Project Reality Forums

Recently, there's been increased discussion about aircraft in PR, and what role they should serve, and how should they work.

Personally I'd like to see the A-10 and Frogfoot have targeting pods, with lock on to armor, with capabilities to loiter out of the combat zone, attack helos with tv mode and lock on mode, etc.

What do the devs and members of this community think about what should be done to aircraft and their weapons?

And right now aircraft in PR need changes. The current system should be changed. Lasing does not mean teamwork. Intel is teamwork. Intel, above all others, is what should be focused on. Not lasing. Lasing should simply be a helpful pointer of where to shoot, not a requirement to be able to employ ATGMs.

balance, balance, balance...then again many people believe that jets shouldn't be in PR

I think the aircraft in PR are fine they way they are.

And happy birthday nick.

CAS_117 wrote:And happy birthday nick.

ditto (maybe this time i can blast really loud happy birthday music in TS and piss YOU off...)

The aircraft is fine how it is. The A-10 can take out anything.

PlatinumA1 wrote:balance, balance, balance...then again many people believe that jets shouldn't be in PR

Balance simply means better anti-air.

Jets are there to keep enemy helos/CAS from doing their job, and to destroy enemy jets. The same applies for the enemy jets.

Trans helos are in to help infantry, attack helos cover trans helos, jets cover attack helos from other jets, other attack helos, etc.

Jets are basically what makes the skies safe for you to conduct fire support.

Well, we could take out AA and air, but then armor is overwhelmingly powerful.

So I suppose we could have the mode with F-16s and Apaches and armor, and alternate maps that only have infantry and light transport vehicles. Both would be realistic and balanced.

wouldn't having jets and attack helicopters in the same layer be unrealistic? i thought apaches are only sent in once air superiority has been established and SAM sites have been taken out by fixed wing

imo air assetts are fine the way they are.
but
if i was a R-GOD i would remove jets from the mod completely and replace them with 2 attack helos for each team on the 64 layer, 500lb CO requested JDAM's on shorter timers, and improve the attack helo combat effectiveness like they have done in CA (i.e. AGMs go where you click once in LG-mode).
this would open up possibilities for a new armor-only 32p layer since the attack helos are moved to the 64p layer.

of course this will not happen because i understand that a good portion of the pr community loves player-controlled jet CAS despite the smacktard-runway-drama/assett-whoring side effects. the few rewarding moments that result from having competant pilots and spotting make it all worthwhile, i guess.

Aircraft are fine as they are apart from a few little niggles I have. Most of the mechanics in place are perfect, but there is always room for improvement.

One of which is the 1000m range on laser guided air-to-ground missiles. Aircraft close so fast that strking a target in a head on dive from the heavens means you end up pulling up at about 400-500m, far too low and risky. Should be 1500m so the aquisition and firing have enough time to clear before getting close to the ground.

By my simple anecdote and general experience, an aircraft can be targetted for around 10 seconds by nearby aa, which means a lot of flares need to be pumped out. It should be 3-5 seconds of aa vulnerability to reward lasing, as it is with bombs which usually drop from 1000m+.

My vision of jets in PR is that lasing is highly rewarded with increased lethality and survivablity as opposed to cannon and shot, which is a good way to get yourself killed. This also applies to helos, with laser targeted missiles having range and speed over the independent guided varient.

Also, I'd like to see louder or clearer indications of a lock gained, it's often difficult to figure out, particulary if you lack experience.


Helos need the CA hellfire system. From what I've heard (I haven't played CA), the hellfires travel to the target and then are adjusted by a second click, tv guided style without the camera zooming forward. This would help immensely due to helos not having to hover perfectly still to hit precise targets at long range without a laze. This would hardly lead to helos dominating without lases, just make it a lot easier to fire on the move and take cover hit and run style behind a hill.

The CA hellfire system has both the tv guided style as joe mentions, and also a system where you can lock a target, much like the current LT system, but the laser targets are already in the vehicles, and if someone is in it, then after a few seconds or so it'll lock up for ya and you just fire.

Kind of like the Tank FCS in CA.

CA might just have it right on the spot, something much like Hunt3r has mentioned, my idea is to allow the Gunner to use his TV system to guide his crosshairs to a target, be within a reasonable Camera radius, Right click once, then the computer will give a complete lock on the target, then be able to shoot. No more hovering in the air like a nub on Muttrah and gettin HAT'd. CAS aircraft would survive much more if players would exercise a realistic approach to giving CAS, the Cobra, I see noobs every day on Muttrah 400 feet in the air staying still looking for a target, In real life you do not seek out targets manually. Usually Infantry calls in CAS from the carrier, and the cobra will strafe the target repeatably with a fast approach in and fast approach out, and with my Guided missle idea, it should work brilliantly. Only problem is, most of the time you will not see the target until it sees you, which is why the gunner's FLIR TV which can see just about most of the main road on Muttrah from the carrier in real life, visual range should be greatly increased. This should help gunners gun until the Dev's make the camera's direction not be partially dictated by the movement of the helicopter itself.

Edit: I forgot my furthering rant about fixed wing aircraft.
Project Reality is a game, games are meant for fun, Fixed wing aircraft is Very fun. Which is why it should keep a role in game. If we could have a full out battle of combined arms, in a map at least 6x6 Km (Preferrably a naval operation With lots of water to compensate for the large map size, go USMC) with attack Choppers and Attack jets working together for a very good outcome. Jets go in when helicopters can't, and helicopters go in when more precise action is needed. Such as AA, most of the time MANPADS can easily take down a Attack chopper, but not jet! Jets are just plain too fast, for the average SA-7 to target, with the SA-7's 5 second lock on time, plus the chance that the man holding it hasn't even taken it out yet leaves the jet a good opertunity to attack, and leave without being bothered. Jets can take out the bigger targets, tanks, heavily defended posts, intercept enemy aircraft, while choppers can come in for the slightly less risky role, attack scattered INF, APC's, Light vehicles, etc. This rant has now ended.