Taskforce Civil Vehicle

Civil vehicles can be boring, especially in video games. But some prefer to play like me, be it as a freaky collector of Mods, messing up the scenery with proper objects or at good days, beeing serious pro sim vehicle riders.

Pro sim gamers know what I'm talking about. I ain't talking about Arcade Games. One needs to know at least the basics about using a specific vehicle since from our viewpoint even that can be something worth mastering. Then theres a possibility to learn the extra features, e.g. some special or uncommon functions. Also one could read a lot of Wiki's to know about things like air manuevers or whatever counts in real life, too. From another viewpoint too much realism ain't a must have compared to the time it would cost. So if one is more about steering all kinds of vehicles, it's not the classic MS FlightSim thing starting from some airport and landing thousands of miles away (with or without time acceleration). Same goes for a space flight, means a Journey from Earth to Saturn ain't like a quick Earth to Moon visit. We don't have the time or we might have no patience. Instead we enjoy the important things like offroad driving, starting, manuevering, landing, sailing, diving and so on. So we don't miss the interesting part but sometimes playing a "realistic" Sim that way feels kinda strange, comparable to a vertical take-off with vertical landing right at the same spot. It's quite important to have something to do while commanding a virtual vehicle. This way it's more fun and keeping guys like me away from creating scenarios with way too many objects in one place. I often see vids on YT with let's players who only do crap while recording it. In one of my recent posts I said it's about one vehicle. But how about having some fun with it, what to do with it? What I miss most is a good 360° view of the vehicle, so why not run around it with the camera instead of doing lazzy master stunt attempts that end up boring?

Just think of a buddy on your side that gives orders to you:

"Ahhh, I'm getting mad by your flying style"
"Land here, please / Drive there / Set course to... / Hold course"
"Circle target / intercept object / "Dock at" / Follow object"
"Faster! / Slower"
"Pickup something from here / deliver to there / transfer of passengers"
"Fill your cargo space with important goods"
"Slot upgrade or over-cheat your craft"
"Stunting like fly under that bridge / do a looping"
"Withstand a heavy storm"
"Find the SGU Destiny Ship around the galaxies"
"Maintain a fleet wisely and don't forget anything while doing so"
"Force and handle onboard system failures by deactivating 'modules'"
"Master and provide yourself with a executive interactive self experience production like a James Cameron"

Different situations are fun and also something for the eye. When it's about realism, all the kewl things like changing the weather conditions to 2012 means that in real life, such things are unlikely to happen. In standard conditions, only helicopters are thrilling tricky to handle, planes or boats make one feel sleepy. Wind gusts can be entertaining but in general it's pretty boring to watch a buddy playing non combat games. FPS games put you into direct action, Sims need more thinking just like a strategy game. There must be a way of beeing a Captain of something could be big fun, if for example a Voyager Intrepid Class ain't floating around without having anywhere to go or a Sail Boat without a destination could be avoided.

Exactly, we need some nice tasks and tasks need driving experience (btw, you don't really need somebody near or spend pesos for a teacher). You can get the raw material, the vehicle of choice. All those Addons help making Sim games more enjoyable since they lack with stories and in most Sims there is only scenery and vehicles. So in case you feel like me, let's hope that a GF is near saying "If you land on that Vulcano expect some hot action". Said very simple it's about "flying" in a way that nobody would scream at you, even you know there might be no one near (anyway you could use a voice chat or whatever to join other nerdy peeps giving orders for fun on teamspeak).

So, heres my order to you: No matter what you steer, drive savely. But don't forget to be relaxed in case of playing Sims. Improve on skills and in the end, you guess it, the classical jocke that never gets old:

"Attention, our Captains did a sky dive, are there any pilots on board?"

