Other Vehicles

Flight and driving simulators are by far the most popular kinds, but there are other sorts of vehicle simulators as well, usually in niche categories.

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 13.4). The handling characteristics of powerboats are different from cars ; because they're in a fluid medium, they don't "hold the road" the way a car's tires do, so they can't turn as sharply as a car can. Powerboat simulations are usually races over a twisting course marked off by buoys. Jet ski or fantasy water vehicle simulations often have outrageous jumps and other challenges as well.

Figure 13.4. Power Boat Racing , in a third-person perspective. Note the semitransparent map overlay and instrument panel.

There have been a few simulators of warships over the years , often fairly small craft with high speed and maneuverability, such as the PT boat of World War II fame. Larger vessels such as battleships and aircraft carriers move more slowly and deliberately, and, therefore, tend to be simulated not as individual vehicles, but as part of naval warfare simulations involving whole fleets, such as Harpoon.

Submarine simulations such as 688 Attack Sub are fairly popular because of the specialized nature of their situation and because they can move in three dimensions. They normally concentrate on rather old-fashioned submarine activities, such as looking through the periscope and firing torpedoes at surface ships. These are the sorts of things we associate with submarines from watching old war movies, and, of course, they're the most visually dramatic. Few games simulate the modern role of submarines, hunting and hiding from one another in total darkness , because it's too cerebral of an activity.

Sailing ship simulations are another rarity. Although sailing a ship is a complex and interesting challenge, such games appeal only to a specialized market. Most people prefer simulations in which you can point the vehicle in the direction you want to go and push the gas pedal to get you there. Few ship simulations model the ocean in all its complexity, with shoals and currents, tides and storms. Rather, they tend to treat it the way driving simulations treat the ground: simply as an area over which ships move. Pirate games such as Sea Dogs II (see Figure 13.5) and Pirates: Legend of Black Kat are usually arcade or role-playing games rather than sailing simulations.

Figure 13.5. Sea Dogs II.

Tanks and Mechs

Tank simulations seldom implement the complexity of tank battles as they really happened in World War II, the Arab-Israeli wars, or the Gulf War. Real tanks don't move all that fast, have limited visibility, and carry only a few types of weapons, so they don't appeal much to the casual gamer. Like combat flight simulators, tank simulators are usually about a lone tank operating against other tanks and a variety of other enemies.

From a gameplay standpoint, the most interesting characteristic of a tank is its rotating turret , which enables it to shoot in directions other than the one in which it is facing . (Notice the example in Figure 13.6.) It can be difficult to design a good user interface for this. You will need to provide a mechanism for rotating the turret that is separate from the mechanism that steers the tank, and a separate view window for aiming and firing the gun. Real tanks have a commander and a gun crew as well as a driver, but as with bombers and other multi-seat aircraft, you will have to find a way to let a single player control everything.

Figure 13.6. A tank in Panzer Elite. The turret is facing in a different direction from the tracks.

A more popular alternative is the mech , a science- fiction cousin to the tank that is usually depicted as a large armed and armored walking machine (see Figure 13.7). Because mechs aren't restricted by reality, they can carry all sorts of imaginary weapons and hardware, and they can be optimized for single-player play.

Figure 13.7. MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries.

Spacecraft

There are almost no simulations of real spacecraft except for quasi-educational ones about the space shuttles because real spacecraft behave far too slowly and deliberately to make for an interesting game. The majority of spacecraft simulations, therefore, are science fiction, and they typically consist of either fighter planes in space, such as the Wing Commander series, or capital ship simulations, such as the many Star Trek games. The fighter types are simple action games with only a few variables to manage: Fuel, ammunition , damage, and shields are about it. Capital ship simulations are more strategic, giving the player control of a wide range of weapons and other equipment.