A.R.S.E.

Seems to combine the best of the X series, plus learnings from Elite and Start Citizen. X games have always held a fascination for me. might get this (as if I have time).

I've been watching some streamers play it and it looks like there's a massive learning curve for anyone new to the series and not much info in game to learn from. I'm interested in the game but it's put me off a bit. Might have to wait until there's some tutorials out there and the user wiki is filled out more.

Even x3 was steep...

I can not wait for it.

Elite is nice and all but never gets its hooks into me any time I try to play it... feels like work rather than a game.

I did not find it much of a learning curve at all, you can play it a few different ways when you first start, then on the next time, you put that knowledge to use and tweak what your goals are and how to get it done faster.

Currently replaying X3:AP with Litcube's Universe mod, almost a rewrite of most of the scripts in game. Gives you a purpose to what you are doing rather than just the main sandbox which you can complete with maybe 4 ships...
Fixes a number of performance issues with the number of ships you can fight in a system.
Even its own wiki for it. http://litcube.xtimelines.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

A nice playlist of one playing bits, doing most of the grinding offscreen each week, also a one that helped with LU.

Hey I have a question related to this, my son is keen on buying it and mentioned that he would like a space a controller for Xmas to use with it. Anyone have recommendations for what type would be good?

Any hotas would work fine and will be usable for any other flight sims if he wants to try them. Some prefer dual sticks for space games but I haven't tried it myself. As always it comes down to how much you want to spend. As with sim wheels they range from cheap and nasty to many hundreds of $$$.

On the low end there's a Thrustmaster T.Flight hotas for $80-100.

Mid range is Thrustmaster T16000M dual sticks/Hotas pack, or a logitech X52 for around $200. They're all pretty popular. There's an all metal version of the X52 for around $300.

I use a logitech X56 because I like having lots of buttons on hand, but that's 350-400 range. Worked well for Elite and DCS in VR where you need a lot of functions but can't use the keyboard easily.

Thanks Darren

As Darren stated, it comes down to buttons... and all the different shortcuts required for fast access to things, or you can dig through menus, you can get fast at it but requires a few more steps and normally taking your eyes off the target, say in a dogfight.

Just like Car Sim Racing, you can go down the rabbit hole for setups, and custom button boxes.

Hotas and Thrusters is the common combo(with all the buttons and switches), some use rudders also(can hook up the car peddle box and assign with that.)
Some just like the simple Dual Analog controller setup, with a keyboard in reach, my setup with Keyboard with custom lighting setup per game even in the dark you know where all the buttons are.

I'm a fan of the X-52 Pro, but i also have a T1600 for tanking, as that can be configured left-handed.