SpaceBourne 2 — Update 3.1.0: Full HOTAS & Controller Support

SpaceBourne 2 — Update 3.1.0: Full HOTAS & Controller Support

Full HOTAS & Joystick Support

• A new input system of our own. Joysticks, HOTAS sticks, throttles and rudder pedals are now read directly by the game. The old third-party input plugin has been removed.
  
• Up to 8 devices at once. Fly with stick + throttle + pedals, or two sticks, at the same time. Every device has its own slot, so their buttons and axes never overwrite each other.
  
• Big sticks welcome: up to 128 buttons, 16 axes and 4 hats per device.
  
• Ready-made layouts for 104 HOTAS, joystick, throttle and pedal models from 13 brands — VKB, Thrustmaster, Virpil, WinWing, Saitek, Mad Catz, CH Products, Logitech, Turtle Beach, Moza, Hori, Speedlink and Honeycomb. Plug in a known device and its layout is applied automatically; later preset updates keep your own changes.
  
• HOSAS (dual stick) support: popular pairs such as VKB Gladiator EVO L/R, Space Gunfighter, Virpil Alpha Prime / Constellation Alpha and WinWing URSA MINOR are recognised — right stick flies, left stick handles thrust. Choose between Tactical (X rolls, twist yaws) and Arcade (X yaws, twist rolls).
  
• Rudder pedal support: pedals steer the ship's yaw, with ready layouts for 10 pedal models (VKB T-Rudder, Virpil ACE, WinWing Orion, Thrustmaster TFRP / T-Rudder / TPR, Logitech G940, Saitek Pro Flight and Combat, CH Pro Pedals). Any pedal axis can also be bound by hand.
  
• Throttle levers work as true 0–100% speed levers (idle = zero speed), with a separate reverse thrust button.
  
• Throttle releases the speed lock: with Speed Lock on, moving your throttle lever about 15% switches the lock off and the lever flies the ship again (can be turned off in settings).
  
• Per-axis tuning: invert, centre, dead zone, full scale, response curve and sensitivity for every axis, plus a "Calibrate this axis" wizard and a centre trim for worn sticks that drift.
  
• Stick turn speed slider for stick pilots.
  
• Bind anything by pressing it: any ship, on-foot or menu action can be bound to any button, hat or axis. Move an axis and the game detects which axis and which direction you used.
  
• Your devices are remembered: bindings follow the device itself, even if you unplug it or change USB ports. Controllers can be plugged in and out while the game is running.
  
• Automatic HOTAS mode: touch your stick and the game switches to HOTAS mode; it stays there while you fly.
  
• Menu cursor on the stick: a stick's ministick or axes can drive the menu cursor (VKB EVO presets do this out of the box).
  
• Test & setup tools: a live Test your HOTAS panel (axis bars, buttons, hats), a full Controller Test panel with an action monitor and event log, a guided setup wizard, an Identify my controls walk-through for the VKB Gladiator EVO, and an input health check that spots drifting axes, stuck buttons and conflicts — with one-click fixes.
  
• Advanced HOTAS tools: device cards with schematics, split throttles, multiple saved profiles (new / duplicate / rename / delete), export and import with share codes, a printable reference card, shift layers, activation modes (press / hold / toggle / tap / long / double) and axis-as-button zones.
  

Gamepad Overhaul

• Wide controller support: Xbox controllers are read directly, and PlayStation (DualShock 4, DualSense, DualSense Edge), Switch Pro / Joy-Con, 8BitDo, Logitech and many generic pads are supported through a 50-model table and standard game-controller mappings.
  
• Steam Input friendly: Steam's virtual controller is recognised and its inputs are not doubled; your real controller family (Xbox / PlayStation / Switch) is detected.
  
• Vibration (rumble) on Xbox and other XInput controllers: ship damage, collisions, rocket launches, turbo, warp start and end, ship destruction and an incoming missile-lock warning — with a Vibration strength slider (0–100%).
  
• Four gamepad layouts: Classic, Southpaw (sticks swapped), Paddle (layer buttons latch) and Flight (pitch/roll on the left stick, throttle on the triggers).
  
• Layered controls: hold LB, RB or click a stick for more actions — for example LB + Y for warp, RB + D-pad up to request docking, orders 1–3 and sniper zoom on foot. A hint band at the bottom of the screen shows what the held layer does.
  
• 13 more actions get a default gamepad binding, including warp drive, request docking, avoid, on-foot orders and sniper zoom.
  
• Menus on the gamepad: LB / RB switch the main window tabs, LT / RT switch page sub-tabs, B closes pop-ups and the pause menu without closing the window behind them, and Hold Y skips tutorials. A gamepad cursor (left stick moves, A clicks, X right-clicks, right stick scrolls) works alongside D-pad navigation on the menu pages.
  
• Smoother look controls: gamepad look speed is the same at any frame rate, responds to the smallest stick movements and stays responsive even at very low frame rates.
  
• Gamepad settings: stick dead zones, right-stick sensitivity, invert look, trigger press point, vibration strength and a live Test your gamepad preview.
  
• D-pad menu navigation moves exactly one step per press, and PlayStation triggers are read across their full range.
  

New Controls Page & Button Prompts

• New Settings > Controls page with three device tabs — Keyboard & Mouse, Gamepad and HOTAS — each with Key bindings and Settings views.
  
• Two bindings per action, conflict handling (swap / clear the other / cancel), reset per row, per category or everything, and undo. Search and categories (Flight, Ship combat, Ship systems, On foot, Menus & map, Tactical view) help you find any action quickly.
  
• Layouts for every device: keyboard Classic, Left-handed (IJKL) and One-handed + mouse; the four gamepad layouts; and your stick's model presets. You can save your own setup per device model.
  
