Aircraft Factory: VTOL Pad vs Airport vs Airport Node

Vertical Take-Off and Landing Pad is whats certainly being planed for Empires.

pros:
all aircraft hover
place anywhere

cons:
mostly gunships (hovering tanks)
unrealistic dogfights

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Airport is a runway, hanger, and possibly a small VTOL pad. It takes up alot of space and if poorly built, can be pointless (like the VF facing a wall).

pros:
place anywhere
more traditional aircraft (bombers, fighters)
more realistic dogfights

cons:
needs large, flat land
space
map size

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Airport Node is the same as Airport except placement is predefined by the mapper and will work the same way as Refineries today (facing direction also predefined by the mapper). Note: If a Airport Node is not on the map no aircraft on that map.

pros:
more traditional aircraft (bombers, fighters)
more realistic dogfights
no need for large, flat land
additional strategy

cons:
more reliant on map makers
more stress on the Com
map size

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:D please post comments...

 

I think a combination of Airport Node VS VTOL pad would be a nice comprmise.

Perhaps have areas like Airport nodes were you can ONLY place airports and then choose which type you want to build giving you different aircraft.

Either way aircraft are a long ways off.

 

If we have dropships, VTOL pads somewhere are inevitable ingame. Whether part of airfields, part of airfield nodes, or just individually are needed.

 

For fucks sake, how much does it take for people to understand there is NO ROOM for classic dogfighting in the source engine? Maps like mvalley, duststorm and cyclopean are almost at the max map size for source anyway, and a sensible sized runway would take up most of those maps, let alone the maneuvers required for dogfighting which would have you crashing into the skybox in 3 seconds flat.

Not to mention the idea of an aircraft node is damn stupid. In empires, you place vehicle factories wherever you want. Why should aircraft factories be any different? I don't want to be restricted by stuff that is as contrived as "Aircraft Nodes".

Also, this vote is biased to hell. You may as well say OMG AIRCRAFT NODEZ ARE SO AWESUM THEY ARE RLY GOOD VOTE FOR THEM PLZZZZZZZZ

Its VTOL's or nothing. There is simply no room for bombers and fighter jets. Dogfights between them will be as realistic as dogfights between helicopters (which is how aircraft have been coded). I for one welcome our new VTOL overlords. With a ground to air missile.

 

The trouble with VTOL aircraft that can hover is exactly what happened in Planetside. Every single aircraft (even the heavy armoured bombers lolwat) had a forward firing minigun, supposidly designed to fight off other planes. Instead it turns into a game of who can farm infantry the best.

Scout planes, bombers, tankbusters, even troop dropships would just cluster round firing into infantry completely ignoring the tank that was sitting five feet away or the objective that needed attention across the map. Infantry got their act together to fight them off and they'd just fly away (with a limited afterburner that could propel them faster than the AA missles chasing them until they were out of range), head to a repair pad and come back again to do the same thing over again.

On the occasion where we managed to bring one down the pilot would simply bail out and continue his assualt on foot (with a triple-barreled shotgun so I guess that's a point for Empires) although expect to see plenty of cloaked meleers dropping into the lines to punch infantry to death.

 

Isn't that why the devs are shrinking everything by 16x?

 

I thought it was old news that that approach didn't work and isn't being developed further?

 

it isnt because it ended up being a rumour that this one dev on irc told this vet that told this other vet that told that other guy that it would not be further developed




the empiresmod crew has always failed to be crystal clear as to what there intentions are to the people

 

VTOL.
No room for anything else.
Mappers are already complaining about the space usage a normal base has.
A small pad, big enough to create VTOL craft would be good.

 

Alright then, instead of airplanes, why don't we just have a new engine that makes tanks float?

 

Would scaling to 1/16 size also make the sky higher? allowing for dogfights?

OMG NO!!!! :mad:

What are the empiresmod crew working on now anyway? (overall) :confused:

 

areal planes last time i checked

 

The idea of re-scaling everything would be to give more room for the map. Currently maps in Empires are pushing the limits of size in the Source Engine. So, if you shrink everything by 2x, you also now have a map that could be 2x lager, providing more room for aerial dogfights.

The downside is the rescaling everything part takes time and if you mess up, bad stuff can happen. Little tiny off-grid structures on maps, models, and other beastly things could appear.

 

not to talk about everything under influence of the physics engine will act like everything was still big, so that will have to be changed aswell

 

it can still be changed a this stage right? so how is that stupid? lastly, would people be more lenient if I make the models myself?

 

This mod is in serious need of a unified art direction, since the stuff going on in the "art" forum is just crazy. Half the community is making contributions, but they are all different, and try to portray different things.
Stuff as "VTOL or classic aircraft" isn't really considered by the contributing artists. What they do is "I want this in-game, so I model it". (Guilty!)
Nothing wrong with that, but everyone is pulling in different directions.
Same goes for you. Maybe you will make a good model of an airfield, but it won't make it in-game, because of the devs not wanting to have classic aircraft and going for VTOL instead.

 

Mayday!!! Mayday!!! Losing Altitude, I've been shot down!!! Eject! Eject!

BOOM!!!!!!
Dang, I just bought that aircraft.....

What if the Devs setup a model contest to help unify the art direction, would that speed up the production? I mean having them release info on what models have yet to be done, than chose what they think fits the bill (theme, simplicity, ...) the best.

 

Also, the god damn NF will have a Light Air Tank, that will be OP as shit. As always.
I request my previously suggested automatic grenade launcher. A deployable, rapid-fire weapon, that uses explosive 20mm shells. No Aircraft would be safe!

 

Can you not read?

AIRCRAFT AS YOU WANT THEM ARE IMPOSSIBLE IN EMPIRES DUE TO RESTRICTIONS ON THE GAME ENGINE.

WHILE THERE MAY BE MEANS OF IMPLEMENTING THEM, THE CURRENT DIRECTION OF THE DEVS WILL NOT BE CHANGED DUE TO A LOT OF WORK HAVING BEEN ALREADY INVESTED IN CODING VTOL'S.

If you can model, feel free to make some models for them. Try looking at the gunships in BF2142 for inspiration for the BE aircraft, as models for the NF aircraft already exist. However, the mod is also missing an NF aircraft factory, and AA turrets for both the factions. In both these cases, try to base your models on already existing art, like the BE Airfactory and MG and ML turrets.