Project Reality Forums

I know that this general topic is already in the Already Suggested Suggestions thread, but I don't know if this has been talked about specifically.

Let's be honest. The insta-charcoal effect that happens when air vehicles lose all health looks awful, and seriously detracts from the realism factor of the mod. While a plane or helicopter turning black in mid-flight and drifting towards the ground is highly unrealistic, I have a better alternative. It is much realistic for planes to be shot down, not blown up in midair.

When a plane/helo loses all of its health, instead of having it blow up and turn to charcoal (which doesn't happen in real life):
1. Set it on fire, to show that the aircraft has gone through extensive damage, including engine damage, and to add a nice effect to the gameplay.
2. Make it impossible for the pilot to leave the aircraft. This would solve the problem of pilot being able to always avoid death in the air, although they would be stranded in the middle of nowhere, and the attacking plane would probably come back looking for them. This would be realistic because the extensive damages to the aircraft and fires on the craft would make it impossible to escape safely. Passengers can bail if they wish, although they stand a better chance in a ball of fiery metal than hundreds of feet into the air without a parachute.
3. Cut engine and steering poweer. A plane/helo with severe damage would be inoperable and those inside would have to helplessly hope that they could somehow survive a crash landing.
4. Send the craft spinning out of control. The damage to the aircraft would undoubtedly affect its aerodynamics and the aircraft would not stay in control.
5. This all leads to a spectacular crash into the ground. If possible, give the crew of the aircraft a slight chance of survival to add a bit of hope to the ordeal, and so they all don't bail out in midair knowing that they are doomed.

No suggestion is perfect. It requires a lot of input to get something right, so please don't shoot this suggest down (no pun intended) just because you don't agree with part of it. This would make gameplay more realistic and more fun, so please be constructive with your criticism.

in reallife a pilot would be able to bail out via ejection seat though, even with extensive damage im sure (Behind Enemy Lines). i mean im no pilot but i think they should be able to bail out of the plane even with an extensive amount of damage (unless the cockpit blows up lol) other than that i think you have some good points. that and helo pilots shouldnt be able to bail and have helicopters spin out of control when extensivly damaged.

SGT.JOKER wrote:in reallife a pilot would be able to bail out via ejection seat though, even with extensive damage im sure (Behind Enemy Lines). i mean im no pilot but i think they should be able to bail out of the plane even with an extensive amount of damage (unless the cockpit blows up lol) other than that i think you have some good points. that and helo pilots shouldnt be able to bail and have helicopters spin out of control when extensivly damaged.

Good ideas. I'm no plane expert, so I wouldn't know.

SGT.JOKER wrote:...(Behind Enemy Lines)...

action movies aren't the best sources out there...

TexLax wrote:action movies aren't the best sources out there...

I knew some one would say that, it was only and example and i understand that action movies arent the best sources, but i figured if i said anything else no one would have understood.

I like the idea.

It is only on a Rare Occasion where a Aircraft Probably wont turn into a Fireball when Hit by a Missile. It is only if a Missile Does not Detonate too close to the Aircraft but not to Far, It is more Likely that the Missile Explodes close to the Target which then literally Rips up the Aircraft or to say in another It Makes Plane Go Boom. Currently the System is Correct and the Pilot Can bail out as with most Situations.

I like the idea, to an extent.

Generally if jets are hit with a missile, they will explode not crash land, but i suppose it could be taken further using the flight damage systems already available for choppers in 0.6. Currently if choppers are badly damaged they will go into an unrecoverable spin and eventually crash (or crash-land if the pilots good enough).

A little birdie tells me that jets and damage systems might focused on more for 0.7 so it may be already in the works i dunno.

It's like time

I think EA was lazy when modeling the wreckage in BF2. BF1942 wreckages were much better; parts and wheels would fly off and bounce around.... wings of aircraft would tear off... Even in DC (desert combat), the T72 tank turrets would fly off the hull upon exploding. The crashes/explosions were far more exciting.

I realy love this idea and birds like DM ones too

'[R-MOD wrote:DukeMeister']A little birdie tells me that jets and damage systems might focused on more for 0.7 so it may be already in the works i dunno.

Wouldn't it be simpler to have the aircrafts have more health and also higher the percentage where they start burning? Then they wouldn't go vBF2 kaboom when hit by a missile, but instead burn for a longer time and then go up in a boom.
Of course you'd want effects on controls as well but that seems to be no problems.

Guess this is not possible if all vehicles start burning at a fixed percentage of their max health though.

MichSt-Spartan wrote:but I don't know if this has been talked about specifically.

It has.


They've come up with, increasing hitpoints, failing at a certain number, losing control...etc, the point is that even if the engine fails and you start falling, the person shooting at you (especially the AAA) will still damage the plane and you'll explode.

I like your idea.

Although I don't see the flames really being necessary.

I think it would be adequate to just have the chopper smoking like crazy and lose all control or spin out of control depending on where you were hit.

Perhaps you could still bail out but depending on how lucky you were,
The chopper may or may not smash into you while it's spinning out of control.

I guess they were concantrating on gameplay and graphics you know the sort of stuff that makes you buy the game and when you have it the list of "Things I don't like" begins to unfold. But anyway I love the Idea of the wrecks. They done the same sort of wreckages for tanks,apc's, jeeps and boats.

It's a nice idea but at the moment don't jets have some retarded inability to glide when the engines arn't on? Plenty of times I've tried to practise landing and at the last minute I've dropped out the sky like wile e coyote running of the edge off a cliff...

The inability to glide is entirely in BF2's somewhat hard coded physics. The planes lack momentum when traveling at the near speed of sound. As soon as a plane is nailed and (luckily) burst into flames, it just immediately cuts off and starts to drop rather than falling at a much larger arc. I think DCon worked it out.

Now that I look at DC on 1942, I judge it as partially superior to BF2.

i think it would great to pay a little more attention to the destroyed air vehicles. Adding the effect of fire would be nice and bring a great deal to the atmosphere of the game. I also thought that the tanks blowing up in DC where pretty cool. I hope the Dev's can work to bring that sorta thing to PR.

Sry cant delete post.

I play DCON and they managed to improve the destruction of the aircraft