Parachutes & Aircraft abilities

Real men take out airplanes with stickybombs.

 

Well, if you ejected above them and you had one handy... it could happen. I've played Battlefield games where I took out gunships with my AV rifle from a parachute.

 

Dude! We're building factories with freaking calculators! We can make the MG's look up and the ML's lock onto anything that is flying through the air. I'm trying to balance the class out: being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound vs. not being able to avoid the missiles locking on to you in mid-leap or the hail of lead that is waiting for you as you land.

 

take in mind that empires is set in an approximate ww2 setting... which is why there arn't lazers and shields. I'm not opposing this suggestion persay, just mentioning this. this isn't tribes.

 

WW2? No, I think Empires is supposed to be near future. I remember some dev mentioned that NF battleships (when implemented) will look modern, while BE battleships will look futuristic.

 

Empires is set in a near-future alternate universe.

More precisely, it's set among civilizations on a planet generally similar to Earth, which have achieved a level of technology that we would characterize as "near future."

 

Well let me just go back & reexplain myself, I want something that will slow down your decent, like when you're free-falling you press SPACE or something & it activates your "slow down thruster" thing (Boots, small "backpack", magic bubble?)
as long as SPACE or whatever is pressed, & when you let go you go back to free-falling, of course you'll have limited "fuel" so you'll have to spend it wisely & it'll give you something to do compared to parachute where you just wait til you hit the ground, someone shoots you out of the air... or you get hit by a plane (happened to me once in BF2 :p).

Kinda like this in terms of slowing down your decent, not so much the auto deploy though (Skip to 6:00 & watch to the end).

 

You mean like AAT's?

 

No just a device that will slow down your decent at will, not propel you 50 feet in the air. Perhaps as an skill upgrade or a research option.

 

No parachutes.

While undoubtedly cool for coordinated airborne assaults, the vast majority of times it will only be used to bail out for taxi services. It dissuades people from building jets, fly off, bail out and waste the jet.

It won't solve all the problems since people can still land and get out, kamikaze etc, but it adds a little bit more believability.

Jetpacks simply don't fit into the universe and would cause a heap of other problems, especially in the mapping department.

 

1. Jetpacks fit into this universe over 60 years ago. There simply wasn't a practical power plant available at the time. Now that there are better working models being developed, they are being looked at again.
2. From a programming angle, I can tell you that adding jetpacks isn't difficult. Granted, new models & behaviors would be necessary, but nothing that can't be done, given a bit of time.
3. The only thing about the maps that would have to change is to make sure that there is at least 100 feet of clearance for the sky, which there would have to be anyhow, to fit the aircraft.

If there is something specific that you know and I don't, I would appreciate you letting me know, as I must confess to being somewhat mystified as to the resistance I am getting to the idea of jetpacks. Perhaps it's because we have different ideas of what they are. I agree that having a bunch of noobs whipping around above the battlefield like hummingbirds on crack would be down-right annoying. I am not coming from the perspective of something like Pilot Wings, but of Tribes and Mechwarrior, where they aren't for flying, but more like extended jumping...with style. Here is a link to Tribes that you can try out to see what I mean. (NOTE: Jetpacks for Empires would only have enough non-renewing fuel for a single (safe) arc reaching 100 feet or so in altitude, and skiing wouldn't be an option. Take note of how the (somewhat) accurate physics makes sharp turns pretty much impossible.) They wouldn't be some ubergimmick by ANY stretch of the imagination.

 

Jetpacks don't fit in the Empires universe, they might fit in our own universe.

 

I don't know, it's just... there's such a cool factor to being able to jump off an airplane or off of a building and into action. Something I've always wanted in an FPS is an air transport vehicle with a physical interior. Like, you're not just in one of the predefined seats, you're actually standing in the space inside the vehicle. Then, you get ready for action as that back hatch slowly opens...

You can't deny it, paratrooping is fun. Maybe if you just give one-use parachutes to the passengers (to avoid the bail-taxi problem) of air transports? It would certainly be a lot cooler than getting dropped in a freaking box.

 

Realistically walking/standing around inside a moving aircraft would probably not be possible with the Source engine (or at least on this current generation of the Source engine) as the passengers would be constantly sliding around as the aircraft moves, and during turns, clipping through the aircraft altogether and falling out.

 

Yeah, I know that that particular aspect isn't possible. But, still. Box.

...Although, I suppose 'boxes' worked for 2142.

 

try bf2142 or bf2, that's got exactly the parachutes you're talking about.

 

I like my soft landing shoes skill idea.. Would make jumping from buildings or cliffs on isle fun and tactical with out being like bf

 

...and said 'box' could have the ammo and med boxes of an armory...

Sorry, buddy, but parachuting into or near an enemy position in such an uncluttered landscape as this game has is a BAD idea. As I come down, I want to hear the rattle of small arms fire and feel the thump of missiles hitting my well armored box, with the same feeling as watching a howling blizzard through a picture window from a rug in front of my fireplace - it's out there, and I'm in here. Salut!

 

Well I just want to start out by saying GREAT GAME to the devs, you guys did a freakin awesome job, picked this up yesterday and having a blast. :D


Now, belieave it or not, I actually just made this account for the sole purprose of responding to this thread, I was very interested by the promise of aircraft in this game, but more into detail, paratrooping. Oh sweet gods how paratrooping is either ignored or fixed so you cant change anything, which is why I think i'm gonna be hooked on Empires for a long time, but I just have a few questions.


1. I've read the box idea, and how is this going to work phyiscs wise? Ok I got the part where you can climb into the box or somthing, but how are you seeing outside the plane? How do you eject? And furthermore, wont the physics cause the boxs to probably land on it's side or somthing? That could cause some probelems in tight maps or even in just some areas, APCs can get similar problems when bunched up, unable to leave the damn thing.


2. I still dont see why Jetpacks or some kind of thruster to slow your descent isn't worth it, to me, it'd be alot less work, alot less codeing, to stop the taxi-kamikaze, make it so only an engineer can fly a plane if you can do that, then I say make a seperate paratrooper class as what was suggested before, and only they can have access to this tech which allows them to land safely on the ground.


3. YOU GUYS ROCK! ((Yes i'm a suck-up

EDIt: Oh I almost forgot, I know this is unlikely, but what if there was an upgrade or somthing a dropship could get so it can carry a barracks or armory? It'd be neat to see a dropship pick it up and transport it somwhere else..Only problem is the people who spawn during the trip XDD Still, you could have it so it's a pre-built building or some such, then the dropship, at the expense of all it's cargo and some resources, could transport it elsewhere


:dead_nf: :cry: :dead_nf: :dead_nf: :dead_nf:

M-M

Victory to the empire.