I dont know about the rest of you but I think I prefer to have my thrusters assigned to a button rather than pressing up on the D-pad. Can anyone tell me how to do this with keys.cgf file. Right now im using the default settings.
Alternatively, if you're actually using a real gamepad, map Player-1-Thrust to some joystick button. (Generic instructions for the input library are here.)
Personally I like having both up and a button as the thrust, as it was on the 3DO (I think?). Thankfully this can be accomplished by duplicating the Player-1-Thrust and assigning a different key/button to it.