A pledge for more off-field landings in 2017

[Monostripezebra]

I´ve gotten a lot of oppinons of what gamemechanics offer a good use and usefullness of such a slow and defenseless bird as the Junkers Ju-52. Apart from the obvious answer, the supply role and dropping supplies and paratroopers, it actually is one of the few planes literally able to land anywhere safely in BoS.

 

That was infact a bit of thinking behind all early junkers planes, as junkers had to cope with the buisness problem of coming from the country that had lost the first world war, and many tradtional plane users would not readily buy planes from there.. so with his experience of the waterlogged, muddy airfields of the first world war, they purposefully designed the planes rugged and able to operate on very basic logistics. "If you have a field, an oxcard and a blacksmith, you have an airport" was the junkers thinking that allowed to expand airlines into countries previously not accessible by air. From Persia to China and South America the F-13 build the basis for junkers buisness and the planes grew up to the Ju-52, the last plane in that line of thought...

 

So, while landing anywhere is easy with that Junkers in BoS, taking off in a field can be tricky.. and the ground physics often do not permit to move again, after a full stop in any plane on rough field surface. But, there is a workaround: You can land next to road, taxi to that road and stop your wheels on that road to unload.. that way, you can always get the plane moving again after a full stop.

 

 

So I´d like to lobby for more mission designers to incorporate fieldlandings! It´s a great way to have fun with the Ju-52

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcAdoDXWY1U

 

 

Little finetunings of game mechanics, I´d like to see added to the Ju-52

 

1) beeing able to unload dropable supplies and paras landed, too.

Currently, you can only drop them, but they won´t leave the plane in any crashed or landed form. Adding the cargo mechanic (time to unload while fully stopped on the ground) would make these game elements even more flexible and usefull.

 

2) re-setting the plane upon cargo unloading completion to the up-part of ground bounce, so you can actually try and takeoff in a field without having to stop on a road everytime. (It´s still not said, weather that try to takeoff will actually work then with the terrain, but that is realistic...)

 

3) picking up cargo or personal to evacuate and fly away

Edited January 1, 2017 by Monostripezebra

[BlitzPig_EL]

On my first test flight on the Ju 52 I wanted to test it's capabilities for non airfield operation.

 

Picked a nice open field on the Moscow autumn map and set her down pretty as you please, then to my great consternation, was stuck there, unable to move,

 

So we have a situation where the devs in their never ending quest to stop "gamey" game play (taking off from the ramp across the grass, etc...), have just made a realistic operations option unusable.

An unforeseen circumstance I suppose, but another of the many pitfalls of game development.

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

Nice find. El, at least there is a work around. If the 52 remains popular maybe they can tweak the tire settings to keep it from bogging down too much in the open fields.

Edited December 31, 2016 by II/JG17_HerrMurf

[BlitzPig_EL]

Well, at this point I'd rather they keep after some of the global, and sometimes individual, FM bugs, and sort some of the basics out.  

 

Just doing that would please a lot more people than being able to take off from a wheat field, or another shiny new toy to fly.

[Lusekofte]

Hmm I did a landing on terreign just to see how my paratroopers where doing and took off again, I am not sure if I stopped all together though , Because the paratroopers disappeared so  continued to takeoff

 

My two problems with flying this bird is , my setup. I have a 8 axis hotas and panels made for two engined planes. I cannot set them up to suit 2 and 3 engines planes. And assigning one throttle for all engines do not work either, because the interface jump between 1 and 2 engine throttles and main throttle.

Second is my squad is registered at red side on online servers, cannot easily switch side

Edited December 31, 2016 by 216th_LuseKofte

[Monostripezebra]

well, as long as you don´t go full stop, you can stay in motion. But cargo can only be unloaded at full stop.

 

What I would apreciate, too, would be a cargo loading option. Landing somewhere and picking people up, to fly them out would seem appropriate for Stalingrad.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOtIIBb3YNk

[=WH=PangolinWranglin]

 

 

well, as long as you don´t go full stop, you can stay in motion.

My friend gets infinitely frustrated when his Pe2 goes 1 or 2 wheels off the taxi way and he is unable to move. It is an annoying thing to happen.  

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

So you get stuck??

Is it proper stuck? or is it like stuck in the snow near taxiways.
Where with proper technique We can almost all get out of the snow easily.

Or does it get proper stuck where proper technique dont help?

[Nil]

Very nice suggestions, Nice video!

I agree with all you said.  But I think online Tante Ju can be very very useful and fun, it depends of what host do and it depends also if we will get a Russian counterpart (li2 or c47)

[=WH=PangolinWranglin]

 

 

Is it proper stuck? or is it like stuck in the snow near taxiways.

It is the kind of stuck where even with 100% throttle and any movement of the controls, the plane won't budge. It happens to me from time to time.  

[unreasonable]

On my first test flight on the Ju 52 I wanted to test it's capabilities for non airfield operation.

 

Picked a nice open field on the Moscow autumn map and set her down pretty as you please, then to my great consternation, was stuck there, unable to move,

 

So we have a situation where the devs in their never ending quest to stop "gamey" game play (taking off from the ramp across the grass, etc...), have just made a realistic operations option unusable.

An unforeseen circumstance I suppose, but another of the many pitfalls of game development.

 

Actually for autumn map that might be about right, much of the time, due to the Rasputitsa: heavy late summer or spring rain or snow melt on clay soils can make not just roads but large areas almost impassable.

 

Summer - dry, or winter - frozen I completely agree with you. Something I whined about long ago only to be told that real pilots did not land off carefully manicured and prepared surfaces.  

 

The real reason, of course, is as you point out: SP messed about in order to control MP.  I do hope this can be modified given time and goodwill.

 

What we need perhaps is some kind of field tile that behaves like the all grass airfields and can be identified by visual clues: no plough strips or visible mud, for instance. Them you cannot just land anywhere, but off-field landings become possible if you are careful about picking your spot.

[curiousGamblerr]

Question, sorta tangential: People mention that the ground mechanics were made more difficult on purpose to stop off-runway takeoffs in MP. That seems to work on Stalingrad, but on the Moscow maps you can taxi and takeoff off on the grass near runways no problem (not talking about aerodromes, but regular airfields, the grass/snow between taxiways).

 

So I guess I'm wondering why this "fix" wasn't applied to Moscow if it was so necessary on Stalingrad?

 

In any case, I hope things can be fixed in such a way that taxi-to-road workaround Zebra shared isn't strictly necessary in the future. There are plenty of accounts of pilots landing and taking off outside of prepared airfields, it would be nice for this to be a possibility (a challenging possibility) in the future.

Edited January 1, 2017 by 19.GIAP//curiousGamblerr

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Does pumping the Rudder work like when Stuka gets stuck in the snow.. All other planes seem to have to leave plane. but stuka can get out pumping rudder at combat power