I'm thinking about getting a new joystick and could use some advice.  I currently have the exact same one Jafar has, the Saitek cyborg evo.  I love all the controls and buttons on it but it tends to wear my wrist out a bit.  Mainly the large spring device that keeps the stick centered is rather stiff to me.  My left hand is busy with keyboard controls so I don't have a "counter weight" holding the joysticks base down.  Can y'all recommend any other joysticks out there that might be a bit easier on my wrist?

I've had some wrist aches after using the Saitek joystick too, mostly because of the twisting rudder. What I've found works really well is to turn the joystick platform between 15 and 30 degrees to the left of straight forward (assuming you're right-handed). The wrist has a lot more range to the left without becoming discomforting, and you'll probably find yourself less likely to shift the joystick on the table-top because you don't have to strain your wrist in order for more rudder action. You could also move the joystick itself to the right so that the neutral rudder position on your wrist is 15-30 degrees to the left of a straight wrist, accomplishing the same effect. Experiment and decide what works best.

Alternately, if your left hand is at the keyboard most of the time anyway, I'd suggest mapping rudder to the A and D keys, so that you don't have to twist the joystick and torque your wrist. I might also lower the grip location on the stick as much as you can, so you don't have to reach up from your elbow as much to grab it.

Let me know how that works out. If it ends up saving your wrist the trouble, it might also save your wallet the cash for a new stick.

Oh, and SD'sRcool, I'd highly recommend a flight stick if you plan on being a highly competitive force in the air. The precision and control a flight stick gives you cannot be countered by any other control or interface upgrade.

HOWEVER, if it's a choice between a microphone/microphone headset and a flight stick, get the mic first.

GC Veteran (0.14-R6) "General Jafar"

Hmmm, well I had a blast on FS last night with it and to be honest I didn't find flying with stick improved my performance at all. It obviously makes manoeuvring more fluid, and stringing together evasive manoeuvres are much easier with it, but trying to nail enemy fighters with precision fire was hopeless compared to mouse and keyboard. With that set up I can stay on target (pun fully intended ) while executing manoeuvres and never lose sight of my target as long as I manage to stay on his tail. With the joystick I found the response comparatively sluggish and it was hard if not impossible for me to stay with target in my sights if I executed any manoeuvres. A roll for instance would take me off target and require course corrections. With the mouse and keyboard I can execute the roll or whatever and still stay on target pretty much every time.

Perhaps it is just a period of adjustment that is required to get used to the stick, but it is strange I was getting my pie kicked when using the joystick and then went back to M & KB and started racking up the kills again. With Starlancer the joystick totally owned M & KB in no uncertain terms so I find this unusual.

Is there any setting that can increase sensitivity of the stick to make it more twitchy like you can with the mouse? I found the response lazy and sluggish which was the primary reason for the poor performance in my eyes.

My set up is pretty much as illustrated by the person who posted the shot of the Evo earlier in this thread and that works pretty well, except boost doesn't work as boost in FS is activated by a double tap of the throttle control (on keyboard anyway). The one thing I might change is the secondary fire, I think I'll map it to the left button which you have mapped for cockpit view as I find it easier to get my thumb to that as I have big hands and strain to get my thumb to the middle button, so switching those two will make my life a little easier.

I guess I'll keep practicing with the thing and see if things improve, but like I say if there was a way of making the stick more sensitive and less sluggish I think that would sort things out right there.

Another thing I noticed caused a problem was with the Lambda. Since you have throttle but no negative thrust you need to press a keyboard button to lift off, and it made landing tricky too as even though I totally cut forward thrust to nothing it never stopped to a repulsorlift hover and when I brought it in to land it still wanted to keep going forward even with 0 thrust which was weird.