Scuba Game

[Briggsy]

was wondering, what the community on those forum would think about a scuba diving simulator type game, this genre has limited public interest and to my knowledge there is only one scuba type game available (Diver3D) but this game is Russian and only has 8 missions, and amateur in quality. I can imagine a Scuba diving type game running well on the SH4 engine with dynamic missions, the ability to go anywhere and dive. SH4 has some truly awesome graphics above and below water, it just surprises me that no one has really thought of it before and no one has ever made true simulator type game. if only there was an SDK available id learn how to code just to try and make my own mod, lol. What do you guys think, would there ever be interest enough to give people the idea to make a game or a mod like this?

[gnirtS]

I'd have thought there really isnt much use for a game, its just about impossible to simulate.

What would you have? A breathe in, breathe out button? An inflate and deflate button and a swim button?

Timing in/out to keep buoyancy etc?

Certainly couldnt simulate anything due to lack of feedback.

What else could you put in the game? 15 minutes looking at a wreck in dark green murky water then 45 minutes of hanging at a constant depth decompressing with nothing to do except get cold and convince yourself you really need to go to the toilet while feeling water leaking into your drysuit ?

I dont feel scuba is something that can be "simulated".

Or are you thinking more of an underwater FPS based game ?

[Letum]

I remember a old game that had mini-subs, divers and ROVs.

You had to look for tresure and speargun-sharks.
Very fun at the time.
Anyone know the title?

[cobalt]

Originally Posted by Letum

I remember a old game that had mini-subs, divers and ROVs.

You had to look for tresure and speargun-sharks.
Very fun at the time.
Anyone know the title?

that game was the best. I cant remember the name either though. Remember the level with the nazi planes and gold? and the mayan level too. Ohhh what a fun game

[Safe-Keeper]

I never scuba dived myself, so this is not an informed post, but it sounds interesting to me. However, the insight offered by the reply makes me doubt the idea.

What else could you put in the game? 15 minutes looking at a wreck in dark green murky water then 45 minutes of hanging at a constant depth decompressing with nothing to do except get cold and convince yourself you really need to go to the toilet while feeling water leaking into your drysuit ?

I'm a Silent Hunter III veteran. I'm used to waiting while doing nothing.

[Briggsy]

Originally Posted by gnirtS

I'd have thought there really isnt much use for a game, its just about impossible to simulate.

What would you have? A breathe in, breathe out button? An inflate and deflate button and a swim button?

Timing in/out to keep buoyancy etc?

Certainly couldnt simulate anything due to lack of feedback.

What else could you put in the game? 15 minutes looking at a wreck in dark green murky water then 45 minutes of hanging at a constant depth decompressing with nothing to do except get cold and convince yourself you really need to go to the toilet while feeling water leaking into your drysuit ?

I dont feel scuba is something that can be "simulated".

Or are you thinking more of an underwater FPS based game ?

Breathing would be autonomous as it is with your own body. Buoyancy would/could be simulated easily with two buttons. First button lets air into the BCD, 2nd button lets air Out of the BCD. Seems kind of simple. as said above there would be lots of things to do, explore, hunt, or just look at the scenery and sea life. The waiting around for 15 mins may seem long, but for that i world expect you would have had to do some kind of mission at great depths for that to be worth it. i have waited longer than 15 mines in SH3 and SH4 before i got any action. So waiting is not a problem when you feel you have just done something worth while.

[gnirtS]

[quote=Briggsy]

Originally Posted by gnirtS

Breathing would be autonomous as it is with your own body.

Its not when your diving. Breathing rythym, lung volume and rate are used to fine tune buoyancy and buoyancy changes with every breath in and out. Its potentially the most vital and used part of diving on open circuit at least.

As for the waiting, 15 minutes staring and nothing but green 1m in front of your face isn't going to attract people eager to play and 15 mins is a very short time.

Given 99% of diving is about feeling changes and adjusting to them constantly trying to seek out an equilibrium i dont see any way at all you could simulate it and even if you could i wouldn't be terribly exciting. Long mid water stops are dull enough in real life without watching it on a computer screen.

The only diving game someone could make would have to be 100% arcade and 0% simulator. A kind of underwater FPS.

[Briggsy]

[quote=gnirtS]

Originally Posted by Briggsy

Its not when your diving. Breathing rythym, lung volume and rate are used to fine tune buoyancy and buoyancy changes with every breath in and out. Its potentially the most vital and used part of diving on open circuit at least.

As for the waiting, 15 minutes staring and nothing but green 1m in front of your face isn't going to attract people eager to play and 15 mins is a very short time.

Given 99% of diving is about feeling changes and adjusting to them constantly trying to seek out an equilibrium i dont see any way at all you could simulate it and even if you could i wouldn't be terribly exciting. Long mid water stops are dull enough in real life without watching it on a computer screen.

The only diving game someone could make would have to be 100% arcade and 0% simulator. A kind of underwater FPS.

that’s not true, im not talking about a simulator that is 100% true to real life. Im talking about a simulator that can do as much as possible knowing its limitations. I don’t know any simulator that does not require you to feel changing environments and adjusting to them. The beauty of games is the ability to adjust things to your personal tastes. For example. the difficulty settings in SH4 allow you to turnoff certain features, the same could be applied to a diving sim. allowing you to reduce or turnoff decompression stages. however some people might want to leave it on as they prefer the challenge of getting the decompression stages right. And yes breathing matters in real life. but that’s not to say it has to matter in a Game.

[gnirtS]

FPS arcade game is the only way to go then possibly using SH4 engine. You cant simulate diving as you cant simulate breathing, cant simulate feel, trim, cold and so on. Without positive feedback its impossible to really do anything so better off totally forgetting any element of sim and just concentrating on game. At least doing that you could ignore the fact people are surprised at just how shallow a deep SCUBA dive is compared to a submarine and how rapidly decompression obligations build up.

Anyone not familiar with scuba wont appreciate that at "only" 30m depth you can only spend 20 minutes there without requiring decompression stops or at 40m you have 12 minutes. Half an hour at 40m depth would give you 20 minutes hanging on a line on a stop doing nothing etc. You cant and really dont WANT to simulate that - it'd bore people. Then you can also ignore the fact air will kill you below 60m depth and narcosis means you'll be talking to rocks.

You can also forget the vital effect breathing control has on buoyancy and how its 100% central to any dive anywhere. You cant simulate breathe in/out so again, drop it. Or pretend a diver is on CCR.

So my advice, forget any concept of "sim" and just work on a FPS style game and make it arcade to keep it interesting.

[TteFAboB]

It doesn't have to be limited to leisure. Add other types of diving. Building/repairing stuff underwater. Add scavenging and harpoon fishing. An underwater Deer Hunter game! :rotfl: Since it's a virtual world, you can hunt everything. Sea turtles, sharks, stingrays of death, whales. Back to the part about historical diving suits, perhaps you could release an expansion: pre-historic hunt. Use your time-machine to go back in time and hunt huge ugly seamonsters or actually see for how long you can avoid being hunted by them!