Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: funkedup on March 02, 2002, 12:11:30 AM

Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: funkedup on March 02, 2002, 12:11:30 AM
Some suggestions that would add immersion and coolness:

When the pilot bails out, his plane should keep going.  Change the color of the icon or put a "bail" icon on it or something.

Likewise, I'd like to see planes keep going after the pilot was killed.  I have seen some footage of planes hitting the runway on very high speed passes and they don't just dissappear in a fireball.  They tend to skim along the ground and bounce and shed parts and gyrate.  In AH they just dissappear.

Now I understand that planes would sometimes keep flying for a long time with what I propose.  So you could have the stick be pushed forward when the pilot is killed/bailed or you could engage autotrim speed mode with some outrageously high speed.  And obviously the FM calculations are done on the pilot's FE, so he would have to watch as a ghost or from his chute until his plane finally impacts and comes to rest.

I'm sure HT has thought this through and probably thought of some even better alternatives.  Just do it!
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: Sundog on March 02, 2002, 12:27:04 AM
I agree with you on that one funked. I know some sims I have played, if your pilot gets shot, you end up in an external view of your aircraft watching it go down and you can't re-up until it augers and stops moving, and even then it lets you look at it for a few seconds so you can think about your mistakes before you go back to the tower ;).

Also, having the plane continue on when you bail, may give you a little extra time as the nme chasing it keep shooting the plane instead of your chute (Not that they wouldn't shoot your chute  anyway, but it may buy us a little time ;) -)
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: AmRaaM on March 02, 2002, 03:01:47 AM
Hell yes!  ..if when firing your cannon or mgs and you run outta ammo, but the gunfire sound continues..why can't we get the plane to continue on.
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: minus on March 02, 2002, 04:17:21 AM
hmmm right,  like to ask HTC  if they remember the way how they modeled forest  in DAWN OF ACES  ????????????????????????????????????????


it look well from air and GV can hide below it !!!!


and they are not cluster but objects !!!
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: RightF00T on March 02, 2002, 01:04:13 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Sundog
I agree with you on that one funked. I know some sims I have played, if your pilot gets shot, you end up in an external view of your aircraft watching it go down and you can't re-up until it augers and stops moving, and even then it lets you look at it for a few seconds so you can think about your mistakes before you go back to the tower ;).



LMAO that is one of the many things I hated of FA...as if to mock you of your obvious lack of skill :D
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: Mitsu on March 02, 2002, 01:15:09 PM
You're right.
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: Tac on March 02, 2002, 01:34:16 PM
I would like that sundog. Perhaps HT could put a voice SCREAMING as the plane fell earthward... and then a slow droning voice saying "i suck i suck i suck" as you see the final 360 pan view of your crash... :D
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: qts on March 02, 2002, 02:04:58 PM
I don't think this would do much for the playability. Imagine if you're in a bomber on autopilot (level) and the pilot is killed but the plane is not finished off. You could keep going for an hour or more. Meanwhile, you can't respawn.
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: funkedup on March 02, 2002, 02:16:45 PM
QTS read my post, eh?  I dealt directly with your objection.
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: Slayer on March 02, 2002, 05:15:49 PM
I agree with this issue and it would keep them lame kill stealers shooting at an unmanned plane after you already got the kill..
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: hitech on March 02, 2002, 05:22:21 PM
Been wan't to put this in for a long time, it's just realy low on the list of stuff to do.
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: Slayer on March 02, 2002, 05:28:02 PM
low on the to do list? man it would be an awesome improvement  to bad i didnt think of it first:p
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: SOB on March 02, 2002, 06:01:15 PM
I like the idea, and I think it's great to see that it's on the list, even if it's at the bottom.  One quesiton tho...why would you change the plane icon?  I've seen this brought up a lot when talking about this issue, and I never understood why the plane icon should change.


SOB
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: Zigrat on March 02, 2002, 07:21:36 PM
yeah i dont know either sob..
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: Erlkonig on March 02, 2002, 08:04:51 PM
Quote
One quesiton tho...why would you change the plane icon? I've seen this brought up a lot when talking about this issue, and I never understood why the plane icon should change.


Presumably, in real combat pilots had an indication of whether or not the pilot had bailed - the canopy being open or the pilot not being in the cockpit. The icon change deal would probably be easier than trying to model that on all the airplanes.
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: funkedup on March 02, 2002, 08:50:26 PM
What Erl said.  Plus the fact that people would complain a lot if they chased a guy all the way to the deck and he was already dead.  :)

WB had this implemented at one point.  I can't remember if it was before or after HT and Pyro left though.
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: Kweassa on March 03, 2002, 12:14:46 AM
A small idea:

 How about we implement a small feature in case 'keep the plane alive' is introduced? Tragic and sad in humanistic aspect(sincerely), but watching combat films portraying a plane go down with dead pilots is really cool.

 If pilot kill happens, there will be some 'a pilot's final action' instantly kicking it so it prevents planes flying almost indefinately.

 In the case of fighters, the dead pilot would cause a 'slump over effect'. The plane will nose down and begin to spin, just as the action portrayed in WWII footages. When a pilot dies in a level flight, the plane immediately begins a slow nose down in a shallow dive and start to spin. When a pilot dies in a upward maneuver, all stick inputs stop(since the body would lean back, not slump over on a stick) and the plane will continue upwards until it stalls(plane will not fall back into control automatically, as in some cases), and then it would tumble down. When a pilot dies in a downwards maneuver, the plane will go into a near vertical downwards spinning dive.

 In the case of bombers, if the pilot dies, the buff begin start move in a shallow dive that slowly rolls to one side.

  I don't think we really need to keep the planes up in a 'realistic' manner once the pilot is dead. The 'visually cool' is enough in this case.

 Fighter pilots might have a chance to escape by faking 'pilot death'.. meaning: kills would not be awarded until the plane augers and is  destroyed. The attacker will have no idea if the pilot is dead or not. But, once the pilot is dead, the kill judgement stops function, and no matter how many shots are fired into the dead plane by someone else, it would give the kill to the attacker who finally knocked out the pilot. Sort of a 'reserved kill', in case of pilot deaths.

 Planes that the pilot bailed from would react just the same.  No change in icons, but the attacker would be required to 'check his kill'. :)
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: SOB on March 03, 2002, 02:59:15 AM
Presumably, you'd still be able to bail tho' right?  I think it'd be nice if you had to keep an eye out for the bailer and if ya missed him jumping out and kept chasing the plane so be it...and it just might give the guy a chance to float to the ground safely.  Not for any sake of realism, mind you, just for game play.  Just a thought.


SOB

BTW...AH still doesn't keep track of chute kills.  Please HT, put this on the priority list.  It's absence is hindering the FDB rank advancement program.  We're all still a bunch of lowly latrine scrubbers!

-edit-  missed the point of funked's message.   Hmm...I didn't think about a dead pilot in a perfectly intact aircraft.  I'd still say keep the icon the same, but then I'm the type of handsomehunk who would follow it down so's I could make it blow up anyhow!  :D
Title: Keep Plane Alive After Pilot Dies
Post by: superpug on March 03, 2002, 01:11:57 PM
What would really be cool is if you could get out and in your plane. Like when its on the runway. You could bail out and walk around and look t your plane. Also it would be good if the pilot could pull out his colt .45 and let strafing planes have some lead.:rolleyes: :D