• Your bindings are saved instantly and stay through death, loading and restarts.
  
• Button prompts follow your device: HUD hints, tutorials and quest prompts show the actual key, gamepad button icon (Xbox or PlayStation) or joystick button for what you are using right now, and update the moment you switch device or rebind.
  
• The Controls texts are translated into all 13 game languages.
  

Battles & Wars

• New Battle Size setting (Settings > Gameplay, 30–100, default 60): the most ships fighting in one space battle, both sides together. Extra ships wait as reinforcements and join as ships fall — one per side every 2.5 seconds — so battles stay big while running smoother. Lower values are easier on your frame rate.
  
• Reinforcements arrive at once: generals you send with REINFORCE join the defence immediately, and if you are in that system their squad appears in the battle on your side — a heavy fighter plus one frigate per soldier, at the general's level. A recalled general's ships warp out.
  
• Front battles: each army now fights at its own House's level; the two sides move toward their average by at most 10%. The number of ships still follows military power.
  
• Compact siege & battle panel: the panel at the top of the screen is much smaller, with one duelling bar and a Reinforcements: N ships line for each side. When you defend, the generals you sent are counted in your side's strength.
  
• Redesigned Galaxy War page: both blocs fit on screen without scrolling, with strength buckets, a column for each House, and a LEADER tag on each bloc's head. Hover a faction flag to see its leader, strongest House, totals and its part in the war.
  
• Peace table: the purse a clear winner is owed from the other side's treasury now pays tribute in money; systems and stations are earned through the war itself. SUE FOR PEACE now includes that tribute in the terms it proposes, so what it suggests is what the table signs.
  
• Overreach ("the ground we have taken"): the cap is lower (40 → 25) and the mark fades twice as fast (0.3 → 0.6 per day). Houses with no tie to the faction you took ground from feel it at about 30% strength; retaking ground you previously lost no longer counts as new overreach. The Relations page explains Overreach and how it fades.
  
• A much stronger faction now needs far more hatred toward you before it declares war on you.
  
• A long war wears an enemy out: an exhausted enemy is more willing to accept a peace where you ask for nothing. A fresh war can no longer be ended for free — for the first 5 days the other side asks for something in return, unless it is worn out or clearly losing.
  
• If you are clearly winning, the peace offer makes the other side pay you tribute from their treasury.
  
• Wars declared on you play out in full: the enemy attacks, the threat card and Reinforce appear, and at a decisive moment the side that is ahead opens a peace-terms offer.
  
• Military budget (formerly "War budget"): upkeep is billed on your full roster strength, the war part drops when the war ends, and the pop-up shows the full breakdown, including the number of armies.
  

Fixes

• Saves that arrive while the game is still loading are held until loading has finished — one cause of the main quest rewinding or the campaign going back to an earlier step.
  
• Loading a save from inside a running game could leave you in an empty world (no ship, no inventory). Fixed, and a spawn check now watches for it.
  
• Loading a save could leave the galaxy setup unfinished (factions and systems not set up). Fixed.
  
• Saving is more careful: a save requested while the game is switching levels is retried instead of dropped, and a stuck load no longer blocks saving for long.
  
• An unlabeled purple square with a distance readout (a hidden front-line battle point) no longer appears in systems.
  
• Convoys: at most 3 are visible at a time, they are kept away from the gates, and old saves with more are trimmed.
  
• Jen's giant robot no longer sinks into the cave floor on arrival.
  
• The Internal Affairs tab opens as soon as the Athena meeting ends.
  
• Rise of the WRA: the objective says any neutral system will do and points out the easiest free system and its level.
  
• Story missions: the stations, systems and Houses the main story depends on are protected from the galaxy war. A few mission stations (such as Bribando, Ulnorix, Mabram, Braylin and Naethan) can change owner in sieges but are never destroyed.
  
• If an old save has lost the Integration Station, it is restored when you load.
  
• A probe restored while a save loads now waits for your ship.
  
• Factory station: always shown in the build menu; while locked it says it unlocks after the WRA Ship mission.
  
• The language list no longer shows duplicate entries, and your chosen language is applied and stored more reliably.
  
• Deep dungeons: floors are built within a much smaller depth range, and the floor name on the entry banner is correct. This should help with late-game dungeon crashes and falling through floors.
  
• Stealth-kill missions: the target marker is more robust, so the target is easier to spot.
  
• Chinese: story dialogue lip-sync handles Chinese text, and address search accepts full-width characters such as "N3".
  
• UI scaling fits the screen on 16:10 and narrower displays (for example 2560×1600); 16:9 is unchanged.
  
• Stars in a system that could be missing after loading a save until your next warp are now restored.
  
• Damage Reflect recharges every 5 seconds.
  
• Less error-log noise from the ship engine sound, the HUD and weapon turret sockets.
  

Quality of Life

• Frame Rate Limit option in Settings > Video (30–240 or Unlimited, default 120), with an explanation on hover.
  
• The main menu news box links to the Diplomacy Update announcement, and the Patch Notes panel lists our updates in order: Diplomacy Update, Swarm Update and the Full Release.
  
• Trade route tooltip: a clearer panel listing the trade routes through a system (up to 6, "+N more" for the rest).
  
• Dominance: a trade route counts once, with a single "Trade Route" line and tooltip.
  
• Army page: the Army General row lists your generals.
  
• Female-character armor drops that use the Saren look are now named "Saren Suit".
  
• The "Help us translate" (Crowdin) row was removed from Settings > Interface.
  
• All new texts are translated into all 13 languages.
  
• Credits: SirCaptainVA has been added as a voice actor.
  
• Members page scroll bar and several smaller interface fixes.