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. :)
