My first order of business during my college stay of getting comp sci and math degrees is to design a flight simulator with atmospheric flight physics (normal plane flying, not space), first person of course, but with SFC/SFB weapons/power usage.
You'll have, say, a B-17 with 10 or 11 (I forgot) phaser gunners and a Photondardier, these rolls played similar as they did in Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. There will of course be some kind of overhead sensor for the purposes of weapon arcs, possibly a height map too for full 3d weapon degrees. It will also have SWOTL's engine system, where you can go to higher powers at the risk of engine damage, and some races/countries will have the full engine doubling scheme. Emphasis will not be put on graphics to spare computation time for massive fleet engagements with many many AI ships. Less emphasis is on running away while recharging because it will be important to fight as a unit..phasers should see more use than heavies. And since speed is so important with dogfighting on Earth, other game changes may have to be made so it doesn't degrade into a max throttle, fire whatever-you-can-fest.
There will be limited fuel, methanol-water injections, and other various gameplay variables to make it more interesting. Perhaps some scramble missions where a decision is whether or not to raise shields prior to takeoff...the increased energy usage will harm your takeoff performance and take that much longer to get you up in the air defending your base.
There will be autopilots for normal use and so that you can launch pseudo fighters from your ship which you can of course pilot (at ridiculous speeds and turn rates).
There will be advanced era ships with full jet engines with multi-stage afterburning capability.
Most importantly, more weapon types. There is a need for air to ground outside of normal SFC weapons. Perhaps cluster plasma, anti-runway T-bombs, and perhaps a good ole iron bomb just for fun. Other air to air like some kind of missile packed with a super strong net that is ejected when near a target, hopefully landing on a propeller and fowling the engine up, maybe a long thin tube that shoots extremely high powered and dense air at the target at close ranges, sending it into a spin or at least a stall. Anything to keep it interesting.
The biggest issue will be designing an effective interface/heads up display so that enemy locations/weapon arcs/shields can all be seen clearly and immediately, or else the whole point of borrowing from SFC will be lost.
Nevertheless, the overall feel of the game is action-packed and continuous decision making, reminiscent of nintendo games with their near-button mashing yet high precision games (street fighter II). The atmospheric flight and Earthly setting makes the flying itself more interesting, and hopefully not too complicated. You'll probably want a 600 button joystick, however.
A. sounds awesome
B. sounds weird
C. sounds too hard
D. sounds terrible
E. all of the above
F. other
Topic: How's this sound? (Read 1381 times)