Before I voice my concerns, I'd like to say great job. The game IS excellent. The music is awesome and I like the variety of scores for the different terrains. The graphics are good, I wish I had a Pentium 90 to play 640x480 but oh well. Anyways, I think the game is almost perfect. My main complaint is *controls*. The controls with a mouse and keyboard are fine. But with a joystick? The "auto-centering" is HORRIBLE. With EarthSeige, you make small precise corrections by tapping the joystick, but with MW2, each time you release the joystick, the turret CENTERS itself! You then have to try to aim again, and HOLD the joystick in that exact position, all while both you and the enemy mech are moving -it is impossible to aim precisely in this manner!
It is even worse if you have pedals and use the joystick to control the torso twists (Just like how the Virtual World BattleTech games are set up -I don't use the default with the rudders controling torso twists because trying to do precise aiming with your feet is no easy 'feat') I have to deal with both the X and Y axis, -keeping the joystick in an EXACT position, while the enemy mech (and mine) are both moving around. It is frustrating, and makes the game unplayable with my setup.
Earthseige handles this much better. If you release the joystick, the turret will STAY in the position you last left it in. You can then tap the joystick to make minor precise corrections to your aim. If you want to center your torso, you can either do it manually or use the center-torso button (which MWII also has) Is there some way to STOP autocentering EACH TIME the joystick is released? If not, PLEASE let the programmers at Activision know so that a patch can be released (and soon). Once this is taken care of, I can truly say the Mechwarrior II is the "ultimate mech sim."
Once again, I would like to say you did a great job. But until this issue is resolved, I cannot recommend the game to my friends who like to use joysticks with their sims (It is frustrating to spend the money on pedals and a joystick just to play MW2 and then not be able to use them) Tim, I would really appreciate it if you could update me if anything is being done about this. Please don't treat it as a minor problem. I will make any future recommendations of the game based on the way Activision deals with this issue. Please treat it as a major issue, because to us BattleTech fans, it is. I've already seen at *least* four other post on here concerning this auto-centering "feature." I look forward to hearing from Tim or anyone at Activision. (please release a PATCH soon). Thanks.
B Masc - The Masc
(ref: masc2)