Lessons how not to crash

This problem is often in Arcade battles and so I suggest this for AB only.

We often see how some players hit ground or ram some other player. These are such very basic things which a good pilot shouldn't do. But to become good pilot we need to learn from our mistakes. Hence my suggestion is to create lessons which would be auto created and fit for the situation where the AB pilot failed.

If the pilot goes too fast and he hits another player being it enemy or ally, his crew should be blocked for a week until he goes through training. Same if he hits ground without a reason. Good reason is when your aircraft if damaged so you could not get control over the aircraft or your pilot lost consciousness because of G-force limit.

The training would learn HOW NOT TO CRASH. The pilot should repeat the training before he can continue to play :-) He should try it at least 3 times. In the case that he fails the lesson, then we can forgive him after 24 hours. But until then he cannot use the crew which failed.

The training would simulate the situation from the last game where the pilot failed. If it were in mountain, there will be mountains. He would fly the same situation. If it were in high speed, his task would be to slow down and then attack (prevent attack in high speed in mountains if you face a hill)... And so on.

There could be dozens of training like this for both fighters, bombers or attackers. Depending on what kind of mistake pilot did in the previous game he would get special lesson to learn to fly. This would solve the problem absolutely because you would solve the cause and not the result! So his crew couldn't be used until he finish his training. And then he could even get some SL when he succeed the lesson! Great motivation.

There could be such mission creator which would help to create such training lessons. This could work automatically. The program would generate map which you flew, with the targets which there were on the map 2 or 3 minutes before you crashed. It is possible to detect which target you were attacking, on what you were shooting because we have the game record. The program would create new tasks for you base on your last targets which you were attacking.

So you would not play the map with the original tasks (targets). The targets would be limited just to your area (e.g. radius of 5km on ground). The program would modify the map to set the target what you tried to destroy within last 2-3 minutes.

Also there would be enemy and friendly AI aircrafts in the zone you were moving (the air target zone could be radius 10km). They would have the same modifications as they had and they would be so much good as the human players were in the game. Program can analyze how good they were when aiming, shooting, etc shooting... and then take these abilities and simulate the situation in air or ground.

Also your direction of flight would be mandatory. This means that if you headed to North, you must head to north and not to south to fulfill the mission task.

Your operating altitude should be mandatory too, based on the altitude you operated before. E.g. if you tried to destroy tanks, your operating altitude must be about 0-500m if you crashed in 0m. But if you crashed in mountains in alt. 500m, while trying to drop bombs, your allowed operating altitude would be 250-750m to fulfill the mission task. This way hundreds of situation could be created, ordered into folders for bombers, attackers and fighters and based on the task you did - bombing attack on tanks, shooting attack on moving GF or killing enemy aircrafts.

I believe it should not be so hard to create such program to create lessons for pilots. It would be great because you could repeat the situation where you failed. Of sure you would fly with and against AI aircrafts, but if their skills would be improved according to human skills they could show much more then are the current AI pilots.

Also it would be great motivation to learn to fly with a calm mind and not just very fast and risky like my life has no price.

Environment improvements

My suggestion is to add cows to few locations which are suitable, to make the game looking more funny and interesting. Also more realistic. There are no animals in game, which is very unrealistic. This would be a little bit to make it look nicer. You already have villages many details so why not to add domestic animals there too. Also dogs could be added :-)

Aiming improvement for AB

I would like to see voluntary option what would enable this type of aiming.

If I would aim in completely wrong direction or too far from the target to get successful shot, the circle would be as normal.

If I start aiming but I am too late (aircraft's nose is down too much) there would be big aiming circle which is semi-transparent. This says to me that I need to get the nose up to correct the aiming. When I get better and closer to the correct aiming the circle will get better visible, less transparent. When I get yet better, the circle will get less radius and yet less visible. When my aiming is approximately correct, the circle wouldn't be visible at all. This does not include direction but only the nose angle.

This would be help to people which want to try realistic games without aiming circle. As now it is big step to go from AB using aiming circle to RB where the circle is missing.

Get the nose up!

Get the nose up!

Get the nose up!

Slightly better, but still get the nose up!

This is approximately enough. Direction correction is now up to you.

