Project Reality Forums

Here are some ideas with the intent on expanding some of the aspects of the way aircraft functions ingame.

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.

A. Seperate Fixed Wing & Rotary Wing Pilot Kits

Good idea.

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.

No point. People will still wait.

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.

This would cause there to be many planes/helicopters with knowone to fly them. Remember, usualy, rounds last from 30 to 60 min. Knowone will ever want to fly again. Although, we do need somthing to force pilots to bail out.

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.

I like the becon thing, and the minimap icon. But the HUD thing is unrealistic, and there would be no point to it seeing as how the pilot has flashy red smoke.

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.

I would like this very much.

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.

Another good idea I would like to see in game.

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.

Somthing like this would be good.

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.

If possible, this would be amazing.

Agree with above (officially making my post useless).

lol, u should have quoted. Maybe then it would have been.....worth it?

I would love to see two different pilot kits!

Guess the idea for seperating Fighter pilots and Helo pilots isn't very well recieved. I came up with the concept simply because I thought it was sort of silly for some guy to land his BH, bail out and jump into the A10 or something. Not to mention the differences in training and gear each one recieves.

On the note of limits, I thought of that idea to prevent the team from having a surplus of pilots on the map. If they're are two planes on your team, you don't want 5 guys with a pilot kit at the start of the game.

As for the timers, I came up with that idea so that flying a plane should be reserved for the people somewhat good at it. If a player crashes the LB a minute after takeoff, do you want that same person to respawn and do it again? In this case pilots that tend to "last" shouldn't find the timer a big issue. Of course, my original suggestion is somewhat different in that the timer starts only after you die, I'll edit it a little later.

Glad you guys like some of my ideas for improving coordination between ground forces and air support.

Terranova wrote:Guess the idea for seperating Fighter pilots and Helo pilots isn't very well recieved. I came up with the concept simply because I thought it was sort of silly for some guy to land his BH, bail out and jump into the A10 or something. Not to mention the differences in training and gear each one recieves.

Well then, you should explain yourself. I never thought of it that way, i now change my mind on that topic. Good idea!

No point of two pilot kit limit as some noob will get one so you and a squad mate cant fly together.

We have discussed on the dev forums (and I think public forums too) the possibility of distinguishing the fixed wing and rotary wing kits. Yes, including flares. Pen flare signal kits come standard with US survival vests.

Also, US helicopter crews may be armed with M4 carbines, not just sidearms, as they can fit in the cockpit. The British Army Air Corps will be issuing L22 carbines to its helicopter crews, as well. US fixed wing aviators carry either the M9 or the M11 [SIG-Sauer P228].

I would like to see a splitting of the classes for the different aircrafts. Don't chopper pilots get an HK MP5k? I remember seeing one on a display somewhere.

we were originally going to look at jets for v0.6, but that got shuffled to v0.7.

what I would like to see is:
- destroyable runways
- planes that MUST take off on a runway
- better handling
- ground troops designating targets
- qualifications to fly aircraft

Expendable Grunt wrote:I would like to see a splitting of the classes for the different aircrafts. Don't chopper pilots get an HK MP5k? I remember seeing one on a display somewhere.

Only 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment pilots were issued MP5Ks in the early 1990s, but those were found to be unsatisfactory after Operation Gothic Serpent (Somalia).

'[R-DEV wrote:eggman']- qualifications to fly aircraft

How will that work?

'[R-DEV wrote:Eddie Baker']Only 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment pilots were issued MP5Ks in the early 1990s, but those were found to be unsatisfactory after Operation Gothic Serpent (Somalia).

Ah yes I saw it in black hawk down. I know little of the actual weapon, though I think it *looks* cool.

Well the devs have done their homework so their decision is best in the end.

I do wish more SMG's where in the game though -- sorta miss the MP5.

Though do APC and Tank crews differ in equipment all that much?

I doubt it, but I suppose Tanks having whatever crazy steering method allows you to control both tracks at once and APCs (with pretty standard steerings AFAIK) would make it quite difficult for crewman to be able to drive both vehicles.

Really though, I don't want to separate crewman kits, needless cutter to the already big and growing list of limited kits.

'[R-DEV wrote:eggman']
- ground troops designating targets

Thx eggman for looking into this!!! We need Air strike calls from SL coordinated with comander and pilots

Jedimushroom wrote:I doubt it, but I suppose Tanks having whatever crazy steering method allows you to control both tracks at once and APCs (with pretty standard steerings AFAIK) would make it quite difficult for crewman to be able to drive both vehicles.

You can teach a monkey to drive both easily, I do on a regular basis. Although a lot of crews are not cross trained on vehicles most competant drivers can quickly and easily adapt, some within a matter of moments.

The turret system are the main differences. Warrior has power traverse and a manual elevation/depression system with a basic sighting system, Challenger 2 has a fully stabilised gun and a very advanced sighting system. Gunnery sytems have a similar training time frame but are very different.

If anything there should be a drivers kit and seperate gunners kit.

On another note.

- Disabled Helicopters
As it stands, if you just scratch a tree wrong your going to blow up. I'd personally love to see choppers "crash" somehow with surviving pilots. So I'm wondering, could there be a "disabled" version of each helicopter? Where it has a chance that it won't be able to fly/move anymore, but it's still intact. This would only happen for the most part if you hit something (or something hits you) flying at a relatively low speed. Instead of the chopper instantly exploding, you can no longer "accelerate" and the helicopter will slowly descend to the ground.

- Wider Cockpit Views
Anyone else feel like their face is right up against the windshield? One of the things that has been bothering lately is how little you can see out the cockpits, particulary with the helicopters. It's hard to describe the suggestion, but in other terms could we create a "widescreen" version on the vehicle views? I also feel the same way toward some of the jeep views. Feels like I have my chest up against the steering wheel or something.