Well, I love all the little details. I come from flightsimming, primarily Microsoft Flight Simulator. I am also a Cat-freak, so of course I mostly fly the Consolidated Model 28, or PBY, or Catalina, ingame model developed by Aerosoft. Link. (http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/us/iboshop.cgi?showd,,10542)
I simply cannot put into words how much I love the 4-page(afair) engine cold start checklist (the model is actually so accurately modeled and scripted that I use a copy of a real PBY-6A checklist dating from WWII I bought some years ago), the mistuned petrol generator mostly serving its duty as an auxillery power unit, the sliding roof and side windows with locking clamps, the little oil stains cowering the wings aft of the engines when you screw up the mixture, every little working button and lever and yoke and stick. Through other programs I've got voice-controlled ATC and ground services as well.
Before I moved, when I still had my 82" projector/screen setup for gaming, FSX running... as I said, addicted to cats.
While the focus of the game and the experience is still actually flying this lumbering old boat from point A to point B, the hundreds of little details really sets it off from a basic plane that just moves about. Immersion is the name of the game here. I am very much looking forward to the day we have working gangways, controllable deck cranes, wiping window wipers (I giggle every time I turn them on when flying through a storm in the PBY, swish, swoosh) and lifeboat/tender launching animations to name a few things.
Of course they should get the basic stuff right first like liquid dynamics, navigation lights and so on, but after that, they can focus on the small stuff. Yes I can manage the whole imagination thing, for example when going for a cruise with the Elbe, I usually just take a small boat on tow and use it as a tender when visiting ie Phi-Phi. It would, IMHO, still be nicer if I could take the boat out from the dock, hoist it aboard, sail away, launch it again and take it into new shores.
