They make good cheap sticks, and are durable and accurate. go for it!

Yeah, I went through my fair share of joysticks, right now I'm settled with the Saitek X 52. I'd recommend a logitech attack 3, its a really good joystick but the st30 should be fine too.
What game are you going to play?

Evochron Legends looks like its going to be the game I'll be playing.

Its not got the best graphics in the world but it has what I'm looking for.

huh looks like a sweet game. I used to play starlancer back when it was a new sweet game with what was considered good graphics and all.

I found a logitech attack 3 that had been misspriced on a website so I've ordered it and I've got my fingers crossed that they don't realise their mistake.


This is what I was playing joystick 12 years ago

and I thought the graphics looked amazing because I hadn't played many other 3d games.

i got my logitec attack 3 on Saturday

and i love it
and i love it even more because I got it for �3.40 and it went up to �21 once they realised their mistake but they still me sent mine.

I'm a combat flight sim freak. The Saitek is a good choice for a basic joystick, but if you really want to feel the action you need a force feedback stick. The difference is amazing. With force feedback you not only feel the plane mushing well before entering a stall, the immersion level is a quantum leap ahead. If you try a force feedback and get into MP you might not let your flight sims gather dust, ever again
I use a Logitech Wingman Force 3D.
I dogfight MP at:
http://www.thecfs2flightdeck.com/
The CFS-2 Flight Deck
Call Sign "Val Kilmore"
CFS-1, 2 & 3
IL-2

http://combatace.com/
Combat Ace
Call Sign "Killer B"
SF-1
(Other games featured here that I sadly don't own yet) WOV, WOE, LOMAC)

Awesome man, I've never been that into CFS, more just FS. My saitek x52 doesnt have ff, but its crazy accurate and its awesome to have two sticks. Why do you guys play on cfs2, not 3?

Well mainly because the core group is CFS-2 fanatics...and they have custom planes and skins for 2, some of them individualized with thier own nose art.
And too these guys have been playing CFS-2 together for seven years..they have emotional investment in the game as well as having thier skills and reflexes honed to 2's environment.
A lot of them say they dont like 3 because they cant get used to the different view....most of 'em use the snap view default instead of the panning view. Once I got used to it, I prefer 3's full-time panning view; the only thing I don't like about 3 is theres no longer a pop-up throttle quadrant, and you have to memorize more keyboard commands to compensate.
p.s. I introduced the P-40 to the Flight Deck and now they love it so much they made it the opening banner XD I'm gonna put in a request in thier forum for a custom Val Kilmore P-40E with a naked Valyrie on the nose

The Flight Deck crew also race, sometimes in CFS-2 and sometimes in FS-9. I have the FS 2002 version but its supposed to be compatible.

Now if I can just get past my connection issues with Hughesnet so I can actually play there again.
Hughesnet. If you live in the sticks, we suck a little bit less than dial-up

I have a Saitek ST220 and another Saitek thats identical, but USB. I haven't used them in some time. I used to play CFS1 years and years ago, but never MP. I was never good at dogfighting.

Two things really helped my dogfighting skills.
First, playing FS2002 and going through the whole flight instruction speil there. The canned flight instructor in there has an appaling sense of humor, but if you can stand his weak jokes he can talk you through the basics. Simply mastering the use of trim controls is a huge help. I've brought back many a heavily damaged plane by trimming the ailerons to counter the effects of a lost wingtip.
Second, playing MP helps hone your combat skills and general flying skills. I had several one-one-one sessions w/ the guys at the Flight Deck where they pointed out what I was doing wrong and how to fix it.