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!

[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

[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