I personally think it would be good if players could alter the height their planes fly at (possibly with a slider?). To avoid things like planes going stupidly high and such, alter the altitude tag (the one that controls flying height - can't remember what it's called) with one of the following methods:
Method 1: Replace the altitude tag with a min and max value for altitude (minalt, maxalt) to define the highest and lowest the player can set the altitude of the plane.
Method 2: Add a tag to define how far up and down a plane can go from it's stated altitude (set by the altitude tag), like a sort of variance. The current altitude tag would be the height that they fly at by default (unaltered by player).
Altitudes for Aircraft
Moderator: Moderators
<shrugs> the default range of heights could be 0, and modders could come up with ways to compensate for planes being able to fly higher.
Mainly, though, I'm not excited about them flying lower. Planes would then have to use the regular pathfinder, which seems like a waste of CPU vs. improvement of game to me...
Mainly, though, I'm not excited about them flying lower. Planes would then have to use the regular pathfinder, which seems like a waste of CPU vs. improvement of game to me...
You really wouldn't have to use it for pathfinding any more than it is now.
Your plane would have to climb over obstacles, just like it does now. If your minimum was 100 then it would try to maintain 100 altitude over the terrain. As terrain increases in elevation then the altitude system now also changes.
If anything it would be nice to see the default behavior that it tries to fly the altitudes set compared to sea level and not terrain. Its annoying to see a high flying bomber rise and fall over terrain that is not even close to it. Flight should be smooth unless its low to the ground.
Your plane would have to climb over obstacles, just like it does now. If your minimum was 100 then it would try to maintain 100 altitude over the terrain. As terrain increases in elevation then the altitude system now also changes.
If anything it would be nice to see the default behavior that it tries to fly the altitudes set compared to sea level and not terrain. Its annoying to see a high flying bomber rise and fall over terrain that is not even close to it. Flight should be smooth unless its low to the ground.
I agreed!If anything it would be nice to see the default behavior that it tries to fly the altitudes set compared to sea level and not terrain. Its annoying to see a high flying bomber rise and fall over terrain that is not even close to it. Flight should be smooth unless its low to the ground.
Maybe a "minimum height from terrain" (some +20 to 40) plus a sea level standart altitude can resolve it.It will avoid a lot of airplane movements up and down and perhaps will economize CPU.
VonGratz
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So that everybody set their bombers to fly at an altitude of 2147483647 so as to be clear and out of range of anything? Even if there is a max threshold, I fail to see how higher would not always be better. I agree that the current plane behavior has some little imperfection, but I doubt that it is a solution.I personally think it would be good if players could alter the height their planes fly at (possibly with a slider?).
There is something wrong with idiotic features. It eats valuable dev time, it clutter the board making it harder to see good thread, and it could even eat a tiny CPU time if implemented in the engine but never used.anywho i think we've already established theres nothing wrong with more options as long as they are OPTIONS!
Ok it'd be nice if high flyers smoothed their following of terrain denivelation. But I don't think sea level is a good reference, because then on maps such as Peripheral Consciousness where I gave the ground a very high offset to be sure to remove any ponds-in-crater, you'll have plane flying below the ground level!If anything it would be nice to see the default behavior that it tries to fly the altitudes set compared to sea level and not terrain.
Hey, just because you kludge a map doesn't mean its a bad idea. :)zwzsg wrote:Ok it'd be nice if high flyers smoothed their following of terrain denivelation. But I don't think sea level is a good reference, because then on maps such as Peripheral Consciousness where I gave the ground a very high offset to be sure to remove any ponds-in-crater, you'll have plane flying below the ground level!If anything it would be nice to see the default behavior that it tries to fly the altitudes set compared to sea level and not terrain.
Altitude is the default factor IRL for a reason. Lift can only be generated so much under the right conditions. If you want terrain following then it would still be an option, but its hardly realistic to expect a plane to always fly higher as mountains/ground grow taller. There should be a break even point somewhere.
