After using a mouse and keyboard setup since day one of SC and never really having a issue even when I prefer fixer guns I figure I do the jump and try a hotas setup. I got a warthog over the weekend. I was impressed by how I didnt have to relearn flying cause I thought I would be all over the place with crashes. It was more so just me honing it in. This is where all the issues began. To start I could never get comfortable with it on my desk or move it about where I was sitting. It either bent my wrist I was reach to far to grab it or I was too far off from my desk to be any good with the keyboard. My second issue was trying to dial in its precision. I was over or under correcting to a degree where in the arena vs. The npc's I was about 30-50% slower in my time to kill. I notice the movement wasn't linear or consistent which made it clunky to stay or target. If I need a nudge I had to give it more or a lot more motion. The varying amount wasn't different from I had used with a mouse where x amount of motion was always x amount given to a direction so I can easily judge how much push I needed to control the ship. The joystick however since it gradually increase the more you moved it made it harder to predict. Just to state I wasn't crashing or struggling to fly, it was that when I get my pips up with a joystick I find I bounce in and out of my target and can't steady them as easily as I can with a mouse. Flying in general was fun and I notice it can be overall more smooth, just hard to make those faster quick adjustments cause that's where it gets jumpy. On top of this I was using more of my arm rather than my hand or fingers to fly making my arm and shoulder wear down from trying to lift my arm and be free to steer. It also made it feel less precise where my hand hand small control movements again I was using my entire arm and hand which to me doesn't feel up to the task of being as fine tune to make better responses as my fingers would. For like 8 hours spread over days of trying I couldn't get the joystick to beat out how well I did with a mouse on fix guns. The only thing I felt I was getting was the added fun of the joystick and I was finding myself in my head telling myself find a way to make it work but realized it took a simple setup and made a mess and clumsy and annoying displeasure at my desk. I see people post here modifying their desk and some even bolting things on or buying special chairs to better position their joysticks. The only thing that could make a joystick better if I could tune it so its linear and more predictable cause I dont see how its beating the mouse at least for me. I made my SC experience not only worse in terms of what I have to go through to get it to work but I didnt see a improvement at all. I could give it more time but I think its it's most likely my style or players really opt for the joystick just cause and tell themselves its better to justify that added layer of immersion.