NokiMo
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Flying auto-pilot

A planned feature for flying is that the movement of the dragon is partially controlled automatically, both to aid the player in flying as it is quite difficult to control, but also because the dragon has a will of its own. This is expressed in a few different ways. First, there's the self preservation aspect where if you for example attempt to dive straight into the ground, it will override your command and slow down to not crash. Then there is flight guidance that makes it easier for you to fly as you intend, like automatically keeping a certain altitude above the ground or helping control the dragon rotation. And finally, there's the full auto-pilot where the dragon can take you somewhere without you having to manually control it to fly there.

These things are usually not very hard to implement for a regular controller, but the dragon controller in this game is a bit different as it uses a simple aerodynamics simulation to move the dragon and there are some aspects of how the wings produce lift that can introduce instabilities. Good thing I took a course in control theory a while back, might come in handy.

Comments

This is an older post but I really like seeing this. It also adds a layer of accessibility for possible disabled players, or for those who have slower reaction times.

spicyykels

Maybe, though part of the reason that it's there is so that you avoid situations where for example the player dives straight down into the ground at terminal velocity, because I'm not sure how that would even look or what should happen. If I can make those kinds of crashes look good then there may be an option where you can do that.

Gustaf

Can the self preservation be added as an option to disable? I'd like the idea that it's down to player skill and a learning curve of difficulty to master the flight with the option to fail. And with it turned off, it opens up the possibility of greater maneuvers that might not be capable with the dragon fighting to stay away from the ground.

Nasmr


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