Combat flight games for PC

I'm more concerned about about loot boxes/micro transactions. Also, I'm curious to see if they'll try to intentionally cripple any controls besides gamepads on the PC version

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Combat Flight Simulator 2 is always a nice one to go back to. I always loved dueling with my brother over LAN back in the day.

If you enjoy that, may I interest you in some 50 meter off the deck mach 1 bombing runs with the Viggen?

A dogfighting game on PC without proper flight stick support would be a fucking travesty. Please don't fuck this up Namco.

They're going to fuck it up.

Recommendations on flight sticks?

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I'm currently using a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. It's a good entry level stick if you're not willing to shell out over $100 on an input device you may not end up liking if you've never used one before. It has a good weighted base so you won't have to nail it down to anything, even during more intense sessions it has only shifted around a little bit. The only complaint I have so far is that it is kind of creaky, but that will only be an issue if the game you're playing doesn't have music. Another entry level stick I've heard good things about is the Thrustmaster T16000M.

Would have thought that not "entry level"
Entry level would be something like pic related

I own it and it's a huge fucking pile of shit. Extremely cheaply built, everything's squeaking and clicking and grinding and wobbles around uncomfortably. Extremely cheap plastic, rough around the edges, feels like crap, you can sometimes see mold flash. Weird-ass buttons placement, ugly and inconvenient convex hat. Doesn't have heavy base, doesn't have mounting brackets, doesn't have sucktion cups - moves around all the time under slightest force exertion. For some god damn retarded fucking reason has an indentation in the middle of throttle travel, which doesn't let you to smoothly throttle over the 50% mark. Input accuracy is plain dogshit. There are far better sticks out there for the same price, just without a throttle handle, but you don't need one, trust me.

Enjoy your DRM

This stick, the 3D Pro and the T16000M were the three that I was considering buying. Glad to hear I dodged a bullet by avoiding this one. Why the fuck would you have no mounting brackets, suction cups or weighted base? I also agree with the throttle, extremely accurate control in that area only becomes necessary if you're playing pure flight sim games and in that case you would want a much more expensive stick with a dual throttle. I fucking love the 3D Pro, I've been going out of my way to play as many games with it as possible, even racing titles. I am now imagining a world where I bought a shit stick and feel nothing but disdain for the input devices as a result and I don't like it one bit.

The issue isn't so much that it might totally lack stick controls, it's that Namco has a history of intentionally adding huge dead zones to the flight stick inputs on the console releases so that they don't over shadow gamepads. It would be like a fps intentionally fucking up mouse tracking for the sake of console gamers.

Try out Falcon. Falcon 4.0 in particular has the BMS 4.33 mod, which makes the game among the most comprehensive flight sims ever released to the public.

Neat, I'm going to check this one out.

Seconded.

Good to know, thanks mate.

Do either of you have pedals to go with your HOTAS? I've been thinking about getting some, but I want some recommendations before I shell out the shekels.

No, I just use the stick twist for yaw, works decently enough. Thinking about getting a full stick, throttle, pedal setup though.

I have a question, Holla Forums. Should I buy a HOTAS for $200 or save up for a Warthog?

I've heard the Warthog was built more for realistically emulating the Warthog above all else, so it is more stiff and has more resistance than most sticks, which means it isn't great for any fast paced more arcadey stuff, purely sim games only. You will also need to nail it in to your desk or chair with a DIY setup or buy one of those expensive flight sim desk/chair setups on top of the $400 you would spend for the Warthog or any combo that isn't just a weighted/suction cup single joystick. A full setup would be really nice, but a Keyboard + 3D Pro is perfect for pretty much anything that isn't hyper advanced realistic flight sims.

fair enough, what about the Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS, I saw in a thread the other week someone suggesting it and you can get a HOTAS for about £118 on amazon at the moment.

here

How could I forget!!

This game with the heug content expansion mod is one of my favorite games of all time.

I was thinking about getting an X56, but I've heard complaints that the build quality of it is abysmal and parts wear down after only a few weeks. Should I go for it or just get an X52?

I do play realistic flight sims and I wanted to treat myself since it's my birthday, which is the reason why I wanted a throttle as well. I didn't realize that the Warthog stick doesn't rotate, so controlling the rudder would be weird.

