Got a Joystick, but.....

[MajorDeath]

I'm having a heck of a time getting everything to work right. I bought the Logitech Extreme pro. It seems once I get in the air I can steer, but for some reason taking off doesn't work. It also seems the keybinds I set don't save. Any joystick users out there, that might be able to help? I will say though for the little time I've spent flying so far, I'm liking the joystick. Just need it to work right .

[JohnyRico]

I bought the Logitech Attack 3 and it made flying sooooooo much easier. It took some playing around with the key binds and I still have to use the keyboard for throttle. Seems like the software that you download is pretty much a waste of time however.

[MajorDeath]

I finally got it to work I think. It seems I had to delete all the binds, and then redo them for the jets. kinda a pain but worth it, its much easier to fly now.

[NateTheBrewer]

I basically ONLY flew in BF2 after unlocking all the weapons... Stats Here

I then moved on to BC2 and forgot my flight skills. Then, when this game was in beta, I dug my joystick out of storage, and as much of you know, it had been water-logged in my basement. I tried other joysticks but the most familiar was the Saitek brand I had had before... The only problem is that the next closest thing to what I had was $150 dollars. Well, I ended up getting it, and from day 1 of this game I could not fly for ****. Something is vastly different about how the jets respond to fine movements from the joystick.

Tonight, I unplugged my joystick, applied my 'tactics' from BF2 to the mouse and keyboard, and in 2 hours of flight time I got 34 kills, 23 vehicle destroys, and unlocked heat seeking missiles, stealth, belt speed, proximity scan, and rocket pods. I had previously only had 1 kill and 1 vehicle destroy in 44 minutes of flying.

The moral of the story is (and I hate to say it since you just got the joystick, but at least you aren't out $150), ditch the joystick and go with the mouse.

The 3 major things I can see that cause this are:

1. Since the guns are vastly important (as they were in Bf2) with countermeasures, the mouse makes accurate aiming much easier.

2. While BF2 used a closer-to-real-life flight model where you always wanted to keep your airspeed and altitude up to win in dogfights and out-turn your enemies, BF3 uses the 'Rogue Squadron' flight model (I am sure other games do this but this is the best example I can think of) where, just like in the movies, you actually want to drop your airspeed to almost-stalling to turn in on your opponents. Plus, when doing that, the mouse allows you excellent precision in placing your guns on target.

3. I could not, for the life of me, get my joystick hat working to turn my head in useful directions... it was locked in 'angles' and not beneficial to look down at the sky around you while flying semi-inverted at an upward angle. This is MUCH easier just holding the right mouse button and turning your head around in the cockpit.

You may get better mileage, but I have to tell you to at least try it with a mouse and keyboard if you have not yet. I was VERY skeptical - one of these guys who scoffs at people who do not use a hands-on-throttle-and-stick for this game, but the keyboard and mouse truly do work better. It may not let you feel like Maverick saving Iceman's panties, but it does allow you to more easily drink your beer while flying.

[MajorDeath]

I used a mouse and keyboard for bf2 and I did o.k. with this game I'm all over the place, and turning is almost impossible for me. I used the joystick for a few hours today, and it's much smoother and I feel like I have more control. I'm no flying ace, but at least I'm not killing trees atm. I'm i'm getting frustrated with the other flying aces out there not even letting me take off though. I think I lost another 10 rounds tonight.

[paceman]

Dice in their infinite wisdom seem to think that players on use one device, Mouse/Keyboard or joystick for everything. The binds that overlap are just stupid. I finally cleared all joystick binds that did not relate to flying. Such a PITA, but now it finally works pretty well.


Also, I've always used Q for my crouch bind. It's easily reached beside the W while running and walking. So I unbind the Q for comm rose and assign that to left-ctrl. But guess what, the comm rose will still always show up when I crouch, it appears that you can't unassign comm rose from Q.

[SighKoPath]

Yep, just like how you can't remove Jet Throttle Down from S (or put it on any other button).

