Disable F3 view

[Anaxogoras]

I'd like to humbly request that F3 view be disabled for all aircraft in the main arenas.  The gunner positions are sufficient for representing the actual field of view available to an aircrew, so they are enough.

Thank you.

[waystin2]

I second this request.

[FYB]

I'd like to humbly request that F3 view be disabled for all aircraft in the main arenas.  The gunner positions are sufficient for representing the actual field of view available to an aircrew, so they are enough.

Thank you.

First of all, its easy enough to kill a bomber.
Second, if you're BOMBING, how the **** do you look behind you in a gunner position while still bombing?
Third, its pointless, many times new pilots in bombers don't even notice a fighter behind them with F3 or not.

-FYB

[RipChord929]

Here Here!!!

A voice vote should do!!

[Rich46yo]

Let me guess. You never fly bombers?

And how realistic is one pilot instantly transporting between gunners positions and the pilots chair?

This will never happen. You couldn't track 2 IB fighters at all this way and would have a hard enough time with 1. Might as well get rid of the bombers all together. I know I would never fly them. In real life they had individuals sitting at all positions with a 360% view and they kept in touch with comms. This is most accurately reproduced with F3, "tho I suppose you could talk to yourself as you jump from gunner to gunner".

[Chalenge]

Negative! Bombers of all types need all the help they can get. I can already shoot down all three bombers of even the best gunner without taking a single hit and its not hard just takes a little patience.

[Rebel]

4 engines- keep it, but anything 2 engine or single, take it away.  Being abused to the point of arcadey lameness.

[The Fugitive]

I think all we need is a reclarification of which ones are the bombers. I think some of the issues come from the IL2 being able to use F3 as well as a few others. I think if the plane has bombay doors it should have the use of F3, if it doesn't, you don't.

[Saxman]

I think all we need is a reclarification of which ones are the bombers. I think some of the issues come from the IL2 being able to use F3 as well as a few others. I think if the plane has bombay doors it should have the use of F3, if it doesn't, you don't.

TBM has bomb bay doors. She shouldn't need F3. IF we were to ever get the SB2C, which ALSO had an enclosed bomb bay, should she have F3 as well?

[Anaxogoras]

Yes, I don't see what bomb bay doors has to do with the issue, though I see room for reasonable disagreement over which planes should have F3 view.  If I were to prefer a compromise, I like Rebel's idea the best.  Keep F3 view for the 4 engine heavies,  but disable it for the rest.

[Chalenge]

Why? Are you upset because you are using a little too much ammo? I dont understand what the problem is! What advantage does changing views give them? They know when to 'bunt?' It wont save them anything!

Much worse is the Bostons ability to snap-roll over and over and never lose the drones and because of warping drones that can be dangerous to attack but even then you can make adjustments or film it and send it in to HTC.

[shreck]

4 engines- keep it, but anything 2 engine or single, take it away.  Being abused to the point of arcadey lameness.

I like this idea, or another approach could be to allow F3 mode for only planes with more than 3 gun positions including pilot position!

[thndregg]

I remember some time ago reading HiTech's reason for enabling F3 view in bombers. Something to the effect that since one person pilots a bomber, (and sometimes you have ONE gunner), it is more difficult to do all the functions of a bomber yourself as opposed to having a full crew compliment watching all angles all the time. I could be wrong.  

[stroker71]

Fine then I want to be able to load all 3 of the formation planes with gunners.  Then I will fly to your base and go DeathStar on your arse.

If the plane has a gunner postion it has the F3 view.  That is the price you pay for not being able to load up on gunners.  This game (remember it's a game) will NEVER be perfect and it's the compromises of the programmer to make it playable for everyone.  Yes there are things that suck that make it gamey (remember it's a game) but F3 veiw is way down on the list of things that need fixed or even looked at.  Heavy bombers dive bombing should be at the top...should make it so you can only drop bombs from the F6 view.

Times I use F3:
A20= to take a quick look around to spot GV's or incoming enemy AC....for SA so to speak.  I don't bomb from that position. and to see how pretty that bird is!
IL2= same thing as A20  (don't think it's as pretty though)
Heavies=  SA to find bad guys.  You'll 99.9% of the time never find my bombers in enemy territory below 10k.  If I am lower I am on some idiots NOE mission that I didn't know was going to be NOE.

[dkff49]

Sorry I would also have to say no to this. As others have said in realistic circumstances you would have all gunners watching all angles at the same time and calling out the bandits so that the whole crew would have a mental image as to what and where all cons were at. The F3 view is a trade off for not being able to do this. You would also be decreasing the possible effectiveness of a bomber crew with only 1 gunner position available, since you would have 1 looking back and pilot looking forward at same time and again calling out cons to each other.

Now I would agree with disabling F3 for bombers that have all gun positions filled by other players. This means that under present options available only single gunner bombers would have F3 disabled if you had a gunner present. This would cause HT to create some new coding to determine whether or not all gunner positions are filled before disabling the external view. Probably would be very difficult and require more than a few lines of code I am sure.