I've never owned the X56, but I will say the X52 is a solid HOTAS setup.

will it run on a toaster? the requirements have to be less steep than DCS

i had an x52, it worked okay, but there's an issue with shake on the slider on the throttle, which makes it useless. to use that slider on the throttle your going to have to turn it into a two way button.

also the screen on the throttle is a meme which you'll never use, and so are the button lights on the pro version. i don't think there's a reason to get the pro, maybe the build quality is better. i had a pro but i regretted it. i actually took the standard one back because of the slider shake issue and got a pro instead, still had the slider issue. i replaced the fucking thing 3 times, all had the slider issue, it's apparently a hardware thing and they have no motivation to fix it.

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The original game came out twenty years ago, so you should have little trouble with that. Specs for the mod are here. You need to make a forum account to get the torrent files for the mod, which I think is pretty gay, so I'm just going to give you the magnet links for each torrent file.

Note that you need Falcon 4.0, not Allied Forces. I don't have a magnet link for the game that will allow you to download it in a reasonable amount of time, which is why I'm uploading the installer to volafile along with the manual and a book about flight maneuvers. If people want me to, I can upload the entire collection. BMS can be installed to a different directory than the base game. Install the main installer first, and then the updates sequentially. 'DO NOT install the updates to your installation directory, but to your original setup directory.

>Falcon 4.0: volafile.org/r/g8x848vc

>U2 lol: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:793a76ede01a15eb0136392fd2729015c244ee1f

Also, the uploaded book is paired with a VHS tape, all portions of which are on Youtube.

>Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB06E28775F0662AE

I am very interested in this. My repertoire of aerial manuevers is a bit lacking to say the least. The fanciest move I've figured out on my own is when someone is on my tail I roll upsidedown and then pitch upward to escape.

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Sorry, I misspoke. By entire collection, I was referring to the game series. If there are any books you want, head over to gen.lib.rus.ec/.

Vector Thrust

OP, play the PC Crimson Skies game. It's arcadey and pretty fun.

I wish it wasn't a janky piece of shit, it doesn't work on my machine anymore and I don't know why. It constantly pulls in a direction when I try to use my T.Flight 4.

It's probably your best choice unless you want to get a CH products set-up (which will need foot pedals since they don't have a twist function) or the crazy 300 dollar+ high end shit. Generally avoid any of the saitek X-00(now logitech branded) stuff, and the Warthog is way overpriced for what it is because of it's muh metal stick.

There was a shockwave flash game where you were a pilot defending a colony on mars against alien drones, the flight is pretty simple, you move forward constantly and turn so that you don't crash into anything. I don't have the name anymore, those days are far too gone to remember.

Is there any reason as to why so few manufacturers make sticks? Logitech, Thrustmaster, and CH are the only manufacturers I've found that make a HOTAS within a reasonable price range.

you can't use them to play assfaggots

If someone can play ASSFAGGOTS with a guitar hero controller then I dont see why they can't with a flight stick.

yes
debatable, for being made out of plastic its bretty gud
only the 2 back buttons and the 3th thumb button are somewhat wierd tbh, definitely not enough buttons overall
thats propably the biggest downside as some games simply dont recognize it as the 0 point
that is incorrect, clean your table of dust you swine, it sits on a clean tabletop rock solid
debatable, the T16000M is more expensive by itself even without a throttle
factually incorrect
you also forgot to mention that the twist doesnt have a lot of range and the deadzone is way too high on it

the deal with the HOTAS X is that its the absolute cheapest acceptable setup and what it gives you for 30 bux is bretty gud, even if its not objectively very good

the T16000M is kind of an intermediary level shit between entry level and real people products because it has the quality of a cheapshit stick but the features of a real people stick
however if you have the money to afford the T16000M you can afford the X52pro

warthog is for immulsion autists and it trades functionality for realism
if you wanna go full immulsion autism theres better setups out there

X56 is bottom of the barrel dogshit in its build quality, go for the X52 PRO, not the basic one
the pro has better assembly quality and more metal parts

TL;DR: T16000M if you want lower end stick, HOTAS X if you are on "better than nothing" budget, X52pro if you are willing to spend some money, and if you go above 200 bux this is not the place to get info from, highly specialized high quality sticks are for people with jobs and real lives ironically enough

The throttle indentation is not a detriment, but it is a huge annoyance.

Throttle goes from 0% to 100%, not from -100% to +100%. You can't fucking reverse an airplane engine. You could argue that zero mark would be useful for helicopter master pitch control, but again NO, helicopters aren't stable and you need to adjust all controls subtly all the time. The stick doesn't need a stopgap there. None of the other sticks have it and no one ever complained that it was lacking.
Bullshit. It's lighter than my fucking keyboard and simply pressing your finger against the top of the stick is enough to get the whole thing moving. It doesn't moves TOO MUCH if I press it downwards all the time but that's horseshit, it should sit tight on its own.
Every stick has a throttle knob, because you need a throttle, but you don't need it shaped specifically like a handle to function properly, and that's a fact of the matter.