Current aiming.

Voluntary aiming option

Match Maker improvement

I want to suggest better balance for those aircrafts which are not fully modified. The improvement could be for Arcade Battles only. The suggestion is to allow users join game mode that will make match which will be more balanced regarding modifications.

The modifications of aircraft would be valued as so:

1) bombs, rackets or torpedoes are not included into valuation

2) the researched and enabled modifications would be valued as 1

3) the sum would be made

Example:

Total points 0

Sum = 3

Sum = 5

Sum = 10

Sum = 10

The last two are fully modified aircrafts and so they couldn't join the match. But the previous two could join match because they are not fully modified. 

The match would be made like so:

The players which has same points would join match together. If you have 3 airplanes with unfinished modifications, then you can take them to match, but you cannot use the last two which are... stronger. Also you could use only the aircrafts with modifications which have same points in the same level of aircraft. 

There also could be different way to find out if the aircraft is suitable for match. I would add exception for completed tiers like this: for every completed tier you will get extra point. If you have 2 tiers completed so you have 2 extra points. If you have 3 tiers completed so you have 3 points. This would simplified finding the match.

Here I give another example. My worst aircraft in presets has only 5 modifications researches, so this is 5 points. So I have to uninstall some modifications from the airplanes to get 5 points in all of them.

P40E-1 has the minimum points

I uninstall some modificatons to get 5 points on P36-A

P36-C

F3F-2

and P-26B-36

Now I can click on Ballanced Battle and the game would start.

The aircrafts in the match could be either level I-V or I-II or I-III or II-III or III-IV or II-V or IV-V or separate level (I, II, III, IV or V). If you would not want to join the one, you would just rotate the menu to get different choice. The menu could be auto selected for you based on the aircrafts which you have in your preset.

Trajektorie letu bomby

Mission notepad banner

Mission notebook (notepad)

I would like to write some notes to every map which would be for my own use.

Example for use of such notes - as a bomber I would use them to remember such things like what tanks are in the mission, how fast they go in particular area and what they can do. I would remember some insidiousness of the terrain where I will bomb them. I also would remember the best delays for bomb fuses which I should use in that particular map. Currently I am typing this information on my blog so if I start the game I will minimize the game and read them online. Then I am switching back. Also when I want to make any note I do it. This way I am a bit delayed. To have this notes directly in the game would be better.

Another use of the notebook / notepad would be I could write there the speed needed to take off, the speed needed to land and the speed when flaps tear off.

Here is example of the notepad:

This notes would be save in separate txt file for every mission so no problem to back it up in zip archive.

If you will do it please remember to keep the font big enough not too have it too small or bad readable.

Notice: You could add many other information into the notepad like maps etc. Something what I already suggested here: Dialog windows in game (Map, Statistics, Commands) [performance]. This means, you could even use M hotkey for it. User will switch to map or to notes depending on what kind of information he needs. The notepad however should support writing notes during game.

Messages to report speed of tanks (for bombers)

This problem is problem of bombers using delayed fuses. Often I have bomber and I want to drop a bomb on a tank (AI tanks in AB). But before I start the attack I need to know how fast the tank moves. I need to take a some fighter and go there to see if it goes very slowly, slow, normal, fast or very fast. The problem I see now - when I lost my only fighter, I cannot go there to check the speed of the target. I have bombers which are expensive (the repair costs are expensive) and I have only one try so I need to know the speed before I start the game with the bomber which I selected. I don't want to lose my bomber without unsuccessful hit.

So this is the problem - if you don't know how fast it goes, you cannot precisely choose the best delay/fuse for the bombs. My rule for bombing moving target is like this: If the tank goes slowly, I can use 5s or 6s delay. If it goes really fast, I need to choose 2 or 3 seconds. If it goes very slow, I can choose 7s or 8s. This is the best option for me to get 90% hit success.

So when I don't have fighter to explore the target, so I cannot start with bomber. I would just waste SL. I asked player who already tried to bomb if the tank goes slow or fast. But I got no answer. I think they don't speak English because there is a lot of Russians on the RU servers.

