I fly With Honor, How About You?

[pluck]

I can see letting someone go home after a good fight.  On the other hand, when I'm in a good fight, going home is not really on my mind.  I just slug it out until I can't fly my plane anymore, and in a good fight, the other guy is usually doing the same. I'm not gonna stop just because my oil is it, leaking fuel, flap gone, aileron gone, etc.  It's only because I place less emphasis on returning home.  

It comes down to how you want to play the game.  Feel free to pretend your in a real war with real lives and mix in honor if that is your cup of tea.  Lots of people define in game honor as different things.  Your just not going to get everyone to fly to the exact same "code," as that code varies largely on previous game experience and how you go about playing the game.  For example, a guy only interested in pvp combat might view things such as vulching, spawn camping, HOing as dishonorable forms of gameplay. On the flip side, playing from a stategy end of things vulching and spawn camping are a form of denying the enemy an area. Not even going to get into age groups.

As for shooting chutes....ya, I do it.  I don't really see any issue with it as I don't see the pixel as a real person.    If you land in your chute....do you then walk back to an airbase?  If you see a plane coming towards you, you can .ef in chute. This will deny the chute killer and  saves you from having to walk back to your base.  Besides, the chute guy is an armed combatant Also of note, chutes can also be factors in a fight, communicating with their team....something that WW2 pilots couldn't do.  

Now, if I was a real WWII fighter pilot I can say that I wouldn't do such a thing.  Then again, many terrible things happen in real war, even comitted by otherwise good people.  

Fortunately this is a video game.  Everyone can just relax and have fun.

[Rino]

Back IN AW it was considered to be very disrespectful to kill someone in their chute. It was the worst thing to do if you really hated the guy. I still hold that belief and have shot very few of them out in the open.

On Snailman's advice many months ago, I shoot every chute in town range...but thats a different reason all together.

In the MA I don't usually not shoot damaged planes unless I seen them fighting for their survival and making enough kills to get away. If I caused the damage they are dead 1 vs 1 or 2.

In the DA I hardly ever go after them unless i know who it is. Spacy, RC....well any Temp or picker i spot trying to run but mostly guys like them.


We all play the game different. Some learned at different times and some at different ages.

 

     I started AW in 1990-1 and played right through to the end.  I can't
remember any huge fuss about chute shooting.  Of course I also can't
seem to recall the hundreds of DOS players that have claimed to have
flown then either.

[E25280]

Usally if it is a 3 counry war I will clear the one person who is getting ganged and let him run home.

I did that once.  One enemy in the mix with three others.  Two were behind, and I dove down and knocked the wing off of one of his pursuers.  The second broke off, and I followed him around.

Not four seconds later *ping ping ping  BANG* and my plane is ripped apart . . .









Yep, you guessed it -- the guy I just cleared shot me down.  

[Ack-Ack]

     I started AW in 1990-1 and played right through to the end.  I can't
remember any huge fuss about chute shooting.  Of course I also can't
seem to recall the hundreds of DOS players that have claimed to have
flown then either.

From my days in AW, chute shooting was a part of the game and you were usually doing the other guy a favor by shooting at it.  Until AW3 came along, if you bailed out in your chute you had to float all the way down.  It was very common (more so than hearing the limp wrists whine about it) to see players asking and pleading to have their chute shot so they don't have to spend 30 minutes or longer floating down to the ground.


ack-ack

[eh]

Like most, I like to shoot them in the back. That's the honourable way to do it. HO'ing is dishonourable because the enemy can see you.   

[SunBat]

....pretending to be a cartoon fighter pilot.

I AM a cartoon fighter pilot.  Just wanted to share that...  Dissappearing back into the background pooof....

[EskimoJoe]

This is a video game. There is no such thing as "honor".

[Allen Rune]

I could sit here for an hour talking about honor, but the fact remains: you do not die when your virtual character does in a game. You can ALWAYS have another chance, and therefore there is no life impacting reason to consider wheather or not the way you fly and/or the way you are being flown against is honorable.


HO me all you want, I'll always get another chance to avoid it.

[captain1ma]

This is a video game. There is no such thing as "honor".

spoken like a true 15 year old!

[Crash Orange]

Its the "me" generation.

You do realize the "me generation" are in their sixties today, don't you?

I don't associate most of the things that started this thread with honor. I figure you can look at this as pure game play, or you can look at it as a gamey combat sim.

In the latter case, there IS no honor, at least on this subject; there is living and dying. Honor gets your best friend killed tomorrow by the guy you didn't kill today. So to the extent you're trying to simulate combat at any level, no mercy is the order of the day.