Also I did mention that input accuracy was dogshit. I don't need to specify what's wrong with it because literally everything is wrong with it.

spess sims use that feature, too bad some dont support it
clean the pads, clean the table, put it down and let it rest for a minute
after 4 hours of play I have to apply considerable amout of force to detatch it from the table
the glue pads cant properly attach if you got cheetoes dust between them and the tabletop
I enjoy carpal tunnel like every other person that likes to play a single videogame for 6 hours at a time, but a full separate throttle of any kind allows for easier precision control with your entire arm instead of just with the thumb and the index finger of the hand thats awkwardly resting on the side of the joystic base
just because youre autistic enough to play with the throttle knob for years to be comfortable enough with it doesnt mean its good or desirable, or an acceptable alternative to a separate throttle handle

Elite Dangerous goes from -100 to +100

Does your desk have rubber coating? Or sandpaper coating? Or is it one of those hipster raw cut non-polished wood with splinters and shit kind of thing? Or is it coated with concrete? Mine has this faux wood texture plastic coating. Normal solid wood desks have acrylic coating. Some people own desks with open metal top side. They're not at all sticky, and the piece of shit slides effortlessly over these surfaces. I've been trying to get it to stay in place and nothing short of using extremely abrasive surfaces worked.
Yes because having entire setup being a pile of shit is a better option than just having shitty throttle control but otherwise an OK stick.

That's just EDs retarded implementation. Maneuvering engines should have their own controls, and main engines are not reversible anyway.

solid wood with acrylic coating, glue pads stick to it rock solid, suction cups on the other hand dont work at all because the wood grain does not allow it
yes because having two shitty but serviceable legs is better than having only one otherwise OK leg

Yeah you might as well attach sensor cables to your balls and dick and use that for a flight stick with twin throttle. Pretty sure even that would come out as less painful and retarded experience than using HOTAS X.

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After all the research I did, I discovered that this is probably the best thing there is that isn't the $450 Warthog. All the research I've done say to just avoid Logitech/Saitek altogether unless it's the 3D Pro. It's really criminal how few options there are.

i just want a good combat flight sim that works with vr

Why do you care about VR when you can use TrackIR™, user? It's what all the cool kids are into!
But seriously, apparently VR isn't as good because the headset prevents you from seeing the stick and shit.

You don't need to see the stick, or the throttle. They are called HOTAS for a reason. You keep your hands on them all the time.
The real problem is the screendoor effect, which makes it damned near impossible to visually spot vehicles at a distance (which is required for CAS and dogfighting). It's already hard to do in game, but with the screendoor effect it becomes outright impossible.

Oh, i hope naturalpoint fucking dies once VR gets even more traction

This shit is overpriced and doesn't work all that well.

The future is orientation sensors, basically they're a gyro, magneto, and compass all in one chip, the same thing that's in a decent smartphone and the same thing VR use's, only without the goggles. You can buy them for $45 and strap one to a headset, or you can strap a smartphone to your head, and it works amazing and it's free.
github.com/opentrack/opentrack/wiki/Smartphone-Headtracking
(vid related)

I've actually had a trackir 5 in the past, and rubber banding a smartphone to your headphones works way better. there's no issue of the lights going out of range of the sensor, and it's far more accurate. The only downside is you don't get translation, but with opentrack you can mix two methods together, one for translation and one for orientation.

EDTracker is the prebuilt orientation sensor, they give you all instructions to buy the IC's and build it yourself for far cheaper
edtracker.org.uk/index.php/diy/source-the-parts
edtracker.co.uk/shop/products
Or you can buy their premade version for $45.

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how do you track fags even deal with having to be stiff as fuck while you play?

it's nothing compared to the freedom of looking around the cockpit. once you get used to it you it you won't go back, being locked into the view or having to use hat buttons to look around doesn't feel right at all.

you usually set up deadzones looking center, so you've gotta move more to break out of the center view, you don't have to keep your head perfectly still. you also set up an easy to access button that recenters the view and that get's pressed often.

Pricey to manufacture, package and ship compared to most controllers. And they're an extremely niche product that's only used for genre that's half dead.

