High Altitude Stalling

[Miir]

I know the dev team has mentioned that the flight model on air vehicles will be more realistic in Planetside 2. I'm really excited to see just how real it feels.

That said... I'm wondering how they are going to handle the ceiling limit this time around.

I thought it might be cool if rather than hitting an invisible barrier at a set altitude (like in the current Planetside) your air craft would instead stall out and fall back toward Auraxis. During the stall phase you would just be in a free fall waiting on an engine restart with limited controls.

If each vehicle had a slightly different stall height this would allow some interesting evasion/combat tactics.

[kaffis]

I could buy into this. OR, a system where when you go above "optimal atmospheric threshold" or whatever, the engine performance rapidly degrades. This way, you can push higher for a while, but your agility and speed would be lessened, allowing those below you to outmaneuver you.

Such a system would create a "soft cap" by offering your diminishing performance returns. Eventually, you'd hit the hard cap by virtue of just not being able to generate enough upward thrust to go higher, and trying would, yes, stall you out.

[Hamma]

I agree with all of this very good ideas. A solid cap that you just slam into sucks - losing power or something as you ascend would be awesome. It also adds another element of strategy to flying.

[Sentrosi]

Low power Galaxy drops. Oh man. I can see it now. Hit maximum sustained altitude, then adjust your glide slope to efficiently deliver your payload on target and quickly hightail it out of there.

Who's with me?

[Lonehunter]

Originally Posted by Miir

I thought it might be cool if rather than hitting an invisible barrier at a set altitude (like in the current Planetside) your air craft would instead stall out and fall back toward Auraxis.

[Quovatis]

Would be cool if different aircraft had different flight ceilings. I bet they're going to do something like this, and be able to upgrade your aircraft with more power to reach higher altitudes.

[Desoxy]

Originally Posted by Quovatis

Would be cool if different aircraft had different flight ceilings. I bet they're going to do something like this, and be able to upgrade your aircraft with more power to reach higher altitudes.

I agree, they could do some real nifty things with the new PhysX system, as long as we do NOT end up with this:

[Hamma]

You'd be dead in a quarter of a second if you were mulling around in your cockpit like that.

[Baneblade]

At least it would kill off the mossie farmers.

[Quovatis]

It would be cool to have aircraft require a little more skill (i.e. move toward more of a simulator than FPS). But that's a difficult thing to balance fun and simulation (see World War II Online as an example).

A somewhat unrelated feature I've always wanted in PS is the ability to turn off your engine while in the vehicle. That way you can be stealthy to ambush prey and be able to hear better (in a tank or ATV).

[Bing]

I'm all for anything that gets rid of arbitrary limits while simultaneously creating new strategies and flavor.

+1 from me.

[Valdae]

Its a nice idea, I can already imagine a pilot choosing to push his aircraft to the limit, and seeing the warning lights coming up!

You'd have to make all the aircraft altitude peaks the same, with maybe an extra 200 feet achievable for a few seconds before stalling. The idea of some aircraft being able to go higher than others would present too many tactical imbalances if they could remain at that height indefinitely.

[LordReaver]

Originally Posted by Desoxy

I agree, they could do some real nifty things with the new PhysX system, as long as we do NOT end up with this:

DCS: Black Shark -Clean Start up Procedure

What are you talking about? I would fucking love that!

[CutterJohn]

I've no issues with aircraft flying really high, and well beyond the range of AA. Air superiority fighters would have to keep the skies clear up there.

The only real limitation should be that air can't, or can't reliably, attack from up there. Like dropping bombs and soldiers from a galaxy(no oxygen!). To do those things you should be within the range of ground based AA.

[Baneblade]

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

Like dropping bombs and soldiers from a galaxy(no oxygen!).

HALO dropping from a Galaxy isn't unheard of... especially since most players are in armor that would obviously have its own air system.