Hi everyone! With the recent release of WC3 on GoG(Mark Hamil ftw) I'm interested in getting in to the series.

My question is can I control this with my mouse, or do I NEED a joystick?

i am wondering the same thing. i had this game back in the day and used a joystick. but joysticks are so... 1994.

is it possible to play this with keyboard/mouse? and by possible i mean is it fun?

Like any Wc game it works with the mouse, but it I'd seriously recommend buying a joystick. Whereas in wc1 and wc2 you could scrape by, wc3 would be very hard without one. just fork over the 20 or so $ and buy a nice one. They do still make em. Just got a logitech extreme 3d pro for about that much, and works wonderfully.

So the way to play WC is with a joystick. Makes sense.

All right. I'll try to get a joystick in the future, and if I do I'll snag WC. Maybe Freespace as well.

Thanks!

I just picked up WC3, and I can't seem to use a mouse in the space missions.

press alt+o during space flight to get the control set up

Talking of which is there anyway for me to use the mouse to fly but still have trust controlled by the tab button? the way trust is set up for the mouse is really very very stupid and makes the game unplayable while the slowness of the keyboard control moment does the same other wise.

I've got a joystick I pick up, hidden in my parents house I think, but until I can do that the game is simply unplayable. Which is a shame. WC1 has a better control set up for mouse and keyboard than this one does!

with keyboard you hold shift for quick movments and let go for fine tuning lining up the shot. It is still hard, but only because you have to be a lot more precise to hit anything then you did in the earlier bitmap games.

I just reverted to using the keyboard, worked OK for me....

You can also use a gamepad with great results. I've completed all of the WC Kilrathi Saga on a gamepad with some keyboard commands.

Back in the day I played these games with a joystick with great results. I also played with just the keyboard which was precise and gives you every little command at your fingertips. Mouse isn't the best way to play Wing Commander in my opinion, even though similar games like Freelancer and Darkstar One work so well with mouse and keyboard.

I'd personally recommend keyboard over mouse.