While FPV SkyDive doesn’t have Liftoff’s aerodynamic authority or Uncrashed’s good looks, it does come with serviceable FMs, entertaining environments, and a hard-to-resist price tag: 0GBP. I’ve been reaching for it pretty regularly of late, and, during a recent session, found myself brainstorming ‘flypaper’, an MP mode inspired by Knot in 3D and Counterclockwise.
Designed for desktop drone pilots in the mood for something more combative than racing or scavenger hunts, flypaper is essentially Tron light cycle dueling with virtual quadcopters.
Like the military drones that unspool fibre optic filament as they fly, drones in flypaper tussles unspool ribbons of gravity-oblivious, colour-coded ‘flypaper’ as they dart and weave. Collide with one of these streamers and, usually (see on), it’s Game Over – your aerodyne will end up stuck fast.
Obviously, the longer a contest goes on, the more tangled and perilous a map will become. If the host has ticked the “velocity-linked tape width” box prior to a game, then speedy webspinners are at a distinct advantage. That advantage is magnified if the “velocity-linked tape breaking” box has been ticked too (normally flypaper is unbreakable and deadly).
Ideally, pilots would have the option to involve bots of different skill levels and proclivities, and various limited use special weapons and items, in the fun. Smoke bombs need no explanation. ‘Poppers’? Picture drones dispensing 6DoF party poppers with brief timers. ‘Chasers’? They’re dinky kamikaze drones that, once launched, latch onto the nearest enemy tape and attempt to trace it to its origin.