- silence -
"We are going to crash against a mountain"

- a drunk voice answers -
"I can fly this thing"

- meanwhile in the cockpit -
"Sure, I have hundreds of flight hours on my PC"

That drunk guy is at least a candidate. But I would judge such a situation by asking which Simulator he played, but that's another geeky topic. If a kid on board can proof on my laptop to have IL-2 skills, he would be the one to land that airplane. Of course, in that case, he or I would need assistance, maybe not ;]

Well, to be honest, I have a fifty-fifty chance to land savely in video games, how about that? :D   Or how about my space skills, I can land on every planet in our Solar System except Earth, no kidding, very useful ain't it?

More skills based on more serious manuevers is what we get when we try, try, try. The good thing about virtual simulations is that they ain't real, only realistic. And those who play with Scenario Editing can do a lot more to enhance the situation by adding different objects to the current map. Flying over forests can be boring. Ever tried to place entiry cities in the middle of nowhere? Trust me, it's big fun! Many people start with modding games by modding their own ingame experience. So better don't waste with your dreams fuel.

Have a good "A to B" OR "Just don't care". I guess it depends on the mood and maybe it's a proper thing to fly under bridges for the sake of skills. :)

Status Report: My Modding Projects

Right now in real life: Working on the Punt Boat
(Season begins soon)
[Image Source: sxc.hu]

I've been busy recently. There are a lot of things I would have shared with you that I allready forgot. Never mind, let's face the important things at least. Real life goes first and I wouldn't be the first blogger to fail and this would be my number #Iduno construction zone. But I'm still in the game working on some Mods. In general, the things I like to play with are:

– Product Design (means concept drafting)
– Skinning
– Mesh-importing
– Map-editing
– Playing with config files

The Universal Cargo Box is one of it (I missed to do anything for it recently). The MagShield UVW-Textures is another. Meanwhile I do one or two Delta Glider EX and Arrow Freighter skin jobs. Seems Orbiter is my game of choice. But theres some Mod evaluation going on with Vehicle Sim. And I'm still creating a huge Scenario for IL-2 (but I wonder if it will be compatible with the newest Patches). For IL-2 I plan to create another dozen of Skins. And the BSG Diaspora game also awaits my long time ago promised Flight Skills Test map. I don't want to talk about other things since most things never get finished and some are too heavy to do anyway. Big fun could be the scenario creation within the Map Editor of WC Saga (placing cat's in space).

The idea to create my very own vehicle leads me to research good looking shapes since years and I'm now about the enter the dimension of cockpit design / texturings. Let's see, maybe I start from inside-out instead of drawing exterior concepts first. In the end, I'm trying to match polycount, once I have done the all the research and experimenting, aswell as finding the right plattform-game. But oh wait I was dreaming, just saying, the vehicle would be a space, air, deepsea and floating thing with feets, skids and wheels in one. ;)

Little by little I try to do my part. While I crashplay vehicles and things all the time, I always enjoy Open Source Mods and I wish I could do more to provide others with my little creations. This way I want to shout a BIG THANKS to all modders of vehicle Sims, be it by scripting awesome things or just adding mixed vegetation to the games. Every good Mod makes a game more immersive and theres a huge lack of that thing in every detail... when speaking of virtual games.

Oh and by the way, improving this Blogs look and feel is another thing written down on my task list. This Blog is a free time thing, now highly ranked at search engines but still almost without visitors or feedback. I don't have the time for playing games these days and my PC is a waste since I needed to change it's cooler. Anyhow there should be some releases coming up in the matter of sooner or later. And of course, I will write about the one or other topic on my mind as soon as they appear or whenever I have the muse and time for it.

Requests: On the need of finding something of use

Inspiring Submarine designs with a lot of Steampunk

We need more fancy rides, so I seeked for 3D Meshes for futher implementation into some Simulators and what I had to find was that most things don't even exist in the virtual world. While researching I found out my preferences are somehow unseen or let's say if you ask me, I would reflect a very specific nerd-faction. This means I'll take my opinion and I'm asking in the name of all vehicle related sim players that want to be early adopters, too. Here is some opinion leading for all of us. I hope you agree with me in particular. This list is aimed to bored Modders in search of something special. Thanks in advance!

