Open/close cockpit features would be awesome.
Does it enhance gameplay? Not directly, no. But having "fun" is a lot more than about just the FM, DM, and MA. It also involves how much you can believe the recreated WW2 vintage planes, and how much you can immerse yourself into this pseudo WW2 aerial combat AH has created.
In that sense, every bit of all them 'useless', 'needless', 'unimportant' stuff can make the game only better. So bring on the "useless but fun" stuff - it's the small stuff which makes people believe.
Here is my current wishlist for
"useless but fun stuff" in AH;
GRAPHICS
* cockpit open/close: Long time favoite request for many 'useless but fun stuff' enthusiasts
* punctured fuel tanks going dry: ...after all fuel spent... infinite fuel flow despite tank already dry kinda looks odd
* fuel gushing downwards toward the ground: ...when you land with a punctured fuel tank with fuel still left... Perhaps a series of 'gushing' animated textures would do. It seems kinda funny to see the fuel 'flying upwards' like smoke, after you land.
* small, local fires: A shell lands somewhere near the hydraulics, the gears are damaged, and graphically, you'd be able to see a small fire that flares up and then quickly dies down - indicating hyrdaulic fluid catching fire, quickly burning up, and then going out. This fire would be purely cosmetic, not like the "you're cooked in a few seconds" mega fire. A small visible fire at the wingroots, flares up, dies down after a few seconds with thick black puffs of smoke.
* damaged gears drooping: ... I'll bet many people've seen this in various guncam footages. Perhaps a random system that makes one, or two landing gears either fully drop down or half droop down, when gears and their hydraulic systems are damaged.
* gears raised asymmetrically: ... This also pretty common in many footages. When planes take off, it seems almost every single one of them have their gears roll up assymetrically. It seems always one gear tucks in before the other.
* various vibration effects: ... I'm not sure how difficult this would be, but I remember when AH first got its 'gun vibration effect'. Just simply make the screen shake when shooting guns, right? Well, much similarly, various 'screen shaking vibration' effects would greatly enhance immersion. Like, when a flak shell explodes in the close vicinity of your plane... the closer the burst, the larger the shakes.. Imagine a buff going through a barrage of flaks.. with every close proximity explosion the plane shakes, while you're looking through the bombsight.. Or, you're driving a tank. Enemy attack planes drop bombs at you.. with every close-miss the tank shakes... this would feel awesome... Likewise, a mighty 5" shell from a cruiser barraging an airfield... would be great to feel some shakes hear. Also, when you are nearby a structure that explodes... need vibration here too! I'm not sure about planes though. How 'shaky' would it be when a 30mm or a 20mm shell lands on your fighter plane?
* pilot dead.. pilot dead planes plunging to a death dive.. whenever pilot dies, perhaps the system will put the plane into a steep dive so it will crash quickly. We already have the 'bailed plane spiralling to its death', so perhaps it can be based on that?
* planes crashing at water: currently, the plane blows up when impacting with water. Could sure use a separate 'splash!' animation. We already have bombs or bullets splashing when meeting with water.. so, just make them bigger? Also, a gentle 'ditching' at water could use a 'plane sinking downwards' effect.. instead of just floating atop..
* humans?: would it be too difficult to see humans? It could serve as an indicator to which gun positions are armed.. like, manned ack at airfield would be shown with gunners. Non-manned with no gunners.. perhaps the same with CV 20mm/40mm gun positions?
SOUNDS
* radio transmission 'clicks': ... also a very long-time request from yours truly... instead of the annoying "beep" sound when transmitting via vox, why not use the more historic "*chhhhk!* click" sound? This is a really really simple request - just change the 'beep' sound to the historic 'chrrrk' sound and its done. Probably could do in 10 minutes or something if HT wished so.
* imminent engine death: probably a sound-mixing issue or something... when your radiators or engine oil is damaged... one minute engine runs fine, the next it goes dead. Kinda awkward, doncha think? How about some sort of sound mixing so when the engine is about to fail due to lack of radiator fluid or engine oil.. the engine runs rough, goes boing! bampf! squirk! ping!.. and then dies out soon after?
