MTM2.com

What is your favorite device to steer your monster truck?

I'm using almost exclusively a FF wheel, although in some games it is an advantage to set FF to a very low value (or even to 0).

In a LAN-party I once had to play MTM2 with a joystick which was a bit tricky at the beginning but then allowed fairly decent times. Digital controllers (keyboards, digital game pads) are definitely no alternative, mainly because full-or-nothing is not giving you sufficient throttle control.

I have only ever used a joy stick and the keyboard, and of the two I have to say I prefer the stick.

I use a joystick (old logitech wingman) i tryed a wheel during two weeks after playing the game for several years but never could get any decent results with it .

I use a stick also. It's an old, old Microsoft Sidewinder Standard. Only 2 buttons...a trigger & a thumb button, which I can't use since I'm a C5 Quadriplegic with no use of my hand or fingers. It works very good for me.

<img src="http://mtm2.com/~forum/images/cntrllr.gif"> I once tried a stick but soon gave up on it, too lazy to make it work I suppose, it also felt really uncomfortable. I've never tried a wheel cuz it would mean having to bolt a big ugly thing onto my desk at work which isn't an option with frequent meetings and all... customers just wouldn't understand, or take me seriously unless I had a way to use it while running engineering/estimating software. I don't play mtm2 at home unless my kids ask me to which is very rare or i'd try a wheel out there. So, the keyboard is king where I come from. I'm afraid it doesn't perform very well on tight corners where maintaining total control is essential but it's all I gots. :o)

I tried a stick shortly after I started playing this game. It was N8's constant harping about how "fluid" cornering is with a stick. Well . . . it was more like frozen fluid for me lol. I butchered every track I tried, even straight-a-ways, so needless to say I tossed that thing (joystick) back in the closet and remounted my wheel. I guess I've always liked the idea of playing a driving game with a wheel - it just makes sense to me. Now if my truck could fly, then sure, I might be inclined use a stick lol.

I've found that FF wheels are a bit more durable since you don't have to worry about a bungy cord providing the tension for steering. Eventually that cord starts to wear (dramatically if you play a lot), making it more difficult to maintain razor sharp control, especially in the turns.

To this day you'll hear arguments about sticks being better than wheels or vice versa. My opinion is that neither is better, however, there are more things that can go awry with wheels since they are a bit more involved construction-wise. Oh, and from what I've seen, 180 degree turns are a bit easier with a stick, but that's about it. Here's the one I use

Cope
Did you vote "Wheel without FF" because you don't use FF (except for the centering spring force)?



My first FF wheel was a MS sidewinder: it was bundled as a free gift with MTM2, lol. It lacked a bit of precision because of the insufficient resolution of the optical sensor but was very sturdy. I stopped using it only because the rubber coating felt apart and M$ was too lazy to write a driver for XP ("Sorry, game port is no longer supported"). Beside that it still works (on Win98).

Then I had the same wheel than you but the shifting paddles always broke after about 5 month. Thrustmaster changed the whole wheel twice, then the warranty (1 year) expired and of course the paddles broke again. It's a great wheel for auto-gear-only drivers, lol

Now I have a Logitech Momo: without any warning it's case felt apart shortly after I bought it. I guess it was a defective part because the replacement unit I got works really great for over 10 month now. The pedals are first grade, especially if you insert a squash ball under the brake pedal. (BTW that also works with the Thrustmaster pedals and gives a more natural feel (increasing resistance) though this is more important for games like GPL where brake lock up is a major issue.

I'll have to agree with that statement, neither is better. The key is to practice a darn lot (years @several hours a day before you get good enough with whatever you chose. Then, stick with it because it's extremly difficult to switch after getting use to one controler.

I rumble with a joystick, always have, still do.

When i was finally coaxed onto a track i started with the joystick there too, with disasterous results.... Cope said above that he 'butchered every track he was on' with one... lol well if he did that, geeze i hate to think what i did to a track then, at least i gave then all a laugh!... finally after a lot of instruction from Scatter i finally managed to learn how to stay 'straight' when i was supposed to lol. However the wheel just felt more natural to drive with and have been with it ever since for racing.

I do use the keyboard at times, usually offline, when i am on the laptop looking at or exploring tracks for tournaments. To race online with the keyboard, i would need more practice with the gears as i like to race with manual transmission.

As for your question about what wheel I voted for, Rocket . . . heck I honestly don't recall lol. Yep, I have a force feedback, and I don't use the ff feature to play this game, so I probably did choose the "without FF" option . I tried it, crashed 38 times in about 17 seconds, so uh . . . well, it just wasn't for me lol.

As for you keyboarders out there, honestly I have the utmost respect/admiration for you guys. My fingers get tired from typing at times, so I can only imagine how they would feel if I used keys to race with. Yeah sure I'm the first one to jump on my wagon and curse the keyboard as instrument for serious racing, but of course that's just not true. Yes, I still maintain that it has inherent limitations, and as such keys can hinder a racer from executing certain maneuvers as smoothly/easily as those who use controllers on "some" tracks, but by no means does that mean they can't hang with the best of 'em. Bimmer has taken a track from me on our HoF, and I recently noticed Mal did too ($#%^&! lol), so yeah, those keyboard freaks can race alright. Mal's reasons for using keys are certainly understandble, but Bimmer is a stubborn 16-yr old who refuses to try anything other than keys. Typical, but we knew what we were getting into when we voted the little dweeb on the team lol.

