[Edit] As new or updated information is posted to the thread, I will edit the original post with this information to save folks from having to dig it out of the whole thread. Items that now have a workwound are in green.
- Problem: The game always has a Joystick dead zone.
Description: Virtually all good joysticks come with software that will allow you to adjust the deadzone on a per-game basis. That, and you can also adjust the sensitivity curve. Having a forced dead-zone in the game makes it difficult to use this software to full advantage. Also, a forced dead-zone in the game reduces the joystick's range. This is because a joystick's range is from 0-255. A 5% dead zone elimites 13 numbers from this in the middle, causing the game to ignore from approximately 121 to 134. However, joystick software dead-zones simply cause the controlling software to ignore 5% of the motion in the middle of the joystick and will send a "126" to the game only when the motion passes the dead-zone. This way, you have a dead-zone in your joystick, but you still have the full 255 levels. In other terms, setting a dead-zone in X2 reduces the the joystick's number of positions same percent as the dead-zone, whereas the joystick software's deadzone makes no reduction the number of possible positions.
Solution: Add a "No dead zone" setting that eliminates the dead-zone from the game.
Workaround: Using a registry editor, go to HKLM/Software/EgoSoftware/X2 and edit the key "InputJoyDeadZone" to zero. This will eliminate the dead zone from the joystick (and mouse). - Problem: There is a "dead-zone" for mouse control.
Description: There is no real dead-zone for the mouse, but there is a sort of "dead-rate". Any mouse movements under a certain speed will be ignored. This combined with the ship's movement ceasing rapidly if the mouse movement drops below a certain amount causes a jerky screen movement. It is akin to a coefficient of static and dynamic friction. They can work together to cause vibrations in the motion. This is unavoidable in certain circumstances - no matter what is said by beta-testers who claim there is no problem with mouse control. This jerkiness is a law of physics. It is the same effect as rubbing your finger on a clean plate and hearing it squeak. In slow motion, this is what happens with the mouse: You move it to make the ship turn. The ship does not start turning until you move the mouse a certain speed. But, this speed you need to move the mouse to make the ship start turning may cause the ship to turn faster than you wish. So your brain, seeing this, slows down the mouse. Slowing down the mouse just a little bit too much drops the motion of the mouse below the game's "snap-to-zero-turning" point, and the ship stops all together. At which point, your brain speeds up your hand on the mouse, and it begins again.
Solution: Eliminate the need to move the mouse a certain speed to make the ship start turning. There is no need for this "dead-rate" as there is some need for a "dead-zone" in a joystick.
Workaround: Using a registry editor, go to HKLM/Software/EgoSoftware/X2 and edit the key "InputJoyDeadZone" to zero. This will eliminate the dead zone from the joystick (and mouse). - Problem: The ship's "snap-to-zero" turning is calculated independantly for yaw and pitch.
Description: The ship will snap it's horizontal and vertical turning motion to zero indepandantly. This problem is especially annoying with mouse movement. When moving in an arc that, say, has mostly horizontal with a small vertical component, when the vertical component drops below a certain level, the vertical ship motion will snap to zero, leaving the ship turning on the horizontal plane only. Then, as the vertical component rises above the vertical "dead-zone" motion threshold, you suddenly get a LOT of vertical motion. It is thus impossible (not just difficult) to get smooth turn elipses in the game if the turn elipse is elongated along its major axis by a certain amount. This makes tracking enemy ships along certain maneuvers impossible, and the brain must work in a counter-intuitive way by realizing in advance that the turn elipse will cause the ship to stop yawing or pitching and to adjust this turn elipse preemtively to counter this effect.
Solution: If there was one global "snap-to-zero-motion" when the global mouse movement vector dropped below a certain threshold, then this would eliminate this problem. Thus, the independant yaw/pitch snap-to-zero turning should be eliminated. - Problem: No mouse sensitivity adjustments.
Description: None needed.
Solution: Add horizontal and vertical mouse sensitivity adjustments. - Problem: The rudder "roll" control is too fast.
Description: It is impossible to get fine roll control because the roll speed is way too fast. I finally locked my joystick's twist-rudder in position and began using the "tap the keyboard roll key" method for fine roll adjustments. It would be beneficial to have a variable-speed roll where the initial speed is much lower. I would suggest that the current initial speed be moved to the fastest speed, and the initial speed be very low - on the order of a degree or two per second.
Solution: Make roll speed variable for those with joystick rudder controls. - Problem: Throttle reset independant of joystick throttle control.
Description: At certain times the ship's velocity is reset downwards, but so is the ship's "set speed". This happens regardless of what the joystick's throttle is set at. This happens when going through a jump gate, when entering a base. This requires the player to "jiggle" the throttle control on the joystick downwards a little then up again before the game will recognize the throttle setting. Oddly enough, the one time this doesn't happen when you would want it to is when manually docking inside a base - when entering the docking "slip". If you do this manually, as soon as you exit from the trading extension, the game recognizes your throttle set position and your ship continues to move forward - and you then have to quickly stop it.
Solution: Have the joystick throttle setting applied when a ship leaves a base, and when a ship goes through a jump gate. - Problem: Turning off "force feedback" in the joystick settings also turns off the joystick auto-centering.
Description: None needed.
Solution: Have force feedback and joystick autocentering as two separate settings.
[Edits: Modified roll entry. Added throttle and force feedback entries. Added workarounds for joystick dead zone and mouse dead "rate"]
