General Discussion

In this new Developer Journal, NetDevil Programmer Steve "Istvan" Hartmeyer talks about flight in their upcoming MMORPG, Jumpgate Evolution.

Jumpgate Evolution owes the basis of its flight engine to NetDevil's first product, Jumpgate. Arguably a unique feature, the Jumpgate flight engine allowed the game to be distinguished as an online spaceflight simulator, rather than a run-of-the-mill MMORPG, which were only then (in 2001) beginning to be churned out by a nascent industry. Jumpgate's distinguishing element was that, as in prior spaceflight and combat games such as Elite, the Wing Commander series, the X-Wing series, Freespace, and Alliegiance, the player directly pilots their ship, often with a joystick instead of a mouse.

Though often described as realistic when compared with other games' flight models, the Jumpgate flight engine is neither strictly realistic, nor is it by any means arcade-style. Perhaps the simplest description is "playably realistic". Underlying the flight model is basic Newtonian physics: engines apply a force to the ship's mass, which accelerates in response. During experimentation with early builds, the original Jumpgate developers quickly recognized that a wholly realistic flight engine would be incompatible with their vision of hands-on flight. Strictly realistic spaceflight creates a demoralizing list of playability issues: unreasonably large potential speeds, impossible reaction times required of players, inability of ships moving at greatly different speeds to fight or even interact effectively, as well as complications to travel because of the need to slow down again to rendezvous with a destination, just to name a few of the problems. The ultimate goal of Jumpgate was to re-create white-knuckle fighter combat as seen in movies and TV such as Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, or Babylon 5, so solving the gameplay problems by departing from the hands-on control paradigm just wasn't an option.

Read it all here.

Very good idea, both modes have their advantages that is for sure. I kind of recall one space simulator which had these controls and I loved it - it was a quite old Microsoft game perhaps 3-4 years old, just can't remember the name.

Definately something to look forward to.

Originally posted by Zodan

Very good idea, both modes have their advantages that is for sure. I kind of recall one space simulator which had these controls and I loved it - it was a quite old Microsoft game perhaps 3-4 years old, just can't remember the name.

Oh, how I love that game.

 If I remember correctly Vendetta uses this flight system. Definitely a effective flight system if I remember correctly. Id often do just as they said, fly through tight conditions with dampners such as docking or mining but not using them when fighting. Although I often used dampners when I wanted to do screwball turns.

.... I wonder if Vendetta is still around*Scrounges around the internet*

This is really going to add a GREAT deal of challenge and skill to advanced combat.  I seriously can't wait.

Both Vendetta and Jumpgate Classic are still kicking.

Independence War II - Edge of Chaos had a very similar control scheme - and it was a ton of fun. 

Normal flight was easy - you come to stop quickly, when you shut off your lateral thrusters you stop moving in that direction, but if you turn off the 'braking thrusters' all the 'fake rules' go out the window.  You could achieve extreme speeds with basic thrusters, you could spin around and fire at chasing ships while still fleeing, things like that.  It had two options, you could either toggle it, or hold down a key for quick moves.

Good plan - I'm really looking forward to this one.

I've played the original Jumpgate and had a lot of fun with it the only problem with that game was that very few others were playing it. Personally I'm looking forward to this game to come out. There are some PvP issues I think that need to be worked out because the game lends itself to being a griefers paradise. I haven't seen enough of the ideas for Evolution yet to see what  NetDevil has in mind to keep that from happening though.

The flight engine used in Jumpgate is definately the most playable and my favorite of all space sims I have played. Takes a bit of practice but once you get it you are good to go.