Air combat maneuverability questions

[XeeN]

I'm definitely thinking about focusing on being a pilot, and I want to know the capabilities that the aircraft in Planetside will have.

The Mosquito and Reaver appear to have VTOL (vertical take off and landing) engines, so my main question is:

Can we side-strafe while piloting one of these? Could I circle-strafe a ground battle in a Mosquito or Reaver? Can I side-strafe past another enemy aircraft and maneuver as if I was almost in a zero-g environment, or at least in a Descent-style form of gameplay?

My second question is:
How will ammo loads work with aircraft? Will I be able to stockpile different amounts of chaingun vs. rocket loads before I take off?

Third question:
Is there any way to quickly re-arm an aircraft in the field?

Fourth question:
Do we use fuel, and is there a way to quickly re-fuel while in the field?

Fifth question:
If I decide it's time to get some sleep (never!), and I am flying around in an open area far from any friendly base, how would I affect my nearest base's supply of aircraft if I just quit out of the game? Will there be any sort of supply system where we could run out of aircraft and/or ammo?

Sixth question:
Would we get any reward for returning the aircraft to the base we took off from?


--

That's all I can think of now. =)

Thanks for any answers!

XeeN

[Sputty]

1. Yes, it seems like you can but I'm not sure on this one.
2. No, the ammo amount is set in each vehicle.
3. Not sure. There's probably ammo rearming areas in bases.
4. There is no fuel
5. If you quit the game, the plane would auto land and if no one claimed it for a set amount of time it would disappear.
6 No, vehicles either have to be evacuated(then used by someone else or disappears, or destroyed)

[Hamma]

There are NO limits on the amount of vehicles in PS, and yes you can strafe.

[Sando138]

I thought that ammo was unlimited in vehicles... dang...

[matt]

The new beta journal talks about a lot of this - Go check it out!

[NeoTassadar]

I hope the strafing is really slow, or else dogfights will be reduced to ballroom dancing.

[MrVulcan]

na, even if you can strafe very well, you have to use other manovers if you want to live I am sure

[Destroyeron]

Yeah, straffing just helps, a lot.

[NeoTassadar]

Okay, they'll dance up and down, too.

[Destroyeron]

COOL! :eek:

[Moleculor]

I'm hoping that Skeeters handle like craft in Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos. You have full maneuvering capabilities in all six directions (forward, back, strafing, and up 'n down), but you also have inertia, and while you -can- accelerate as much as you want (though the atmosphere in Planetside -would- provide a max speed for craft), and the craft will slow down on it's own (the computer controls it), the battles are still very very very hectic and dogfight-ish.

[Kalam]

It seems the aircrafts are be pretty close to the Tribes 2 Shrike. Only you will not sink down by yourself, but be able to move up and down at will.

[XeeN]

Ok, thanks for the input, guys.

I checked out the recent beta log but didn't pull out any answers to these questions, so I'll go check it out again... very cool screenshot, too.

I'm interested because I really, really enjoyed the combat style that you could experience in games like Descent (long time ago..). I do agree with Molecular and hope that we have momentum, because these aircraft don't really have much of any lift-giving structures besides the engines. =P

I'm glad that we'll be able to strafe. I think that it will help a lot in battles and make being a pilot more enjoyable and very fast paced.

Thanks!

[korezero]

Its funny seeing someone walk sideways :p

[DarkMantiZ]

On a side note, could you in theory land an mosquito on a Galaxy and let the pilot get out, whip out a sniper rifle and get THE best sniperspot in history?

(Both crafts dont have to touch, he could get out, then fall down onto my Galaxy, then you have a squad of guys inside, and a snipersquad with medic on top, woudl work, no?)

Peace

[XeeN]

Originally posted by DarkMantiZ
On a side note, could you in theory land an mosquito on a Galaxy and let the pilot get out, whip out a sniper rifle and get THE best sniperspot in history?

(Both crafts dont have to touch, he could get out, then fall down onto my Galaxy, then you have a squad of guys inside, and a snipersquad with medic on top, woudl work, no?)

Peace

Let's try it...

[DarkTide]

That's a cool idea... wonder if it will work. I know a dev said you can stand on vehicles that aren't moving, so if you could hover in the galaxy....

