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[Amon26]

I just bought a new joystick the other day and I've been wondering, What kind of indie flight games are out there aside from YSFlight and X-Plane?

Anything goes, arcade style. 2d, realistic.  Just something where I can fly around and look cool

[Super Joe]

i think theres some open source thing? whatever. its for spergelords who want to accurately recreate being a drunk charter pilot who makes short hop flights to deliver mail to cincinnati or whatever.

just play an ace combat game instead.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

'flight games' is a bit vague -- if you mean any game where you fly something, wouldn't simple 2d shooter games like warning forever and clean asia count? or do you specifically mean games that focus on flight mechanics?

[Super Joe]

'flight games' is a bit vague -- if you mean any game where you fly something, wouldn't simple 2d shooter games like warning forever and clean asia count? or do you specifically mean games that focus on flight mechanics?

he bought a joystick. like a flying one. guess what kind of games he's looking for.

[Super Joe]

*sniffs at air in wolverine costume* Semantics... *pulls down hood, is paul eres*

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i've never owned a flight joystick and do not know how they differ from normal joysticks

[Shade Jackrabbit]

As far as I know they don't, just that joysticks in general are apparently quite good for flight sims.

I dunno, I find keyboards easier anyways.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

cloud involves flying -- is this the type of thing you're looking for?

http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/

vid: http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/video.htm

[Shade Jackrabbit]

On the topic of Cloud, it was a nice idea and very relaxing, but I found the controls really confusing and hard to use.

[Edmund]

A new Zero
crypticsea.com

[Aik]

I really really like the controls of Cloud - specifically the 3D flying (with the middle mouse button down). It's a shame that the gameplay doesn't actually require you to fly in that mode at all, because it really gets across the child-fantasy-flying feel.


Also, this is one of my favorite games ever: http://www.fishies.org.uk/apricots.html

[Pishtaco]

Orbiter (one guy)
FlightGear (open source)

I get the impression that people mostly work on mods or tinker with old games rather than write new games from scratch. There's the enormous community of people doing free and paid mods for the MS flight simulator games; recently I've seen people raving about Over Flanders Fields for MS combat flight simulator 3. And there's all the community stuff for Falcon 4.0 and Rowan's Battle of Britain - both of these have been published commercially in some form.

[Super Joe]

i've never owned a flight joystick and do not know how they differ from normal joysticks

one uis digital one is analogue + has a really big range of motion. now; imagine the possibilities.

[Waltorious]

Hey guys,

Do flying games set in space count?  Because there are definitely some cool indie ones of those.  I've just started playing Evochron Legends, made by Starwraith, which is a very cool open-universe mercenary sim, but it has a rather steep learning curve (the Starwraith forums help with that).  You can fly around using semi-Newtonian physics (so you can spin around and fly backwards and stuff) and there are lots of pretty planets that you can land on, seamlessly, from space.  You can also fly around in the planets' atmospheres, which feels quite different from space flight.  Being able to drift sideways and backwards in space makes fighting pretty fun too, although it is tough.  Also there is multiplayer, which I haven't used much yet but seems to be very popular amongst the current players.  More info on that and the other Starwraith games here:

http://starwraith3dgames.home.att.net/go.htm

There is also a fairly active community working with the Freespace 2 Open Source engine... they are more like large mods but are usually free and since Freespace 2 was an awesome game, it's hard to go wrong there.  Historically, installing the open source version of the engine was a pain, but I've heard that it's become easier as people have made better installers.  I think I tried one of the bigger mods a while back but I can't remember how I went about installing it.  Info here:

http://scp.indiegames.us/

Anyone else know of games I'm missing?

[Tanner]

There's Vega Strike, too.

[nihilocrat]

Good lord, some of you people apparently never played your share of flight / space sims. I thought it was pretty obvious what a "flight sim" is. I was making one but it got postponed as I joined some group projects. It's nowhere near complete but I can pm/email you a copy and desperately hope it works on your system.

Also, Venus Patrol was a pretty cool 'light' flight sim from the cockpit compo, definitely worth playing. I second the various spaceflight games mentioned, and A New Zero is pretty cool as well.

Honestly, at least in the indie sphere, it seems like a pretty limited genre.

[Super Joe]

somebody rip off ace combat already

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Good lord, some of you people apparently never played your share of flight / space sims. I thought it was pretty obvious what a "flight sim" is. I was making one but it got postponed as I joined some group projects. It's nowhere near complete but I can pm/email you a copy and desperately hope it works on your system.

what are their characteristics? does cloud count? how about wing commander?

[JoeHonkie]

Good lord, some of you people apparently never played your share of flight / space sims. I thought it was pretty obvious what a "flight sim" is. I was making one but it got postponed as I joined some group projects. It's nowhere near complete but I can pm/email you a copy and desperately hope it works on your system.

what are their characteristics? does cloud count? how about wing commander?

Probably more Wing Commander and even moreso F-15 Strike Eagle and their ilk.

[nihilocrat]

Bascially.

It's really got to involve airborne / spaceborne vehicles of some sort, Cloud wouldn't count.

Also, for the most part, they are awkward to play without the assistance of a flight stick.