TrashMan

Why is the limit jarring? Any game will have some kind of a limit. Any. And dropships do have a large cargo capacity so they CAN and DO carry extra stuff. So how does carrying an extra missile launcher in the dropship remove tension? You dont' know what you'll encoutner. And you still need to run back to the dropship and take the extra equipment.

Pistol is a big big. 2x2 would be proper (at least for the starting pistol)

I second the option to destroy downed UFOs with an airstrike if necessary.

agreed

Not a big effort. Citites are already on the map. All that's needed is the refueling ability aded to them. Either way you put it, a Chinnok really shouldn't have the continental range. At least for fighter planes there is Air Refueling options (which I don't think work for helicopters, but they can always land anywhere)

Just give dropships the abiltiy to land in cities and refuel. That way you can hop from city to city to your destination and effectively reach any place on the globe.

Two suggestions: 1) Storage locker inside of the dropship. That will enable you to take extra ammo/equipment on a mission and run back to the dropship to ressuply if necessary or if tactical conditions change. 2) Worldmap structures. If anyone played UFO: AI they know what I'm talking about The ability to build structures on the wroldmap. All of these minor installations are self-contained and can be attacked and destroyed by aliens (automatic, no player impute here) The structures could be: - Radar tower (smaller range than the base radar, but cheaper) - airstrip/fuel depot (aircraft/dropships can land ther to ressuply, effectively increasing their range by hopping from depot to depot) - UFO yard? - SAM site?

I would think that improving variety would add to the vanilla game. If the game currently only has 3 missles then indeed it doesn't do much.

Armor makes a difference in real life too. Not much difference in most cases, but just enough. There are accoutns of heavily damaged aircraft that survived missile hits and still managed to land IIRC.

Also, assuming we get pilots (yes please), how would they function? How is gun accuracy determined? How would piltos advance? For one, I think piltos should be simpler than soldiers. I don't see them needing more than a few stats: accuracy - make their guns more accurate evasion - makes them harder to hit electronic warfare - makes the mebtter at avoiding missiles and getting their missiles trough?

The current system only has only 3 broad weapon categories. Normal slot accepts only normal missiles - ALL of them Heavy accept every missile - ALL of them cannon accepts ALL cannons. If you don't see how that is limiting, I can't help you. For example, KV-13 and AIM-9 - both normal missiles. You can't have an aircraft that can accepts only one of them. You cannot make a fighter that will be limited to only a specific cannon (or cannons).

Assuming the armor is of uniform thickness everywhere? Hardly. There will always be gaps in armor, as nneessitated by the drive systems, sensors, doors/hatches, etc... I don't see nothing strange about a notion that 4 missiles can't bring it down by 40 can. History is full of examples like that.

How would it make it less predictable if you already know that your missiles arne't good enough? I don't see it happening.

What? Limiting specific missiles/weaposn to specific craft. It gives modders finer control and freedom. Basilcy EVERYTHING the current system can accomplish can just as easily be accomplished with what I say - expect it only requires 1 line in the aircraft entry. List only light missiles and the aircraft can only mount light ones. List all of them and it can mount all. List only heavy and the aircraft can only mount heavy. Why would I want every aircraft to be able to mount every missiles/gun? It doesn't work that way in the real world. I don't recall a F16 or a MIG being able to a mount a AIM54, do you?

Open aircraft.xml. Find F-14 Replace the missile loadout with 4 cannons. Replace the cannosn and missile numbers. Done. <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0" ss:Height="13.5"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s65"><Data ss:Type="String">airplane.human.f14</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">200</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">20</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">22000</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">2480</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">600</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">40</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">15</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">1</Data></Cell> <---- 4 cannons, not 1 <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">0</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">2</Data></Cell> <----- set missiles to 0 <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">30,48;43,48;46,29</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">0</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">0</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:Index="16"><Data ss:Type="Number">200</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">0.4</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s66"><Data ss:Type="Number">75000</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">19.100000000000001</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">11.65</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">18100</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">40</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s65"><Data ss:Type="String">2x TF30-PW-414A</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s65"><Data ss:Type="String">F-14A Tomcat</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">58000</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">AV.M61VULCAN;AV.AIM7E;AV.AIM7E</Data></Cell> <--every entry shuld be AV.M61VULCAN <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">350;300;260;60;260;390</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s65"><Data ss:Type="String">aircraft/f14</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s65"><Data ss:Type="String">aircraft/aircombat/f14</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">70</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s68"><Data ss:Type="String">Yes</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">1</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Yes</Data></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s68"><Data ss:Type="String">No</Data></Cell> <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Yes</Data></Cell> </Row>