To be able to do this you have to have a pretty up to date phone anyway so why not just use it as an actual vr headset?
riftcat(.)com/vridge
archive.is/ytBhr
APK's exist for a reason.

who are you trying to impress
this is why you setup curves, you don't turn your head that far, the guy in the vid has retarded curves. you can set it so 10 degree's=90
i'm doing it fine on a 5 year old smartphone. it just has to have a gyro, a magneto, and compass and preferably an accelerometer. the app you install doesn't read all these, android compute's all of them together to shit out an orientation on it's own, but without these sensors the orientation tracking is going to be shit. some cheap phone's don't have this though, they just have an accelerometer and that alone won't work.

the point of using the smartphone is that's it's free. if your phone has the sensors, and most android's that don't cost $30 do, then great, you've got a free setup already. If not, it's not worth buying a phone over, just buy the $45 prebuilt orientation sensor that's designed for it.

also you can just strap it to a headset, not a headband. the github says the headphone speaker magnets might fuck with it, but i haven't experienced that, it doesn't affect my phone.

If space games are an acceptable option, Ever Space is decent for a few run throughs. It doesn't have the regenerating missile stocks of an AC game (you have to find or craft your missiles payloads) but it does have a few guns that have homing projectiles.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEE

Didn't think of that tbh guess that would work too.
guess i was a little quick to dismiss it I'll check it out tbh

Anyone know if Heliborne is any good?

store.steampowered.com/app/433530/Heliborne/

or have any recommendations for Helicopter games?

Heard mixed things with the biggest problem being unbalanced multiplayer and not so good A.I. The dev keep making DLC instead of fixing the core issues.

Namco's use of denuvo seems to be sporadic at best so there's still a chance it wont have it.

What's nice about PC is, if they do that, there's the possibility of being able to fix that, yourself.

So in an effort to keep the thread alive, what's your favorite military aircraft? Mine's the Avro Arrow.

Who ever really uses them? Numpad works perfectly fine.

I have a TrackIR 5™, mate. upgraded from a 4 the day it came out.

HOTAS and can feel for keyboard keys easy enough.
The clarity and resolution on the Oculus, for distant objects is abysmal. But the feel you get from vr is unreal. you have a few tricks to improve the resolution but on DCS there's not a GPU powerful enough to make the improvement necessary (plus i like BMS more)

Falcon 4.0 and BMS can run on a toster, VR on that would be next level.

I'm not all that familiar with DCS. What are the differences between it an BMS? Also,

The next Vive is gonna have massively upgraded resolution. They say you can read small text on it.

Why the F-35 of course :^)

DCS is a much newer game that is a sequel of sorts to Lock On but with a much greater focus on detailed simulation of systems. With the exception of the 2 free aircraft you purchase each module (aircraft, new terrain etc.) separately. Some modules have different developers with varying degrees of detail, but for many of them they are considered the best on the market.

Where it's really lacking is in dynamic sp missions. Nothing comes close to Falcon 4's campaign.

You want to summon /k/?

that's a step in the right direction. but im not make of money

#do they like to play flight sims?

F-14 Tomcat, always.

And the guy who made it said, never again
much like Victoria 2's population and economic code, no one has the skill or know how to replicate it. Hell even copy it.

Both are absolute wizardry.

Fortunately with Falcon 4.0, we do have that opportunity because the source code was leaked.

I still have my Saitek X52 from back when they first came out in 2004.
Back when Saitek was still Saitek and not a Madcatz brand.
Anyways mine is built very solidly, most of the internals are metal. Dad bought one for himself after Saitek got bought out and it felt like garbage compared to mine, plastic everywhere, super light (not in a good way), felt like I was going to snap the thing in half. But it functioned just as well as mine, so there's that.

The programming software has been hit or miss for me, but then again I've seen about 14 years worth of changes off and on. The current version is easy enough to use. If you want a HoTaS I'd definitely recommend the X52, doubly so if you can get one of the original production ones. Mine has served me well playing Descent (1-3), Mechwarrior (2-4mercs), and Freespace.

Have a shitty pic of mine.

Goddamnit. I really need a good single player helicopter game, no free to play, multiplayer only, lootbox whatever the fuck nonsense, just a good solid campaign with a decent length, that's all.

If you aren't a graphics snob the Comanche series is decent, I played it back in the 90s

Try this series

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_Engaged

beat me to it

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Is DCS really that bad?

the old X52 is the new X52pro and the new x52 is a cheapshit version of that from what I gather

Friendly reminder that Belka did nothing wrong.

I miss my Sidewinder precision pro, lasted for 11 years before a solder joint failed in a dogfight.

gas yourself

Surprising that nobody has mentioned project nimbus yet. It is literally ace combat with gundam styled mechas instead of planes.

not as bad as that guy's post

Comanche is exactly what I was looking for, fuck yes. Thanks.