descentchampions.org

I have some thoughts on why it might be, but I'll save them for later. If you can hack putting all that responsibility on your left hand , does the precision give you an advantage in relatively low latency hide and peek game play? (I say hack b/c it's not for everyone. Controlling 6 slides, 2 rolls, whatever else you cant jam onto your mouse is exceedingly difficult for someone like me whose pinky through middle fingers generally move as a single unit whether I wish it or not Do you think a joysticker can ever be added to the ranks of the blue orbers (the luke/mark/djcjr class? Im assuming djcjr is a mouser from some demos i've watched, please correct me if I'm wrong) Apologies if I'm covering old ground here.

Ole Djcjr is a sticker... Don't worry, you can make it! And the mouse left hand thing probably works better for me because I'm ambidextrous and my favorite controller is the orb and it does almost all possible movements in my setup controlled by the left hand. I was a sticker in early 96 thru earl 00 tho if memory serves correctly.

All that to say... YOU CAN DO EEET!!

So I was always a joysticker until I came back for the Rebirth era and my old joystick did not work. I switched to mouse (thought not by choice). My game had to adapt somewhat to the inherit drawbacks of a mouse (slow to turn all the way around manueverability by comparison) but I think I'm proof that one can switch from joystick to mouse and still be competitive.

I will admit, it took me perhaps longer than most who come back to descent from a long hiatus and did not also have to deal with switching controllers.

I'm always tempted to switch back to joystick if i could get my old one working but then again...i'm doing pretty decent with mouse so I'm not entirely sure it's worth the bother.

You will get worse before you get better..that much is for certain

Overall, I'm pleased with my progress, but I wonder what, if any, controller based ceiling is imposed by sticking (eh? eh? *nudge*) with a joystick. I will say DJCJR's accuracy is insanely good at distance for using a joystick. Somehow it feels easier to maintain high sensitivity without sacrificing accuracy on a mouse, so I am impressed as he seems to keep both.

Well, let's look at the top 20 ranks. Blue = joystick, Red = mouse, Grey = I don't know --

1 Mark392
2 LoNi_
3 SoulJah
4 bahamut
5 Jediluke
6 Djcjr
7 Sirius
8 Merl
9 Behemoth
10 REALM
11 Diablo
12 Flip
13 Drakona
14 ryusei117
15 MD-1224
16 LotharBot
17 Ryguy
18 melvin
19 Shyena
20 Naphtha

I don't know, if one or the other has an advantage, I don't see it.

Bad equipment will cripple you -- that is, equipment that doesn't consistently register inputs. But I very much doubt using either a joystick or a mouse in itself is holding anyone back.

In fact LoNi is evidence that even the Logitech Extreme 3d Pro can take you pretty far.

[Edit: Updated with info from DKH and Ryguy]

Diablo - Mouse
MD-1224 - Mouse
Shyena - Mouse
DKH - Mouse

I also use mouse. There have been times I have wanted to switch back to stick, but then I'd have to buy something. I can't make myself do it when mouse works as well as it does for me. That and re-learning how to use a stick would take a few games.

Interesting! I'll have to try those settings. Is that all within Decent (not Windows joystick settings)? The deadzone trick in particular sounds really smart.