Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Help and Training => Topic started by: calan on October 27, 2006, 08:31:44 AM
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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
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why not get captured then escape and land at a friendly base and get a successful landing...
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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 !
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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
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Ren... That's what I'm sayin'
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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.
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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"
:lol
I give
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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).
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Originally posted by DamnedRen
Anyone happen to notice goin into the tower while still rolling (no matter how slow) on the runway = ditch?
>>>>>>>>>><
Ren'
The Damned
I think it is because you can not tower out of a moving plane in most arena settings, when you tower out while moving it was always (at least always in ah2) a ditch i think.
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Trotter, you may be right.
Schutt, I think anywhere are away from the airfield is a ditch and so it should be. You have ditched your aircraft and it may be not recoverable. It's not like its a big deal. Sometime I thinnk they took landing to the extreme though. The only place where it's absolutely neccessary to land on the rwy is on the CV. :)
As far as, exit to tower from a moving plane....now you can. But you get a ditch. In earlier versions you could never exit a rolling plane. I have not idea what prompted that change. Odd to say the least.
This isn't a whine as it's intended to help new folks understand the nuances of the game. Most new folks land on the field and figure, "Ha! I made it". then find out they ditched 5 feet off the runway.
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I've landed successfully on the pavement in town before...
Actually got very lucky... lost my engine.. couldn't make it to base.. made an emergency landing in town and somehow managed to stop perfectly centered on one of the paved roads in town... LANDED SUCCESFULLY! Just before I was completely stopped, right as I was typing ".ef" I saw an enemy plane auger into a building right in front of me.
It was quite funny!
I have no problems with the current landing model - Fact of the matter is IRL you're much more likely to survive a landing on concrete than grass (Think about it.. if the plane is so banged up that it is uncontrollable, you're much more likely going to flip over onto the grass somewhere, or overshoot and crash N burn, or whatever. ) The fact is that if you have enough control of the plane to stop on the pavement, then your chances of survival are highest.. hence a successful landing. Also a "successful" landing, in my opinion, has nothing to do with aircraft condition... it has everything to do with if you can walk away from it or not, and not get killed by the enemy in the process.
Now the Ditch/Captured model I think is a little goofy. I think you should ONLY be considered captured if you're within a certain range of an enemy base (Radar Circle, for example) AND there is an enemy nearby. I don't believe there should be any proxy kills from a ditch/capture.. but ONLY in the case that the plane is fully stopped when you end mission. If you bail, then there SHOULD be a proxy kill if there is an enemy nearby.
Just my $.02...
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Good thoughts Tigger...
It's interesting to note the Brits flew off grass fields so they could remain dispersed. This prevented heavy bombing of major concentrations of parked planes on their main airfields.
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Originally posted by Schutt
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).
That sounds like a great idea. :aok
The only thing that bugs me about this, and the reason I mentioned it in the first place...is that it kinda sucks to make a decent emergency/damaged landing on your field with enema everywhere, and then get vulched while rolling slow to get your wheels back onto some pavement.
Oh well.... as was said, it is what it is.. :)
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Originally posted by SAS_KID
why not get captured then escape and land at a friendly base and get a successful landing...
Yea! Escape, run over to the spawn point, shoot the pilot in his face, drag him out and steal his plane to fly home in. A little Grand Theft Auto mixed in!:aok
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Originally posted by DamnedRen
As far as, exit to tower from a moving plane....now you can. But you get a ditch. In earlier versions you could never exit a rolling plane. I have not idea what prompted that change. Odd to say the least.
Actually, the "exit while moving" is an arena setting, which differ from (online) arena to arena. Its also specific to a vehicle type (plane, vehicle, boat, amphib, gunner, field gunner, chute).
The only ONLINE arena you can exit out of a plane while its moving is the TA.
Not 100% sure, but in the MAs i think you can exit out of a moving vehicle (resulting in a ditch) so make sure you are completely stopped before towering out in GVs.
In the DA, you cant even exit out of a chute while its still floating/moving.