G33X Nexus Entertainment > Precursors

Space Flight Controls, and Realism

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Morgul:
Ok, as the title says, I've been thinking about controls in our space flight sim... and it's really a hard trade off between playability and realism.

I guess the question here is how realistic are we going to make it. Since we're simulating physics, everything already has the realism built in. That being said, I'm sure we can get things set up with thrusters, and automatic correction, that it flys like pong, if we wanted to. Or like MS FlightSim... or like the fly cheatcode in Quake. We can do anything that we need to... however the real question in my mind is: How much skill will a user need to fly a ship? How should it be set up?

Any ideas? If so, please, comment!

whitelynx:
To clarify, the way we're currently doing it is pretty much 90% realistic. There are some things that will always be unrealistic in a computer game, but this leans heavily on the real-life side of things. If you accelerate in one direction and you turn, your motion in the original direction does not change unless you're using automatic compensation. All of the motion and rotation correction that we do is not done by changing the object's velocity directly, but by using thrusters to change it through acceleration. Basically, it flies like Escape Velocity, X-Pilot, or the original Asteroids. (only in 3D)

Morgul:
We've recently been told the controls kinda suck. We do know this, and we're aware. We're currently re-re-writing the mehcanics system, and how our thrusters work... in layman's terms we're simplifying everything, and making controls feel much more responsive, and simple. (let us know if you want details.)

--Chris

fehknt:
I'd like to say that if you make some sort of "auto corrector" component for ships that makes them fly more like people are used to ships in video games flying, make it not very hard to get, but make it really kill the speed of the ship.  Beginners will probably appreciate being able to get around easily, but everyone will move to the more realistic mode because of the huge in-game advantage.  Or they'll get someone else to do thier flying for them.

To directly answer the question at hand: To fly a ship, a user should require almost no skill.  To fly a ship with any real power, aside from slow people-moving, a fair amount of skill should be required.  To really be a fighter ace, you should actually have to be a damn good pilot.  Yes, this makes people that are good at flying fundamentally better than others.  That's how life works, though.  You'd better pick up some sort of skill!

Although, maybe that's just the fact that I always get annoyed at how unrealistic the physics engines in all space-fighter-type games I've played. <:o)

macguyvok:

--- Quote from: "fehknt" ---I'd like to say that if you make some sort of "auto corrector" component for ships that makes them fly more like people are used to ships in video games flying, make it not very hard to get, but make it really kill the speed of the ship.
--- End quote ---


Hmm, I like that idea. I don't even think it needs to kill the speed of the ship; there's only soo much you can do with controls like that. With the more realistic controls you'll be able to out manuver anyone not using them easily... making you win in a fight (hopefully).


--- Quote from: "fehknt" ---To directly answer the question at hand: To fly a ship, a user should require almost no skill.  To fly a ship with any real power, aside from slow people-moving, a fair amount of skill should be required.  To really be a fighter ace, you should actually have to be a damn good pilot.  Yes, this makes people that are good at flying fundamentally better than others.  That's how life works, though.  You'd better pick up some sort of skill!

Although, maybe that's just the fact that I always get annoyed at how unrealistic the physics engines in all space-fighter-type games I've played. <:o)
--- End quote ---


Do I understand that! ;) People are obsessed with ballance in a game... but in this game, there's so much more you can do than just fly fighters.... capital ships will, by nessessity, have a different style of controls (since they can't fly like fighters; they're too big.) ...and then there's even the FPS stuff you can do. Not everyone needsto be a fighterace. Just pray you don't meet one while you're in your little transport...

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