Kayzaks

For me, the most important part for Immersion is the Music/Sound. Here is my List of Games that i felt/feel "fully immersed" in:


EVE-Online / Homeworld 2
The Music and the overall Atmosphere is what did it for me in these 2 games. Songs like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nkiSYrD6RI combined with a great Space Setting is just purely epic.

Command & Conquer (Original & Red Alert I)
Frank Klepacki. Need I say more?

Final Fantasy 7,8,9
Even though here the Music was great, I think it was mostly the Story that did it.

Unreal (I) & Half-Life
Again, the Sound Design of this game was amazing. Starting out in a crashed Prison carry with People screaming everywhere... Or the Voice Over in the Starting Tram-Ride in Half Life..  woah! Love it

"I have a penis, thus I will have many.".

Quoted for truth

My idea is to make the ground units hit box extend to the sky and if a bullet hits it then it dies.

Depends on your 3D Projection. If the FOV is too high, this will look like you're shooting above the Target and it magically explodes.
Instead of extending the Box "straight" up, transform it so that it is parallel to your Projection.
If you've got a low FOV, this should be fine.

Hehe, nice one

Everyone draws the line somewhere, and this Game has passed mine... I don't care about the God-stuff, but blowing up the World Trade Center with an alien Spacecraft? Is this some kind of political statement? This website is about Game Development not about Politics.

I would focus on the Physics next. Modeling accurate Flight mechanics is very hard to do in real time, but i believe he just wants you to have some simple Flight equations right? I'll try to keep everything as simple as possible, as I highly doubt your Prof wants a fully functioning Flight Sim?

(All my physics have been in German, so some notations might differ to the english ones)

Let's start with Vertical Forces:
- Gravity


- Lift

Rho = Density of the Air ("constant")
v = Speed of the incoming air (for this project: "Speed of the plane")
A = Basically the Wingarea ("constant")
C_A = Lift-Coefficient

Right of the Bat, C_A is the variable that the Player can change via Input, for example pulling on the Stick/Mouse. It's determined by the angle of the Wings towards the Air


Let's simply assume for this game that is linear.

The Plane goes up when F_A is bigger than F_G obviously. However, F_A is always perpendicular to the Plane itself, not the Ground!


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For Horizontal Forces we've got:
- Thrust
(No Equation here, depends on the Engine etc... You could invent some function that is dependant off V = Speed here, and the Throttle the Player engages)

- Air Friction

A = Area as seen from the Front of the Plane (Friction area basically)
rho, v = same as above
c_w = Friction coefficient (lets just assume this is constant)

In the Horizontal Plane, the only user input is the Throttle for the Thrust. If the Thrust is bigger than the Friction = We Accelerate. Otherwise we get slower

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So, we've got Horizontal and Vertical Flight covered. This should give you an "OK" looking flight physics. During your implementation, If you keep in mind that F_A is always perpendicular to the Plane, you can even fly sideways and curves by rolling the plane. A nice sideeffect ;)

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Controls:

- Pull/push the Joystick Back = Increase/decrease Variable Alpha => C_A increases => F_A increases => we Fly up

- Tip it left/right = Increase Roll Variable => F_A changes direction to the left/right => we fly left/right

- Tip it and pull/push the Joystick = (do the above) => F_A points to the rear left for example => we fly a left curve

- Accelerate = Increase Thrust Force => Fly faster!!

Perhaps this will get you started a bit