Now that we have F2P I figured I would re-re-propose a request:

I would like to please request for a slider bar be added which would allow you to set and hold a turn to either port or starboard. If you set the bar to the middle you go straight. Any directional key press would override any setting.

In addition, the further from center you set the bar, the greater the turn angle... While if you just slightly set the bar you get a slight turn in the desired direction.

Using the keyboard (for me) only allows a full turn.. There is no option for a less severe maneuver. In addition I have to hold that key down the whole time to maintain any turning which can make hitting other keys challenging at times (i.e. Holding "D" while hitting Ctrl-5 or Alt-6 at the same time). You can setup a key bind to hold a turn left or right, but this only emulates holding D or A all the time and does not allow a less than severe, smooth, turn at full speed.

This type of feature could be a big benefit to slow turning ships like cruisers and especially carriers where you can end up turning a long time just to make a 180. Also, sometimes you do not want the make the steepest/hardest turn possible.. But rather a gentle turn. The slider bar would allow that where current mechanics makes it difficult.

A turning slider bar was extremely helpful at times in Pirates of the Burning Sea for larger ships and STO space combat mechanics seem to try to emulate that tall ship style of combat. So the bar seems a natural fit here as well.

Though some people may want to be Worf pressing the fire button each time the phasers are ready... Or they want to be Wesley Crusher, holding the control to turn the ship. Others want to be Captain Picard, ordering Worf to fire the phasers (Worf is Captain Picard's autofire) or ordering Wesley maneuver the ship. Sadly, Wesley only knows hard to port/starboard. I hope that a slider will help him learn less severe maneuvers.

This slider bar can be placed anywhere but it seems initially it would be most natural above the throttle slider bar and ship status display.

Note that the ship's base turn rate never changes. Cranking the slider to max in one direction is exactly the same as holding down your A or D key. The difference is you do not have to hold the key to make and hold a turn with the slider and you can make a "less than max angle" turn at full speed using the slider, which you can not do smoothly using the keyboard. The functionality to toggle and hold a hard turn already exists, this would just allow a finder degree of control through added complexity if the user choses to use it.

So, does anyone else agree or disagree that a turning slider bar would be a good thing?

Honestly, while I can see where you're coming from I don't think it will work out.

It sounds like it won't help anyone who uses the mouse to steer, nor do I think mouse pilots will need it (other than maybe reducing RSI).

Beyond that, you're basically asking for a "Fly-in-a-big-circle" control. I can't see the Devs putting a very high priority on that.

Seems like you could probably create a keybind that would "stick" right or left movement and then control the size of the circle by simply speeding up or slowing down. I'm not sure you can set that up, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't.

EDIT: You mentioned the keybind already, so that's a given. Sorry, I missed it.

Hm, I think I'm going to reverse myself on this one. But it would change the way the controls work and I doubt it would ever happen.

The problem here is that the paradigm for turning controls needs to change.

"A" means "Turn Left" and "D" means "Turn Right". Taken literally, the keys do what they're supposed to do and don't need to change.

But what if the paradigm were different? What if they represented lateral thrusters which could be given more or less power just like the throttle?

"A" would now mean "Increase Lateral Thrusters (Left)" and "D" would now mean "Increase Lateral Thrusters (Right)". Now a tap on "A" would give you a gentle turn to the left, 2-3 taps would give you a hard (max) turn. To pull out of a left turn, or to change direction to the right, you would tap "D" repeatedly.

This is a drastic difference in how those controls work today and as I say I doubt it would happen. It would probably create problems for WASD pilots who want full and instant responsiveness to helm controls, especially in PvP.

There really is no hope at all of having "realistic motion" with this game engine as it applies to space. A HUD-style navigation effort similar to the one that existed in the Starfleet Command video games could be adapted so that you could click a turn arc and have a pop-up option of "maintain". Or, like I do, you can have a gamepad with a pre-defined key which simply locks and holds a turn, tilt, or movement concept. It would be great if the "elite" setting was less about just having damage and over-powered enemies and more about the minutiae of ship command - manipulating thrusters, channel power, shield frequencies, allocating ship proficiencies. This game really missed a trick by being so "simple".

type "/+left" or "/+right" (without the quotation marks) in the chat box field while you are in system or sector space.

I would like to add in a shortcut key to cancel a turn as well. That way you would not have to remember how many times to tap "D" to cancel a portside turn for example.

Good point.