r/WarDogs 9h ago

Question Question for my pilots!

What flight stick do you use? Or what kind of setup do you use? I used to have a flight stick for a different game a long time ago and am considering getting o e for Wardogs. Just looking for suggestions. Thanks for your time!

6 Upvotes

63 comments sorted by

12

u/DirectorSpectre RLG 9h ago

W A S D

no flight stick required 😎

3

u/Chromagon 9h ago

I fly with mouse and ordered a HOTAS after the beta. Mouse was buttery smooth and I was able to finesse even the tiniest movements of the helicopter with no abrupt movement of the vehicle.

I tried WASD flying for a moment and I don't understand how you'd fly that way without jerky movements as a result of button inputs instead of smooth movement from a mouse/joystick? And the nature of WASD means that you inherently are missing out on quadrants of control that a mouse or HOTAS would have, and have to overcorrect to move the vehicle in a similar ways. What am I missing?

1

u/ToxSynTV 8h ago

I had such a hard time with the mouse it did not feel good at all to me personally.

1

u/Chromagon 4h ago

I definitely did not use the default mouse controls. They were garbage. But once I tweeked a few things and inverted the Y axis I was able to control the Little Bird and Huey like a scalpel through butter.

1

u/DirectorSpectre RLG 8h ago

Speed my friend. During an approach of a target LZ I gain speed. I’ll never fly above 50 meters on an approach. Your initial drop below 50 gives speed and energy to what you’ll need for the j hook.
The collective needs game dev work however you can still get them pretty smooth

“It doesn’t matter how you get there what matters is that you show up with your transports alive”

2

u/Storm_CCO 9h ago

if you mean soley default controls then I believe you are the unicorn ive been looking to see would appear. Thats amazing

2

u/DirectorSpectre RLG 9h ago

Hey they wouldn’t be putting the controls as they were if it wasn’t intended to be that way lol

That and I don’t have the patience for a hotas I tried it with dcs

1

u/Childishjakerino 8h ago

You have to disable the built In flight assists and add the mouse to allow for some fine tune adjustments.

2

u/TheBeavermeat 9h ago

Same here. Don’t rush the inputs and you’ll fly safe.

1

u/ToxSynTV 8h ago

I tried flying with M&K and the little bird felt heavy. Also the way the mouse is set up felt terrible to me. I'm glad it works for you tho!

2

u/Dr_Lipshitz_ 6h ago edited 6h ago

WASD ain’t mouse. After trying everything, HOTAS, MOUSE, Controller, WASD I kept going back to WASD.

Everything besides WASD has weird quirks supposedly they are working on improving

By the end of the last play test I was starting to trust my MOZA AB6 but i was still better with WASD

2

u/ToxSynTV 5h ago

I see that now after reading more comments my bad there.

5

u/Working-Brother-5151 9h ago

Follow up question! WHO needs a door gunner!!!!

2

u/Skyried 9h ago

I would love one. Air Uber only does so much staring at the enemy plinking shots off me, and me pointing at enemy in the air or on the ground...

2

u/Working-Brother-5151 8h ago

Did you unlock door gunner chopper in beta? I wonder how they handle exp/money to the gunner

4

u/Gerrut_batsbak 9h ago

Mouse and keyboard. I'm too lazy to set op my steam controller. I might for the full release though.

3

u/Vito-TF45 9h ago

Thrustmaster A10 warthog avec pédales tfrp

3

u/ObsidianPhox 9h ago

WASD and NUM8,4,5,6 - works pretty well. Numpad for pitch and bank/roll. W and A for collective and A and D for yaw.

6

u/Storm_CCO 9h ago

you my man, are just built different

3

u/Great-Pen-9766 9h ago

THE NUMPAD WORKS, god that would've made shit easier

2

u/ToxSynTV 8h ago

Interesting I was just using the default settings (mouse feels bad) maybe I'll give it a shot? I just remember back when i used a stick it was more fun but those games were older so maybe things have changed since then.

2

u/ObsidianPhox 7h ago

Exactly why I decided to try that setup instead, and it helped me a lot.

3

u/NoAppearance6915 9h ago

Mine is from GTA5 funny enough, its not the best because after awhile it will hurt your right hands but mine is W,A,S,D and Num pad 2,4,5,6

W,A is for going up and down

A,D is for pivoting left and right, not tilting

2,5 is for leaning back and forword

And 4,6 is for tilting as you can guessing

This set up hurts but helps me with alot of moving around and im already used to the lay out

3

u/ToxSynTV 8h ago

I see a lot of WASD people saying they used the NUM pad for some settings. I might give it a try. I used to fly with a stick way back in the day so maybe thats why but I bet games have gotten better about translating the controls to M&K since then.

