AFnord: A lot of space sims do use it though, so for them it is excellent. And for flight games, it can be used as a stand-in for pedals.

hedwards: Not really, they start out without needing a dead zone, but unless you don't use it very often or are exceedingly gentle you'll find that you need one eventually.

doady: Yes, but from what I've read magnetic Hall effect and optical sensors do not experience mechanical wear, and so joysticks that use these type of sensors do not have dead zone that increase over time.

hedwards: I think those are mostly newer ones, the older ones I like to play were made without that in mind. Think Terminal Velocity, X-Wing and the like.

AFnord: You could use twist control in Tachyon & Freespace, so it has been around for a while now. But yes, for DOS & early Win9X games, it is most likely entirely pointless (unless you can trick your computer into treating it as pedals).

noliveking: As expected I bought Freespace 2 annnnnd the problems are much much worse! In this case I'm pretty sure its the joystick because for some reason my ship always wants to slightly move downward unless I raise the Deadzone, but once I do that the turning is so difficult I can't land a bead on anything. For Example I'm on about the 5th mission already (I just joined the Ravens) and I've killed 2 ships...

EDIT: This might have changed... for some reason when I rebooted I turned the deadzone down and suddenly the camera works...

sheepdragon: I never particularly liked joysticks in space sims because of the issue with aiming. Played through Freespace 1 & 2 using a mouse and keyboard, and fun times were had.

noliveking: I'm finding that you are right! it is so much easier to play Freespace with the mouse. I don't have to fight just to hit someone.

Avogadro6: About the X series, balance varies significantly between each game, but generally speaking it's important to have a good ship and equipment before getting into combat, expecially if you are inexperienced.

Ideally you'll want at least an M4 before trying out combat (or even better, an M3 - the Nova Vanguard or Raider is a good start, avoid the standard Nova, too slow) with PACs and max shields, engine and tuning upgrades. Combat software mk I and II will also help a ton with targeting and aiming if you can find them. To get at that point you'll need a lot of money and rep, we're talking about 1-2 millions credits (or, you can search for some abandoned ships to claim) but past that it's going to be much easier. Also you will be able to start capturing ships, wich is one of the most lucrative activities.

If you ever intend to pick up the series again, I recommend starting either with X2 (easier combat and simpler game mechanics) or Terran Conflict wich is a lot more user friendly but is also more complex.

noliveking: Yuup I gotem all but even the ones that have a fixed story are difficult and right now i'm totally trapped because i have 0 cash and I need things to take out a minefield... so i practically have to restart...