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Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-11 15:49
by selemeister
Hi.

As the title says, is it possible to make trans helos bring repair stations ? If so, I think it would be cool. Give the trans pilots more to do. For balance, you can maybe only have the big helos have them ? I'm sure it's going to be a hotzone wherever the repair stations is needed, but that decision can be left up to the players ? 'Cause I'm sure there's a lot of times it's not a hotzone. Or even if it is, it's as hot for a helo as it is for a logi.
I just thought of this 'cause I played on Jabal with an APC, and it was hell to bring a logi to the west side of the map as USMC 'cause of the location and the single route to the west. But I'm sure it will be useful on larger maps aswell, where wait time will be long for a logi.

Best regards, selemeister.

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-11 16:44
by qs-racer
Can be nice on lot of other map, like yamalia or other 4km map ;)

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-11 16:51
by mries
?sn?t this being discussed as well some where else? I think it is a great idea!

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-11 17:38
by UTurista
I've mix feelings with this suggestion:

On one side, using logistics trucks is almost impossible in some maps, for example in Jabal is impossible to bring the Logi truck from the East Beach to the West beach.

Buth if every helicopter would be equipped with a repair tool we would never see tanks and APCs RTBing for repairs.

I guess the only solution would be creating an additional chopper with no space for passengers but instead it would carry a repair station, an additional feature would be changing the texture/module to reflect such changes.

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-11 18:07
by PatrickLA_CA
[R-CON]UTurista wrote: I guess the only solution would be creating an additional chopper with no space for passengers but instead it would carry a repair station, an additional feature would be changing the texture/module to reflect such changes.
That is a good idea, that chopper should have a longer respawn and reload time as well. Otherwise, if all/heavier transport helicopters would be able to deploy repair station, not only armor won't RTB for repairs, they will also be encouraged to strand away from the rest of the team, because they know they can just get a repair crate wherever they are.

The point is to make the crew think before going somewhere on their own and farm kills, as well as provide another teamwork situation, covering a damaged tank before repairs arrive.

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-11 18:44
by MasterX
Give only Ospreys the ability to drop repairstations + big crates. Hueys shouldn't be able to carry crates + repair stations tbh.

OR give transport trucks also repairstation availability

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-11 21:47
by Mats391
If we ever implement this, it would be only for big choppers (those with min. one big crate). It would not auto reload like on trucks and would be linked to the crates so it is either or. It would also be very sensible to fall damage so that you have to drop it while landed or hovering close to ground.
I think we had this discussion already and everyone agreed on adding them. The problem is someone doing all that :D

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-11 22:48
by rPoXoTauJIo
Or just add repair ability to supply crates? They already crashing when dropped from high alt, no autoreloading, and no buggy linking will be needed. Not to mention that vehicle crew will know that crates usually near fobs.

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-11 23:33
by Mats391
rPoXoTauJIo wrote:Or just add repair ability to supply crates? They already crashing when dropped from high alt, no autoreloading, and no buggy linking will be needed. Not to mention that vehicle crew will know that crates usually near fobs.
But then they would server double purpose. You could drop them to build FOB and later use them as repair station. You can also drop them from up to 50m which would be too high for repair stations. We certainly do not want fly-by drops of them.

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-12 02:41
by viirusiiseli
[R-DEV]Mats391 wrote:If we ever implement this, it would be only for big choppers (those with min. one big crate). It would not auto reload like on trucks and would be linked to the crates so it is either or. It would also be very sensible to fall damage so that you have to drop it while landed or hovering close to ground.
This would be perfect

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-12 08:28
by Rhino
[R-DEV]Mats391 wrote:I think we had this discussion already and everyone agreed on adding them. The problem is someone doing all that :D
The main issue is that normally in r/l afaik, the only way choppers are normally ever involved in the repairing/recovering of damaged vehicles, is by air lifting them out back to base, and then its normally only with other, lighter air vehicles since tanks etc are far too heavy to lift back, and then this is again is normally done by ground recovery vehicles unless there isn't another option, which is why this was mostly seen done in Vietnam since the jungle made it too hard to recover a lot of downed helicopters etc by land vehicles.
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Unfortunately we can't fully representing helicopter airlifting capabilities on the BF2 engine (at least not well enough to be used in a full 100 player public game) as otherwise that would be the best and most realistic option, to be able to fly light, damaged vehicles back to base for repairs.


As Mats said, if we where ever going to add this it would only be for the big choppers, although to clarify this, with possibly only Heavy Lift (MV-22, Chinook, Z-8KA etc, ie, those with two heavy supply crates) getting this, or if Medium Lift (Mi-8/17, UH-60 etc, ie, those with only one heavy supply crate) got this too, a smaller repair object to that of Heavy Lift choppers to represent the Heavy Lift choppers being able to lift out heavier vehicles back to base. But this again, doesn't really represent how these choppers would be realistically involved in the repair/recovery of a damaged vehicle in r/l, but then again normally a land vehicle would take the damaged vehicle back to base for repairs too rather than repair it in the field (although that dose sometimes happen) so might not be too much of a compromise.

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-12 08:50
by qs-racer
Is it possible to limit the chopper repair station to just un-track a vehicule, but not repair it fully ?

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-12 09:12
by Rhino
Negative. It is possible to limit it only to "Land" Vehicles, but unfortunately BF2 has only a limited amount of vehicle types which we can't add any more too :(

Its amazing enough that they even separated Jet and Helicopter vehicles in BF2 and didn't just class them all as "air vehicles" :p

And limited repair is not possible either, at least not though a BF2 "Supply Object", may be possible though a load of complex python code however in a similar way to how we do deployable CSBs.

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-12 09:31
by Zeno
when on the topic, is helicopter repairable from repair stations? because i have played alot of trans lately and i seem to manage to emergency land quite a few times, only to find myself unable to repair the chopper.

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-12 10:52
by Tit4Tat
Had the same idea for years, just never bothered to do anything about it. +1 to this, would make armored warfare more flexible and consistent.

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-12 16:06
by PatrickLA_CA
How about the repair station dropped from helicopters only repairs 20-30%. Would it be possible to make it like an ammo bag/wrench with limited ammo?

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-12 17:32
by Psyrus
Zeno wrote:when on the topic, is helicopter repairable from repair stations? because i have played alot of trans lately and i seem to manage to emergency land quite a few times, only to find myself unable to repair the chopper.
Combat engineer can repair choppers with the wrench :)

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-14 05:03
by Jagira
I think a new model for the helicopter repair station aught to be necessary too. Dropping an ammo box and a compressed gas tank with a lever trolley, under a sheet of timber from a helicopter, doesn't look too good xD. This will also add distinguishability to the logics truck repair station, allowing you to differ more with its mechanics. :D

Just my personal suggestion though :)

Re: Transport helicopters: Repair station

Posted: 2015-04-14 06:06
by PLODDITHANLEY