Re: Space sim in the works

["Miguel A. Osorio" <mao@fabricadigital.com.br>]

Jiri Svoboda wrote:
> Hello again, sorry for the delay!

(...)


> Sorry. My mistake, my fault. I've seen your demo movie and now I have a 
> better idea about your flight physics. Beforehand made a mistake and 
> didn't explain myself clearly enough.
	Hey, no problem :).


(...)


> CONCLUSION
> ----------
> The whole point of this awfully long text: Your game engine is 
> realistic. Your ship designs are not. As a consequence, the game in 
> whole is not realistic.
>
> -------------------
>
> Whew! I hope that explains what I meant. So the claim "realistic 
> physics" on your webpage is right (even though the game as a whole is 
> not realistic) and I apologise for calling it wrong.
>
> And remember: it's not important, how realistic a game is. The important 
> thing is, how playable it is.
	First of all, thanks for taking the time to make a so thorough analysis 
:)). Second, you made your point very clear, I know what you mean.
	About your conclusion, yes, the simulation is a lot more realistic than 
the aesthetics presented, but IMHO that's not really what matters, as 
you also say. Depending on what you want, you hve to balance a game 
between more realistic and less realistic, so you can either end up with 
a flight simulator like Flight Gear, which is highly realistic, or, for 
example, something like LucasArts' X-Wing, which is not so realistic. 
But then again, which one of those is more fun to play? That really 
depends on the audience. What will make a game fun to play is exactly 
what you said, playability.
	So, for those space sim fans out there, that love Wing Commander, 
X-Wing, and the works, it's probably ok to go along with flashy 
aesthetics, and simulations that don't correspond to those, because 
that's not really what those guys are looking for, IMHO. Our team has 
that in mind, and that issue has already been resolved: we'll go for the 
realistic simulations and "good-to-look-at" aesthetics.


[]s,
Miguel A. Osorio.

Lead Programmer,
SomniumStudio - www.somniumstudio.com