I suppose if I felt the existing HOTAS setups were better for lateral movement, if it had a nice controller-style thumbstick and an extremely solid feeling throttle, I might go back to using one. 

I am using a Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar setup  (excellent HOTAS, terrible drivers), to fly my ship (an Imperial Clipper BTW  ), and I am very pleased with it. But I am using it, for nearly ten years now, and  I am used to its quirks  !!!!  

 

 

Are they still going for two pressure pads rather than sticks?

It has dual touchpads and a left thumb-stick.  (I'm pretty sure the pads are capacitive, and as such not mechanical pressure pads.)  The hope is that these will prove far more accurate than thumb-sticks.  It still seems like a problem for 6DOF games: you can control pitch and yaw with the right pad, lateral translation with either the left thumb-stick or pad, but you still need longitudinal translation as well as roll.  With any of the current setups or with the Steam controller, you'd have to move your thumb.  We need something better than all of this stuff...  I've dreamed of a 3D mouse built for gaming, but I don't think there's any interest in that sort of thing.  It seems very hard to get people to embrace different types of control surfaces.

I have my own list of things that I really dislike about the game, but, come on, where today can you get an even remotely comparable experience?

I would set forth Vendetta Online as a viable alternative.

Funny how different games appeal to different people.  To me Vendetta is horrid and E:D is just disappointing.  Jumpgate (even with its 2001 graphics), to me, remains the only game worth playing because it has the best flight engine ever and is pretty much a sandbox.  But to each his own.  🙂

Funny how different games appeal to different people.  To me Vendetta is horrid and E:D is just disappointing.  Jumpgate (even with its 2001 graphics), to me, remains the only game worth playing because it has the best flight engine ever and is pretty much a sandbox.  But to each his own.   🙂

Oh, I think Vendetta is pretty OK.  There have been numerous changes over the years (have you played it recently? Did you see my reply to the last shot you took at it?), and there is a nice sale going on where you can get a year for $60 (reg. $90).

Writing that something has the "best flight engine ever" doesn't really tell me much.  What makes it the best flight engine ever?  Is it that it is Newtonian?  So are Vendetta and Elite.  Fidelity to real physics?  The distribution of the thrusters?  Those are game design choices.  I'm not sure you have an unbiased view when declaring it the BFEE.   When I look at this page, it shows 7 players online (on a summer weekday).  If it truly has the best flight engine ever, why are so few playing it?  I respect that there are hidden gems, but it seems that something is out of design parameters.

I tried Jumpgate because of another member's post; while it was fun, it was not optimized for my i3 laptop; I ran into a glitch where the screen would regularly freeze for about a second after every 5-8 second interval, so I can't say I had the best experience.  I wouldn't repeatedly decry the game in public, though, as I feel I didn't get the developers' intended effect.

There have been a lot of video games created since 1962.

I understand having a 'first love' in gaming, but it seems as though you would criticize anything other than Jumpgate for not being Jumpgate.  That is a somewhat desperate stance to take.  There is a lot of beauty in the forest, if you let down your guard a little.