HOTAS OR HOSAS for Star Citizen etc?

Soldato
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So, I finally decided to give Star Citizen a go with the latest free event and despite some visual bugs I have to say it was pretty good fun.

I found flying with a mouse and keyboard or my xbox pad a bit of a pain, but it's rekindled my interest in wanting to play space games and flight sims again.

I used to have a Warthog hotas but found the quality for such an expensive bit of kit and lack of rudder control without pedals to be a bit of a problem.

It's not just for Star Citizen, I'd like to get into MFS, and get back into DCS World/ War Thunder etc. But, also games like elite dangerous.

What would you guys recommend? I don't have a set budget in mind.
 
I don't have a budget in mind, I don't want to overspend just want something decent that's better than your standard Logitech stuff. I've seen some throttles with rudder controls. Are they any good?
 
I've got a pair of VKB Gladiator NXTs with Kosmosima grips and a Z extension on the left stick. They work great and can be configured to act more like a traditional throttle for in atmosphere sims.

Hard to find in stock though. I think they came in at about £430 all in but are much better than anything else at the price point.

That's frustrating as they look ideal.
 
Rather than going the whole hog straight off, how about giving it a try with a cheap HOSAS, then upgrading once you've decided you like it? Thrustmaster do a cheap HOSAS pair.


I may end up getting these to start with but I'd prefer to get something I'll stick with for a food while. I'm a firm believer in if you buy cheap you buy twice.
 
Yep! I tried to buy them for ages and just happened to check and get lucky as they had a shipment just before Black Friday last year.

I recently picked up a Gunfighter base so may be moving the Gladiators on soon. I just need to decide what to do about a throttle. I'm fairly sure I've seen you about on the MM before so I'll tag you if I put them up for sale.

Thanks pal, I'm looking at Virpil alpha primes atm as I've got big hands and have heard that's an issue with the gladiators?
 
The Kosmosima are on the smaller side grip wise but I have large hands (XXL in racing gloves) and find them OK. The MCG grip I got with the Gunfighter base feels more 'spacious' though.

My mate has the Alpha Primes on the WarBRD-D base and they're very nice in terms of feel, build quality, etc. They are very large grips though especially in terms of their thickness. You should be alright with them as long as your hands are long and not just wide.

Virpil's customer service has been fantastic too. My mate had an ever so slight creak on the Z axis of one of his sticks. He took it in (lives 5 minutes from their UK distribution centre) and they said they were just going to replace the entire stick as they couldn't be sure replacing the Z axis alone would solve it and they didn't want to inconvenience him further. Took about a week.

I bought my VKB Gunfighter used so no idea what their support is like but it's absolutely solid as well.

If you're looking at the high end I'd say just go with whichever brand has the grips you like. Virpil probably has the edge if your main thing is space sims with the Alpha Prime and I'd give the edge to VKB and their MCG Ultimate if you play a lot of in atmosphere stuff.

Definitely leaning towards the virpil stuff and narrowly missed out on a huge bundle on Ebay today. Customer service is a huge draw for me. I used to love aviation stuff back in the day but my focus is more on space stuff atm.I want to get the most of my gaming.
 
I saw that bundle. It went for a decent amount given Virpil's Black Friday sale last year was 5% off your order for each item you bought (big stuff like grips, bases, throttles, etc.) but it sounds like you're not looking to wait until that rolls around again.

So far they've been great to deal with. Very fast responses to emails (about 30 minutes when my mate was dealing with them) too. I'd have no problem recommending them as a company and their products are very nice.

To be honest,I had a lot of back and forth with the guy selling the bundle and would have gotten it as I could have shifted what I didn't need. This stuff doesn't seem to hang about from what I can tell. But, I knew my limit and stuck to it. I'm keen, not insane lol
 
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