In BG3 the movement cursor seems to be totally tied to 2 dimensional space, or the flat plane on the ground or atop a platform.
In order to do flight or levitation properly, you'd think the game must first provide some Z axis architecture that allows the player to actually select a point in 3 dimensional space. Either that or provide driving movement rather than a point and click scheme. Or perhaps attempt something like what Solasta did, although for my part its very hard in a Top Down game of any sort to create an accurate presentation of 3d flight.
Flight just does not work well at all in games that have a point and click to issue movement along a flat plane type scheme, or with faux elevation just using staggered 2d platforms. There are actually quite a number of things that don't work well in such a scheme, like climbing and jumping and swimming, or really anything that resembles realistic physics when moving through space, rather than just abstracted animations meant to give an impression.
I can't think of a single example of a point and click style flight sim game for example. Anyone know of one? I'd be interested to check it out. Flight games always seem to use a driving POV scheme for player motion. I think its because its hard to do distances and present them volumetrically without a Cube/Grid overlay that shows the POV perspective in 3D, and people find that sort of display hard to parse or perhaps just unpleasing aesthetically?
It's interesting to consider this issue from an RTS, TB, or 4X grand strategy game perspective (as opposed to FPS or flight simulators), since many people have long wished for a strategy game that could actually do large scale Space or aerial combat (with multiple participants) in three dimensions. But they almost always end up using some version of the flat plane to represent this. Despite computers making such things more feasible, the tradition of the flat boardgame inheritance is hard to get beyond. People have come up with rules to describe it, but not so much the presentation. I think the best one could hope for here is something of the sort that Solasta is attempting, which is still impressionist more than realistic.
I hate to suggest anything like a tether or chain ruler for a cursor display, for fear of conjuring up party movement woes hehe, but really you'd need something like that along with a true orbital camera to even get close. Solasta does not provide this for their camera. Despite being essentially built from cubes, it is still primary Isometric in its display, with the camera is still keying the line of sight and an imagined horizon line.
I think one reason it might be difficult, also has to do with players becoming quickly disoriented or dizzy, or simply not being well equipped in with their eyes/inner ear to handle what this sort of motion entails. It's part of why pilots have to undergo such extensive training, and perhaps also why people who buy rc planes or commercial drones often immediately crash them into the ground when trying to figure out how to fly them remotely lol. I think gliders or balloons or hovering are how we tend to envision it, and that's probably the easiest approach to make work in a game. Like in Mario 64 or Zelda on the Switch, where kids can just fly off, without like turning green and throwing up in their mouths. But again, that tends to be more driving cam orientation with a fixed horizon.
Even in POV flight games, tilt is still the hardest thing to capture on a flat screen. With binocular vision in actual space, coupled with our inner ear, we are able to overcome the parallax disorientation. For example, if you tilt your head, no matter how far you tilt your head, you will never be able to convince yourself that the horizon line is rotating rather than your head. With our feet on the ground the horizon will always remain constant, thanks to the way we've evolved, but in cockpits not so much, and in games we still have that screen to deal with.
I'm not sure what they could do here with what we've seen so far in BG3, but I'd certainly love to see flight in a D&D game. That's aiming pretty high though. Before it goes there I'd like to see actual climbing and swimming, which are both more native to the human experience than flight. Though of course we've pined for wings since the dawn of time, so it's not a bad goal to have in a fantasy game hehe.
I hope one day for D&D VR, where such ideas could truly be taken to new heights! But it would be cool to see some movement in that direction, even if the technology we're using now is still the flat screen rather than like headset goggles and next gen power gloves.
Last edited by Black_Elk; 17/10/21 02:43 PM.
