Which is Harder to Develop

[WhiteKnight77 1]

Which kind of game would be hardest to code and why? Post your thoughts on why you think your choice would be.

[jmcdonald 0]

Real Tim Strategy. Because of the programming work in em. eg. The Sims, Codename: Panzers etc.

[Specter 0]

I didn't see the type listed above that I would vote for, but I would have to say TACSims.

You have to try and code so many reactions into the game. There are conditions such as weather, equipment loads, geography, operational conditions; conditions where the AI actually has to (for lack of a better word)think.

[WhiteKnight77 1]

I think those would fall under FPS games.

[Dan 0]

i rekon flight sims, especially the ones that aim to be very realistic.

Ill get back to you in2 years, when im learning to do it first hand

[firefly2442 0]

Probably MMORPG's because you have to take into consideration bandwidth limitations and servers before and as you are making the game. This limits the amount of stuff you can do.

[Matt03 0]

Any kind of simulation that wants realistic behavior IMO would be hard. Unless you were using a pre-made physics engine. Then I would probably say MMORPG.

[WhiteKnight77 1]

I have to say that flight/space sims would be the most difficult to code for. When you think about how aircraft and spacecraft can behave, it adds much more work to get it right and believable. Even with a game with 20 aircraft, that is 20 different flight envelopes (how an aircraft preforms) to develop as no 2 aircraft fly the same. Add to that different weapons that the planes can carry and affect it, adds even more to how something flies. Even the weapons have flight characteristics that have to be taken into account once released from the plane whether it is a free fall bomb or a radar or IR guided missile. With modern fighter aircraft flight sims, you have complex radar systems to code for along with a HUD that is animated and not static as in WW2 sims. How weapons interact with the aircraft

while being used also has to be taken into consideration. Even how an aircraft behaves after it is shotdown needs to be coded. Some will go into a flat spin and others will nose dive straight to the ground.

How events play out once you start a mission come into play to. While enemy aircraft (AI) can be scripted along with bombers for the mission, once a dogfight starts, the AI have to be able to give a decent fight to be believable. If the planes just fly in circles what is the point of it? No dogfight can be scripted as no 2 dogfights will be the same. Something else that comes into play is dogfights take place in 3 dimensions. While a firefight in an FPS can take place over some elevation changes, the character you play and the AI will not move in the 3rd dimension and bunny hopping doesn't count for this.

Something else that developers have to code for is sight distances. Flight/Space sims have gameworlds that have vast sight distances. Earth based flight sims have to draw thousands of square kilometers of area. While not all of it will be in sharp focus, it is still there. While a game like FarCry has sight distances of up to 2 kilometers, flight sims have to show other aircraft at farther distances than that. In a game like iL2 Sturmovik and the games following it, you can see bombers at ranges equal to 10K and fighters at ranges of up to 5K. They may be a speck in the middle of air, but a gamer will know what it is. This can be seen in this picture.

Click the pic for a full size pic.

I would consider a game like X-Wing or even Bang! Gunship Elite to fit in the the flight sim style. The spaceships handle like earthbound aircraft in my opinion.

One other thing to toss into the mix is if the flight sim is based on helicopters. While helicopters fly in some similar manners to fixed wing aircraft, having the ability to hover needs to be addressed along with the collective (up and down) aspect has to be handled. Some helos can use a rolling take off to become airborne while others (ones without wheels) need to be able to handle in ground effect so it can lift it's load properly.

I don't have much experience as a gamer with RPGs, MMORPGs, RTS (I do have Silent Hunter 2 and Destroyer Command which combine the RTS and Naval sim genres together), adventure games or regular driving games. I am a sim gamer such as TacSims, racing sims and flight sims and the aforementioned do not grab my attention as do the latter. With what I read elsewhere and see in screenshots and ads, the gameworld in the former while can be rendered in 3d only has 2d interaction compared to flight/space sims.

[firefly2442 0]

You gonna be doing some game development?

[WhiteKnight77 1]

No, but am hoping Serellan would comment as a modder and not a dev and yes, I know he has perused this thread.