General consensus: Is ditching too easy?

[Ripsnort]

I believe that many think it is. Ditched many a planes with both wings removed, at 200 mph.
Maybe this was already covered in another thread, but, are there plans to improve on this?

Side note:
My apologies to the smoking Niki I disco'd on last night...there was an LA-5 running from me, (I was in an LA-5, too) I was making some ground, and he took a diving shot at a b17 (that was smoked by a niki, niki in turn had a smoking engine after)...then, the  LA-5, after losing its chance to steal the niki's kill, decided to "drag and ditch" rather than face the inevitable death from my guns.  When he ditched his perfectly good airplane in order to set up the smoking niki on me, I simply Atl-F4'd.

I will do it again, if you ditch a perfectly good A/C only to set your buddy up, then expect to see me Alt-F4. (No one gets the kill if you alt-f4 and you have not been shot)

(How do I know it was a perfectly good A/C?  B17 did not hit LA-5 at all, and he went defensive, when he knew he was dead by the position I gained on him, he simply ditched.  Wimp!     )


[This message has been edited by Ripsnort (edited 05-15-2000).]

[Badger]

Hiya ripsnort.....

I'm not sure what easy means, as this is just a game.  I know that you'd never get away with the ditching of a real aircraft like we do in AH.

I am getting very good at it though, including flying with only one wing.

I actually lost a wing to a Spit 9 yesterday, continued to fly and got two kills (Spit & F4U) with only one wing (BTW, not just a wingtip missing).  I then managed a safe ditch in friendly territory.

I wonder if this is called "gaming the game"?  

Regards,
Badger

[Rojo]

I think it is universally too easy to ditch in AH. My suggestion is this: Link the texture-mapped color to the ease of ditching. For example,

Light green = prarie; i.e. wheels up or down ditching easy (death occurs in 1 out of 10 attempts).

Dark-green = somewhat uneven, with scrub brush and small trees; i.e. high risk with wheels down (death occurs in 5 out of 10 attempts), low risk wheels up.

Gray = rockie, broken ground; i.e. ditching extremely dangerous and not advisable (death occurs in 9 out of 10 attempts).

Water ditching would probably be the same as dark-green. My two cents worth.



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Sabre, a.k.a. Rojo
(S-2, The Buccaneers)

[Apache]

 

Originally posted by Badger:


I wonder if this is called "gaming the game"?    

Gosh, I hope not. lol  



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Apache
I/JG2 ~Richthofen~
"Abandon All Hope"

[easymo]

 Please post a film, of you ditching, with no wings.

[Ripsnort]

Easymo, I will try to film it next time, done this more times than you can imagine, granted, I was only 10 feet off the ground, but at 200 IAS, I should have disinegrated when make contact with the ground.  I'm sure many more will post their viewings of this anomoly.

[NineZ]

I like your suggestion Rojo.  I personally feel ditching has been  too easy.  (thank goodness)hehee.  But I could go for your modifications, which would make for a more accurate simulation.

JagdNine (Herr DitchMaster)

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[This message has been edited by NineZ (edited 05-15-2000).]

[HaHa]

I like it the way it is

[Hangtime]

The current ease of ditching fosters some rather 'gamey' Tactics. Last night in the B26 I got bounced by three fighters. I dropped to the deck, about 20 feet high; slowed and started to gun the bastids. Even when they stripped my wings I came to a safe stop. I see ackstarring buffs pull this gimmick constantly.

On many occasions (not intentional) the same thing has occured in a fighter... I'm 10 feet off the deck, running fer safety and  screamin like a little girl and finally get a wing peeled, only to bounce along the terrain to a safe stop in a lawn-dart fuselage. I know this must enrage the pilot that got me.. but It ain't me.. it's the sim!

Certainly; if this is a 'realisim' simulator this should be fixed!

Hang

[funked]

I don't think it's too easy at all, considering the terrain.

What made ditching hard in real life was trees, rocks, buildings, fences, ditches, etc.

My dad has a story of making an emergency landing on a field that looked perfectly flat, covered in grass.  Well he came down and flared, and he sunk into grass about 2-3 feet tall.  The grass obscured a nice little irrigation ditch and he bounced right into this and the nose dug in and stopped him real quick.  He was OK but the force of the quick stop turned the plane into a pretzel.

[Ripsnort]

 

Originally posted by funked:
I don't think it's too easy at all, considering the terrain.

What made ditching hard in real life was trees, rocks, buildings, fences, ditches, etc.

M

Isn't that  an oxymoron?  We  don't have trees, rocks, buildings, fences, ditches, etc.

So I take it you vote it is too easy in AH without the above...

[rosco-]

Welllll, easy, hard, cant tell, always get a bullet in my head before I have the chance to find out. I wish they would quit spraying the bottom of my plane with WD-40

[funked]

Yeah I Rip, I assumed you knew there were no trees, rocks, fences, or buildings in the terrain.    

Our terrain doesn't have anything like this, and ditching is accordingly very easy.

Might be too easy even for smooth terrain.  But then again there are some pretty good  war stories of emergency landings with parts missing and high speeds.  

[This message has been edited by funked (edited 05-15-2000).]

[funked]

P.S.  Give a historically correct kill award for forcing the enemy down, and a lot of the dweebery will stop.

[bike killa]

yup funked, but sometimes u must ditch or die
there is no other way when your engine is down and u r far away from your field  
in that case i prefere ditching......
.....and u r right about kill award for shoot
down enemie plane (no matter if it was ditch)
btw. when u have only 1 wing it's really hard to alive it