Ideas of how planes could be implemented in the game

[Caronte☭]

The planes would fight in 4 heights, low, medium, high and over the clouds, the last 2 would deal damage to pilots that dont have the required equipment and planes because of lack of oxygen. The way of changing those heights would be via the X and C buttons, like in land combat, and the more advanced the plane is, the more agile and faster is to change heights.
Planes can be hitted in the engines, which with enough damage, would mean death, can be hitted in the cabins, which means death, can be hitted in the tail, and with enough damage, it falls apart and means death, or be hitted in the body of the plane, which means that it gets slowed down because of aerodinamics.
The way they take off would be via the airport building, that would be like relics or townhalls in the way they are static in the map and can be destroyed and rebuild constantly, because airports are huge and it would be really difficult to find land to place an airport manually, making them this way would make them a valuable resource and a good sabotage point.
The way a normal plane take off would be is: A soldier gets near the airport and unpacks a plane, which is automatically deployed in a side of the landing track, from this there are 2 options, you take a crane and turn the plane into package to be transported via truck, or you get inside the plane and press E (while you are inside it) to go to the takeoff line of the track, there you have 2 options, press F to cancel the take off and return to the deployment point, or press E against to start the animation that will take you to the skies! After the animation you start in the low height, and from there you can ascend or stay on it and move in the skymap
The way you land is by getting near a airport and pressing F to start an animation that gets in queue if someone is doing the same animation, in that case you would just fly around the airport until the other guy finished landing, and when is your turn, your plane automatically goes to the landing side of the track and starts descending until you finally land. From there you get 2 options, go to a deployment point or go to the take off line (idk why you would want to take off inmediatly after landing, but it doesn´t hurt to have the option). side note, everyone who stays in the track while you land and take off gets run over, which means death.
The production of the planes would be in a Garage (this could be changed) and need to be transported by a truck and deposited in a airport inventory in order to be deployed and used, i dont really know how to balance their costs so i leave this part to each one imagination
Now, the way i think the combat would work the best, the way the plane move always forward (duh) and follows your cursor, pretty basic yes, the plane moves constantly in a X and Z axis and uses X and C buttons to move in the Y axis, but in order to make combat more engaging and tactic, you have a set of determined maneuvers that are accesed by pressing the LeftShift button, this maneuvers allows you to change height and direction by taking a bit of your pilots health if they are too dizzy inducing (like a fast U turn that gets the G forces to maximum) or by chaining multiple maneuvers too fast. Health while being a pilot is more of a conscientious bar than a health bar, because if you get hit by a plane round, you are most centaintly death, but going back to the maneuvers, they are triggered by holding down shift and pressing a button like WASD or others, pressing S would allow you to take a turn fast and go up 1 heigh and change direction, pressing shift and D would allow you to make a fast turn to the right and same with A but to the left, multiple maneuvers could be implemented to make air combat funnier and more engaging.
Anti-air positions would work similar to the planes height sistem, you see further or closer with the X and C and shot different kinds of rounds like with mortars, normal anti-air turrets would only be able to reach planes in the low and medium height, but a bigger and heavier turret would be able to reach the high one too. This turrets can be manned by playersor or AI in order to defend places without too much players available. This turrets would be produced like anti-inf turrets and deployed by crane
There would be different tipes of planes, fighters, close range bombers, medium range tactical bombers, long range strategic bombers, being so big that you can walk inside them instead of occupying a position like in a tank, this could mean, yes, paratroopers and supply shipped by air to behind enemy lines


Things i have to think about: Maybe a way of making cheaper planes in order to store them inside airports and have AI planes protecting big chunks of land, they would work the same as foxholes in the way they can be outsmarted by players but can be spammed in order to be effective
Maybe making the airport building an allrounder and give it a factory specified to produce planes and store them automatically in the airport inventory

Thanks for reading and i wait your thoughts :)

[Aaron]

I dont think the devs are capable of adding this to the game and make it work within the next 2 years neither do I think players who already dont like sudden death from artillery will like getting air bombed with accuracy

[Astral]

Yeah, Airplanes would either be destroyed easily by AI defenses or be too powerful for the current gameplay. The fact that you can't properly control your aim height in this game makes different z-level fights a living hell already, having to implement a vehicle that needs to change to an even bigger z-level would make it a bigger pain and you need to think on how that would reflect on the tech tree, right now instead of planes this game needs to give more love to the naval side.
The gunboats are nothing more than naval artillery which needs to turn the most exposed part of the boat towards the enemy to shoot.
Most of the Naval fights are 6 guys on a barge throwing grenades at other barges/buildings and using rifles to drive by shoot infantry that gets close to the coast.
Barges also seem to have enough armor that usually beat a gunboat in a fight due to the amount of grenades they can launch before the turret when the gunboat has that can disable the barge.

