Working on a flight simulator for low-end machines with focus on gameplay and feeling. Been documenting and trying out some different approaches to automatic terrain generation these last weeks and I've come up with something I think works pretty okay. Now I want ideas for gameplay in my flight simulator. Flight simulators have always seemed rather boring to me, there is just no feeling in them. The reason is, in my opinon, that the gameplay is slow (One exception is that game from mid-90's something where you flew around in a futuristic environment made up of a bunch of tunnels, which on the other hand was rather messy and confusing most of the time). So I need ideas for a fast gameplay, but in an open environment. I am considering putting some limitations on player control, to force the player into a more tight gameplay, e.g. maybe you cant slow the aircraft down to much, maybe you dont have total freedom of movement etc. What the player is to do is still a bit fuzzy for me. I dont like the idea of hunting other aircrafts down, as this is just not a fun gameplay element. At least, I dont want hunting other aircrafts to be the primary goal. This is my first post here, but I've been checking the forum out for quite some time and you all seem like nice guys so I hope to get lots of ideas! Thanks, /Jimmie

Hmmz, what kinds of limits are you putting on realism? If it's a sim does that mean the situation has to be realistic or can it be quite wacky?

Usually when i'm bored in Microsoft flight simulator I pick a plane and try to do exactly what it isn't designed for. Flying under bridges in a 747, skimming the tops of the Himalayas in a stuttering censer.

And on that line of thinking, are you limiting yourself to currently available technology? Or are you claiming the 'sim' part of the game to be the accuracy of your physics calculations on any kind of aircraft? In that case the challenge could be simply flying certain shapes and designs of aircraft.. you could even make it a plain old sandbox and give the user a garage to build their own aircraft with all manner of strange configurations?

What about airplane tag? Chase the other airplane down and ram into it. now he’s it.
Airplane acrobatic maneuvers contest. Along the same lines as any of the snow board games out there. Pull off tricks to get points. Then watch your replay.
Airplane acrobatic team maneuvers. Get online and compete with other teams.
Your standard airplane race comes to mind. Used to be hugely popular a hundred years ago.
How about your airplane and your opponent(s) have a very small area to fly. You all carry mines. The mines float. You have to drop your mines in strategic locations and try to get the other planes to run into them.
Airplane soccer. Airplane football.
Eh?

I think this idea actually has the potential to make money but seing as it will undoubtedly be coined by someone else before I can make the game (I'm about 2-3 years off at least I'd say) I'm going to throw it out there.

The difficulty with flight simulators is they are being treated as games when they are simulations; they lack game mechanics. Why not bring the tycoon simulation world to the world of flight sims? Getting to run the company and be a pilot while not being the most realistic situation brings some more direction to the flight simulation genre. As for making the gameplay more interesting think turbulence and weather patterns - your company could be ruined by a single crash not to mention the cost of lives or whatever you factor in but I think the thrill of piloting tonnes of metal through a thunder-storm without decent visibility or control could be pretty fun.

Anyway just some random thoughts off the top of my head.

I have heard of a real life sport tha will be starting up in a couple of years. This sport is Rocket planes. These are planes that use a rocket engine rather than a jet engine or propeller engine.

The idea is that you have limited fuel and a set course that you must follow. The pilots must burn their rockets to gain speeld and altitude, then glide for a while, then repeat (They need to burn to change direction too).

The winner is the one who finished the course the fastest.

This could be an exciting race as the rocket planes are not limited to the speeds of a jet (as they don't need to take in oxygen from the air), but carry all the fuel nad oxidiser on board.

It also might be interesting to make a game similar to this too.

Check out the old Disney (!) game "Stunt Island". The basic game concept is that you are a stunt pilot on a large backlot, executing precision stunt manoeuvres. I recall that one stunt was landing a plane on a speeding freight train, while another was running into a 747 in a very particular way (so that the crash would merely be spectacular, as opposed to actually catastrophic). After each successful stunt, you saw a cinematically edited movie of the entire stunt in context. It was a clever addition to the flight simulator concept, which kept the boring flying to a minimum (for most stunts, you started out airborne, no more than 20-30 seconds from the target) and instead focused on the fun stuff.

First, thanks for all the tips!

I have been thinking along the lines of making a flight simulator where your suppose to do stuns with your plane.
But I do get the feeling that just steering your plane is not that much fun, possibly if you have to steer it like you steer a really plane (in other words, your controls would'nt be just up, down, left, right but rather "accelerate", "break", whatever you would have to do with an actual aircraft).

I like the idea of Rocket planes, I'll check that out and see if there is something to use there.
I'll also dig into the Disney game, scenarios in the game would be great but it does require a lot of work and a lot of time. But defently worth a look into.

The word "simulator" is probably the wrong word to use in my case, I dont really care about realism. If realism can bring a fun gameplay element Im all for it, but not just realism for the sake of realism.
So to answer one question, I put no limits on the realism in the game.

For those who are interested; I will be posting some pictures from the game when I feel it reaches the level where it's worth putting up pictures - now it's mainly a terrain generation program.

Again, thanks for the tips!
/Jimmie

This idea is perhaps a bit more high level than you originally intended.

You could perhaps put some more "elite/privateer" elements in your game. Make the player accept package delivery/battleground support/patrol/reconnaissance/bomb missions. This way the player can make his own choices in regard to what kind of game he wants to play. Of course different type of missions need different planes. Those 100 crates of bananas need a cargo plane, but that super secret package can be delivered with an F14. Bombing missions can require a F15 up to a B52 etc.

Maybe the player owns his own plane or you can make him 'lend' it from the organization giving the mission.

As far as I know no non-space sim has tried this idea.