First of all thanks for the kind words!

Whilst we have some support for controllers it's honestly not quite up to scratch, also it's more a case of having support for flight using a controller rather than the entire game.
The UI and other parts of the game are all designed to be used with a mouse and keyboard with controllers not getting much love from us in a while.

You might be able to use the Steam controllers mouse emulation behaviour to do some of what you want but it's uncharted territory for us as none of us has one.

Let us know if there's anything specific stopping you and we'll try to suggest stuff.

Well, I think part of my problem is that I just need to spend some time reading the controls and deciding how to configure the controller before I go. The game is pretty detailed so doing it on the fly was just taking too long and ended up not being fun. I'm going to read up on the controls and come up with a plan for my config before I go at it again. Steam controller is great at adapting mouse and keyboard games to controller, I'll just reconfigure the default desktop config with my Pioneer controls and play like that once I decide how to put it together. I'll export the template on the off chance anyone else is trying something similar.

Thanks for the reply and and for an awesome game! Would buying Jumpdrive/Paragon on Steam be a good way to donate? I can't figure out if they're directly involved with the funding of Pioneer or if they're just a fork charging money for a free game with fewer updates, but I definitely want to contribute to the project.

Jumpdrive (formerly Paragon) is separate from us. They forked the code a couple of years ago and developed a game atop our engine, which is fine we've benefitted from some of the code they wrote.

We don't take any money for what we do, just playing, giving feedback and getting involved in the community is all we ask 🙂

doctor_ew
or mr. couch player

"but hey you still got the donate button on the website no?"
ok little me even didnd't cared about such and when the first was asking where to donate i had to reply "well tom & me we forgot this".
but it was leaded already by the recent devs and robn when setting up the website placed a donate button on it.

i understand, i was myself a couch player until - until whatever, i started o play less and construct moreand this won't work from he couch
as a further fact i haven't a couch at all, only a bed and a chair which soon will fall apart completly into bits.
but yes i understand i bought me years ago one of the first cordless rumble pads which i used for a long time to play on my PC and the PS1 and PS2.
thus yes i understand, i still had a couch and a whole family back then.
but homer erm sorry gernot is a single now.
but still i like rotten pizza...

ok, my suggestion
recently i use X-Padder to map the keys for any game to my new Trust pad
i didn't like it and wouldn't have bought it if the case wouldn't be that retailers today are lame stupid and refere you always to the web
instead to order something for you and make a good future custumer.
however
the Trust pad you can use for all three systems PC, PS, and X-Box, it's got a switch on the bottom to change for either PS/PC use or XBox use
i can switch to XBox mode that works (other as stated) and certainly i can or could if needed assign the keyboard commands to the pad
the triggers become in x-box mode analog triggers, resp. a analog axis

X-Padder is a very good software
it would be worth the fee
but there is a way to get around the fee
like many projects it started as a free to use software
and only newer releases had to be payed
what i downloaded and use is version 5.2 (i found this on "CHIP") and well i see no real reason for a newer version because it works fine
and it's easy to use, everything you can do on a graphical surface hitting the desired buttons either on the keyboard or with the mouse.
you can load a picture of your pad in the background, very good idea!
map the buttons layout exactly to your pads layout, brillant!
assign any button or combination and allows to configure up to 8(!) different setups for a single game, switching by defining a switching button, clever!

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i guess xpadder could solve your problem
since yes many of such software doesn't recognize all kinds of pads resp. won't support all axes you have on a recent pad
apart from that it's like i said the most easiest to use i tried out, especially if you don't like to type in the commands or setting up a script
very uncommon, it supports also two joysticks, most of similar software supports only one joystick/pad
i guess any gaming device can be programmed with xpadder (e.g. a gaming keyboard).

thus it really is worth the fee, but usually i can't pay except with pay-pal and this i didn't used for such a long time that i forgot my acces to it
(lost a 100 bucks?, no somwhere i noted the password for sure)

BUT
i never would buy a Trust gamepad again, there is no support, if you go on their website only the usual advertising crap but no support
no software (drivers aren't needed) no profiler

I used for years only logitech pads imho there the best they last longest (the trust has already one weak button, after 6 months, my logitech dual stick i used 10years not months!) and the support is good, from on the box you buy the product in to their website.

i have a logitech steering-wheel from i don't know 2001 and it still works fine, that's what is called reliable.
(and further one of the reasons why logitech makes less profit as others)

erm yes, as you can see on the shot i disable the joystick support in pioneer and use only keyboard commands, the control is much better
even or because the keycommands are boolean and not analog.

