Question: What happens (generally) in real life when an aircraft takes damage vis a vis cockpit controls? I've seen modern footage of pilots trying to restart stalled engines during flight; sometimes they can and sometimes they can't.
If HTC were to implement a more nuanced damage system, would there be any point to jabbing at your keyboard as if you were in the cockpit, trying to restart an engine, stomping on your rudder or yanking your yolk to try and free a stuck control surface, or pulling on your flaps lever for the same reason? Would there be any realism to "fixing" a problem purely by cockpit controls?
It seems to me that it might be cool to unstick a control surface or flap by yanking on the cables enough, or get an extra few minutes of engine time by forcing a restart (the crew chief can complain about it later). It would be fun to exit a fight, mess around for a minute to try to fix a problem, and then either return to the fight or RTB.
The problem overall that I see with more realistic things (like graduated damage) and "random failures" I.E. engine, radiator etc.. The problem is, in real life you would have to deal with the problem only when playing out (taking hours upon hours of time, some pilots only few a few sorties others, quite a few). Point being, why would I want to deal with mundane controls over and over. If I die, in real life- I'm dead, don't have to deal with any of the problems again. However, in Aces High I have to deal with all of these problems again, each and every time. I wouldn't find that fun.
It's a nice concept overall and I do support it. But is it something we REALLY want? Sure I'm all for realism and historical accuracy, but then it gets old after awhile, doing the same repetitive tasks over and over, dying from the same engine failures or radiator hits. Sure, it's realistic, but is that why you want to get a kill? You want to get the "proxy" kill from a target who had plane troubles? Or be a victim of a kill, because your plane has troubles? I create my own troubles in my planes I don't need any assistance with that.
So overall, I say it would be a nice feature; but look at it in the long-run, would it be worth it overall?
Just my thought.
Respectively,
Tinkles
