Oct 26

So today, a little discussion on the newly improved flight system. You're all probably getting bored of these rather tedious paragraph long blog updates by now, but hang in there!
One of the major feedbacks we received with Build 1 was that there was too much grinding. Flight was enjoyable, but some found the rattling screen just too much to handle.
The upgrades system limited players and forced them to think ahead too much, so with all that in mind, we came up with an incredibly simple system.

Blue Stabilisers

Up until now, the Blue Stabilisers on the console have remained functionless. That is to say, they allow us devs to mod and test with loads of cheaty dev code (In beta), but for players, theyre just a pretty doohicky on the console.
Going forward, Blue Stabilisers will allow you to switch between Autopilot, and Manual Flight.

Autopilot allows the TARDIS to smoothly progress from destination A to destination B without any fuss. No rattling camera, no Control response commands, just punch in the simple launch procedure, pull the handbrake, and away you go. The reward for this, is that you're free to spend that precious 60 seconds of your time aboard the TARDIS prepping for your next big adventure. Head down to the wardrobe to kit up for whatever environments beyond the doors. Stop by the workshop to knock up a couple of quick batches of Nitro-9 for those quicky getaway moments. The offset? Pilot XP. 
Leaving the Blue Stabilisers active may be all fine and dandy, but you won't learn from it. You won't gain Piloting experience simply letting the TARDIS fly herself; nor will you be able to manipulate the journey in any way, shape or form.

And that's where Deactivating the Blue Stabilisers comes in. Deactivating the stabilisers will set the TARDIS into its standard, common shaky flight. From here, you'll be able to interact with controls at random (note: the number of controls to be interacted is expected to be increased), gaining Piloting XP. You'll also be able to increase, and decrease the speed of the TARDIS, which will shorten (or lengthen) the journey time endured, respectively increasing the speed at which you must respond to control interaction.
We've also removed message based instruction and replaced the Flight reaction minigame with highlighted controls, a much more organic and immersive feeling.

So, to summarise;

Blue Stabilisers on: No Piloting Xp/Flight manipulation, freedom to wander the TARDIS during flight
Blue Stabilisers off: Gain Piloting XP from Control response and increase/decrease flight speed

There's various other facets to flight that we're reworking, too many to really name in a simple blog post, but I'd ideally like to demonstrate these real soon over at the much neglected Youtube channel.

D