ARMA Airfields

[H00t74 0]

Anyone seen any pics of the airfields in ARMA. Hopefully they are a bit better.

[esti_the_big 0]

more important if the AI can land on more than one airfield this time?

[sanctuary 19]

more important if the AI can land on more than one airfield this time?

Very good question

[mickuzy 0]

id like to see them land near the dirt strip at pita

[Commando84 0]

yeah the ability for a.i to land on more than one arifield on the island would help alot. making a air coop or team deathmatch mission where 2 teams holds their airfields and attack eachother in the air and face off with both a.i and players would be great fun.

[Balschoiw 0]

Don´t know about AI but activating landing autopilt in Harrier I ended up circling higher and higher above the airport in Paraiso.

Of course I could be wrong as I only tested it one time.

[grayace 2]

yeah the ability for a.i to land on more than one arifield on the island would help alot. making a air coop or team deathmatch mission where 2 teams holds their airfields and attack eachother in the air and face off with both a.i and players would be great fun.

Yeah absolutely!

and also in this case, Airfields will need a air traffic control, because things could get nasty if a returning flight starts to descend while another flight has just made it to runway!!! and also, ground handling procedures would be needed to refuel/rearm returned aircrafts...

[Fork122 0]

A few Fraps shots from a user video by luemmel reveal a couple of looks at the runway and area around an airfield:

[UNN 0]

Quote[/b] ]Don´t know about AI but activating landing autopilt in Harrier I ended up circling higher and higher above the airport in Paraiso.

That was a problem in OFP to. At least for some aircraft. But the default A10 and Su was usually ok, when the player activated the Autopilot. Did you give the Harrier enough room to line up? I can see that being a major bug, if neither the player nor the AI can auto land.

Quote[/b] ]more important if the AI can land on more than one airfield this time?

I guess you will have to open up the island config to find that out. Even if the dirt runway is not defined in the config. You would at least expect to see something that allows the player to choose which runway he wants to land on. If you just get the same nondescript Autoland action menu option, that you do in OFP? Then the answer is probably no

Another way of testing for the possibility of multiple runways, is to place a manned AI aircraft on a flat bit of ground, well away from the main runway. If it starts to turn towards the main runway and taxi on it's own, then that’s another bad sign. Even for scripted, multiple runways.

[Shashman 0]

yeah the ability for a.i to land on more than one arifield on the island would help alot. making a air coop or team deathmatch mission where 2 teams holds their airfields and attack eachother in the air and face off with both a.i and players would be great fun.

Yeah absolutely!

and also in this case, Airfields will need a air traffic control, because things could get nasty if a returning flight starts to descend while another flight has just made it to runway!!!    and also, ground handling procedures would be needed to refuel/rearm returned aircrafts...

That's taking it a bit too far. This isn't a flight sim afterall, and that wouldn't be very enjoyable for the majority of players.

[Mr_Tea 0]

A few minutes ago i stopped a session with MS Flightsimulator 9.

That`s what i take when i realy whant to fly.

[hellfish6 7]

Personally, I think AI airports are overrated. I'd rather have a realistic looking airport than one the AI can land at.

[H00t74 0]

I agree hellfish. But having the AI be able to land helps LOL

[hellfish6 7]

I agree, it's nice. But I prefer realistic airports (of which I've only ever seen one in OFP).

[EiZei 0]

It isnt that much of an useful option but it does make pretty decent background activity, cutscene fodder and even a mean way to begin a mission.

[Shashman 0]

I agree, it's nice. But I prefer realistic airports (of which I've only ever seen one in OFP).

Which one, out of interest?

RKSL Test Island? Gets my vote

[hellfish6 7]

Never tried that one. I was thinking about CBFASI's FAR base. I had an alpha of it a long time ago and it was great.

[frederf 0]

As long as we can define AI behavior with fine enough fidelity we could script any sort of landing behavior we wanted (highway strip, aircraft carrier ect).

I mean, series of waypoints, reduced power settings, forced "gear down" actions, slower speeds. Heck, it's not as easy as making a LAND waypoint and sliding it over the airfield but it's hardly impossible (especially if someone made a "kit".) Taxing too.

[UNN 0]

Looking at the list of Arma actions, there might be hope for future updates:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Armed_Assault:_Actions_List#LAND

This has an additional parameter, compared to the Land action in OFP. Although it's not clear what <Target> referes to. It could be the Aircraft or a location. But the lack of info does suggest it's not implemented yet.

[bazooka_boy 0]

Judging from the airstrike video, making the ai or players land and taxing to re-arm refuel is a must. It'll help make the use of aircraft more realistic and hopefully a full and powerful part of largescale combat without being too overpowering like BF2 where flying over a base is enough to rearm and refuel

[frederf 0]

If I were a lazy programmer making airstrike capabilities for a SP campaign I would have the planes spawn loaded in the air sufficiently far away from the player so he didn't notice.

Then after the airstrike I'd simply make a timer that represents rearm/refuel until he could call it in again. Planes wouldn't even have to land/takeoff let alone taxi, land, rearm, ect

[UNN 0]

Quote[/b] ]If I were a lazy programmer making air strike capabilities for a SP campaign I would have the planes spawn loaded in the air sufficiently far away from the player so he didn't notice.

What’s your point? Are you suggesting that Arma, should be limited to just your basic requirements? If you were a conscientious programmer then you should only insist on that, when nobody (player or OPFOR AI) was present.

[MAA3057 0]

Quote[/b] ]If I were a lazy programmer making air strike capabilities for a SP campaign I would have the planes spawn loaded in the air sufficiently far away from the player so he didn't notice.

What’s your point? Are you suggesting that Arma, should be limited to just your basic requirements? If you were a conscientious programmer then you should only insist on that, when nobody (player or OPFOR AI) was present.

Uber Unreal 1 and 2 script skills.

[Commando84 0]

i think multplie airfields usable for a.i would be very nice cause missions like being a spy and treaveling with civilian planes as cargo would be much easier to be made without a load of scripts and stuff to make you fly from country A to country B

[UNN 0]

Frederf's point is obviously valid, there is no need to go to all that trouble, if nobody is ever going to be around to see it. But like wise, there are many missions that would benefit from working Runway's and Airports.

Although there is nothing specific in the topic title, I was hoping we might get more info on what’s been implemented in the released version of Arma. Instead of just a list of what missions people like\want to play. At this point in time, it's a case of what we’ve got, not what we want.