(Originally suggested by Startrekern of TG forums who cannot post here directly, but I believed it was a great idea, so I'm posting it here as myself. Here's his post: View Startrekern's post)
The suggestion: Pilots, rather than the vehicles they fly, are worth tickets. The point of this is to encourage more pilots to save themselves than go down with the wreck.
Right now, there is no real incentive to bail out other than the 1 ticket a player saves by bailing, and '0 deaths' on his scoresheet. If the vehicle itself cost very little or no tickets, but the pilot cost the remainder of the amount, it would encourage the pilot to save himself and be rescued when he is in safe territory. The pilot may not always bail; if he's over enemy territory, and it's very unlikely he could be saved without risking others, he could choose to go down with his plane, instead of bailing out. The option, however, would be there for him to take, and would beneficial to the team, if he desires to do so.
Here's an example: A-10 pilot flies about. He eventually gets into a dogfight with the enemy MiG-29. The MiG locks on with a missle, fires, and the A-10 is hit directly. The pilot, however, bails out and survives. The A-10 itself costs no tickets whatsoever. The pilot costs 10 tickets. If the pilot bails out and parachutes to a safe area, and is rescued, the team negates losing 10 tickets. However, the asset is still lost and therefore still feel the pain of the loss, while the enemy team gains CAS superiority.
(Just to make myself clear, this isn't JUST for jet pilots. It's for all pilots; Transport, Attack Helicopters, Fighter jets, and Ground-Attack Jets alike.)
(As for the ticket amount the pilot costs vs the jets ticket cost, that can be worked out later; for now, focus on the idea rather than the ticket amount, but feel free to discuss what you think would be a good amount.)
A few things have to be put in check in regards to this, however, to ensure that it isn't abused or under-utilized:
- Pilot kit only requestable DIRECTLY from the vehicle. Because the pilot kit now costs 10 tickets when lost, it shouldn't be used in the field if at all possible. Since you can request the pilot kit from the vehicle as long as it is alive, even if used, you can request the kit and return it to base if the previous pilot was killed, etc. (If issues arise, it could also be requested from a main flag/a repair station. See * at end of post for issues regarding using main/repair stations as request locations)
- Pilot kits should be separated depending on what vehicle is being used. For jets, the pilot should be as it is now but should cost the team 10 tickets to lose. For helicopters, the pilot should cost the team 5 tickets to lose (this allows Attack Helicopters to not be obscenely high in ticket loss, as well as allow regular helicopter pilots to do the same). Of course, the jet pilot should definitely not be able to fly helicopters, and vice versa. (One issue is that jets that require 2 pilots would now be 20 tickets to lose. See ** at end of post)
- Jet pilots could use a more reliable way of being able to bail out knowing full well that it was in their best interest to do so. Solution posted here.
**Two seater jets would now be worth TWICE the tickets of a normal jet. If it cannot be fixed vehicle-specifically, one workaround would be to make single-seat jets worth 5 tickets, two-seater jets worth 0, and then pilots would cost 5 tickets. This would make an A-10 cost 5 tickets and it's pilot cost 5 tickets, but a Su-34 cost 0 tickets and it's pilots together cost 10.