flying and fighting with the mouse is best for pioneer i have to state this.
but well not very good from on the couch.

i almost forgot
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you can even name the buttons with the function they have in the game, very neat!
if you do so xpadder will load this layout by default.

the resulting proile names "Trust Pioneer" or "Trust Frontier" are accidentially because the pad is a Trust (better Rust, i guess they just added the T to Rust,
it's really cheap quality but costs the same as a logitech).
as usual if something is labeled "trust" "good" "quality" "solid state" you can be sure it's crap,
only something crappy has to claim it's good, what is really good has to claim nothing and got advertising thrugh mouth propaganda.

i used up editing time

i guess i quickly label the pioneer profile and post a picture of it, because i'm a veteran i know exactly which buttons you need to play pioneer
(in fact it's very similar to my Frontier profile)
that is mainly thrust control all of it this is imortant to play this game well

or maybe this helps already:
first stick: yaw and tilt is obvious
second stick: manual thrust up/down, glance left/right
action buttons: fire lasers (yeah!), set target to nearest object, fire missiles (if target is set), navigation computer
upper triggers: set speed +, set speed -, but also analog thrust fore and aft are mapped on the same triggers, that works for pioneer.
lower triggers: roll left/right
sticks buttons: recently both "throttle" but i have to map one to switch controls autopilot/wired/manual
outside camera controls i mapped on the hat
ESC to pause the game
TAB to switch headsup display (this can be used as a switching button, to switch to the "when docked" layout, with mouse control.
also one button to switch the views would be good (besides it's shitty to have rear view only when inside view is active thus you need to much buttons)

with this setup yuo can play pioneer from your couch, there isn't much you can't do except to reach the FKeys,
but you can map a mouse function to your pad and use it as a second layer.

but in a fight (or any action) you will need the ones i listed, you will keep the front view thus you don't need to switch views.
rear view would be important (dammit!) so it was imho a bad idea to map this on a separate button and you can only activate it in inside view
adding of side view you never will need hasn't helped. but rear view is important when you control your ship without a autopilot
what a "veteran" like me will do often, in my own personal a bit old pioneer release i start the game with a naked small fighter and a 100 bucks
that's more fun to me as to start with a super ship including all accessoires, you won't need to buy a new one then and you get no thrill of learning to
control your ship manual.
fly manual, dock manual, land manual - that's the sport.
i never would giveaway a autopilot for free, a player has to learn this in my opinion.
this is your "training school" and by completition of some inner system missions manually the autopilot is your confidence of ability to steer a spacecraft.
and veteran or not, still this isn't easy sometmes and still this veteran sometimes crashes into the station instead of docking on it,
or accelerates to long and misses the target by days which means in the end a failed mission.
learn to control the ships (if their setup is senseful and not boring, i can't tell i haven't played a recent version)
i can tell how i set them up,
a lot of main thrust, 1/2 or less of it reverse and again by half for lateral trust, that is reasonable, for such fighters or
one would have to design the same big thrusters as on rear on every side.
"a lot" i'm even a bit greedy with this, usuall a human can stand a max. of 10G
we have fighters with 30g accel. and more, i guess not even resting in a liquid you could survive 30g's
you will be chili sauce in a 1000th of a second.
thus 20G for a fighter i find already unrealistic but ok for a game.
limitations make the game - remember?
the classic situation
1000 enemy fighters and you

back to the reason why rear view is important, assuming we have a fighter with such a setup, breaking with the retro thrusters is horrible, they aren't ment for this
on a space-vessel retro and lateral trust is "fine control", to break like a pro you will flip the ship on half of the way and brake with the main thrusters,
which means the zenith of your flight is in the middle of the distance, same thrust for braking as for accelerating same time needed same distance.

if you like to do it the hard way you build yourself a 50's style "atomic rocket", with no retro thrust at all (10G main thrust, a little fraction of retro is needed
else the game crashes 0.001G will do it) and lateral only to steer in free fall (1G lateral thrust), just like a "real" rocket.

have a view:

a lot of "engines off" - "set course" - "accelerate" - "egines off" - "flip rocket" - "brake" - "engines off" - "set course" - and so on...
after this training you become a veteran like me 🙂
and you will have a grown out beard and white hair - believe me.

> only something crappy has to claim it's good, what is really good has to claim nothing

this is valid for people as well... a loud mouth can't be the right choice
except that loud mouth is me - of course.