Anyway, I think I'm done because I'm starting to get into trashing my teammates . . . and I'm enjoying it, so I'd better stop here. Good thread, though Rocket!

That is a fact.... I flatout cannot hang with the wheel and stick guys on tracks such as todays SP selection Snowbound. The corners are just to tight with very little margin for error.... the nessesary control simply does not exsist on a kb.

Right now i'm working on putting another system together... and if mtm2 proves to run well on it i'll probably invest on a wheel and see how it goes.

Interesting. I wouldn't have picked Snowbound as a track a keyboarder would have difficulty with. At the same time, I haven't used a keyboard to play this game since '99, and I never got proficient at it, so in truth I can't speak from experience lol. I most certainly believe you, however. When I made the statement about keyboards having inherent limitations I was thinking of tracks like . . . Guitar Bill's Cumbria and Valley of Kings, all of Rocket's tracks (lol), Valvejob's Lakebed Extreme, Strip 'N Go Coal, Cabanarama, GTX_Iwunagan's Wun Lake, mumhra's ouarzazate (brutal track - ran it last night with a crowd lol) and the like. Still, you and Bimmer amaze me with the kind of laps you're able to pull on ANY track using a keyboard lol. I don't know how you guys do it, I really don't.

As for wheels, Thrustmaster now only sells one wheel (Enzo Force Feedback), and the reviews say it's not worth the money. I believe it, partly because they opted to use the same crappy pedal base found on the now defunct Pro Digital/Modena series. The MS Sidewinder FF is still available. uLtRaMaX has an older version of this wheel, and it seems to be holding up just fine. That's not surprising though since the wheel tension is derived from a motor as opposed to a bungy cord, which tend to wear out rather quickly (about 9-12 months if you race a lot). RIP_Alpha (formerly AXE_Adoob) bought a Logitech Momo that he said he liked a lot. Course, he's now back to using a stick lol. He says he prefers a stick for MTM and his wheel for other racing games. Not a shocker really; when I met him back in '99 he was using a stick. I think it's just what he's most comfortable with. I bought a momo, but ultimately returned it for a refund. It's a great wheel, but I couldn't figure out how to relax the tension in it enough to play this game. As you know, quite a few tracks require that you make very quick turns or left-right/right-left combinations. The tension in that wheel was so tight that it made maneuvers of that type impossible (for me, anyway). Doob said he was able to make it work, but I simply couldn't. I will say that it's the best built wheel I've ever seen, and I've been thru a few of em. Heck now that I'm sitting here talking about it I might give the thing another shot lol. My current wheel probably won't last much longer, so I'll be in need of a new one sooner rather than later anyway. Besides, the momo has a shifter, and I've gotten accustomed to using them. I can use buttons/paddles, but I'm more comfortable with a shifter. Oh, last but not least is the Logitech Wingman. I've heard good and bad reports about this wheel, but there's definitely been more positive feedback than negative.

I'm not trying to promote a particular wheel or push one on ya lol - just figured I'd throw this stuff out there. Not sure how much you've looked into wheels at all, so . . . If you already know what you want, maybe some of this info will come in handy for others.

Thanks for the wheel tips Cope.

I've been racing with the kb going on 7 years now so I think i'm about as good as I can get with it, but it ain't good enough on just about any track unless I make fewer mistakes than the other guys, a lot less fewer mistakes. I will most definitely give something else a try in the near future then come knocking at your door for some tips.

It was great racing with you and Phin on Snowbound on Saturday. I had a blast. I tip my hat to you guys who do race with the Keyboard. You guys just flat out amaze me, no kidding!

As COPE mentioned, I have a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback wheel. I don't use the FF part for this game, as it just kills lap times for me. If you want to talk about duribility, this wheel has got it goin on! Ive had this wheel since 1999, and it's still pumping out some incredible work. However it is showing it's age though. The "Rubberised" part that you grip is wore off on the left and right side( 10 and 2 Positions) and some of the rubber just kinna "hangs" there lol. And I had to move my shift buttons from the left side, over to the right, as I just flat out wore them out, and now I'm having problems shifting with the right side buttons as well. As sometimes when I push it to up shift, it dont reconize it as crisp, I have to double-tap it sometimes. But I've literally beat this wheel into the freeking ground, and dispite some flaws it has now, its still a really good performer. I know the day is comming were I will need a new one, and when I do, you can bet your wooden nickles, I'll be buying another one! BTW, thanks for showing that link to us COPE, I thought they did'nt make these wheels anymore. I wonder if they still come with a copy of MTM2 like mine did? LOL

I use my gampad for pretty much everything, i have several serial joysticks but all mysteriously stopped working at the same time and my logitect wingman gamepad with both serial and USB, well its really good sure, but the wire is actually falling out heheh

i use wingmand rumble pads now, they have a simplistic look but the price was right, 20 bucks for 2 of them hehehe, so i have a spare. the sticks are an odd shape making ur thumb slide around lots on them in a race, but when im just using them to steer, such as in nfsu and not gas and steer, such as mtm2, they work great.

the sticks are the opposite shape than the PSX sticks, rather than having a soft cushin ball shape on top that holds ur thumb nice, these r cup shapped plastic sticks that dont work so great for holding them forwards because ur pushing the rim of the stick

but i still like them, i think they were a good investment, without a stick of somesort, the only track i could race at speed was voodoo island, otherwise the long straights slow me down because i have to keep tapping the left and right pad trying to keep my truck straight, which of course slows you down lots