Hey guys, question I bought a fightstick. Mom called randomly and asked if I wanted anything. Because she never gave me a gift on my birthday not that its required. But the first thing that came to mind is I wanted a fightstick for so long. She bought it for me and now I’m wondering. Anyone here know what’s the first thing I should change out? I know the artwork and the buttons but I don’t know what I should buy/ replace? And also I want to commission someone to make a custom artwork if possible. So yeah thanks for helping me lol.
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Definitely buttons. It is such a difference. Also I would check if the stick unit is what you want.
What stick did your mom get you?
Razer atrox for xbox one
I actually wouldn’t say you have to swap out anything unless you just really want to. The stock buttons for most sticks are perfectly serviceable, ditto the standard gates. A good stick (and the Atrox is one) will work out the box and last a pretty long time, and you can DIY for silent buttons and joystick tension and other such things.
Art is always fun, but who you get it from/how much to pay for it will depend greatly on what you want. My first stick art was really good and done for free by someone who just liked making stick art, while my current art was something commissioned from a notable FG artist and cost more than the stick itself. It really just depends. I recommend just trawling through art you’re interested in and reach out to any artists who catch your eye - most are more than willing to have a conversation about what their rates and needs are.
Nota bene: if someone’s price for their stick art is outside your range, just say so and move on. Not every price is within someone’s budget, and the artists will appreciate a forthright statement along those lines a lot more than trying to haggle them down or insulting their craft because it’s “not that good”.
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I would definitely not worry about replacing the stick or buttons until or unless you have a problem with them. Especially if you are getting used to the stick you aren’t likely to be able to tell much difference.
As for the art, there’s lots of options. There was a guy named @KrizmKazm on here who used to do a lot of art for peoples sticks. Not original pieces just photoshop style reorganization of public ally available art from the game. You can see a lot of his stuff in the stick art thread. He did my two fightsticks for KI:
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Is kriz still with the community anymore? I know who they are because I commented on their videos
I haven’t heard from him in a while, so I couldn’t tell you.
So it’s your first fightstick? And you already think about exchanging stuff?
If I remember right the Atrox uses Sanwa buttons and lever/stick, which are already better quality than for example Mayflash.
First thing you should do is having fun with your new fighting stick, get used to, and after a year you can think about trying new buttons/lever.
When it comes down to “which are the best parts?”, it’s more about personal preference than anything else, you need to experience it for yourself and compare it to what you already know.
I got my fightstick so now I have a few problems. I can input stuff but it requires a full motion not a big deal. But is there any modding I can do to the spring suspension thing
If this is the first time you are using a fight stick it’s going to take a lot of adjustment. It’s as if you we’re trying to learn the game with your feet instead of your hands. Give yourself some time and practice.
I wouldn’t recommend starting to mod the stock all over the place until you at least feel proficient with it. Just because you are not really going to know what you want or what helps until you are able to consistently perform with the hardware. But yes, there are spring mods. The normal spring that comes with a Sanwa fightstick is a 1lb spring. You can get 1.5 or 2 lb springs which will be stiffer and return the stick to neutral more quickly. It’s not hard to swap these out but watch a YouTube video first. It’s an operation where you need to remember how the pieces go back together and not drop a couple of the small ones and lose them on your carpet.
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With this mod the travel between actuator and microswitches will be shorter:
But this won’t make that much of a difference, get used to your fightstick, the “full motion” as you say is one aspect of a fightstick to make complex input more easy (while on a d-pad you may got more false inputs because of the not as “clear” motion).
I’m German, I hope my sentence makes sense…
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by this 
There is. As Andy said, just Youtube “stick tension mod” or something along those lines and should be able to find a step by step. Fun trick is that while you can get an off-weight spring like 1.5 lb, you can also just cut a 1 lb spring in half and double it up with your standard spring to achieve the same effect. I did this with my first stick since 2 lb felt too heavy, while 1 lb was too light. Higher tension forces the stick back to neutral more quickly, so this was a mod I did to make it slightly quicker/easier to dash.
I do tend to agree with Andy though that if this is your first fight stick, the problems you have will tend to be “you” problems as opposed to stick problems. There is a definite learning curve to any new input device, so lots of missed inputs when starting out will just be related to that as opposed to anything “wrong” with your gate or tension or anything. Have to build up the muscle memory before it’ll feel good, almost regardless of the actual feel of the stick.
i ordered the octogonal restrictor gate. i’ll order the actuator next week. for now is there anyone besides krizm that can do fightstick artwork?