hahahaha chahk anyway, pilot class has been shot down loads of times before, for good reason. people won't take aircraft and suicide them into the enemy base in the same way that people don't take a fully armoured heavy tank to get them past turrets.
As long as people aren't allowed to bail out, all is well. Besides, the ONLY class that's a serious worry behind enemy lines is a grenadier, since they can blowes up j00r CV. Other than that, there's just the scout omgsabotaging, and the engineer saying "LOL DECONSTRUCT UR BAES!" until someone raeps him in the face with a the bulletz. zumg.
Aircraft are diffrent than tanks in that you would need a fully armored tank to get through defenses, all you need is a paper air plane (no guns or armor = cheap, not that n00bs care anyway) to get to one side of the map quick, bail out and snipe/sabotage as a scout, build crap as the engy, kill people as a rifle men, etc. Dont even have to bail out, jut land your paper plane somewhere.
Again, I thought we WEREN'T including bailing out. I also imagine landing said plane might get fun if people start shooting at you...
bailing out will make it much much easier for people to fly over areas and abandon their vehicle. if you're tied to your vehicle until you can land it then you are going to care about it.
True and you can always fly so high that you are outside of turrets firing range and also so high that it is very hard for enemy grenadiers to use RPGs to shoot the plane down. Then you just quickly land the plane on top of enemy's barracks or somewhere and then start doing your stuff. Implementing pilot class would most likely fix this issue and you could only pistol melee enemies in their base when you are a pilot.
:p But I think you won't do that because I haven't seen anyone doing that while they are driving vehicles.
pilot class is a terrible idea. now GUESSING that people are going to use these expensive aircraft as taxis IS counterproductive, especially when it can lead to negativly effecting gameplay adjustments.
*sighs* I'm pretty sure my arguments are among past pages, or in irc logs, or in other topics or other forums, so I'm just going to give a brief overview of them: It's kindof important to let people bail out of a plane and survive the descent, if they do it in time. Why? Because not being able to isn't fun. It just sucks. FH for bf42 implemented a pilot class, and took the parachutes away from all of the other classes. In their case, it worked, because of what the mod tried to accomplish. It was still frustrating to not be able to bail if you didn't have the pilot kit, but it was acceptable because it fit in with the restrictive nature of much of the rest of the mod. Empires has a different focus. Furthermore, having a pilot class, and then not getting a plane? Also annoying as hell. Worried about aircraft being abused, leading to a dramatic loss of money for the team when random people crash them? Commander restrictions, problem solved. Worried about kamikaze attacks? Not letting people bail out will only make them worse, because then they get to consciously steer the plane towards stuff, rather than be worried about saving their own skin. etc, etc.
If you bail as a pilot class, what are you doing for your team? any class you come across will kill you. but this isn't real life, where at least you have your life. If you're not doing damage to the enemy, you are wasting your team's time as a player on that team. instead of being a useful class, you serve NO PURPOSE other than to die or get another vehicle. you would be FAR better off suiciding than just surviving. imagine playing tank wars seriously: other than to deny the other person a kill, is there any purpose (suppose you are an engineer) in getting out of your tank once it's dead? your team would be better off with you just getting another tank to push the game forward, in which case you might as well have died inside your tank. basically: being a pilot class means that as soon as your time in the aircraft is over, your useful time on the game is over. it nerfs ninjas but it also nerfs all fun that can be had surviving a crash and being part of your team on the ground again. ------------------------------------------------ now to the crash landing suggestion: think of crash landing as an alternative to being able to just jump out. instead of popping out your vehicle in midair, it soon reaches zero health and disappears in a cloud of smoke- the vehicle reaches zero and continues into the minus numbers. at zero, throttle cuts out and as it gets towards -100 it looses more and more control. you can still survive an impact, if you're lucky and manage to hit the ground well, which will depend on how you have guided in into a safe crash landing after it's destroyed.
Oh I am certainly thrilled with the idea of half piloting your flaming aircraft to the ground. The view from a soldier looking up to see a flaming aircraft streaking towards them only to strike the ground, bounce up and slam into a BE tank as the pilot hops out is worth the work alone. As far as restricting airport access, you cant really choose who get a plane once you unlock it, if there is a n00b and a good player standing there at the same time its only a race to see who spawns it first. Just look at BF2 to see how long n00bs will wait around doing nothing untill they have a chance for an aircraft. You could turn into a pilot class when you get into the aircraft but then need an armory to turn back. Perhaps also credit your team with a ticket if you survive a crash? or give your self rank points?
I still think a pilot should be a completely seperate, ahead-chosen class with just a pistol or something. I'd learn to fly a plane, and why would you need big guns, if you're at an enemy base they'll spawn faster than you can keep them from killing you.
If we're only going to worry about the chance of noobs ruining the game, we might as well have a forum only password for entrance into the CV I find a pilot class just silly. Aircraft factories can be locked right? Thats one of the best noob prevention tactics. About ninjas, well how hard is it for a scout to get in a jeep, drive as far as possible then sneak deeper into enemy territory. Of course the difference is time, but well placed radar and turrets should prevent most ninjas. These are legitimate worries, but not legitimate solutions
I think that the pilot class should show up only on the dedicated 16x aircraft maps. Then, that class would be the only one with a 'chute, or maybe specific skills like plane speed or armor bonus. Or better yet, make the parachute a skill, so you have to be a really good pilot to survive being shot down. EDIT: I like this ^ idea the mostest. On the smaller maps with the gunships and other airplanes not designed to play a primary role, the planes would then be more balanced against the aircraft as the pilots wouldn't have the chute/armor bonus/whatver plane-flying incentive the pilot class gets.
Radars won't spot scouts when they use hide. And even one grenadier in your base can do bad damage to your barracks when he just knows what to do. So when aircrafts come in all grenadiers can get a plane and fly in your base and start to place mines on top of your rax or somewhere and then blow them up and finish the structure at rockets. It is a lot easier to get in enemy base when there're aircrafts or we'll need anti air guns with extreme range to take down those planes which are flying as high as possible and then crash landing in your base. To prevent this airplane ninjaing in my opinion chaning to pilot class, when you enter an aircraft, is just smart. Edit: Let's save this thread and when aircrafts get in and there's no pilot class we can always show this to you and show how you were against the pilot class and now (when aircrafts are in) you whine how your base is getting ninja'd by grenadiers in planes.
