Project Reality Forums

Littlebird go down in the middle of Ramiel? Survived but scared your about to be tortured and knifed any second? Need a quick way to back to base? Steal a car. The insurgents do it.

I remember hearing that the cars on muttrah docks were able to be taken by either team, but would be tied to that team from then on. This system would work great, then you wouldn't see a pilot stealing a car directly from an insurgent. Added with kit restriction so pilots were the only ones who could enter the cars.

I could see this being shot down by the fact that all the cars would be visible to both teams. Maybe we could remove the icons. Show just the factions real assets on the map. The civie cars are more part of the map, than insurgent transport. On the plus side it would be easy to identify bombcars on the map. Something i'd like to see regardless of this suggestion.

The cars cannot be driven on Muttrah by either team because of people using them as bumper cars, I don't really see that coming back.

Besides, how many soldiers really know how to hotwire a car?

snooggums wrote:The cars cannot be driven on Muttrah by either team because of people using them as bumper cars, I don't really see that coming back.

Besides, how many soldiers really know how to hotwire a car?

they used to, i think..

P2KK wrote:they used to, i think..

Yeah maybe if they had a criminal background or really knew the electronics in cars. That is not a skill your taught in the military.

hotwiring a car is actually not that difficult on most cars.

but still, you the cars were being used as bumer cars and to run people over.

I can't say for sure because i'm not a military pilot. But, i would guess that they get training on what to do in case they have to bail out over enemy territory. I know if i was designing that training course, i would include some kind of basic vehicle hotwiring instructions or even methods of breaking the steering lock and jamming a metal object (like a survival knife) into the ignition and starting the car that way. Or we could just say that the civilians left their keys in the vehicle.

I could see this not happening for the fact that a pilot could steal a car, and run over an insurgent. It would provide a means for attaining a weapon. I guess it wouldn't be long before black hawks full of pilots start flying over ramiel dropping a guys on every car in sight.

But keep in mind the part where i said only pilots could enter these vehicles. Do you really want to willingly put your life into the hands of a crappy civie car? If you fail to run over your target or get stuck your defenseless.

It's not really usefull. You die alot in this game, so a pilot driving back to base after being shot down is pointless. However you learn pretty damn quick how to disable an ignition.

So would the ultimate result of this suggestion be that the pilot drives the car back to the carrier?

GoreZiad wrote:It's not really usefull. You die alot in this game, so a pilot driving back to base after being shot down is pointless. However you learn pretty damn quick how to disable an ignition.

If it's pointless to make your way back to safety as a pilot, then why would they do stuff like increase the survivability of helicopter pilots, give them parachutes, and remove their pistols, etc. Obviously in the eyes of the devs, a pilot shouldn't just suicide instead of facing a 10min walk back to base. They want you to escape the hot zone and obtain transportation back to base. This would just give pilots another means to obtain that badly needed transport. Because lets face it, sometimes it's hard to find transport for a whole infantry squad standing around the safety of the main base, let alone a downed pilot in the heart of enemy territory.

GoreZiad wrote:It's not really usefull. You die alot in this game, so a pilot driving back to base after being shot down is pointless. However you learn pretty damn quick how to disable an ignition.

Then obviously you've never returned to base with me.

o.O Find my crazy story on the forums... it was .... crazy. XD I can't believe i made it back in one piece still...

snooggums wrote:So would the ultimate result of this suggestion be that the pilot drives the car back to the carrier?

There are countless numbers of destinations a pilot could have after being shot down. A close firebase, a supply crate, a safe LZ for extraction, the main base is just the most likely place a pilot would want to get to. Of course on a map like muttrah if you were downed by the castle, and had a firebase up in docks, wouldn't you rather steal a car and make it there in a couple minutes rather than walking for 20minutes?

Muttrah isn't THAT big. If you walk and go to a safe place where you can be extracted by others it doesn't take 20 minutes... You don't have to walk to the next firebase, just go out of the hot zone and get extracted or meet another squad.

Unless you're stranded in the middle of Kashan or Qinling, you don't really need a car imo. And on the bigger maps, there's always safe places for extraction.

badmojo420 wrote:There are countless numbers of destinations a pilot could have after being shot down. A close firebase, a supply crate, a safe LZ for extraction, the main base is just the most likely place a pilot would want to get to. Of course on a map like muttrah if you were downed by the castle, and had a firebase up in docks, wouldn't you rather steal a car and make it there in a couple minutes rather than walking for 20minutes?