[Caronte☭]

Originally posted by Astral:

Yeah, Airplanes would either be destroyed easily by AI defenses or be too powerful for the current gameplay. The fact that you can't properly control your aim height in this game makes different z-level fights a living hell already, having to implement a vehicle that needs to change to an even bigger z-level would make it a bigger pain and you need to think on how that would reflect on the tech tree, right now instead of planes this game needs to give more love to the naval side.
The gunboats are nothing more than naval artillery which needs to turn the most exposed part of the boat towards the enemy to shoot.
Most of the Naval fights are 6 guys on a barge throwing grenades at other barges/buildings and using rifles to drive by shoot infantry that gets close to the coast.
Barges also seem to have enough armor that usually beat a gunboat in a fight due to the amount of grenades they can launch before the turret when the gunboat has that can disable the barge.

I mean, i really dont think boats are really a big need in the game, there is no need for naval combat because everything can be done by land combat, if there was a big sea or lake in the middle of the land map i would think otherway. but the map only has navigable rivers that leave little to naval combat and then the big seas in the borders, but thats why its not that important, its in the borders, aircombat isn´t needed neither, but it can be a great add to the game because it gives a lot more depth and strategy, naval can do that too, but the map is not really good for naval combat

[Caronte☭]

Originally posted by Ataaron:

I dont think the devs are capable of adding this to the game and make it work within the next 2 years neither do I think players who already dont like sudden death from artillery will like getting air bombed with accuracy

1) Obviously they cant do this in the proximity, its just an idea
2) There are lots of players that dont like a lot of things, artillery is a needed thing, they like it or not, and air bombardment is just a logical evolution to artillery, and air combat is a logical answer to air bombardment, players that dont like being bombarded by planes might love shooting them down just by raw fury, AA fire or even as a pilot destroying them while looking at the white of the pilots eyes
3) Air bombardment isn´t really that accurate, its more accurate that artillery? maybe, but its by far more dangerous and fun

[Wzrd]

Though I don't have FH yet I've been checking it out lately and every thing about it is great. Buying it when I have the time to sink into it. Aircraft were one thing I'd like to see, artillery was the other and I like how involved it is, as with every thing in the game. Mechs would be a fever dream as a classic planetside player. The first and most major hurdle here I have yet seen mentioned, the hex grid and loading into them, planes can't work until they finally make it one big world. But assuming that goal is reached.

On the topic of how Aircraft can be done I've seen most consider the major two problems are camera and z levels. And that's just to get them as drivable in game. How they would function is a huge can of worms. Airfields have been suggested as on map sites to spawn these things. Others say it should just be a call in and there not be any planes, just an illusion and a single use on target strike with a timer. Again I haven't played FH but it seems like the spirit of the game demands the entire supporting logistics chain be present, it can't be THAT deadly with out great effort, and airfields should be player built/maintained.

As for the camera, infantrymen have voiced concern about planes flying over and blocking their view. This is easy, most ground units unless specifically meant to shoot aircraft will only see the shadow pass by on the ground. This doubles as a bit of a warning, bombs may be coming. Once they do a little take off animation those in the plane are invisible save teh shadow to ground side and the camera can zoom further out than normal to give a sense of size and altitude while safely inhabiting a lower z level with out having to worry about multiple altitude levels and going sky high, just keep the planes over every thing else unless they are crashing/landing. Designated AA units and buildings like watch towers and other ATCs should be able to spot them too. Like artillery some kind of firing info can be relayed and acted upon. Though aircraft speed could make that hard or look stupid slow to allow counter play. Naturally AI emplacements should be able to effectively deter a reasonable amount of air activity in an area. Aircraft occupants should be able to see far but not able to see every thing. Ground units should be hard to see for the most part unless it's a building or land feature to keep aircraft from becoming angels of deaths gliding with impunity. They need to be told where to bomb by people that can relay that info. Bomber crews would need to plan flights with escort for raids, dive bombers need scout info to strike pinpoint targets ect ect. so long as it takes team work and cooperation it can add a lot to the game. As powerful as they are, aircraft require a lot of support to work effectively. It wouldn't be another jade cove, but the collective REEEing of a wasted bomber raid would be great.

[Napalm]

How about using the planes for strategic bombing of factories, airfields and refineries or whole cities. Not to bully those poor squishy infantry men on the ground. And would it be so terrible if the bombing runs were expensive and made like rocket attacks. The targets could build AA and shoot down the planes. But if some get trough they reek havoc. Planes get shot down or damaged and they will return but have to be repaired. More planes mean more bombers get trough on target. More AA means less bombers. Or if it would be possible to make the bomb run in similar fashion to the game Bomber Crew. With players inside the plane on the same level. Ground troops don't engage in planes and planes cannot bomb or strafe ground as stated above. But the battle in the sky would be more like open sea warfare with bombers and fighters. And ones the bombers are on target they can drop the bombs. Not sure if it would be fun or enjoyable game play. Or would it just be tedious waiting at the airfield for radar to pick up enemy bombers. Warp to the sky and drive around in a fast boat with machine guns. Or would it be fun and engaging to fly in heavy AA fire and shoot at fighters around the bomber and hope your plane reaches the target and can return.

[Lascannon]

Nope. Horrible idea. Before "more features" they need to fix pre-existing issues first.

[Siege Camp Mod]

Due to the age of this thread, this post will be locked moving forward. If there is a need to expand further on the conversation with new points, we encourage you to make a new thread.