It's aesthetics, not a limitation of the engine. Space combat in Star Trek has taken place on the horizontal plane 99% of the time. Gene Roddenberry wanted starships in the shows to be a callback to the naval tactics used at sea. That means trying to put everything on a horizontal perspective.
That image is similar to how the Wing Commander sensor system looked like i believe. I removed the horizontal and vertical lines that went right through cause they arent important for this example. I colored in the inner sphere blue and the outer ring yellow. And you will also see the two black rings, the outer and the inner one close to it. I also included 4 blips which are targets at different positions.
Ok now imagine your ship has an imaginary sphere all around it. Now chop that sphere into two halves, the front and rear. The front half of that sphere is represented by the blue part of the image above. The rear part of this imaginary sphere is represented by the yellow ring. On that image of the sensor #4 is directly behind you and slightly below you. Now look at #3 and this blip is directly below you. Now look at #2 and see how it is kind halfway between the inner black ring and dead center? that means that #2 is in front of you but downwards at a 45 degree angle. Now look at blip #1...that target is directly in front of you.
The sensor system Wing Commander used has your rear sphere and front sphere all on the same image. When blips are on the yellow ring which depicts the rear sphere of that imaginary sphere i mentioned early those blips will move slower on the sensor as you manuever. But once the blip is on the blue part it will move around faster. Now games like X-Wing and Tie Fighter did it differently and they made it two seperate circles. The rear sphere of that imaginary sphere was one circle and the forward sphere of that imaginary sphere was the other circle. Since both circles are the same size and the same magnification that means blips moved around on each display at equal speeds as you manuevered. But in Wing Commander since they were using different area sizes to depict two identical volumes the speeds on each display will be different.
Having said all that, WC and X-Wing and Tie Fighter were games that came out in the early 90's. Its not tricky at all to display 3d information on a 2d display especially a 3d sphere. The problem is people dont know how to interpret that data. And its not a matter of the devs making the displays not user friendly either. Some people just dont have the intuition to figure it out themselves, they dont have the proper training/education or despite getting taught how it all works the idea just doesnt stick or whatever. I've never bothered to think up the causes as to why other people could never figure it out. It just came naturally to me as a kid is all i knew. When i was young i didnt play the arcade flight sims but instead i played the hardcore flight sims. Falcon 3.0, MIG-29, Janes Longbow 2, Janes F15 those kinds of games. And when i played games like X-Wing and Tie Fighter it just came to me naturally.
Anyway, wouldn't it be better to fly as we do on Risa with the floater? The only difference I see is that we can go straight up and down without changing attitude.
The disorientation some people have with full 3D combat is the main reason. I know one person who cant play STO even with its limited space combat because they have a hard time with it. And when I played SWG there were a few people in my guild who couldn't handle the space combat, luckily a few of us had multi crew ship and could have those people man the guns so they could participate.
y''know.... im looking at the little red indicator in the middle of that radar map changing shape and position, and realising even it gives more information about the target direction than the one in sto...
Yeah, it is a bit more informative than STO and, was way fun back in its day!
the current system simplifies the controls, makes things more strait forward for those who limited coordination and looks a little more reasonable for capital ship combat. If we switched to full 3D, we'd end up with people lost and confused, and then the complainers who say "Cryptic is turning this game into a generic space sim" would climb out of the woodwork.
Everywhere I look, people are screaming about how bad Cryptic is.
What's my position?
That people should know what they're screaming about!
(paraphrased from "The Newsroom)
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
Why are we locked in the default "airplane mode"? Actually, i can't say it is truely like an airplane because even airplanes can fly 90 degrees vertical. We are flying in outer space. Gravity is a negligible force in outer space (except near a singularity or other gravitational anomaly). Anyone know why Cryptic continues to make us fly like we are inside a planet atmosphere? Does it have something to do with the coding?
The better question is: why does this question always pop up every week? They should make an FCT out of this.
the current system simplifies the controls, makes things more strait forward for those who limited coordination and looks a little more reasonable for capital ship combat. If we switched to full 3D, we'd end up with people lost and confused, and then the complainers who say "Cryptic is turning this game into a generic space sim" would climb out of the woodwork.
How exactly would they get lost and confused, when we play in a birds eye view? We aren't flying full on simulator style, even if they were to add full 3d flight capability to the game!
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However, this link pretty much explains everything.
Its not tricky at all...
At the bare minimum you can portray the 3dimensional space around a person or ship using a single 2dimensional image.
http://i.imgur.com/M2CKj4X.jpg
That image is similar to how the Wing Commander sensor system looked like i believe. I removed the horizontal and vertical lines that went right through cause they arent important for this example. I colored in the inner sphere blue and the outer ring yellow. And you will also see the two black rings, the outer and the inner one close to it. I also included 4 blips which are targets at different positions.
Ok now imagine your ship has an imaginary sphere all around it. Now chop that sphere into two halves, the front and rear. The front half of that sphere is represented by the blue part of the image above. The rear part of this imaginary sphere is represented by the yellow ring. On that image of the sensor #4 is directly behind you and slightly below you. Now look at #3 and this blip is directly below you. Now look at #2 and see how it is kind halfway between the inner black ring and dead center? that means that #2 is in front of you but downwards at a 45 degree angle. Now look at blip #1...that target is directly in front of you.
The sensor system Wing Commander used has your rear sphere and front sphere all on the same image. When blips are on the yellow ring which depicts the rear sphere of that imaginary sphere i mentioned early those blips will move slower on the sensor as you manuever. But once the blip is on the blue part it will move around faster. Now games like X-Wing and Tie Fighter did it differently and they made it two seperate circles. The rear sphere of that imaginary sphere was one circle and the forward sphere of that imaginary sphere was the other circle. Since both circles are the same size and the same magnification that means blips moved around on each display at equal speeds as you manuevered. But in Wing Commander since they were using different area sizes to depict two identical volumes the speeds on each display will be different.
Having said all that, WC and X-Wing and Tie Fighter were games that came out in the early 90's. Its not tricky at all to display 3d information on a 2d display especially a 3d sphere. The problem is people dont know how to interpret that data. And its not a matter of the devs making the displays not user friendly either. Some people just dont have the intuition to figure it out themselves, they dont have the proper training/education or despite getting taught how it all works the idea just doesnt stick or whatever. I've never bothered to think up the causes as to why other people could never figure it out. It just came naturally to me as a kid is all i knew. When i was young i didnt play the arcade flight sims but instead i played the hardcore flight sims. Falcon 3.0, MIG-29, Janes Longbow 2, Janes F15 those kinds of games. And when i played games like X-Wing and Tie Fighter it just came to me naturally.
*place paper bag next to keyboard*
Yeah, it is a bit more informative than STO and, was way fun back in its day!
Now this is quite funny, nicely done!
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Best comic strip EVA
What's my position?
That people should know what they're screaming about!
(paraphrased from "The Newsroom)
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
The better question is: why does this question always pop up every week? They should make an FCT out of this.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10052253
Why are you not rejoicing?
How exactly would they get lost and confused, when we play in a birds eye view? We aren't flying full on simulator style, even if they were to add full 3d flight capability to the game!
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!