Gameplay: Training aircraft

[Vamp Hunter]

I had an idea, there should two seater training aircraft in planetside 2.
The way they would work is they would be modified versions of the faction specific aircraft with a pilot seat and a trainer seat.
Both seats would get to control the vehicle, but only one at a time and the trainer seat would get to toggle it.
the aircraft would not be fitted with real weapons, only holographic rockets/missiles and laser tag guns, it would also have a fake health bar that would count simulated damage. (it would also have a real health bar but you would try not to have to use that.)

Resource wise it would be intended to be really cheap so you could spawn a new one easily if you crashed it.
Training with it would involve having two instructors and two trainees in two of the aircraft, they would then use the fake weapons to do mock battles to train. The instructors would be able to take control when they needed to to show examples of maneuvers or save the craft from crashing when the trainee made a mistake.

I could also see these being used for reconnaissance, with one person piloting while the other person uses free look to scout the area.

These would be spawned in the main world so you would have to find safe areas far enough away from the battles to train, and you might even want to bring an escort for safety sake.

The reason I think these would be needed is I could see you draining you resource stores trying to learn how to fly in the heat of battle, crashing over and over again and getting frustrated, at least that's my experience with the aircraft in battlefield.

[stordito]

people would exploit this to kamikaze into enemies...
but i like the idea of a trainer, i just hope they create a single player training roon that allows you to spawn everything and test it,creating a new vehicle would be too much work. plus learning to fly the trainer does not really qualify you to fly a gal...
since now vehicles have mass and inertia piloting a mossie would be different than a reaver. in PS1 all that changed was speed and acceleration.

[iSpectre]

Nifty idea, but what is the goal?
To create an aircraft that allows people to get a feel for the flight controls, weapon damage output etc without spending the resources?
Why not just create a virtual training similar similar to what was in PlanetSide 1?

Or a reconnaissance craft? If you want that why not have a 2 seater cheap but fast craft that has no weapons, the pilot can see forwards whilst the gunner acts as a spotter and can use his optics to spot enemies and relay info back to his squad?

[Purple]

its a good idea but i think a VA arena with free aircraft would be much more effective.

[Talek Krell]

Originally Posted by Purple

its a good idea but i think a VA arena with free aircraft would be mush more effective.

Aye. And really there shouldn't be too much reason not to just learn by doing. It's not like if you crash you can't just pull another one.

[iSpectre]

Originally Posted by Talek Krell

Aye. And really there shouldn't be too much reason not to just learn by doing. It's not like if you crash you can't just pull another one.

Hmm - exactly
In BF3 its annoying to have someone jump in as the pilot in a transport chopper with 4 other people in it, then crash it within 10 seconds.. however in PS2 people will use their own resources. With no limit to the vehicle count.

[Xyntech]

VA training and learning in the field is the way to go on this one I think.

Too many weird ways to exploit this, such as kamikaze or otherwise ramming players, using them as free rapid transport, etc.

Besides, who flies a training aircraft in the middle of a war zone?