Mar 21, 2008
Flight log: Arrival of the VICE combat system
Posted by Sin Trenton under Aviation | Tags: dogfight, RCAF, TCS, VICE |It’s been talked about a long time in the aviation grapewine, a new system on par with the classical TCS (Terra Combat System, the most widely used for combat equipped airplanes). Callahan’s system (known as CCC) is basically no longer updated and has slowly been abandoned, making TCS practically the sole ruler on the market.
But now,VICE is here, the system for vehicle and infantry combat. Note that this is a system, which means it is not confined to a particular era. It can be added to basically any gun or vehicle, just like TCS’ versions.
Behind the system are legendary names like Creem Pye, Acer Caproni and Mifune Thibaud (who according to aviatiors’ gossip is about to release a new plane soon).
Tumansky Heavy Industries is hosting a release pary for the P-40 Kittyhawk, the first commercial product to support the VICE system this weekend and this will also be where VICE v1.0.0RC1 is presented. According to Creem Pye “All materials for infantry ,Light &Medium Aircraft, targets, and scorekeeping are included in this release.”
There will also be historic battles, squadron based dogfighting tournaments and more.
So when and where is this happening?
VICE SDK Prerelease & P-40 Launch Party
Saturday March 22nd, 6am and noon SLT
CinemaRay Oceano 96,99,24 (SLurl)
Mar 21, 2008 at 14:38
Fantastic News!
Mar 22, 2008 at 14:22
Any idea yet what the advantages of VICE over TCS are?
Mar 22, 2008 at 14:34
Versatility, I’d say.
The basic design of TCS (which I do think is a great system, if not perfect, make no mistake about that) was made exclusively for aircrafts. This meant that the later additions for infantry (avTCS) was a wee bit patched, sort of an adjustment of the original.
VICE was built with both aspects taken into consideration, which makes me and others assume a greater versatility as well as less “patchwok” slash “modding”.
It uses physically rezzed bullets as far as I know, which also deletes the number one weakness in the TCS system, namely “the cone”. The cone is the area where you aim and hit. If it is coneshaped, this means it is actually harder to hit, the closer you are. Our brilliant scripter in Caledon, Ordinal Malaprop, has also been experimenting/working on a combat system to counter this effect.
Maybe you have noticed in dogfights that when the other aircraft is 40m away, it is much easier to hit than if it is a mere 10m away.
Mar 22, 2008 at 20:10
I got my hands on the box, haven’t really had a chance to look into it yet.
From what I can tell, though, it seems to be awhat can probably be described as a “multi-environment” system, which means you can switch over to TCS particle fighting in places where objects can’t be rezzed.
I’ll be back with a review later.
Oh, and I was a bit outdated.
Mifune Thibaud’s aircraft, the Savoia S.21 Seaplane, was released two days ago.
Have to blame Easter for missing that one, I suspect.
Here is a link to SL Exchange where it is available: http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=609393
Also this is a review in the planning. Stay tuned for more!
Mar 24, 2008 at 16:05
Not to detract from the efforts of the developers but I’m curious as to why anyone would want to attempt to simulate dogfighting within the Second Life world.
If realistic flight speeds are modeled participants would encounter a region crossing every 3 seconds or less.
Given the current unpredictiblity of sucessful region handovers that would certainly be a very unsatisfying experience.
Is there some aspect of this that I am unaware of?
Mar 24, 2008 at 16:35
Well, it depends on where you focus. Gamers tend to focus on the game itself, and not too much on social settings and surroundings.
Simplified, of course.
THings with Second Life is that dogfights are just one part of a social interactivity as a whole. I tried flight simulators, and while they of course are way beyond the flight experience of SL, they completely and utterly lacked any relations in between dogfights, or a larger whole, which made me get bored rather quickly.
It is a continuous ongoing discussion, just look at Massively.com, that tries to merge online games and virtual worlds, so I just touch it briefly here.
Second Life is not a game (my opinion), it is a virtual world.
Flying is just one aspect of it, the comradeship, the depth in setting and everything else that makes it a coherent “world”, enriches aspects of our flights, dogfights and virtual parties.
And all this together makes us endure lag storms, glitches, crashes, falling 500m between sim crossings. Because of the simple fact that SL is a virtual world which is populated by people in any form or shape, and we are there for the whole experience, of which the actual dogfight (not to mention the complete joy of being able to build and script our own planes) is just one part.
There has yet truly not arrived any alternative to rival that.