- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Ok the problem that everyoen has with the pelican is that it would unbalance the game right?
well then we have to think how to make it balanced right?
ok
here is how to do it
first of all: You should not just jump in it and be able to swoop around like in a banshee. You should not fly it in the third person view like you do with all the other vehicles at all. You should fly it in the first person view looking out of the cockpit window. This would make it MUCH harder to fly. You have limited visibilty, you can't see whats below you or whats above or behind you. However you then get a DETAILED radar system. It would be on the controle panel infront of you and show any airborn craft and any incoming threats such as banshee fire or rockets. You would also have an altometer, this is a gizmo that tells you exactly what height you are flying at so you have to judge your landings carefully, take her down too fast and she breaks up or crahses into the ground.
Take off: To take off you would need literally jump in the back of the pelican whislt it is stationary on the ground, run into the cockpit press X to enter as always and then have to punch in a startup code to get the thing off the ground, i.e. press X,Y,Y,A,B whilst your character presses buttons on the controle pannel, this would be equivilent to standard startup and engin warming procedures in a real aircraft. Only then will the thrusters kick in alowing you to gently easy up to a flying height or allow troops to jump into the back. This whole proceedure should be a bit time consuming so as to make people think twice about it.
Flying the Pelican itslef: YOU SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO "Point and click"!
What I mean by thi is that you shouldn't be able to turn the pelican and swoop around like we do with the banshee. How about carefully having to adjust the thrusters to ease your craft around. You've all seen how they fly in campagine, unless they are hovering they turn in large sweeping circles as befits an aircraft of thier size and shape. When was the last time you saw a 747 turn on the spot? So you have to carfully judge your turning to make it without tearing your craft apart (which would happen in the game if you tried to turn too hard). You could then have an interesting "bail out moment where you tired to make it off the pelian before it nose dived.
Whilst flying the pelican you should also have to compensate for wind speed and direction to make sure you stay on course. All of this information could be displayed on the controle pannel in front of you. If the wind on some levels that supported the pelican was variable so at sometimes it was a gentle breeze and at others it was a ful force gail in which it was just plain dangerouse to fly it would make peopl seriously consider the tactical benifits of the pelican.
Hovering and troop deployment: To hover you should have to press a button to enter the "hover" mode and then like with flying you have to keep your craft finly adjusted to make sure it stays still. You could not just enter hover mode from standard flying mode though you would need to reduce your speed first etc. You would be able to turn on the spot in this mode however.
When deploying troops whilst hovering you would have to carefully (and slowly giving the enemy a longtime to shoot at you) decend to an height at which your teamates could jump out safely. You would nto be able to do anything whislt your team is disembarking or embarking other than stay absolutly still, no taking off, no turning, no shooting, nothing. Major disadvantage to you.
There should also be a "My bird's too big for that courtyard" rule which means you can only set down in an area that is sfficently large for the pelican to land. No dropping people at the enterance to well defended bases because there would not be enough room.
Maps that would support it: Ok, your gunna need a BIG map, like at least 4 times the size of Containment. As I mentioned earlier it could have variable weather conditions to make Pelican flyng useful in cartain conditions to pointless at other times. The map should be an urban style like turf forpreferance as this would mean you couldn't just fly from one endof the map to the other drop off your troops and repeat as nessisary. But would have to think about the best places to deploy your forces, you might consider using the Pelican as a distraction! You fly over head heading east, other team says "oh look there gunna deploy over there! lets move!" mean while all your ground forces have gone in the other direction!
Shooting and be shot at: The pelican would be armed with one rear mounted gatling gun controled by a passenger. NOTHING ELSE! this is for balance reasons anything else and the pelican becomes a flying scorpian tank and no-one wants that. You could use the gun to lay down supressive fire whilst make a drop off, it would have to cease fire as your troops disembarked as I mentioned earlier. Or you could use it to try and take down any banshees on your tail. Being shot at. Right, small arms do nothing. Rockets, grenades and vehicle mounted weapons do nothign against the main body but all that changes when they hit a wing, engine, internal shot i.e hits inside the passanger bay or any hits landed on the windscreen. Hits on the wing would take one hit to penatrate the armor, another hit after that and you lose 50% controle, lose both wings and you lose controle spiralling into the ground. The wings cannot be locked onto however. Hits on the engine, there are two engines on each wing. First hit on an engin results in the armor being penatrated, second hit results in the engin failing (causing the craft to lose 25% power, third hit results in the engine exploding casuing 1 hit to its adjacent engine, if that engin has already blown then it causes one hit to the wing. All damage sustanined to the wings/engines should be easyily readable from the cockpit controle pannel. Lose all the engines either by failuer or explosion and the pelican drops out of the sky (although most people should have ditched it after two engines had gone as it would be next to useless anyway). Engines can be locked onto. Hits inside the crew compartment would cause damage to a) any passengers on board and b) to the Pelicans super structure meaning that it would lose 10% of controle per hit, 10 hits and your out. No lockon for this section and no damage counter in the cockpit either. The first hit on the windscreen would cause it to crack (imparing visibility) the second hot would cause it to crack even more meaning your baiscally flying blind. The third hit would smash the windscreen. You can now see again but the pilot is a sitting duck for ANY weapon (even a needler) and the pelican loses 50% controle. You can not lockonto the windscreen. The whole pelican would be shaken by the hits from any of these sources causing it to move, deviate from its course and if it is hovering or flying close to the ground then possibly sending it crashing to the floor.
The passengers in the crew compartment can be shotat like any other player sitting in a vehicle. (snipers have a good time :D *Killtrocity*)
The main emphasis on this style of pelican flying is that it will take both skill and practise to fly the pelican successfully, no run and gun here, and that the restrictions placed upon the pelican will make it only a tactical advantage in certain cituations. Certainly it would not be ideal for slayer games where it is just a very large and easy to hit duck. For CTF and assault it would make an interesting game piece however.
{edit} Vehicle Carrying: someone reminded me about this. You shoudl be able to pick up a Warthog or a Scorpian NOTHING ELSE by hovering over them, lining your bird up and pressing A to lock on the magnetic clamps. You should be able to release them in the same way you drop off troops and no ditching the tank from 2000 feet! Perhaps you should have your troop carrying capasity limited whilst carrying vehicles. Down to 4 when with a Warthog and 2 for a scorpian. As always this is for balance reasons. Oh and incase I didn't say anywhere else you should be able to carry 8 poeple as standard.
{edit} as people have been complainign about "release date" etc I will say here that I have amended my ideas anf think that the pelican / pelican map should be an optional download purely for fun maybe after the game has been going for a while.
BUT WE MUST NOT HAVE ANOTHER SWOOPY BANSHEE!
let me know what you think
[Edited on 5/23/2006]