I want to see a game based around hovercraft that take physics to an extreme degree.
You've got to manage turning and such, but now, you're basically controlling an aircraft. You've got to manage pitch, roll, and yaw.
Let's use an example craft, one with three rotors along a single axis. One is at the front of the craft, and two are in the back. This model has hideously bad control over rolling, but Pitch is easily managed and Yaw functions perfectly- turns act as you'd expect, the craft can shift from side to side, sharper turns can be made with a combination of airbrakes and/or alternating front and rear rotor directions. Unfortunately, relying on Yaw, no matter how tightly it can perform a turn, cuts deeply into overall speed. This model boasts three rotors, one of which is almost always giving its all for forward momentum.
We can help mitigate some of the Roll loss by adding components to our craft. Right now it's an ultralight, ultrasleek, incomplete model. The first thing to look at is control surfaces.
A fin that doesn't reach out very far catches little air, even if it runs along the craft quite a long way. Still, a long yet shallow fin is not extremely efficient, and won't be useful outside of smaller tuning changes. Other things to look at- does the whole wing act as a control surface, or only an aileron? Where are the rudders placed? Do I have a spoiler instead?
Firstly, let's look at our forward fins. By choosing a long, sleek model that rotates entirely, we save a lot of space and keep an ultrasleek profile- however, these fins add little to our pitch control, and do nearly nothing to help with yaw or roll.
Secondly are the rear fins. Here, we take a large model- losing our ultrasleek status, however, we are still fairly thin in profile. These wings are almost entirely the control surface, meaning the whole thing rotates- allowing for heavy-handed rolling and overbearing pitch management.
Airbrakes are also important- due to our already great yaw control, the model we choose here are small. The ship turns on a dime when one is deployed, and both of them can help in halting the craft, but they are somewhat underscale for the speed class we're in.
As for a rudder, we have instead taken a short spoiler. This restabilizes Pitch- helping against the wild changes the rear fins can cause.
We install a computer system in some of our spare space, adding to the weight but allowing us to set AI controls- the aircraft will automatically override controls in certain events- not allowing the craft to roll beyond 45/-45 degrees or pitch 30/-30 degrees. The craft will automatically stabilize at these points if the pilot continues trying to pitch or roll.
We're still a Sleek class, and retain quite high speed. We would be a featherweight, if not for our next choice in rotor.
Taking heavier rotors, ones with a great number of blades, hurts our acceleration. These rotors can be overstable as well, requiring more effort to change pitch, roll, and yaw. Our yaw is already sky-high and remains absurdly high, where our Roll is boosted now that it's harder to tip over. Pitch suffers a little, but it is stable enough to make the bonus to Roll readily worth the cost. Top speed is also boosted thanks to the sheer amount of force these fans put off, slowing us down out of the gate but giving us bullet-fast speeds from then on out. We can now roll reliably on normal turns, cutting down on speed loss, and maneuvering is easy. Emergency maneuvers and tight turns remain possible even if it does hurt our speed, and our sleek, light frame allows us to find tight shortcuts and stay aloft longer. Our armor is lacking, but hopefully, we'll be too far afield to be hit.
Author
Topic: Games you wish existed (Read 929197 times)