Pilot Characters

[KG26_Alpha]

Hmm

I see it now.............

E-bay

Sow pilot for sale:
G resistant 10
Vision 10
Hearing 10
Hero Status 100+
Pulling power = celeb status. ( some translation might be needed )
Alcohol tolerance = Elephant.

[Former_Older]

Originally Posted by usagold2004

Would anyone entertain the idea of having pilot characters? Like in some new shooter games where you gain points which you can spend on character atributes...

in a flying game, maybe you could upgrade your pilots eye sight, or boost his G tolerance, or maybe he could be mechanically skilled and get a little extra horse power out of the engine...

throw in your ideas or shoot it down. fights on

This is almost precisely what Combat Flight Simulator 3 introduced, and it was poor in concept.

The idea of making a pilot more individual is laudable and desirable, but the execution of it is always a problem. What we're talking about here is more like an RPG...boosting eyesight? Nonsense, this didn't happen...G Tolerance? Again, fantasy, the pilot was trained and his personal tolerance is his personal tolerance, end of story. Those two 'stats' are straight out of CFS3 and that system was awful in the opinion of many people. "mechanical skills" are pretty useless in the cockpit. Engine controls are available, that's all you're manipulating in the pilot's seat. My knowledge of the internal combustion engine never made my car faster while I was driving it

The fidelity of the system by which an individual 'character pilot' has strong and weak points may be useful for named non-player aces, but for a human? Firstly, nobody wants to be at a disadvantage, and while it may make the game 'more interesting' for some by introducing this RPG aspect, the sim should be about simulating reality. As I've noted, "boosting" eyesight is science-fiction, not fact. In addition, this lends itself to 'plus stacking' where the only goal is the "best build": "plz help. My 4th level OKL char is porked, what did I do rong?"

The only thing such a system could do is make a novelty accessible to players, and only at first. Two months into the game, every player will know how to 'stack pluses properly', and then every Pilot Player Character will be exactly the same- just like they are now in Il2, with zero time money and effort spent. Then development time and resources will be spent on "fixing" the PPC system, becasue of the complaints or exploits, and all we'll have to show for all of this is the same, perfectly level playing field we have right now

Bad idea in my opinion, waste of time, effort, money, and it makes high expectations that can't be met.

[usagold2004]

Older:

I think you are right about the exploitation where ultimately people will figure out how to stack the skills and it would be a novelty for a short while only

as far as eye sight and spotting targets, g tolerance increase, and mechanical ability...those are not fantasy as you say.

Two pilots with identical eyesight but differing experience levels will pick out other planes at different rates. the more experienced pilot will usually find them first.

g tolerance is a practiced technique where most people will be able to increase their g-tolerance through practice and experience

mechanical ability will give one pilot an advantage over another. chuck yeager is a good example. in order to get his jet to go faster than a competitors jet, he had his tail pipe bent to give him more thrust.

[choctaw111]

I don't really think the pilot attributes is a good idea.
The pilot attributes that we have now are simply as good as we are able to fly.
That is to say that not all simmers have the same skill.
Oleg has already said that Il2 is not a sim where everyone can become an ace or a good pilot.
That is determined only by the players skill.
Not the same when you can fly long enough, get pilot attribute skills and wind up having better "skills" than a more experienced pilot. Even then a seasoned pilot may win a dogfight over someone who just has pilot attributes.
A good pilot can win dogfights in an aircraft that has poor performance compared to a mediocre pilot in a better plane.

[Oktoberfest]

Worst idea ever.

Experience you gain while flying. We all started rookie. Some stayed rookie after 6 years of flying and some became aces. We have all different attributes in real life, and even though all characters are the same in IL2, our own attributes shows while flying the game :

patience, skill with the joystick, spotting enemies, etc...