The real reason we need rearm+refuel (besides the obvious one)

[19//Moach]

so, this has been brought up many times, and for whatever reason it seems that the notion of rearm+refuel on MP has been much underrated

 

 

on past occasions this was proposed, there was a number of posters who dismissed its importance by claiming that it is not a big deal to go through the menu and respawn in order to achieve the same result as R+R...

 

however, this most superficial rebuttal fails to see the true relevance of being able to R+R without requiring a respawn

 

 

the advent of it is NOT to simply bypass the menu while landed back at your spawn airfield

 

the real reason why R+R is necessary, is that it allows aircraft brought from rear bases to be made combat ready again from ANOTHER airfield - particularly, frontline fields, which normally (on WoL) have a more limited array of available types to spawn in

 

the capability to resupply from a forward base thus accomplishes something MUCH more important than the mere convenience of continuous operation:  it rewards self-preservation with the option to re-use planes brought from the rear with a shorter commute, as one may do a pit-stop at a nearby base that does not offer spawning of a particular type and loadout

 

 

this effectively removes the need for sanction-based mechanics (such as personal/squad aircraft reserves, such as in TAW and DED) in order to promote the desired survival-mindedness on players 

 

these sanction-based systems are most often extremely frustrating, as they over-punish defeat with consequential restrictions that severely reduce one's combat effectiveness as a result of even the slightest mishap - adding more aggravation to the already unsavoury state of defeat

 

 

there are no servers who try the other way around to the same result, by trying to reward desirable behavior, instead of punishing failure to comply

 

 

and this is one aspect in which the ATAG server of CloD excels -- it rewards survival with the opportunity to head to the nearest airbase, including non-spawnable fields, and make oneself ready for combat again on whatever aircraft one chooses in a much shorter time than would be required without R+R

 

 

thus, in ATAG, the same undesirable disposable-pilot behavior is all but unheard of...

 

 

that is not by coincidence

 

 

 

in short:   R+R is a proven cure for "take-and-toss" behavior in MP, and to dismiss it as a matter of "trivial convenience" is to not appreciate the full implications of emergent gameplay

 

 

 

 

so don't discount the importance of this feature over the most obvious but least relevant use case for it (to rearm at the same place of spawn) - for it offers far more comprehensive options than that, and ultimately solves one of the biggest problems that puzzles mission designers in this game

Edited May 9, 2017 by 19//Moach

[coconut]

Transferring planes to forward airfields already works today, but I think few mission designers and players know that, and nobody fully understands how it works for damaged planes.

For that to work, the plane settings in the fakefield must have "return planes" checked. Then there is a number of delays to set, and the meanings of those are a bit unclear. Setting those to 0 makes transferred planes available again immediately.

One day thing that's missing but was requested is to differentiate between max number of planes and number of planes at mission start. Transferred planes that are in excess are lost.

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

Go figure what happened now when I land to refuel &rearm that last Yak1b and it shows up as single quantity available to take on the game map

[coconut]

Link to the relevant thread about plane transfers: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/19186-transferring-ai-planes-airfield

It focusses on AI planes, but it works with player-controlled planes as well.

[SharpeXB]

I agree it would be a cool feature. It opens up lots of possibilities in both SP and MP.

In terms of programming work I assume it would be rather easy to implement although in reality I understand that nothing is easy in programming

;-)

Edited May 13, 2017 by SharpeXB

[19//Moach]

plane transfers would not suffice to cover the need for actual R+R

 

for one: it would ONLY work that way in a perfect world, where nobody would ever think of doing something as disreputable as just "taking your plane before you do" - but who are we kidding?

 

 

I once had an opportunity in WoL to test this "theory" out - and landed the last one yak back at its original base, ready to take it up again, very carefully of course, since mine was the last one there when I took it -- obviously, in the few seconds it took from unspawn to retry, it was gone

 

 

so no - it would not suffice - the need to return an aircraft to the "pool" also introduces a new problem which is:  any damage that can be flown back with, gets instantly repaired

 

thus, for two:  proper R+R should refuse to reload a plane with any non-trivial damage (few holes, ok - but broken components = grounded) - but respawning would instantly repair it

 

 

mind that this is not actually a feature of CloD itself either -- it's the popular ATAG server that offers this option by entering the "<rr100" command into the chat box (or "<rr75" for 75% or just"<rr" for whatever quantities you had on spawn) -- so it's really a server implemented feature, and very well done too (it even requires magnetos to be off and canopy open for allowing R+R to begin)

 

 

but it's a game-making one - and one of the key reasons that to this day, multiplayer in CloD continues to offer a fundamentally more enjoyable experience than in BoX

 

 

 

there's no substitute for doing things right

Edited May 19, 2017 by 19//Moach