If shot down by castle and I wanted an extraction I would head East up the coastline for 5 minutes to be picked up outside of the hostile zone. If no pickup is available I would either slowly make my way back or 'suicide', the points value equivilant of hiding till the battle is done and being combat ineffective.

I see no reason to have carjacking US soldiers racing through combat just because their plane got shot down, that isn't very realistic no matter what my preference would be.

Can we stop nit picking on details here? Sure you could get picked up in a safe LZ or walk in a straight line with no consideration for getting killed or spotted. But, what about a scenario where it's late in the game, most of the coalitions assets are destroyed, all the action is happening on the other side of the map, no friendlies anywhere near you and you're 1.5kms away from the only known safe zone. Now, i don't know about you guys, but when that situation arises i make the most of it and act stealthy, keeping to the available cover, taking a non-direct route in case it's being camped. Generally taking my time and trying my best to get home safely. On the flip side, you could point yourself in the direction of the base, start walking, hit the chat button and sit on auto-pilot for 5mins. The latter is a rather foolish method and will most likely end with you being shot or knifed. Add a car to the picture and it's no different. Sure, you could just drive like the wind straight down the middle of the city towards your base, but that will most likely end with you being spotted, ied'ed, killed, or wounded. Use the car wisely and stick to back roads, going the long way, getting out and scouting around corners, etc. and you could have some fun while realistically trying to return to base.

Think about it this way, in real life, when a pilot is downed over enemy territory, and faces an extremely long journey back to safety where he can be extracted, the pilot would be instructed to use any means necessary to get to that location as quickly and safely as possible. When the pilot looks around him, he notices a car with it's window broken, upon further inspection there are keys in said car. Would you expect him to ignore this, and just start walking? Or hop in and drive like his life depended on it?

I tried to find some information about the realism of pilots being trained on breaking into and hot-wiring a car. I couldn't find any military specific information, that all seems pretty secretive. But, i did find a few survival handbooks/manuals with sections dealing with exactly that subject.

One of the sections in the book is about escapes and entrances. This section includes everything you need to know from breaking into and hot wiring a car to evasive maneuvers such as making a safe 180- degree turn or ramming another vehicle.

If anyone knows where i could read or has their own copy of a US Air force pilots survival guide, please let me know, i could only find places to buy them, and i don't really want to spend money just to prove a point. Not that reading the rest of the book wouldn't be interesting.

Well the main problem is not really your suggestion, it's interesting, yet hardly going to be implemented IMO.

I think however, comments in this thread point to a severe flaw that another thread does adress directly : pilots ''lives'' are not worth enough tickets, not enough so they wouldn't just suicide and avoid the long quest for survival.

What ? Driving a forklift is fun as hell in muttrah
But I barely see a pilot bailing out.
Oh btw most of the time LB's never fly over 300 alt. in insurgent maps

Bamtoman wrote:Oh btw most of the time LB's never fly over 300 alt. in insurgent maps

With the new damage system i rarely die after being shot down by small arms or 50cal fire. The helicopter will lose power, drop like a rock, but still maintain some control, especially at low heights. It's almost like an auto-land, then you get out, watch the gray smoke turn into flames and then the littlebird blows up.

With the new system, unless you're a couple hundred meters from the helipad, and your screen starts to pulse red AFTER taking fire, you should land. Call for repairs and hope a truck is right there. Otherwise your a flying, ticking time bomb that will go off in about 5-30 seconds.

If this were to be implemented, I think it would work.

Not to mention the fact that the BlueFor will have to be careful not to shoot the civi car that the pilot is driving.
Which in real life is what they need to be checking, instead of just opening fire on any car they see on insurgency...

badmojo420 wrote:I tried to find some information about the realism of pilots being trained on breaking into and hot-wiring a car. I couldn't find any military specific information, that all seems pretty secretive.

Or non-existent! Just because you couldn't find something doesn't mean it is hidden, it most likely means it isn't true...

Pilot's lives are worth one point just like everyone else. There's no more reason to save a stranded pilot than to save a stranded soldier whose squad got wiped out. Each case it's one point.