Engine Out Landings

[VonMessa]

If it is not on a road, it is in a ditch (or somewhere else that is NOT on a road)

I thought it was pretty simple.   

[icepac]

One thing is sure.... it's fair because all have to do it. Everyone knows it.

It rewards the people who can't be bothered to land gear down by allowing them to successfully land a plane that is actually further off the runway than a plane with gear down.

[icepac]

This was credited as a ditch.

Gear down with one wheel on grass 50 feet from the hanger.



This was credited as a landing.



The plane in the first picture will simply be loaded and fly again only minutes later regardless of the fact that it was credited as if you had ditched 200 miles from friendly territory.

The plane in the second picture will likely never fly again and it is rewarded by the game.

The arena population adjusts and flies even less realistic when some simple changes would net more realism and stop rewarding lazy pilots who can't be bothered to even lower gear to land.

[Delirium]

I don't understand this, how does landing gear up affect another player in anyway? Maybe if you're vulching and he towers out too fast with gears up, as opposed to gear down.

What is next? Since you shot someone down he needs to cancel his account and never log on to emulate his death in the skies of Aces High? It is a game, nothing more than a simple diversion from the doldrums of daily life.

[icepac]

The game rewards people for not flying within what is known as reality yet the same morons who can't bothered to ever land with realism complain endlessly about flight, gunnery, and damage modeling realism of the planes.

[Delirium]

I landed and got full perks and you didn't!


I wanted to post more pictures, but I didn't want to use any that involved injuries or death. All I'm trying to say to you, Icepac, is what you said to Karnak in another thread.

You are trying to get people to conform to your perception of what fun is.

[icepac]

Completely different context.

Do you promote continued divergence from realism and the exploiting of non-realistic parts of the program to game the game........or would you like HTC to do something to promote realistic flying?

[Delirium]

Completely different context.

No, you're guilty of the same thing you accused Karnak of.

If I wanted realism, I'd wake up at 4am and possibly force down some powdered eggs  and bitter coffee. Follow that with a mission briefing with a queasy stomach feeling when the target is revealed, followed by hours of boredom and a few minutes of sheer terror. Realism isn't going to exist in the MA, it just isn't the place for it. Changing the game settings to even attempt to do so is akin to the legendary task of Sisyphus.

What you are talking about sounds more like a scenario event, and belongs there. On the days of an event, I'll purposefully drink lousy coffee (which isn't easy with a Keurig machine) and have an egg before the frame starts. If I have free time, I'll even put my Glenn Miller records on the player while I wait. However, I wouldn't expect anyone else to do this before a frame, and even I wouldn't do it for a routine MA experience.

[Krusty]

ice you're making things into more of an imbalance than they are.

Your first pic? You ditched because your center was over the grass. The second? You were clearly on the cement, even if your gear was down you'd have had all 3 wheels on the cement.

Long story short, if you are THAT concerned about it, land on the frickin' cement. If you're not concerned about it at all, why chime in? It doesn't affect you.

[FLS]

Anyone looking at the pictures can clearly see that you're closer to the runway with your gear up. 

[icepac]

ice you're making things into more of an imbalance than they are.

Your first pic? You ditched because your center was over the grass. The second? You were clearly on the cement, even if your gear was down you'd have had all 3 wheels on the cement.

Long story short, if you are THAT concerned about it, land on the frickin' cement. If you're not concerned about it at all, why chime in? It doesn't affect you.

You are incorrect Krusty.

The left main gear is off runway on both planes.


So the guy who made it all the way back to his field, landed wheels down, taxi'd to the hanger, and exited plane with one wheel off the concrete only 50 feet from his hanger gets credited with the same ditch someone who ditched in enemy territory.

[RTHolmes]

Long story short, if you are THAT concerned about it, land on the frickin' cement.

that pretty much covers it

[EVZ]

You are incorrect Krusty. So the guy who made it all the way back to his field, landed wheels down, taxi'd to the hanger, and exited plane with one wheel off the concrete only 50 feet from his hanger gets credited with the same ditch someone who ditched in enemy territory.

Well ... I guess technically the DITCH is the same ... But if he made it back, he was NOT captured in ENEMY TERRITORY and did NOT forfeit the extra 10% or 20% (?) points a Capture Costs ... not to mention it didn't go into his stats either.


I was discussing this topic with another player last night and arrived at an interesting observation. What we have now is one negative experience piled on top of another one ... 1st the disappointment of being Damaged, PWed, or just making a mess of landing, then the added indignity of being TOLD about your failure and losing some of your points / perks. As has been suggested ONE of these factors can be easily changed to END the mission with a neutral or positive experience rather than a negative. CHANGE THE MESSAGE from "YOU HAVE DITCHED" to something upbeat, congratulate the pilot for his RTB. EVEN if the landing was screwy, walking away from it makes it a GOOD ONE, so tell him so. Psychologically, the LAST (most recent) experience will define the players attitude from that point on and this should ease the sting and let the player move on in a BETTER frame of mind.

[USAF2010]

Today, unfortunately I was flying a 262, took severe amounts of fire and lost both my engines, pilot wound, fuel, etc. The aircraft was still controllable, just dead stick and bouts of passing in and out. I was able to make a friendly field, and land, but I blacked out upon touchdown and ended up stopping in the grass next five feet off the field..... 109 perks lost for returning the plane to the field.

Just to clarify: I was only a few feet off the runway in the middle of the field.

But in any case I understand what you're saying wrongway, but like the others of said, theres gotta be the a line, so now its just a matter of where? I believe that the inside would be acceptable, balancing game and realism to a nice median.

[Rob52240]

It sucks, but the line must be and has been drawn somewhere.  In the case of landings the line is drawn on concrete.  If you're in a PT the line is drawn at crashing into a surface ship and ending sortie immediately.   If you're in a ground vehicle the line is drawn with glitches.