Playing with Joystick & 3/4ths keyboard?
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So I’m completely new to flight sims, but I’d like to get into falcon 4 BMS. I’m looking at potentially buying myself a flight stick (a Gladiator NXT, if that affects this question), but I have a 3/4ths keyboard (so no numpad, etc). I’d rather not buy a new keyboard if I can avoid it. So my question is: using a flight stick, how necessary will a full-size keyboard be for falcon BMS? Can I comfortably get away with a 3/4ths size keyboard without losing much quality-of-life? My throttle is included in the flight stick for whatever that’s worth. Sorry, again I’m new to all of this so if I’m missing some important details just let me know please!
Thanks in advance and cheers
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So I’m completely new to flight sims, but I’d like to get into falcon 4 BMS. I’m looking at potentially buying myself a flight stick (a Gladiator NXT, if that affects this question), but I have a 3/4ths keyboard (so no numpad, etc). I’d rather not buy a new keyboard if I can avoid it. So my question is: using a flight stick, how necessary will a full-size keyboard be for falcon BMS? Can I comfortably get away with a 3/4ths size keyboard without losing much quality-of-life? My throttle is included in the flight stick for whatever that’s worth. Sorry, again I’m new to all of this so if I’m missing some important details just let me know please!
Thanks in advance and cheers
Personally, with my HOTAS (X-52 Pro), the only time I touch the keyboard is for sim related tasks, like hitting Escape, or typing before launching to the cockpit, or maybe turning on something like the FPS counter in the sim - beyond that, like most people I assume, I just click around the cockpit as needed. I will say, however, that I use a gaming keypad (Razer Tartarus) as an “ICP” controller, where each key corresponds nearly 1:1 to the ICP in the pit. And my HOTAS setup (Falconeer for X-52 Pro) has some additional non-jet related commands like “Recenter Joystick”, etc.
But for the most part, think of the mouse like the pilot reaching out their hand - and whether you’re reaching for a keyboard or mouse, it’s still taking hands off throttle or stick, so I barely see the point of memorizing all the keyboard keys just to avoid clicking in the pit. Just my 2 cents on the subject… Definitely biased, I use my AVCS4 BMS Radios profile for VoiceAttack to avoid having to use the keyboard for radio commands, too.
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Thanks! That’s super helpful, I appreciate all the info