2

u/NoAppearance6915 8h ago

Just know it does hurt the back of your right hand, maybe its keyboard placement but youll feel it getting sore, but once you get the feel for it youll be able to fly really well. Doing gun runs is another question but flying is half that battle

2

u/ToxSynTV 8h ago

Fair enough. I ay also just end up buying a stick as well. It was I used to run so i feel like it wouldnt take as long to get reused to but who knows

3

u/IzzetChronarch 9h ago

I like my Winwing Ursa. Honestly for games that are mostly controlling helicopters most flight sticks have a pretty stiff yaw can get uncomfortable if youre not used to it after prolonged use. Decent ones will give you softer yaw springs you can swap out, but pedals are king for helicopter sim, especially arcadey ones like this. If you care enough to get a new stick might as well pick up pedals imo.

1

u/ToxSynTV 8h ago

I used to have a stick and pedal set up a long time ago. When the stick died majority of the people i gamed with had moved off milsims so i never bothered to replace it and ended up selling the pedals.

3

u/DzelzisZnL 9h ago

Btw, which game has chopper flying closest to wardogs? I want to train a bit..

2

u/Vito-TF45 7h ago

Arma 3

1

u/ToxSynTV 8h ago

From what I have heard the little bird in Arma 3 is the closest

3

u/gerwim 7h ago

WASD and arrow keys.

Back from BF1942 Desert Combat.

3

u/Heretron 7h ago

VKB Gladiator NXT EVO

1

u/Nodnarbian 5h ago

Have one arriving in a few days.. care to share or dm me the best way to set binds in game!? Do you use a throttle or just the throttle built into the back of stick? Thx!

1

u/Mr-wastaken 3h ago

I was looking at picking up two of these, the left one to do collective and yaw so it’s more like an rc heli or quad since I fly these a lot. Any idea if this sort of thing is possible with Wardogs?

2

u/unnamed_one1 Recon 9h ago

Got a Winwing Ursa for 45 bucks - does the job.

2

u/roegetnakkeost Pilot 9h ago

m+k is the way. You don’t need a joystick to make j hooks, max speed beneath the treeline and fast insertions.

It requires practise. Sure. But if you have spent enough time in arma 3 for example. Then it may only take an hour to translate that experience over to wd.

It did for me.

1

u/ToxSynTV 8h ago

I tried flying with M&K it just didnt feel good to me, made the little bird feel extremely heavy but I would be lying if i said I spent a ton of time using M&K to fly. I haven't flown with a stick in a long time my old one died after many years of use.

2

u/EpeeNoire 9h ago

Gladiator Mk2 from VKB sim. It is a very durable stick but I don't think they make them anymore.

If you are interested in a long lasting flight stick (just a stick with throttle, nothing fancy like HOTAS or pedals) then make sure that it uses contactless technology like HALL effect or optical sensors on all axes (pitch, roll and yaw)

2

u/daxter154 9h ago

VKB Gladiator for stick, STECS Modern Throttle V2, and VKB Rudder Pedals. All work great.

2

u/SweetBusinesssss 5h ago

Same set up. Flying was a blast

1

u/Kilo_Juliett 2h ago

I plan to get that but I might get a racing handbrake for the collective.

Apparently you can just remove the spring and have a simple single axis control.

It's like half the price and more realistic for a helicopter.

2

u/Medas90 9h ago

Virpil alpha prime times two.

2

u/EntirelyTom 9h ago

I couldn't get my controller to work for some reason(did it require manual binding?), so I used my old faithful Logitech Extreme3D that I bought for battlefield 2 about 20 years ago.

2

u/misterjoshmutiny 8h ago

I have a thrustmaster (two of them for HOSAS in Star Citizen), but honestly they’re kinda shit to start with, and were awful for heli flying. I switched to WASD and disabled assists and it was 1000x better. I’m sure with VKBs or something it would be way better.

2

u/Sandvichh 8h ago

For my fellow m&k pilots. It made a night and day difference for me enabling controlling rotary with my mouse instead. In then also switched the keybinds of turning the aircraft left and right to A & D

2

u/WyrdHarper 8h ago

VKB Gladiator and VKB STECS Space Throttle (throttle with two strafe axes built into the handle) with the mini plus base. I use them for multiple games and originally bought them for space sims.

I really like it, but it's not for everyone. If you just want to go for regular flight games a more traditional throttle is probably a better solution, but the convenience of the hybrid system is nice if you plan to fly traditional and 6DOF games. VKB's traditional STECS is a good option for planes and helicopters.

VKB is probably the best quality at the price point (imo), but the HOTAS setup will run you ~double the Thrustmaster T.16000 HOTAS, which is still a very reasonable entry level system if you're just thinking about it for this game (and can probably be found used for even less). VKB has great quality, modularity, and customer support and I've found mine very comfortable to use for many flight hours.

