Welcome to a big poll on ship controls!
Doing a lot of handling adjustment (see Big Feedback poll - Alpha 1 ) and completely re-doing the flight controller to make sure we can accomodate the new and varied ship sizes and designs.
During a playtest session, it became SUPER clear to me that our current, long-standing handling controls might need a 2026 update. It has been quite a few years since we went over the layouts, and seems like it’s time to do it again. With the new handling patch about to drop and the control customizer in the works, now is the time.
Please be as thorough and specific as possible so that I can dial these in. Thank you!
Input Device
- Keyboard + Mouse
- Joystick (thrustmaster, etc)
- Gamepad (xbox/ps4)
For the keyboard/mouse people:
Chase-vew Mouse Usage
- TPS-style, camera freelook (no mouse effect on ship)
- MMO-style, right-click and drag mouse to direct ship
- Other (please explain below)
For the keyboard/mouse people - it’s always going to be remappable due to keyboard layouts, so this is really just for defaults.
Keyboard movement style
- Remappable WASD/arrow key style (FPS controls)
- Remappable Numpad style
For the gamepad people:
Gamepad movement/camera usage
- Ship pitch/yaw control on left, camera on right
- Other (please explain below)
For the gamepad people:
Gamepad controls
- Shoulder throttle, trigger roll
- Trigger throttle, shoulder roll
- Other (please explain below)
Joystick people - I know you, I am you, you want a setup wizard so you can assign all 40+ buttons yourself, so we’ll just assume nothing there.
For everyone else:
Control setup wizard on first launch (with later settings override):
- Gamepad: Yes, just launch a wizard at startup
- Gamepad: No, I want to have immediate defaults
- Keyboard/Mouse: Yes, just launch a wizard at startup
- Keyboard/Mouse: No, I want to have immediate defaults
If you have an example of an “ideal” space sim control layout, please give me any examples below.
Thank you all so much!
Don’t know if it’s considered ideal, but I remember quite liking the controls for X2. Mostly for capital ships. Not so much fighters etc.
No Man’s Sky does small ship controls brilliantly, if a bit arcadey
1 Like
I’ll have to get a copy of that and see how it does
Here’s an example of the Elite Dangerous controls:
Elite Dangerous - Gamepad Controls (Xbox/PlayStation Layout)
These are the mappings that have become the genre standard for controller‑based 6‑DoF flight.
Primary Flight
- Pitch / Yaw - Right Stick
- Roll - Left Stick (horizontal)
- Throttle - Left Stick (vertical)
- Boost - A / Cross
- Flight Assist Toggle - Clicking Left Stick
- Reverse Thrust - B / Circle
- Supercruise / Hyperspace - Y / Triangle (hold)
Translational Thrusters (Strafe)
- Strafe Up/Down - LB / L1
- Strafe Left/Right - RB / R1
- Vertical Thrust Precision - D‑Pad Up/Down
- Lateral Thrust Precision - D‑Pad Left/Right
Combat
- Primary Fire - RT / R2
- Secondary Fire - LT / L2
- Fire Group Cycle - X / Square
Targeting
- Target Ahead - Press Right Stick
- Next/Prev Hostile - D‑Pad Left/Right (alternate mode)
- Subsystem Cycle - Hold X / Square
Systems / Ship Functions
- Landing Gear - B / Circle (hold)
- Cargo Scoop - A / Cross (hold)
- Lights - Y / Triangle (tap)
- UI Panels
- Left Panel - D‑Pad Left (hold)
- Right Panel - D‑Pad Right (hold)
- Comms - D‑Pad Up (hold)
- Role Panel - D‑Pad Down (hold)
Elite Dangerous - Keyboard & Mouse Controls
This is the layout most PC space‑sims copy because it’s ergonomic and intuitive.
Primary Flight
- Pitch — Mouse Y
- Yaw - Mouse X
- Roll - A / D
- Throttle Up/Down - W / S
- Boost - Left Shift
- Flight Assist Toggle - Z
- Reverse Thrust - X
Translational Thrusters (Strafe)
- Strafe Left/Right - Q / E
- Strafe Up/Down - R / F
- Precision Forward/Back - W / S (with FA‑off or alternate mode)
Combat
- Primary Fire - Left Mouse
- Secondary Fire - Right Mouse
- Fire Group Cycle - Middle Mouse / 1–2
Targeting
- Target Ahead - T
- Next/Prev Hostile - G / H
- Subsystem Cycle - V
Systems / Ship Functions
- Landing Gear - L
- Cargo Scoop - Home
- Lights - Insert
- Supercruise - J
- Hyperspace - J (hold)
UI Panels
- Left Panel - 1
- Comms Panel - 2
- Role Panel - 3
- Right Panel - 4
So big thing worth noting - both of these are “follow a ship” camera mode, unlike ours, where you have an independent camera. At the moment, everyone voted to keep ship control on left, camera on right.
Also bear in mind these are “dogfight” controls, and Smugglers is 99% a long run shipping game where it takes 10-15 minutes to reach a destination.
The plan right now is to go with an ED/NMS-inspired control scheme for keyboard and mouse, but we still need to work on the gamepad controls.
I’m not a really big fan of either of their gamepad controls, though I suppose we can find some gamepad controls everyone agrees on.