[quote name='Ruahrc']Frankly, these two statements directly contradict each other. From someone who has had extensive experience with flight simulators, the absolute number one best thing you can do to increase enjoyment/realism of a flight sim is to buy some dedicated hardware (yoke/flightstick and pedals).
Controlling a flight sim with the keyboard is a non starter. Even something as basic as an entry level joystick (minimum of investment) is way, way, way better than using the keyboard. Only a flight
game focused on action and arcade-like physics is playable with a keyboard.
Even the most recent FSX is fairly old now, and should be available for a modest price. As for the cost of addons, yes it can definitely add up- but there is also a MASSIVE library of
freely available addons that have been developed for the MSFS line of sims. You can do so much with MSFS addons and never spend a dime. Check the two biggest FS sites:
www.avsim.com and
www.flightsim.com. These sites both have huge file libraries (including a few contributions from myself even) stuffed full of freely available addons.
If you want the best, most detailed simulations available you are going to have to pay for them, but there are some
extremely good quality free ones available too- many projects which were so good the creators went on to be come full-on commercial products (but the basic free versions still available).[/QUOTE]
Ah i see. Well i have to see into that. Thanks for the links which i will check out.
I really thought i can do it also with a keyboard. But i got to see what i can spend and what will be good enough for right now. A joystick will be in my pricerange, but other equipment like paddle might be out of my range currently.
I spend a little time with the opensource game FlightGear. Sadly either there was a glitch or something went wrong but my airplane seemed to be in the water. (lol)
But let me check first the websites you referred me.