I need an opinion/consensus:

Up front:

1. I have Repetitive Stress Injury, in which my wrists swell and I get sever pain after doing repetitive motions with my hand,s specifically, repetitive keyboard and mouse actions.
   
   
2. No matter how I remap the keys, I am in pain after an hour of space combat using the kbd-mouse interface of this game as it stands.
   
   
3. I have a good Thrustmaster USB T.Flightstick X (It works on the PC and the PS3) but for the life of me I cannot make it work well with this game.
   
   
4. I am getting pain mainly after/during space combat. That's the only time I seem to need the Vulcan Finger Contortion Death Grip on my keyboard and mouse (and my poor space bar is getting beaten to death).
   
   
5. I do not own an XBox 360.

So...

Is it worth it to go out and buy a 360 controller for this? Basically, can I do most of my space combat functions using binds, remaps and the 360 controller?

The main thing I want is to be able to take care of flying the ship and firing the weapons on the controller.

The "nice to haves" would be able to assign camera look (like my joystick's POV hat), and individual weapons groups per trigger (beams, torps), as well as get tab targeting on a trigger, +/- the throttle, and the ability to reinforce at least Fwd and Aft shields, as well as buttons to for 2 or 3 of mine/my BO's abilities.

Important: Is there anything important missing from a 360-based controller system other than typing in chat or some less commonly used things in space?

for once i can help someone out pal i have similar problems using keyboards for short times my hands go numb i find the 360 controller to be light well motioned and thought out for the hand and its light weight all in all it makes game play more fun i sitll have problems but where as i can spend 5-6 hours playing using my xbox pad i can only spend 1-2 hours playing with a keyboard im not sure which country you are from but in the uk you can get the reciever and the pad from 30-40£££.

best of luck


and thanks for the commands they are great making my sto experiance a lot easyer

The keybindings are great, I love using my 360 controller.

I have noticed 1 issue, and I'm not sure if it is with the bindings or the game, or my controller (or both).

When I get near an object to interact, or pick it up .. sometimes it will work just fine as exected, get near an object press A .. to interact, etc..

But sometimes, it's like the whole controler wigs out, pressing A doesn't do any good, and movement gets weird I can move in some directions, but not all directions (and the directions I can move in are different, so it's not consistant).

If I click on the button, or press F to interact .. everything goes back to working.

I'm just wondering if there is a setting somewhere I can change to fix this.

-Kaz
PS. forgot to add, this happens both in space and on the ground.

Actually you could probably bind the Thrustmaster the same way people are doing custom binds for the Xbox 360. Xbox 360 Gamepad is a joystick as far as Windows is concerned but will take some technical knowledge about how the Thrustmaster communicates input (like is POV controls buttons or axis etc.) or some trial and error. XBox 360 gamepad has 2 joysticks(2 axis each) and 1 throttle (the Trigger buttons are the Throttle) and everything else is a button. Axis input is handled like virtual buttons in the UI so a range on the axis = pressing a button as far as this game is concerned. If you can you'll probably want the Joystick to emulate mouse movement too, Game Profiler can do this, others generally can too just check to make sure.
Haven't tried using the Xbox 360 since Beta and there was a stutter in Ground movement animations with it, so I haven't messed with it since.

Might also try:
Joy2Key (limited capabilities but Free)
Xpadder (Hear is really good and popular - Not Free)
Pinnacle Game Profiler (I have it, its very powerful / learning curve for advanced setups though - more expensive than Xpadder)

Also, I haven't tried setting up a profile (I did with Champions Online so it wouldn't be that difficult but I'm still burnt out from spending a month working with it for CO to do again with STO - I'm just not interested in doing that much work to screw with problems I have with the UI - more likely to take a Long break from the game - I'm a lifer).

I'd stick with the Thrustmaster and use keyboard for powers and Interfaces (journal, social etc.).

not yet. and there it is, staring at me as an option in the menu...

yeah, this is an issue for me also. every once in a while it refuses to interact, but when you hit the keyboard to do it all goes back to normal on the controller. must be a bug of some kind.

ABSOLUTELY.

No two ways about this, it's worth it. check my post on the third page of this thread. there are pics of how I've mapped my bindings on the controller. Not only will you be able to fly and fire, but you will have complete control over:

targeting (next, previous, nearest and nearest friendly)
throttle (full impulse, increase and decrease by .25 and all stop)
power presets (attack, defend, speed and equal)
reinforce shields (all 4 directions)
camera control
scanning
map
ALL BO powers (I currently have HY torps, emergency shields, extend shields and jam sensors color coordinated to the officers! (nerd alert!) as well as emergency power to weapons, evasive maneuvers and rotate shield frequency!)

you can get a 360 controller and the wireless pc receiver for $65 at large electronics retailers, and it takes about 2 minutes to install the software. once you are in the game, load the /bind files I posted on pg2 as instructed and you'll be all set!

you'll never look back.

Or use the standard controller in the USB slot

Good call! That'll save you a lot of money over the wireless option!

I had forgotten they even made those. (wireless ftw though)

good point they are around 20££££ in the shops good suggestion