A. Seperate Fixed Wing & Rotary Wing Pilot Kits
The idea behind this is pretty self-explanatory. Instead of having an all-in-one pilot kit, you would have to choose between flying a jet or helicopter. The most notable difference should be the look of each one. The "Fixed Wing" pilot kit would have some sort of full pressurized suit. Some of the things would include the oxygen mask, survival vest and the G-suit itself.
(This is just an example)
The "Rotary" pilot would simply have some sort of suit with an appropiate helmet.
*Some other differences would be
- The Figher Pilot kit would have a single use parachute (for ejection purposes). The Rotary Pilot would not.
- On the other hand, the Fighter Pilot would only have a pistol, while the Rotary could have a PDW or SMG (very low ammo however).
Onto the gameplay tweaks and additions.
1. If possible, can there be a limited amount of pilot kits available on the map? For instance, if the team only has 2 helicopters, then only 2 pilot kits should be available. And if we go with seperate fighter and helo pilots, then have it so that no fighter kits are available period.
2. Strict timers on pilot kits. Have it so that you can't request another pilot kit after dieing for a good long while (anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes). This makes survival for pilots essential. This way, you may see pilots actually risk ejecting or crash landing and then waiting for an extract rather than simply dieing and respawning back at main base. Would create for some tense moments where the pilot goes down behind enemy lines, and has to find a way to safety.
3. As for some additions, how about making the pilots some sort of "beacon". Firstly, any pilot will have a slightly different icon on the minimap, something to signal that the player is one. Also, the pilot will appear on any friendly aircraft's HUD as some sort of icon too (Like the boxes that appear on the A10's HUD when enemy vehicles are close enough). This would help with extracting pilots.
4. Another addition might be giving the pilot kit some sort of "flare". This would also help friendlies find and extract pilots better, however the pilot risks exposing his/her location to the enemy as well.
B. Ground to Air Coordination
One of the weak points is getting aircraft to hit a certain location. So the idea here would be giving ground troops some tools to help guide the flyboys for precise airstrikes, extractions, pickups and what have you.
1. Designating hostile areas. Alot of times pilots are stuck flying around with little idea as to where the concentration of hostiles are. The idea here is to possibly give the Commander and SLs the ability to point out areas where there's a large focus of enemies. The area would show up as some transparent green circle on the map and minimap of all players. This is to mainly help friendlies get a general idea on the location of the opponent, especially if you're not capable of spotting them all directly.
2. Sort of like the "beacon" idea for the pilots, how about giving players some sort of "strobe" that can be thrown in the direction of the enemy. A "red box" will appear on the HUD of friendly aircraft, indicating an airstrike is wanted there.
3. I guess the final idea would be some form of laser guided bombs. Basically a player would point out a target with some laser designator, which would show up a friendly pilots HUD. The pilot switches to the laser guided bombs, just lets one go in the general area of the request and eventually the bomb "homes" onto the target.
That's all I got for the moment.
