[V8.0 Air Combat] Suicide MIG

[GrumpySage]

MIG had fired all missiles and caught up with a fleeing UFO. It proceeded to ram it, destroying itself and doing no damage to the UFO.

[kelevra]

That doesn't sound like a bug, that sounds like a russian with too much vodka.

[Chris]

I imagine what happened was that it flew through the UFO, into its firing arc and was shot by the UFO which destroyed the MiG. Because they were so close together you wouldn't have seen the projectile. There's no collision detection in the game so they wouldn't have crashed into each other.

We need to stop planes from overshooting their targets thought, they do it all the time and it's not exactly smart flying.

[Moonshine Fox]

We need to stop planes from overshooting their targets thought, they do it all the time and it's not exactly smart flying.

Apologies if I sound like a total moron now (haven't played enough of air combat), but shouldn't that be easily solvable simply by allowing the player to adjust airplane speed by pulling the heading line forwards or backwards (kinda like Steambirds)? That would put that power in the hands of the player, and still allow overshooting as a tactic (hey, you never know when it could be useful). Or are we talking about the UFOs overshooting player planes?

[Moonshine Fox]

Think I need to bump this for my question here. Soz

[Chris]

The air combat isn't turn based so the aircraft heading dot just shows destination rather than speed. At the moment there's no speed setting for aircraft beyond Afterburners on / off. Possibly we should add that, but I'm struggling for GUI space.

[Moonshine Fox]

Wouldn't that be "simple" to add by using the header marker length for speed? Make it so that the header pin cannot be longer or shorter than max/min speed and use it to control airplane speed? That way you are using present GUI elements without adding unnecessary complexity.

Or am I completely in the dark here?

[Sathra]

Considering I have no idea what you're talking about, there is a concern as to how you educate players on how to do this. Case in point, it isn't immediately obvious that you can control the planes in the current build (as some players have been stunned to find out).

[anotherdevil]

Taking ideas from another person, then elaborating a bit. Not sure who came up with the original (Jean-Luc??) but credit where credit's due if they see this:

Perhaps a slider for speed would be best. Slow, cruise, engagement, chase and afterburner speed setting should do, though you could always add more if you need to.

This will allow you to (hopefully) match speeds with the aliens (if they use the same speeds). Suppose they are going at engagement speed and you need to catch up, go faster, or afterburner! Then hold at engagement when in range...

This could also add another small dimension of tactics, the slower you go the easier it is to get a lock on, and if you're going afterburner you cannot lock on at all! Nothing too drastic, just something that makes a bit more tactics, and adds more to the air combat while not detracting. And it shouldn't slow down air combat either hopefully!

Thoughts?

[Moonshine Fox]

Here's an example of the "pull the heading indicator" from Steambirds:

[Akavit]

I'd suggest using settings like those in X-Com or UFO:ET for speed. You just choose flying modes and the planes will do their best to keep a predetermined distance from the UFO.

Perhaps afterburner, normal and engagement settings. The engagement setting would have the fighter attempt to maintain the proper distance based upon the range of its weaponry.