I'm making some real-time airships but I've just realized I've never flown one in a game before. Given that they're supposed be large, bulky and slow I figured having an knee-jerk response interface would be bad. Has anyone ever piloted an airship in a game before and if so which game and what was the control scheme like? I don't want to waste my time implementing something that I think will be fun but then have it fail. It's going to need a lot of testing and I absolutely hate wasting my time.

I thought you already http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T4iw-qaCZ8
What you have there seems to be as practicable as MW would allow.

(The only games that come to my mind are from the Final Fantasy series, and they are just controlled with the controller itself.)

Slow. At least for the turn rate, it tends to roll a bit while turning. Acceleration varies, is usually pretty good.
Of course, the airship can in fact go very fast, and at that point making a hard turn causes it to flip over at some point.

Yeah its functional but kind of annoying. I don't want a menu to pop up every time. I was thinking more along the lines of wheels and levers as activators. That way it would seem more real-time or something like what MadMax did with the keypresses. Immersivity is important.



Yeah I got the roll int there. I don't want them going to fast though as seeing cell loading screens frequently is annoying but I guess that's up to the player.

I guess waht I'm after is an immersive interface but experiencing it would be helpful. I think there aren't that many airship games, though.

Using mouse as joystick. It is flying, so joystick like controls is a must.

I found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmiiQxC39AY&feature=related

Hey that vid looks pretty good, ta. I'm at work though so I can't hear it until I get home. I was thinking about mouse/keyboard controls but would it feel less like a machine. It would be easier to implement than levers and wheels, though.

Instantly thought of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87hgF_4SrVM

Would be cool to have an interior and then when you go to exterior you swap the model of the player for a creature(Airship) or some-such. much like Cortex's scripted spells.