(I don't buy most of that stuff about not shooting enemy chutes in a real war, either. Of course we hate the other side for doing it to us, but we hate them for killing us "fairly" too. And if you're a fighter pilot, one of your primary goals is to kill enemy aircrew. That's the reason they gave you all that training and flew you 5,000 miles to the combat theater and gave you that expensive airplane. If you don't want to be a ruthless killer, don't volunteer to fly fighters. Sparing prisoners who can't hurt you any more is one thing, but a guy that's going to be right back in it tomorrow killing your countrymen if you let him go? F#%* that noise, machine gun him 'til he stops doing the boogaloo. And for that matter, is an enemy combatant who bailed out any more deserving of mercy than the 200,000 civilians your comrades in Bomber Command are going to incinerate tonight? War is legalized murder, it's an awful, ugly thing - so don't start any wars.)

To the extent we look at it is just a game, getting "killed" is the normal result of losing the fight. Honor doesn't require that you let the other guy get away. If he put up a good fight, give him a . I like to try to bring badly damaged planes home, but if an enemy finds me and kills me first, hey, that's the game. And unlike some of the other things people here complain about - HOing, gangbangs, hordes, etc. - killing a damaged plane doesn't get in the way of good fights.

There are things many of us frown on because they're wastes of time, like killing chutes, some that are cheesy, like jumping in a fight that's already 3-1 or more, and some that are rude, like jumping in and stealing a kill from a guy who's been working hard to get the other guy into a vulnerable state and position. But any of those go out the window if there's a need for it - I'll kill a chute that might defend a map room, and jump in no matter how many people have done what if the bandit is just about to drop troops or sink a CV, and I'd expect anyone else to do the same. But I don't see how "honor" comes in to any of that, at most it's good manners or good sportsmanship, which are good things, but not really the same as honor.

The one really dishonorable thing I hear about in this game is switching sides just to sabotage the side you're switching to - not necessarily all spying (although I think that's bad sportsmanship too), but definitely things like hijacking a CV to a place where your old teammates can sink it easily, or manning a shore battery so no one else can get in it to shoot the CV your old buds have stationed 2000 yards off your current side's port. If you feel like switching sides, that's fine, but play for the team you're on and don't cheat. And no software hacks, warp-on-demand setups, or other technical cheating, either. That's a matter of honor.

[BMathis]

Honor doesn't come into the equation for me.  I get my joy out of killing the other cartoon persona's in game.
Of course, I work towards being a good sport about it, but honor?  who needs it 

Well put...

Respect for others and the people flying around you, is something I think would be considered 'honorable'.

I'll usually finish them if their oil is hit, or half their wing gone.  I see what you mean, but you cannot expect others to fly like you or how you want them to...

 

[A8TOOL]

spoken like a true 15 year old!

1+ or is that 2? 

just getting used to that phrase

[Bruv119]

I have the attitude that the enemy wouldn't pass up a wounded bird so neither will I,

If I have a good 1 vs 1 and the pilot shows some skill (both a rarity in the MA i know)  and the enemy is hurt but flyable, I'll let him go, if he took parts off me or took opportunistic shots ill kill them all the same,

Joker nearly bounced me yesterday in a p51, as i was typing,  He got good left wing hits and the left wing tank fuel,  I was like  that P51 is gonna get it the cheeky bugger.

I engaged WEP and made two nice evades to get CO e,  he couldn't quite rope me as the spit 14's zoom climb makes the P51 look like a fat bath tub,  He never gave me an easy shot and did me the justice of trying to turn back in and re-merge a couple of times,  I eventually had him on the deck running for his life when I popped out some rounds as he went 800-1000 out.   He had a fuel leak and my last ditch shot attempt before he got out of range clipped half of his right wing.  He was surprised I hit him from that distance but flying straight and level with no jinking is asking for it.   He learn't something max shooting range for 50cal / 20mm is 1000 (IMO) and I learn't that Joker can keep his cool    I was expecting the contrary 

Now we were in the middle of nowhere after a 5 minute fight I could have chased him all over the map until his fuel ran out and finished him but he gave me a good fight.   

[Murdr]

It was very common (more so than hearing the limp wrists whine about it) to see players asking and pleading to have their chute shot so they don't have to spend 30 minutes or longer floating down to the ground.

Lol yep.  I remember players requesting the chute to be shot because they accidently bailed high.

I fly With Honor, How About You?

Me?  I fly with a joystick, throttle, and pedals

[frank3]

Well as for me, I leave the chutes / damaged aircraft alone (when I still used to fly). There's no real sport in killing them, let alone skill needed. I remember a day in the MA where I escorted a crippled B-17 back to his country (somehow he got the picture and didn't fire at me), asking friendlies to stay away.
Personally, I think such things are much more rewarding than killing them. You might even get a 'thanks' out if it sometimes.

But ofcourse these are guidelines, not rules