These are some of the 3D-Meshes or Mods me and others would love to see:

Marine
U-Boat Type XXI (kewl design, hot historical specs)
U-Boat Taifun Class (huge and modern)
Seabreacher X Shark, Dolphin or Orca (fun and innovative)
Sailing Boat Dehler Dehlya 25 (tiny and cute)
Deepflight Black Hawk or Deepflight I or Challenger or Super Falcon Mk II

...

Air
The Jet from the movie G.I. Joe 1 (the non AI two-seater variant)
Synergy Aircraft (a crowd funded futuristic plane)
Mi-24 (a russian helicopter)
He Triebflügel (epic WWII concept aircraft)
He 112 (good looking, good manuevering)
Some Horten Glider Planes (one-wing concepts, needs flight skills)
Wingsuits (YAY, needed)
...

Space
Mars Attacks Flying Saucer (kewl design, epic gadget)
The Flight of the Navigator (unique design, for fantasy purposes)
BSG Rising Star (one of the most beautiful ship designs ever)
A super movable Spacesuit (needed for some)
...

Terrain
Some more very freaky Concept Cars (from real manufacturers).
Some hotter Mech Warrios (more sleek, please).
More different Byclicles or how about some virtual Inline-Skating?
...

Notes
All should have cockpits, except the two last ones. Thanks for developing! Ah and thanks for creating any awesome vehicle design that not got mentioned in here. Keep up the good work! :)

This topic is sheduled to be filled from time to time with whatever I end-up researching while looking for hot mobiles. Soon with pictures and more fancy entries.

Between Star X and Star Y – A true Fanboys Dilemma.

Spaceship Orion from the 60's:
Forgotten entry + hard to match + Low-Res only?

About mixing Space Sagas and their Spaceships
Sure, mixing Space Sagas is no good idea but sometimes it can't be avoided. All those fancy Ships known from movies and tv shows can be called real, at least within a games Mod. So, if you played with thousands of Spaceships in dozens of games, you soon start to realize that one thing might not fit coupled with another. This took years for me to understand. It's a technological and design specific fact that you can't combine for example Stargate with Star Trek, without calling it Steam- or Cyberpunk. If you ever had that feeling, it's a Dilemma! Let me give you another example: Just compare a Warp Drive or Subspace with some generic engines and while we are talking – where are the RCS trusters on most Sci-fi ships at (since most missed to include them)? And that's only talking on the surface of a very deep topic, mainly because for the designers theres a lot of goals when bulding a fictional spaceship. It could be the generic look of the time setting, the technology need or just a current design trend OR as in many cases only a fast solution. Imagine us living in a harsh industrial time. We would see angled minimalistic and sure footed non aesthetic designs. In the other example we would live in a super High-Tech century and our ships would be organic and feature whatever we can dream of. Let's make a note: Different Sci-fi Looks and different time frames produce inconsistency. My favorite way to compare such things is by looking a the cockpit or bridge design or by aerodynamical aspects of the hull. While I often find ugly canopies I also discover many non- or semi-aerodynamic shapes or something I would call "Comic-Look". One thing is for sure, all the stories around the Star Sagas are huge and epic, each as it's own. But what about the specific assets like Spaceships in the matter of the look of the Saga, are they even realistic? And when it comes to gaming, how about mixing them all up togheter?

"Creating a virtual mega Hangar full of different Ships – a long time goal".

Back to reality
Sci-fi is just Sci-fi, but not for us gamers. Lot's of famous Spaceships appear from game to game. Many games offer some simple Unit Management, a Map Editor or some scripting access. This way nerdy folks create fun scenarios containing multiple amounts of different Spaceships. It's just like doing what you ever dreamed of. Once you parked all those fancy Spaceships in one place, which I did over a thousand times, you will be creating a mess, just like me. Different Scalings, window sizes, engine types, hull platings, colours, Sci-fi Technologies and in the end even more important things like different Mesh and Texture detail levels. This was just a little set of things which might not fit. Even in a lone role, when not creating virtual empires, taking a simple ride into space depends on having something to fly with. Running different Sci-fi Mods I had to find a solution to such a complicated question and since it differs from day to day, how to choose my current most liked Sci-fi Universe Spaceship to role play with it? And will it satisfy?

