Pilot Kit Timers (to protect assets from inexperienced pilots)
Posted: 2009-02-13 00:57
I searched through the forums and didn't find anything regarding this suggestion (besides pilot kit limiting, but this isn't what I'm aiming for). I had written something similar in the Pilot ROE post, but I wanted to get some more exposure and see what other people thought of the idea. I mainly fly helicopters, so this is geared toward that (though it could easily be adapted to other types of vehicles).
One of the most annoying problems I've noticed has been inexperienced players taking air vehicles, crashing them 2 minutes later by making a simple mistake (e.g. full-throttling it at takeoff), then coming back and standing on the landing pad to grab the vehicle when it respawns to do it all over again. Of course we want to give everyone at least an equial chance to fly and prove they can do so safely, but how can we prevent inexperienced pilots from wasting valuable team assets over and over again?
How about placing a player-specific timer on the kit? As soon as the player selects the pilot kit and picks it up, a countdown timer starts which prevents him/her from selecting that kit again for several minutes. If the pilot keeps himself alive long enough to run the timer down (assuming they are flying during this time), it shows they are competent enough to actually fly safely. This means that if an experienced pilot who goes down he will be able to simply respawn, grab another pilot kit (because his timer has run down from last selection) and wait at the pad for a new vehicle. If an inexperienced pilot goes down (usually in the first minute or two), they will have to wait until their timer runs out to get a new kit, giving someone else the opportunity to take the vehicle.
The only problem I foresee would be in implementing a universal minute timer which starts as soon as the player selects the pilot kit. With transport helicopters this wouldn't be a problem, as the timer could be set at 8-10 minutes (which would mean the helicopter would respawn before the inexperienced pilot could get a new kit). But with the longer-spawn time vehicles, an inexperienced pilot's timer would run down before the vehicle repspawns, allowing him to grab the kit and simply sit and wait.
This could be solved by making the kit timer slightly longer than the longest-respawning air vehicle on the map, but that would be a pain for the pilots flying vehicles with much quicker respawn times.
The best way to handle the issue would be to start the timer when the pilot actually enters the vehicle, and limit the kit timer to the respawn time of that specific vehicle +2 minutes. I'm not sure if this would create an issue which conflicts with the hardcoding, though. I figure if you can force people to use specific kits while sitting in certain vehicle positions, it shouldn't be too difficult to associate a timer with it as well.
Would this suggestion be a possibility?
One of the most annoying problems I've noticed has been inexperienced players taking air vehicles, crashing them 2 minutes later by making a simple mistake (e.g. full-throttling it at takeoff), then coming back and standing on the landing pad to grab the vehicle when it respawns to do it all over again. Of course we want to give everyone at least an equial chance to fly and prove they can do so safely, but how can we prevent inexperienced pilots from wasting valuable team assets over and over again?
How about placing a player-specific timer on the kit? As soon as the player selects the pilot kit and picks it up, a countdown timer starts which prevents him/her from selecting that kit again for several minutes. If the pilot keeps himself alive long enough to run the timer down (assuming they are flying during this time), it shows they are competent enough to actually fly safely. This means that if an experienced pilot who goes down he will be able to simply respawn, grab another pilot kit (because his timer has run down from last selection) and wait at the pad for a new vehicle. If an inexperienced pilot goes down (usually in the first minute or two), they will have to wait until their timer runs out to get a new kit, giving someone else the opportunity to take the vehicle.
The only problem I foresee would be in implementing a universal minute timer which starts as soon as the player selects the pilot kit. With transport helicopters this wouldn't be a problem, as the timer could be set at 8-10 minutes (which would mean the helicopter would respawn before the inexperienced pilot could get a new kit). But with the longer-spawn time vehicles, an inexperienced pilot's timer would run down before the vehicle repspawns, allowing him to grab the kit and simply sit and wait.
This could be solved by making the kit timer slightly longer than the longest-respawning air vehicle on the map, but that would be a pain for the pilots flying vehicles with much quicker respawn times.
The best way to handle the issue would be to start the timer when the pilot actually enters the vehicle, and limit the kit timer to the respawn time of that specific vehicle +2 minutes. I'm not sure if this would create an issue which conflicts with the hardcoding, though. I figure if you can force people to use specific kits while sitting in certain vehicle positions, it shouldn't be too difficult to associate a timer with it as well.
Would this suggestion be a possibility?
