. It is also easier to remember because there is a reason why I put things where I did.

 

...and...

 

Definately, concentrate on one thing at a time. A few weeks ago I was mostly just staring at the manual and mumbling...now I only mumble...