My suggestion is that there would be build in radio messages which would enable
1) to communicate a certain team mate by selection the blue aircraft and send message
2) to ask teammate what is the speed of the amoured vehicles (tanks) nearby.
3) to answer in the way: 1) very slow 2) slow 3) normal or medium 4) fast 5) very fast

This should build communication between the mates which are of different nation and don't speak English.

Note:
I know there exists already suggestion for radio messages, I also support that one, but I want to underline the meaning of cooperation of the team and the problem of bombers. This problem is strategy issue. If the players cannot communicate because of language barrier, then just add more radio messages to achieve the mission target.

Also please stop redrawing the moving GF when there ain't teammates nearby! This is so unrealistic! It would be better if players go to the position and make a bit of exploring before start the attack. I would welcome if players would be motivated if survey aircrafts would be used to locate positions of the moving targets (tanks, AA vehicles, light vehicles). Perhaps a small reward (10 points) there could be if a fighter without bombs would make low altitude overflight over the tanks (having condition watching the target at least for 3s). Just to update the enemy positions on the map.

GF Targets banner

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Russian ammo PTAV 2.5kg with 1.5 explosives

PTAV 2.5kg with 1.5 kg of explosives

Different marks for the ground targets

I would like to suggest that the marks for ground targets would to be marked differently, especially for AB. But first, what I mean my mark? I mean the red/orange symbol on map, which highlights the target and also the highlighting in the pilot's view (cockpit view or aircraft view). 

The current WT allow us to shoot on GF which are hidden after trees or buildings. In AB we see where the vehicles are located and we see if it moves or have stopped. This is highly unrealistic. Here, in AB mode, I suggest to change the markings like so:



You cannot see the tanks when you are in level flight in low altitude. You need to climb and then go down to see them, where they are. In AB you would have this markings, so you still know they are there, but you cannot shoot exactly to the position because you don't know the exact location. You also cannot find out if the tanks are standing or they have stopped.

Similar the tanks should not see this aircraft's mark if you are behind some object. They would see a mark, but not that exact like in current version.

I suggest one more thing. The way how GF forces can report exact coordinates of the enemy positions to AF. What I mean by reporting is updating the position information on map. The current way is not realistic because you see the movement of the targets on map. I suggest to see only that location which has been reported.

In AB you should not see the individual red marks until they are seen by GF or allied plane. They would report the position either manually or from short distance automatically.

This means, the reported positions wouldn't move ever (until someone updates it)! You know the last reported position, you fly there, and then you need to find the target and locate it (report it automatically in AB). Once you have found the target, the arrow red/orange mark will appear in the position at AB. This helps your orientation in the space. Now you need to fly in appropriate direction to shoot on target. This means you would need to fly more like in real life. You need to slow down, meet terrain, make turn, and then you can attack. Of sure if the object is hidden in forest, this would be harder for you to find it.

This is similar to the real life when someone on the ground must report coordinates of the target in the radio. In realistic battles, you could make this even harder, that the arrow would be placed higher and less visible:



In RB Events or SB, you would have it a bit more harder. Aircrafts would not be possible to locate the target accurately. The accuracy of the reported coordinates/position would depend on the speed of aircraft and altitude. The faster you fly and the higher, the less accurate it would be. If you make 600 kmh pass at 200m AGL, then the coords won't be accurate, because you spend too little time watching the position.

In RB Events or SB, you would need to report the targets manually if they changed position. Either the way, that you target/aim them, or the way, that you use binoculars to locate the unit. If you would come to already reported position and you would not find the target, it would be automatically updated in the map, that the position is not valid and needs to be updated (the color of the mark could fade until someone update it).

In SB you could make it yet more realistic if it would be harder do distinguish friendly units from enemy units. For SB I would suggest to place the mark yet a bit higher. The main idea is to make it harder to distinguish between blue and red units for AF. Because in real life it was often hard when pilots failed to identify enemy/friend units. The friend units should have a possibility to send a urgent report to stop AF attack when such confusion would happen. It would not be nice, but it would be more dramatic (more thrilling).

Conclusion
This solution means simplification. Instead of seeing 6x the same type of unit, you see only one information on one place, better visible, better readable - you know it's there. This means, that you can attack, but you must to check carefully what you are attacking. Is it real vehicle or is it a wrack?