[Gobberlerra]

Originally posted by DarkMantiZ
On a side note, could you in theory land an mosquito on a Galaxy and let the pilot get out, whip out a sniper rifle and get THE best sniperspot in history?

(Both crafts dont have to touch, he could get out, then fall down onto my Galaxy, then you have a squad of guys inside, and a snipersquad with medic on top, woudl work, no?)

Peace

I agree with you on this, although i was thinking of it the other way round (anti-vehicle weapons on mosqitoe etc) Though your idea sounds better :)

[Madprofessor9]

heheh I'm personally looking forward to the slower side of combat in a reaver using it as a gun ship hiding behind obsticals waiting ambush tactics on convoys tanks. and lets not forget the all time fav of mine suppression and CAS missions :)

[AtomicFishStick]

Yes I'll definetly be sitting in my Reaver waiting by roads behind berms and trees. I can't wait to pop up and just hose down an ANT convoy with rockets and chain guns. Should be fun =D.

[mikkyT]

Can you quit out of the game whilst flying? That would be pretty lame if you could.

In EverQuest, you could only quit of the game while sitting, and then if you where hit by anything (mob or player) you would stand up automatically, cancelling your quit action.

This was to stop cheating in game, to quit out when you where near death, for instance to avoid dying.

Now fair enough, if you go link dead and loose your connection this happens, but to avoid you pulling your connection from the wall, you remained in game for a minute or so, motionless meaning anyone could frag your ass.

So simply put, quitting the game while flying would be pretty lame. It could be abused by griefers, it could be abused by people in dog fights.

You should only be able to quit when your not under fire. ANd if you rip your line from the wall you should stay in game for 30 seconds or a minute.

[shiflett]

yeh but it's a very common thing to die in a FPS compared to an MMORPG like Everquest. Dying in everquest has some major conciquences i.e. lose your inventory (sorry if this is wrong never played it) but in a game like this you can simply go get a wepon straight away after dying.

[Drex]

Is it simple to control Air combat/personel vehicles or does it take actual pilotting skills to do so (like playing a flight-simulator)? Can you use a joystick? Adjust throttle? Use air brakes? Roll? Dive? etc etc? Or is this very simple flight that you use a keyboard for (go forward, hover up, down, straffe)?

If it's going to take actual skill then I look forward to pilotting. If it's simple junk then I'll stick to ground pounding.

[RandoMTerroR]

Doesnt know is this really is on topic, but here goes...

Do your aircraft explode if smashed into something, like hitting a tree or what ever???

If it does i cant wait till get hold on a mosqiuto and smahing into a platoon of soldiers whilst firing my chaingun at them :D

btw, think u would get credited for such kills???

[mr_luc]

You get kills for running over people I think . . . so probably. :D

[lloyddot5]

DarkMantiZ, your idea sounds realy cool but I think I read somewhere that trying to stand on moving vehicles is very difficult with the physics engine they use. So whoever would stand on toop would probably have to do it after the galaxy has got to its position. They couldn't hitch a ride on top of the galaxy.
Might work though so worth a try.

[The President]

:D Haha yeah man I'm a sniper and a pilot and i would love that ability.

[lloyddot5]

I just had an interesting idea,

What would happen if you got a TR MAX and anchored it on top of a galaxy? Maybe put a couple on there.

Even better, what would happen if you had 2 galaxys with the MAX having one foot anchored in each? Could hurt a little if the galaxys didn't go the same way at the same time. lol:D

[EarlyDawn]

Dave said that specifically won't happen in the shoutcast interview.

Ammo is bought from equipment terminals, and loaded through the vehicle's trunk.

[The President]

:rock: Ha yeah man i was deffinetly hoping to bolt a few friends of mine on top of my mosquito, maybe one on the bottom so i could have a flying ball of doom, too bad.

-The President

[Agent]

You should only be able to quit when your not under fire. ANd if you rip your line from the wall you should stay in game for 30 seconds or a minute.

I am confused as to why anyone would quit a FPS game just to not get killed. Getting killed is a part of PS and you can't just quit every time you are gonna get killed. People are going to die thousands of times. I have never seen that happen in an FPS and I'm pretty sure you won't see it in PS.

[OneManArmy]

well, people do disconnect to reset thier scores, but thats about it....

:lol: if someone wants to rip out his connection everytime I'm about to kill him, then more power to him!!, I'll just walk on and find someone else to kill...