Vehicle Simulations - Fundamentals of Game Design - page 515

flight sims don't offer interesting terrain. If your flight simulator has a historical
setting, you can do a lot with the ancillary screens to set the mood. Electronic Arts'
World War II flight simulator, Jane's WWII Fighters , shows a hangar, a full of period
aircraft and other gear, and even plays Glenn Miller tunes in the background.
Unfortunately, in the pursuit of historical accuracy, Electronic Arts sets all its com-
bat missions above the Ardennes Mountains in the wintertime: a bleak, snowy
landscape covered with leafless trees. The technical quality of the graphics is
superb for its day; it's too bad they aren't depicting something more interesting. Its
competitor Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator is less historically accurate but argu-
ably more fun to fly because you can buzz the Eiffel Tower or London's Houses of
Parliament.
Driving simulators are set on either racetracks or roads except for a few off-road
simulators that offer the fun of bouncing all over interesting terrain without hav-
ing to steer carefully. Narrow, twisting mountain roads are a popular choice for
road-based games because they offer both an interesting challenge and pretty
scenery.
Weather is a critical factor to consider when designing the settings of both flight
and driving simulators. Can the player drive or fly at night? In rain? In fog? Rain
plays an important strategic role in automobile racing because each driver needs to
make a pit stop to switch to rain tires, which hold the road better. The pit stop takes
time, but drivers who don't take the time run an increased risk of crashing.
Because flight and driving simulators rarely show other people, their worlds can
seem eerily devoid of life. Cities are depicted as collections of buildings with no
pedestrians (and in flight simulators, no vehicles). Each airport has only one plane,
the player's, and no ground staff. Simulator designers often feel that, because these
things aren't critical to the gameplay, it is a waste of time to implement them. Still,
they add considerably to the player's immersion. A World War II airfield should
have other planes, pilots, and ground staff moving around; a track-based racing
sim should certainly have a crowd in the grandstand.
Other Vehicles
Flight and driving simulators are by far the most popular kinds, but there are other
sorts of vehicle simulators as well, usually for niche markets. The last few years
have seen the arrival of large numbers of new vehicles from the hang glider in Far
Cry to the magic broomsticks in the Harry Potter games. This section addresses a few
of the more common types.
Boats and Ships
Most boat simulations are of powerboats or jet skis, offering the same kinds of
speed thrills that driving simulators do (see Figure 17.3 ). The handling