pilot pick up

[c H e F]

A downed pilot should be able to picked up for some kind of reward, to him or the rescuer. Also capable to do this would be a storch, jeep, a variety of planes, to include even the FW190 A-5 as shown below. Not all the 190's had that large radio hatch. Another epic WW-2 plane missing for us is the German JU 52 tri-motor transport.

Also, rather than tower CV gunners when the CV is sunk, they should be floating in the water. Consequences. Then to be picked up by PT boat, submarines, PBY Catalinas or the venerable HE-115 float plane shown below as well. The Heinkel still holds float plane records today.

[Dragon Tamer]

Oi-ve... While I myself am personally all in favor of something like this being added to the game for the sole purpose of creating a niche for a more divers range of planes in the game, I am going to say no. It has been brought up several times before on the BBS and the idea never gains any real ground. Most people would rather tower out than wait for someone to come and pick them up.

[Nathan60]

Now Id if an "after image" of your pilot was to stay and be only seen by the pickup aircraft/gv/ppt then Id be fore this, otherwise just up a storch and fly roughly to where you were shot down, land, wait 5 minutes, take off and land at a nearby base, or ask someone to do that and pretend they picked you up.

[c H e F]

I think the issue would be creating some kind of relevant reward into the successful pickup for both participants.
I mean, 3 seconds of air for a jeep and plenty of other frivolous acts are now offered as"achievements". Really?

What value can be given to the team, the base, a "pickup mission" or nation? A decoration?
Perhaps establish some kind of honor at least.

For this to work, there has to be a creative incentive in perks or some advantage devised,
not just the virtual make-believe act of picking someone up alone.
I wouldn't want to change being able to tower each and every sortie if you want.

[Scherf]

Is there a "streak" achievement? Can only see this in relation to streaks.

I suppose one reason for not having streak achievements is the contribution it would make to the use of pick and run 190D chickenhawks.

[Ack-Ack]

To be honest, these wishes for pilot SAR are kind of pointless in a game in which you get a brand spanking new plane after you've been shot down.  The only reason for these wishes is for scoring purposes so the player isn't dinged in points for bailing out.

ack-ack

[Karnak]

To be honest, these wishes for pilot SAR are kind of pointless in a game in which you get a brand spanking new plane after you've been shot down.  The only reason for these wishes is for scoring purposes so the player isn't dinged in points for bailing out.

ack-ack

It wouldn't change that though.  Even if rescued, they still bailed out and didn't bring their airplane home with them.

If implemented perk points for perk planes would still be lost (the plane was lost, no refund available), the perk multiplier for your kills would still be 1.00 as you still didn't Land successfully, and you would only be changing a "Captured" to a "Bailed" as you still bailed out of your airplane.

[The Fugitive]

It wouldn't change that though.  Even if rescued, they still bailed out and didn't bring their airplane home with them.

If implemented perk points for perk planes would still be lost (the plane was lost, no refund available), the perk multiplier for your kills would still be 1.00 as you still didn't Land successfully, and you would only be changing a "Captured" to a "Bailed" as you still bailed out of your airplane.

ahhh but if your going to bother adding the SAR element you could add the incentives. If your picked up and "land/are rescued" you only lose half the perks for your plane as the most important part of the pilot/plane combo was returned safely. Add a 3X perk multiplier to the pick-up pilots bank for going though the trouble of picking up the downed pilot.

This helps people with low perk totals so they don't lose as many, or can build them faster. Would it be used? I don't know, but it IS another element of game play that could be added........................ ..............and it would stop this wish from popping up every other month   

[Karnak]

Why add incentives for players to take themselves out of the game for 30+ minutes? AH thrives on having players interact with each other and fails when there aren't enough players to interact with. A player who is sitting on a hillside isn't interacting much.

[caldera]

Tosh in action:

[The Fugitive]

Why add incentives for players to take themselves out of the game for 30+ minutes? AH thrives on having players interact with each other and fails when there aren't enough players to interact with. A player who is sitting on a hillside isn't interacting much.

...and those 6 spawn campers camping a single upper over and over again are?

To each his own. If a players wants to play that way why not? I don't understand why a player would want to hide a CV, but it is an option and a way to play. If someone wants to sit on the side of a mountain waiting for a ride to save half his perks spent why should it bother me? Really it's not much different than those tower sitters looking for those "win the war" perk while they are sleeping or off at school.

If added, it's another easy plane to hunt and shoot down for me.

[Wiley]

...and those 6 spawn campers camping a single upper over and over again are?

To each his own. If a players wants to play that way why not? I don't understand why a player would want to hide a CV, but it is an option and a way to play. If someone wants to sit on the side of a mountain waiting for a ride to save half his perks spent why should it bother me? Really it's not much different than those tower sitters looking for those "win the war" perk while they are sleeping or off at school.

If added, it's another easy plane to hunt and shoot down for me.

True, but the game wasn't explicitly designed to encourage spawn camping, it's just emergent gameplay based on how the system is designed.  An auto-boot feature for tower idlers is too easy to defeat to bother adding it.

Adding pilot SAR with perk/score incentives is basically saying, 'Here is a clearly defined reason to sit idle in a field.'  That's a pretty big step from people being able to spawn camp under the current system.

I really don't like encouraging people into more non-combat roles.  I like my red planes to shoot back.

I might be ok with the idea if the SAR planes were scored for perk purposes as ENY 2, and you could get points for killing the chute in the field.

Wiley.

[Pand]

Why add incentives for players to take themselves out of the game for 30+ minutes? AH thrives on having players interact with each other and fails when there aren't enough players to interact with. A player who is sitting on a hillside isn't interacting much.

You could say the same regarding re-supping the HQ after a HQ hit.

[hyzer]

If the rescuer and his downed pilot were then shot down returning to base.  Would it be recorded as 2 kills?   

[Karnak]

I have no issue with pilot rescue being implemented, I just strongly object to it being incentivized.  Have it there for people do it if they want, just don't make it feel obligatory to those who don't want to do it.

As for spawn camping, that doesn't have an explicit incentive going for it.  Bombing town centers falls into the same category.

TO the point about resupplying the strats and HQ, those being down affects the game in a global way and thus those players are affecting the game.  In addition the rewards are not outlandish like those that are suggested for pilot rescues.  They were outlandish, but they got culled back.

Think of it this way, if you lose two of your three B-29s do you get a 50% refund on the two you lost when you land your remaining bomber?  No, you lose the full price of the B-29s you failed to bring home.  Why should a Me262 pilot get a refund for a chunk of his perks that he lost when he lost his Me262?  Certainly the pilot isn't it as the vast majority of aircraft have no perk price and they all have aircrew it can be safely determined that aircrew have no perk cost.