As I bring my next Second Life airplane closer to its completion, I’m focusing more on the finer details of the experience. It’s not enough to fly well. There have to be elements of danger and grit to round out the experience — optionally of course.
Flying a real plane is dangerous business, which is why I’ve put considerable time into creating ways for an unwary virtual pilot to have a very bad ending to their flight. A prop strike — touching your spinning propeller to a solid object — results in catastrophic damage to both the propeller and the engine. If your wing clips another plane or a skybox, it shears off and falls to the ground followed shortly by the rest of the plane. Similarly, try to avoid diving too quickly, letting your engine overheat, running out of fuel, or flying straight into the water. Bam. Flights over.
Of course, for the novice aviator, this might be too much to handle, so I’m including an optional “Safe” mode, in which you can fly into anything and otherwise abuse your plane as much as you like without consequence.
If gritty realism is your thing, I’m adding optional paint themes that include surface wear and dirt. Pick one of several themes from the menu, or if you’re talented with Photoshop or another image editor, I’ll supply the templates for you to customize your Atom.
All of these new features take time and testing, so if you see me crashing through the treeline, wingless and burning, you’ll know why.