Well, I have viewed quite a few posts that talk of this fabled problem with
joystick/turret control. I, for one, do not have a clue what you are talking
about. Maybe that is the case of the great majority of people who "like it"
and therefore why you haven't heard much from them...
O.K. Try assigning turret l/r and turret u/d to the joystick. Notice that when push your joystick to the left your torso turns to the left. Now let the joystick return to the center. Notice your torso return to facing forward. This occurs because the turret direction is calculated directly from the joystick *position*.
Now enter a mission. You'll have to steer your mech with something else. (CH Pedals work rather nicely BTW). Now circle your opponent, turn your torso ~90 degrees toward your enemy, and try to hit her. Hard isn't it? Zoom in on a target that is about 800m away and try to hit with a ER large laser or PPC. Impossible to hit anything isn't it? I can't understand how you could *like* this, but to each his own.
[optional] Now go to a Virtual World BattleTech site. Pay them 8 or 9 bucks for a game. Listen to their basic instruction and ask them about torso twisting. Get into a Tesla Pod. Switch to the intermediate or advanced targeting mode. Pilot your mech with the throttle and pedals, aim with your joystick.
Notice that when you push your joystick to the left, your torso turns left. Notice that when you let your joystick center, you remain pointing to the left. Now go find an enemy pilot. Note the ease of aiming at and hitting your enemy. [If you are fighting an experienced pilot, also notice how he clobbers you.]
The advantage of this method is that piloting is controlled completely by the throttle and pedals and aiming is controlled completely by the joystick. It's hard to learn, but eventually you'll see that it is vastly superior to any other method of control.
Now there are a number of options that are available:
I've tried all four and used them to complete both MW2 and GBL. None of them are as good as relative joystick torso control.
I use MW2, GBL and Mercs under DOS with my Sidewinder 3D pro as a CH-pro
and I am pretty happy about it. I was not comfortable with the default
setup that uses the rudder (twist of the stick) to control turret-twist
so I remapped the controls to use the stick twist to steer the mech and
the stick's front/back & left/right tilt to control turret movement (and
therefore, aiming). At the same time, I remapped the hat to control
horizontal jump-jetting. Now it rocks, and I didn't need to bother
Activision about it.
There have been a few posts (I've seen 4 so far) from people who like the current implementation. I'm happy you like the (crappy IMO) controls that Activision has forced on me. I don't insist that Activision removes the current (crappy IMO) controls. Having an option to use one or the other could satisfy us all.
Actually, I feel the stick controls (and the flexibility of remapping)
offered by Activision are quite superior to what you get from most of
the competition. To wit, look at EarthsiegeII, with its pitifully limited
mapping options and its caricature of a default setup where the stick's
front/back tilt controls the throttle (I still shake my head whenever I
think of it, and the alternate configurations are not much better)!
I agree that MW2 offers a previously unheard of amount of flexibility in input device customization - except for the turret control. Even ESII allows relative torso aiming. So does Shattered Steel. Of these MW2 is still my favorite, but sadly, it lacks this common feature.
Sincerely,
Doug
(ref: gould3)