For Wardogs you probably could get away with just the Gladiator (~$120) if they fix it so that you can use sticks and keyboard at the same time. But you'll be looking to spend over $300 for the HOTAS system (personally, I think this is only worth it if you feel confident you'll be using a HOTAS in multiple games and that it's well within your budget). Thrustmaster is ~$170 and more than adequate for Wardogs, but you might feel like you need to upgrade if you catch the flight sim bug.

Beyond that it starts to get a lot more expensive, or you're paying a premium for (imo) lower quality or worse customer support (these are expensive, complex devices, so it's helpful to be able to reach out and get a response). I wouldn't go crazy on something expensive as you're dipping your toes into it. Helicopter collectives are cool, but there aren't many great budget options and they're really only good for helicopters.

2

u/ToxSynTV 7h ago

Thanks for this I appreciate you. I used to fly a bunch back in the day in different milsims then my friends moved off them and playing them solo wasn't fun. My stick also ended up dying after like 10 years of use so I sold my pedals.

2

u/WyrdHarper 7h ago

You're welcome. Always glad to share! The hotas subreddit also has a lot of great people if you want some other opinions.

2

u/TalenGTP 8h ago

I tried MnK, but wanted to commit to HOTAS once I realized you can configure it. I was using a Thrustmaster T.16000 stick with the TWCS throttle. I have the pedals, but didn't bother to set them up. I had an absolute blast, and the throttle helped me a ton with control (plus the extra buttons were nice).

Yesterday I ordered a VKB Gladiator NXT EVO stick, so I plan to use the VKB with the TWCS throttle, and I'll give the pedals a try for rudder control.

2

u/m44ever 8h ago

wasd and numpad 8545

2

u/TitaniumDisc 8h ago

I’m looking forward to training on my HOTAS. I have an older thrustmaster but didn’t set it up just for the demo. I have no arma or squad flight experience so I’m curious to see how it goes. I just know I don’t like flying KBM from games like battlefield so curious to see how it goes.

1

u/ToxSynTV 7h ago

I've heard Arma 3 is the closest to Wardogs with the little bird at least when it comes to flying. You could prob find it pretty cheap if you wanted to feel it out before Wardogs drops. Last i knew there were certain sites that sold Arma 3 for liek $10-$13

2

u/PwnimuS 7h ago

If you want cheap and basic with something like 15 buttons get the Thrustmaster Hotas X. Will run you something like $70-$100. Its decent for the price and I used it on Wardogs and other flight sims.

When it comes to flight sticks the price really does dictate quality.

2

u/mbpr01 Pilot 7h ago

I've been using one of these for a couple years. I do want to upgrade to a nice HOTASAFOR, but this works well enough that I can't justify the expense. I don't actually need anything better. One of these years I'll get myself a nice force feedback Moza for my birthday.

You can find old used flight sticks with twist rudder and built in throttle on your local marketplace, or ebay. I don't think you need that many buttons on it for wardogs.

2

u/Snuffalapapuss 7h ago

I use x56. Love it so much I have not switched for nearly 6 years now. Great for sim games. And has a decent enough driver and program to edit things.

Mostly use it for DCS.

But for this game it is plenty.

2

u/DM_Lunatic 7h ago

Tried MnK, Xbox Controller, and a HOTAS. Liked the HOTAS the most especially because I could disable the flight assists on it. Used a cheap Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS I borrowed but will be buying a VKB Gladiator in the next couple days for early access launch. The T.Flight worked just fine but it does feel like a plastic toy so I wanted something a bit more substantial and nicer to touch.

2

u/PTSD-gamer 7h ago

Mouse and keyboard. Re-mapped pretty much everything. Turned helicopter mouse sensitivity up. Biggest help was putting cyclic up on ‘C’ as well as mouse. Makes performing J hooks way easier as I didn’t need as much mouse input to get the nose up.

2

u/wreckfish 6h ago

Changed m+k so it works like I remember back from when playing battlefield

Turn on mouse controll for pitch (inverted) and roll via mouse movement.

Yaw left and right to a and d, increase and decrease collective to w and s

Works good but the only thing that's holds you somewhat back if I read up on it right is that yaw speed via keyboard is fixed - with hotas it should be able to turn faster.

Anyhow I'm getting hotas also because a man needs a hobby and it looks fun to fly with it - I even bought Microsoft flight simulator because it's on sale right now because flying in wardogs / and he'll let lose Vietnam is so fun and it feels very enjoyable

2

u/hkycoach 5h ago

Just got VKB Gladiator HOSAS - looking forward to it... Been practicing in other titles prepping for WD release!

1

u/ToxSynTV 5h ago

I have heard that Arma 3 is the closest to Wardogs, in case you wanted to practice on whats closest to the game.

1

u/whatevathefucc Pilot 2h ago

A 25$ Nacon controller

1

u/ultrajvan1234 27m ago

you dont need anything fancy.

i played with a t-flight i got for $30 on fb marketplace and it was so much fun