[Nilesjones]

I got the same Joystick Major, but I didn't have that problem. It was basically just plug and play. I did have to clear some keybinds though. I think mainly the throttle. Also when you're in another vehicle, make sure your throttle is half way up on the stick because when you press the button to go forward, it won't unless the throttle on your stick is half way.

I put my flares on the left button of the hat. It's the button just to the left of the hat. Ya know... That bottom grey button on the left haha. Then I use the down button on the hat for reloading. I haven't taken the time to really get it adjusted because I'm not in the air that much. I used to be and then everyone started yelling at me because I wasn't on the ground helping with the fight.

Hopefully I'll get really good with flying the heli to where no one can take me out. I've just got to find places to hide when I get locked on to haha

[NateTheBrewer]

Also when you're in another vehicle, make sure your throttle is half way up on the stick because when you press the button to go forward, it won't unless the throttle on your stick is half way.

If you don't use the joystick for other vehicles (Land, etc.) you can unbind everything in the joystick column for that vehicle, or if you can't do that (I think they fixed that in the beta though) you can simply map them all to an unused button on your joystick (if you have one - not sure how many buttons that thing is).

[Dead_And_Gone]

I bought a saitek joystick.
Only problem is inverted on up/down and had to reverse it for ingame.

I have to unplug the joystick if i'm a ground pounder, otherwise half of what i try to do doesn't work.

[Nauticas]

The thing to remember for joystick binding is that throttle up and throttle down are binary and are not linear progressive. What this means is that you are either throttling up or throttling down. If you are not throttling down, BF3 assumes you are throttling up. So you can't set your throttle to 50% or 75%, etc. So to stay slowed down, you have to keep tapping the throttle down button.

It is pretty stupid in my opinion because you cannot set your throttle to a certain air speed. You are either at cruising speed, throttling up or throttling down. It is so dumb and takes a lot of fun out of planes and choppers for me. This, IMO, is DICE being lazy and completely ruins the flight vehicles in this game. I believe this is a direct result of this game being focused for consoles first, and PC second.

Why can't they learn from BF1942, the flight mechanics in that game were simple, near perfect, and made for some of the best air combat I've ever played in any game.

I have an older Logitech flight stick and I don't use it for BF3 because it is useless without throttle being a linear progressive control. I do use an XBOX controller, which works well for the planes, but sucks for the choppers.

The simple fact that you have to use binary buttons for throttle up and throttle down makes choppers useless with a joystick. So I use mouse+keyboard for choppers and XBOX controller for air planes.

[NateTheBrewer]

I bought a saitek joystick.
Only problem is inverted on up/down and had to reverse it for ingame.

I have to unplug the joystick if i'm a ground pounder, otherwise half of what i try to do doesn't work.

See my comment above... I am not sure why everyone has this problem... If you don't use your joystick for ground vehicles you can unbind all of the commands in the joystick column for the land vehicle keymaps. Out of the box, yes, things like your throttle axis will make you spin endlessly when you get in the turret of something, but once you unbind everything I can be driving a tank around while my cat is fighting my joystick and throttle to the death.

[SighKoPath]

I do use an XBOX controller, which works well for the planes, but sucks for the choppers.

You're kidding, right? An xbox controller is the best thing to ever happen to chopper piloting. I find it lacking in the jets (though, that's only because of the jet throttle down binding issue).

For chopper piloting with an xbox controller: Pitch and Roll on the left stick, Throttle and Rotate on the A/B/X/Y buttons. Guns right trigger (or right bumper), CMs left trigger (or left bumper). Other functions wherever you feel comfortable putting 'em.

[Douche Lord]

"Got a joystick, I'm having a whole bunch of problems with it, it doesn't.. bring me much... joy..." ba dum tssss!

[glasscasket]

360 controller is way to go.

just like ace combat.

the throttle thing annoys me... but oh well. i am still beast at dog fighting.