Landed successfully or ditched?

[calan]

Something I've wondered for a while now:

How come I can make a (almost) perfect landing but roll a bit off the runway and it's a ditch.... but I can belly down with no gear...strip the wings... bend the prop...and as long as I'm on the pavement and still making cartoon breathing noises....it's a successful landing?

hmmmmmm

[HomeBoy]

It's just the "game" part of Aces High.  The rule is for a successful landing is that you come to rest on the pavement of the runway.  If you roll off the runway, for whatever reason, it is a "ditch."  It's nothing but a "zero tolerance" algorithm that makes that determination.

I remember being surprised about that too.

[calan]

Strange...  it could definitely lessen the motivation for wanting to land properly.

I'm surprised that with the level of detail that exists in all the other game aspects such as damage, ballistics, flight envelopes, etc..... that this situation exists.

[fuzeman]

HTC had to draw a line somewhere to divide a sucessful landing from a ditch. That line is the concrete / grass boundry.
If you allowed planes 10 feet off the runway to get a successful landing why not let planes that land in good condition 100 feet away also get them?
If 100 feet is ok then why not a mile away? This could go on and on forever until you arrive at an enemy field.
It's a concession they had to make this being a computer game.
The motivation for a good landing is getting 100% of the value of the points you earned inflight.

[xtyger]

What gets me is when I've been hit and need to ditch, I manage to avoid my opponent long enough to ditch. I slow down enough and slow to a stop in the water. End the mission, then get the message that so and so shot me down and I've been captured. Happened to me twice just an hour or so ago.

That kind of burns me up. I can see the proximity kills, as weird as those can be, but when I've done a good clean ditch and the other guy gets a kill, it really irks me sometime.

[Geary420]

xtyger, if your in the enemys radar circle you will always get captured and the enemy awarded the kill, you need to in your radar circle, and out of theirs to ditch.

[xtyger]

Seems to me, though, I've ditched within the radar circle before and made a clean ditch. Now that you mention it, maybe my memory is faulty?

[calan]

Originally posted by fuzeman
HTC had to draw a line somewhere to divide a sucessful landing from a ditch. That line is the concrete / grass boundry.
If you allowed planes 10 feet off the runway to get a successful landing why not let planes that land in good condition 100 feet away also get them?
If 100 feet is ok then why not a mile away? This could go on and on forever until you arrive at an enemy field.
It's a concession they had to make this being a computer game.
The motivation for a good landing is getting 100% of the value of the points you earned inflight.

If the plane is not damaged and lands nicely a mile away (not in enemy territory), I would consider it a good landing... but....

Planes landed (not ditched) just fine on grass all the time in WWII. All I'm saying is that since AH has a damage model, combine it with distance from the runway to judge the landing.

I think the "line in the sand" should be that YOU have to be within some distance of the base and the PLANE has to be in good working order to be a landing and not a ditch.

So if you land nicely... but a mile away, you should have to walk to the base to count the landing (or maybe wait some amount of time to be "picked up"), or click end sortie (go to tower) and get a ditch if not within say 100 feet of a runway. If you are in the enemy radar circle, you're captured or dead...period.

It's a simple idea, and I think they have everything in the game they would need to put it together. Seems like it any way.

Just my .02

Calan

[SAS_KID]

why not get captured then escape and land at a friendly base and get a successful landing...

[The Fugitive]

Originally posted by calan

I think the "line in the sand" should be that YOU have to be within some distance of the base and the PLANE has to be in good working order to be a landing and not a ditch.

It's a simple idea, and I think they have everything in the game they would need to put it together. Seems like it any way.

Just my .02

Calan

The "line in the sand" IS the edge of the runway, so decided by the creator and owner of the game. This has been brought up a couple million times and HT has even ANSWERED on these boards about it. Running a quick search will conferm that. There have to be some compromises in the game that the real world doesn't have.... or every one would be dead and HTC wouldn't have any subscribers left !

[DamnedRen]

Anyone happen to notice goin into the tower while still rolling (no matter how slow) on the runway = ditch?

I'm not a programmer but that didn't happen before so why now?.

Also, a ditch used to be considered going somewhere away from home plate. I wonder why the fields perimeter (home plate) should be called a ditch. If you stop on the grass next to the runway the plane is undamaged and usable. Why would that be modeled as a ditch? I've never been able to understand that thinking. Again, not being a programmer I gather it just might be way too difficult for them to spend time make perimeters. Hmmmmm, I wonder if they create some sort of parameter which includes the lengthXwidth of the runway. So if you're on the runway you are within parameters. I wonder that those same parameters couldn't be expanded to include the perimeter of the airfield. It seems reasonable that if you land, don't hit anything and stop within the perimeter of the field that it should be a successful sortie. It's not like we have to actually pull back into a revetment and stop to earn a successful sortie so why so much emphasis on the runway itself? Do the programmers prefer a perfect alignment setup for vulchers because you gotta stop on that lil strip? Makes you wonder what was on their minds.

Ren'
The Damned

[calan]

Ren...   That's what I'm sayin'

[trotter]

Ren, I believe that the code is not based on width, but based on texture.

for example,
"Landing successfully = only on concrete" is easy to establish. However, "Landing successfully = length * width of runway + oblique shape of concrete around hangars + various shape of concrete in other parts of field" does not seem like a practical assignment of values.




I've always found it was easier to land successfully on concrete than it is anywhere else on the field, so we have nothing to fear;)    

if a plane happens to come to a stop off the runway...well, oh well! you'll get a new one regardless.

[calan]

I made an emergency landing at a port a couple hours ago in a P47... rolled over and then way off the concrete and hard into the grass....

"You have landed successfully"



I give

[Schutt]

I never liked the ditched/landed successfull definition either, would suppose putting a plane down on vehicle field or port is a ditch and anywhere on an airfield (the whole square) is landed successfully, since you can hop in a new plane and take off again.

But its the way it is and any change would cause a lot of whining and trouble... at least you can no longer ditch with 300mph which is really a big improovement .

EDIT: Maybe have to add a 3rd option, landed undamaged... giving you 100% and have landed successfully give you only 95 %. Then landed undamaged could require no damage in damage display, airfield, concrete. And the other one require on an airfield (whole square), port or vehicle field and being able to walk away (not killed/exploded).