I'm sure the developers are burning with the desire to fix the game, but don't consider this a hotspot.

Because it's a game and armor actually does make a difference.

It did, I just thought it should be standard for a game. Makes aircraft more survivable and usefull in long-term.

I don't see it happening. I've yet to see a modern aircraft that is immune to 20mm bullets. F4 Phantoms CAN shoot down a Falnker or whatever craft you use. Yes, a more modern fighter can outrun them - but if it's running away, then it isn't doing what it's supposed to. Effectively, you chansed him away. A victory for you. But it can't run away forever nor can it keep it's afterburner on. Assuming it gets into a fight - it has to head towards your fighters..effectively closing the range - dodging missiles means evasive manuvers. Which means slower speed, which means the F4's get to close in. In the end the modern fighter would be ripped apart (but not before taking out a few F4's)

The more I think about it the more I like the decision.

A good adition to the game would be to get rid of heavy and normal missile slots and just have a missile slot. BUT, in addition, either have a list of mountable missiles in the aircraft entry, or a list of aircraft a missile can be mounted to in the missile entry. Example for an aircraft entry: <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">AV.AIM9D;AV.AIM7E;AV.AAMRAM120</Data></Cell> Or for a missile entry: <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">F14;F15;F16</Data></Cell> This basicly allows you to be very granular with restrictions and allow for finer fine-tuning and balancing, as well as a greater weapon loadout. The weapons a fighter cannot mount would simply be grayed out on the list (or not shown at all) ***** Missile having more than x1 ammo. This gives fighters some longer-term utility. A fighter that can only carry 2 (or4) missiles is pretty useless. With the way the system currently works, if missles had x2 or x3 ammo, a single battle would play pretty much the same because of lock times - so you'd rarely be able ot fire off more than 1 salvo anyway. However, it would leave fighters with enough teeth after the battle to persue another objective - or to defend themselves if intercepted by alien fighters. **** Special weapons & fighter abilties. Things like multi-lock. Basilcy add a entry to both aircraft and weapon Example: <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Multilock3</Data></Cell> This would basicly give a fighter/missile the multilock ability (lvl3) - in other words it can track, lock and fire missiles at 3 separate targets. In order to work, the aircraft and the missile must BOTH have this ability...or not. Other abilities could include long-range radar and guadance (basicly means the lock is attained from long range and you have missile lock at start of combat..only works with long-range missiles), different trypes of tracking, etc.. This gives options and variation. ** Also, pilots & pilot experience. This a given.

It kills fighters easily. Agaisnt a radar scout? It dies interestingly enough. Cannon-based dogfighters need speed (to get in range faster), huge manouverability and armor.

A good adition to the game would be to get rid of heavy and normal missile slots and jsut have a missile slot. BUT, in addition, either have a list of mountable missiles in the aircraft entry, or a light of aircraft a missile can be mounted to in the missile entry. Example: <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">AV.AIM9D;AV.AIM7E;AV.AAMRAM120</Data></Cell> This basicly allows you to be very granular with restrictions and allow for finer fine-tuning and balancing, as well as a greater weapon loadout. This, combined with missile ammo, and the ability for fighter crat & missiles to multi-lanch/multi-lock (a special feature) would make the game much more awesome.

As I said - simply having missiles come with 2X ammo makes aircraft more survivalbe and usable, without affecting encounter balance.

Aicraft Mod isn't mine.