"Help, I know hundreds of Spaceships".

So, what kind of Fanboy am I today?
Most of those Sci-Fi Universes are my favorites. It's a constant change. And there are those days where I don't even want to know a thing about Sci-fi. On such days I feel like a realist avoiding everything that's only theory. When not flying hypothetical stuff I enjoy state of the art ingame vehicles like Ships, U-Boats, Airplanes and almost real Spaceships. Back in time, I would have called myself a Trekkie (I've been playing STO a long time but the recent two movies hindered me from login-in again). Nowadays other Merchandisings play a bigger role to me, like Stargate or BSG (SG is fascinating but I don't really like the look, same with BSG). Andromeda is a too strange and ugly but a interessting story setting. I even was once into Babylon 5 when I was a teenager. Oh and Star Wars was something I called fantasy, even the assets part was nice enough to be liked. Firefly had to little spaceships for me to be recognized with proper attention, same as others (forgotten Sagas). Theres a easy way to determine the issue by simply looking at the fact that Star Trek Federation Ships are too futuristic to be placed near every other Sci-fi. It's sad but it differs entirely.

"Having all of my favorite Spaceships in one place was once very important to me".

No doubt, Steampunk!
Sometimes I can't relate to any of my once beloved Fan Sagas. I'm starting to fan-like independant open source Spaceships, since they offer a lot of the, to me very important "realism" and provide space for my own kind of Storylines. The fun fact is, that one could Mod such ships to however he wanna end-up with, be it a Star Drive or A Wormhole Drive, a cap of coffee on that cockpits texture or whatever. In this case we should have a good base, means a good detail quality (to avoid wasting time with Low-Res sources). Anyway, a Rendevouz Manuever of a BSG Ship with a Star Trek Ship is something fun to watch, in case the beam transporter is offline, which we, for fun, try to expect in such a scenario. This should explain why there are even more things that could play a main role in the confusion:

"Colonial One to Delta Glider NX-425. Wheres your docking port?".
"DG NX-425 to Colonial One. Nope, no such thing, uhm, ..."

Details, details, details:
Lot's of Mods have a great level of detail, others not. Mixing HiRes with Low-Res is always a bad thing to do in the name of immersion. Here comes another tricky problem, should one leave a mighty spaceship alone, even when his Star X/Y fleet is almost complete. Or should he add the Comic-Lookalikes, too? That's another question and the reason I stopped creating overfilled Fps-killing full scale scenarios because things did not even fit. I sure would love to have them all in one place, but all from the same source or with at least a min. on details, most importantly on the mesh and / or texture and besides that on the overall compability (see the Docking Port example above).

"It's like comparing apples and oranges".

A matter of taste OR quality
Well, most would say, why play with Low-Res stuff. I wish I could agree but I learned that many old games offer more assets or gameplay features than state of the art releases. A lot of HiRes Mods come from common games like BF3 and for non-commercial creators it's a matter of time consuming work to create HiRes Mods by themselves. Maybe that's the reason why we don't see them everyday.

"Size also matters a lot - choose your favorite vehicle wisely. Too big means no steering fun. Too small means it wont fit your dreams".

Diving for Pearls
I think a good summary on this complex nerd topic is picking the best and leaving out the rest. Some Sci-fi Spaceships are awesome and some Mods feature those Spaceships. But this topic is not only about spaceships. It's about the best Mods around and good things are like the saying hard to find. So I say no matter what it looks, if it's realistic and full of details it's worth a ride. This way we can create virtual parking lots with things that could be real one day or reflect the future instead of playing with the things we used to like when we were kids and which don't fit our adult needs for authenticity anymore.

"In the end, I only need one personal virtual ultra mega awesome super ride, right?
A Stargate should be enough anyway!".



This topic is not done yet. I will write a bit more on it asap.