Venus Patrol

[Pishtaco]

In a thread a few weeks ago, I was talking about a flight simulator I was thinking of making for a game competition. I had a go at making it, and here it is:

Venus Patrol (download)



You get to fly a Gloster Meteor over a cloud-covered Venus. I had in mind a big-game hunting flight sim, with a 1950s flavour and maybe a whiff of decolonization as a theme. But in the available time all I managed to get in was one mission, with no tutorial or front-end or anything.

Instructions (from the readme file):

This is not a full game, just a space to fly around in with some possible enemies. Do not fly too deeply into the clouds; your plane won't like it.

The plane is controlled by moving the mouse. To roll, hold down the left button; this will keep the elevator reasonably centered but give you more control over the ailerons. The mouse wheel controls the throttle. Left control fires the guns.

Left shift switches between a free and a target-tracking camera. Holding down space moves to the internal camera. You can rotate the free camera using the mouse, by holding down the right button. You can zoom the external cameras by scrolling the mouse wheel while holding down the right button.

Tab selects the target nearest the centre of the screen. Z and X cycle between targets. You can press T to hide the clockface around your plane.

Wingman commands are F for "fly formation", A for "attack my target" and C for "choose your own targets."

The Esc key quits, and is the only way to leave the game.

I think it turned out okay, for what it is. I'm pleased with how well the mouse control works for me, and am wondering what other flight-simmers think of it; I suspect there aren't so many on Tigsource. Also, some people can't run it, and it would be good to have more feedback and bug reports to track this problem down. The competition entry thread is here.

[Caliga]

Cool

[Syt]

With the thread title and Cal being the first to reply I was hoping this game might be somehing along Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

[Caliga]

With the thread title and Cal being the first to reply I was hoping this game might be somehing along Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

I would like a T-removing machine.  Look at those i's!

[Crazy_Ivan80]

looks purdy for such a short workingcycle.

[Caliga]

I think you should have done a remake of Astrotit.

[Neil]

I don't think there's enough atmospheric pressure to support a Meteor over the top of the cloud deck.  While I approve of the unique setting, it's not feasible.

[Pishtaco]

I don't think there's enough atmospheric pressure to support a Meteor over the top of the cloud deck.  While I approve of the unique setting, it's not feasible.

There's meant to be other cloud layers above you, but they didn't make it in. Spires of rock and floating islands are also possibilities for the future.

[PDH]

But with all those clouds, we don't get to see the dinosaurs.

[Neil]

I don't think there's enough atmospheric pressure to support a Meteor over the top of the cloud deck.  While I approve of the unique setting, it's not feasible.

There's meant to be other cloud layers above you, but they didn't make it in. Spires of rock and floating islands are also possibilities for the future.

Then the sulfuric acid would be a problem for the skin of your jet.

Then again, if we can overlook the fact that a turbojet engine wouldn't work in the Cytherean atmosphere, there's no use getting worked up.  It's the look and the feel that count.

[Pishtaco]

So, did anybody try this?

If so, thanks. If it didn't run, it would be good to know what error message it gave. If it did, what did you think of the controls and the flight model? And any suggestions as to what to do with it now? The bare minimum I would like to do is to add a bit more interactivity (e.g. radioing base, attacking your wingman), death, some more postwar physics textbook styling, and enough of a front end so that it looks like a complete, although very short and crappy, game.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

very old thread but lol, wut?

(follow link)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774616737/venus-patrol-charting-a-new-course-for-videogame-c?ref=category

did this get mentioned ever here?

[The Brain]

very old thread but lol, wut?

(follow link)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/774616737/venus-patrol-charting-a-new-course-for-videogame-c?ref=category

did this get mentioned ever here?

[Syt]

RPS' Flare Path (their Fridaily sim/wargame column) plugs this again in a bit about Steam Greenlight:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/31/the-flare-path-twitchers-and-switchers/

[...]

My honey-tongued howl complaining about the lack of quality wargames and sims on Steam has single-handedly prompted the introduction of something called Greenlight. There can be no other explanation. It's not quite the highly-paid consultants position I was angling for, but, hey, c'est la vie. Now all that's required is a selection of blue-chip War Stuff and Transportiana to champion. Obviously FP has thumbed-up the following...

Steel Armor: Blaze of War
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Strategic War In Europe
and Silent Storm
...but won't be fully satisfied until he sees the rest of Graviteam's back catalogue on Greenlight, along with a full-blown feature-length version of Venus Patrol.

[...]