Citadel Space

Is anyone else having a hard time with controlling the ships and hitting the target when using the keyboard and mouse? Is it just something that you need to get used too?

I didn't like the aiming with the mouse, so I switched to my Xbox controller. I couldn't get sharp enough turns with the mouse, although it was good for precision aiming.

Since I'm having trouble getting my flight stick to work, I've been playing M&K only, and I'm getting pretty good at it. It somehow feels kinda better after the last patch too.

I find that the M+K setup is actually really nice. Much better than I expected.

Something that might help you is switching between the two mouse control modes. There's relative (chase) mode, which is default. And then there's absolute positioning mode, which is activated by hitting Ctrl+F.

In chase mode, the further you move your mouse from the center of the screen, the faster you're asking your ship to turn in that direction. There's a deadzone in the center of the screen where you're asking your guns to gimbal, and are not demanding change from your thrusters. Learning this deadzone is key to flying in relative mode.

In direct mode, it plays almost like the old M+K mode of games like X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. Your ship's nose is locked to your cursor, whichever direction you move it, that's the direction that you turn. Keep in mind this mode can seem slugish, especially on a Hornet (because of the gimballed maneuvering thrusters taking time to orient and thrust). But it's really good if you're trying to land, or flying a lot in decoupled mode.

Hope that helps!

People are saying the m+k is even OP...not that i noticed...i'm not becoming a space trucker because i'm so adept at flying tbh
I for one can't wait to get my hands on a nice HOTAS setup to immerse fully but it doesn't sound nice that one control method is fundamentalliy better then the other.... hope they fix that.

People are going to whine regardless. Mouse and Keyboard is EASY that's what people are upset about. It'll always seem stronger because you don't have to spend any money to get access to a very intuitive and easy to learn control scheme. That kinda thing makes people bitter.

Honestly, I would be annoyed with the game if M+KB were awful. I think it should be competitive. There are serious limitations to the control scheme, but those aren't going to be apparent until we get custom key bindings and better joystick and hotas support. Right now, M+KB is better because it's fully fleshed out. But that's the problem, it's fully fleshed out, and it's not amazing.

How odd. Truthfully I haven't had any time to really play AC (I'll be back July 1st). But from the few playthroughs I've done I feel that I'm able to get better response times and more accurate maneuvers out of the Xbox controller than I do out of the m&k setup. I don't feel like it's a matter of preference either; for instance I find myself in a better position when I pull a 180 (dc mode) with the controller. Whereas with the m&k I get something like a 190. Let me know if that's just me..

I would probably have less issue with my control through the M+KB if I could control the ship through keyboard or joy stick and the turrets with the mouse. Trying to attack and spinning out of control sucks.