So I've been checking in on this game every once and a while and something that's been keeping me from diving in is that they haven't quite figured out the basic controls yet, both while in a ship and on foot. Hopefully they'll get there eventually, and the on foot stuff doesn't bother me too much since that's not the point of the game, but there's one thing about the flight controls that absolutely kills me.
When controlling a ship with the mouse, why isn't there an option to swap between cursor mode and flight control by holding a button rather than a toggle? This control paradigm has been by far the best way to control a spaceship with a mouse ever since it was introduced in Elite 2, and it was even greatly improved upon by Robert's own game, Freelancer! Even Egosoft managed to figure this out (eventually) and their game became much more playable for it, yet Star Citizen doesn't even offer it as an option?
The simple fact that this mode of control isn't the default setting is disappointing because it means they're not going to take advantage of the vast array of UI possibilities afforded by having access to a cursor on screen at all times, but I could live with that as long as they at least provide it as an option. The lack of the ability to quickly and intuitively "let go of the stick" turns things like small course adjustments or simply flying straight into a constant struggle to keep your ship stable. I'm sure that if I spent enough time with it I could "get used to it" (just like people got used to shit like X2), but the thing is that I don't want to get used to it. Flying a ship this way just isn't enjoyable to me, and it's keeping me from spending any significant amount of time with what's been offered so far. Furthermore, I can't really see myself getting too deep into the full game if the basic act of flying my ship continues to be a chore as it is now.
I'm currently waiting on the Steam controller to see if that can make the game tolerable for me, and it very well might, but even still, the lack of such a basic (and easy to implement) usability option is... frustrating, to say the least.