Need advice on a Game Controller

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[AbzWayne]

Hi Folks.
AbzWayne here, saw the game a long time ago when I played a Demo, fell in love with it there and then.
But it was a toss of a coin, buy the game and not have other stuff at the time or leave it all for a wee while longer.

Then the Email came .. HAPPY DAYS. 

Anyhoo, looking at the controls for the game, am quite keen on some of the ships with 2 engines and bow thrusters as well... Easy to turn quickly, great for the Taxi missions.

Was looking through the net, looking for a solution and spotted this gem! 

Belkin N52TE

High Res Version of same pic here

Now, my idea is really simple. 

Its a 15 button controler, ignore the thumb button and 8 way joystick type thing... for just now...

The 14 buttons are what am after...
Arrow keys as normal use for BOTH engines and Both Rudders (maybe use 13 for full back and use 8 for All Stop??)
2 / 12 for Engine 1 fore/back and 4 / 14 for engine 2 fore/back
buttons 1 / 5 for the Bow thrusters and 6/10 for the aft thrusters
Button 11 for horn ?? possibly?? 

Now button 15, could be used for the shift key as that allows you to set the engines or rudders to all on in combo with the engine keys ?? Possibly. 

The 8 way joystick thing... maybe Zoom Chart and camera pan left right ??

Please note, I havnt bought this yet, but seriously considering it. 

Dont want to spend money on a JoyStick with twin throttles as am not sure we can set it so that half way is really all stop ?? 

So any opinions, keep it clean please, or I will ridicule you 

Look forward to your responses.

[jammydodger]

To be honest    I think that if you want something you can use on Ship Sim very easily, which is plug and play, cheap, worthwhile, and no fuss, go for something much simpler like me. 
I went for this gem: 

The Saitek R220 Steering wheel and pedals.
This is a simple to set up, easy, plug and play device like I said above. Once, you've got it, you simply clamp the wheel to your desk with the clamp provided, plug the pedals into the slot in the back of the wheel, plug the wheel's USB into your computer and off you go! The drivers self install, so there's no disk to lose either!
There are four on-wheel buttons, as you can see, as well as two flappy paddle gearbox style button thingies on the sides of the wheel. All these buttons can be custom assigned. The wheel itself is a single axis, the other axis being the right hand pedal. You can also custom assign both a left and right (in games like SS08, but not always in other games) turn of the wheel to a control. Both of the pedals can be custom assigned also (the left hand one is the slider, by the way).
You can pick one up for about £20 if you shop online.
I've got one, and it's working a treat! I use it in Ship Simulator, not only to control boats but I've also programmed it (with the in game control panel) to operate the crane too!
  James

[saltydog]

Hi AbzWayne, I must admit that it looks pretty cool, but it looks like something more suited for FPS games than ship simulator.
Perhaps you should consider a good joystick with throttle(s)..You can set it so halfway is stop..
Saitek has a nice collection, have a look: http://www.saitek.com/

[jim.smith]

HI AbzWayne,welcome to the forum.I use one of these,easy to set up.Bought on line for approx £100.00.
Regards Jim.

[houston144]

ok I will tune in on this one...

I use "both" the logitech momo racing wheel, and the N-52 nostromo speed pad and a optical mouse, it took a couple of days of frustrated attempted set-up's on the wheel and the pad's side of using it with the game until it dawned on me to stop trying to "pre-program the devices" for the game verses setting up the game to be used with the the controllers bypassing the controllers set up completely.

I use the wheel for rudder control, I have 6 additional "buttons" in the center I use for map controls, the "right" pedal which is used for "gas" normally for a car simulator I use for forward...the left I use for reverse for when I need to be in tight and close for docking or just getting near someone or something. when there are those time for flanking down a river I will use the mouse right click to push the throttles to the hilt. 

the N-52, i use for several different things, with the three pads in one set up (red/green/blue) I have one pad set up for engine maneuvering where I can fine tune the port and starboard engines to control my heading which eliminates most of my rudder action I need to use when I tune them in which sometimes it is rather tricky to do. I also use the N-52 for two presets for flanking the port engine forward and flanking the starboard engine in reverse and turning the rudder hard to starboard the other set up is the opposite of this but if I want to crazy Ivan the tug to turn it around on a dime I can do it with a push of one button.

if I had a wish list...I wish the cranes on the jumbo would move...and the remote fire controller on the incident response boat would work, i got keys left over to make stuff work...
      

[captsteve]

I have just started using a Logitech game controller.  The same one that is used for PS3 games.  They make one for PC games.  They even make a wireless version.  The controller is about $29.00.  I have set the joysticks up for rudder control and engine control.  The buttons used by your index fingers are for the bow thruster and stern thruster.  The extra buttons I have set up to zero out the engines and rudders.  It has a hat pad for your camera views.  I only use the wheel on my mouse to zoom in and out.  I rarely need to touch the keyboard or mouse using this type of controller.

[McGherkin]

Driving Force Pro. Every time.

Loads of buttons, and a gearstick, which doubles up as a handy throttle

[TNeves]

I am using the logitech G25, that I recommend.