Would the ability to autoland an aircraft be a good feature?

[Jakajan]

 While I do not wish to kiddy-fi the game too much. I would like to see it be made easier to land and repair some aircraft. It is cool you can buzz a runway to reload without having to touch down, rather fun to do.

 but I have a difficulty landing vtols and aircrafts for repairs. I have successfully landed vtols many times on the pads and it is rather exciting to do... can a vtol be landed on the runways for repairs? that'd be easier though risky with things taking off.

 Anyways maybe if your within a certain range of the runway - pad you could engage an autopilot landing feature. I don't know how hard this would be to implement but might make it easier to land. Spending 80 seconds lining up a chopper to land on a pad can be fun, but it is a lot more downtime than most mechs experience landing, anyway just a thought.

 Any idea on how it might be easier to repair? or any tricks on how to do it easier? Thanks in advance.

[Threesan]

You can probably repair a VTOL in an Aero hanger, but not on the runway itself, no.

I can land pretty reliably using a M+KB setup. I usually fly using the standard throttle settings (VTOL: all or nothing thrust; Aero: increase/decrease thrust), but when landing I switch to (BF2-style) all-or-nothing.

Aero landing procedure: Come in at low altitude and straight along the runway -- if not low enough or straight enough, wave off and circle back. Keep nose level or very slightly up. Feather throttle so that you are descending slowly even with your nose level. When your plane touches the ground, you must be descending Very. Slowly. (Optional: use CTRL to level wings before touching down.) Release throttle and the Aero stops fairly quickly. Switch to adjustable throttle mode and nudge it up a bit to move to hanger (I've spontaneously exploded from taxiing too fast). Only the front of the plane need be inside the hanger to initiate repairs. Keep in mind that the Aero will come to a stop bizarrely quickly with zero thrust, but it doesn't immediately plummet like a rock, and you can generally drop altitude in this way a bit, and safely recover before completing landing.

Note to devs: Having no CDT-rank Aero (sort of) prevents offline (or even acceptable-risk?) practicing of Aero landing.

[~SJ~Azov]

the only time I get  a problem landing an aero is in a sulla when it decides to randomly explode on the runway. (even when ideling or powered down)

[Perk]

I'm annoyed that you can no longer repair the Hawkmoth in a mech bay.  It's so much faster on Inferno.

[MercenaryMuffin]

It's not the landing part that's hard, I can land Shivas fairly easily. Sullas are harder to land because their landing gear placement sucks.

Landing isn't the problem, really. It's the fact that you're prone to exploding in the cockpit for no damn reason.

[Dragonlord]

the only time I get  a problem landing an aero is in a sulla when it decides to randomly explode on the runway. (even when ideling or powered down)

It's not the landing part that's hard, I can land Shivas fairly easily. Sullas are harder to land because their landing gear placement sucks.

Landing isn't the problem, really. It's the fact that you're prone to exploding in the cockpit for no damn reason.

I have lost count of the number of times I crash on landing or after I have touched down, especially with the sulla.
Either something has to be done about the sulla when it comes to landing gear or they have to make it possible to land safely and take off again without randomly blowing up for no reason.
I have even had the sulla explode on me on takeoff.
I sometimes roll along the runway a longer than I have to just to get a more realistic feel for the takeoff.
When I do that I sometimes blow up somewhere along the runway instead before I can take off.

[Virt]

I do not wish to kiddy-fi the game too much.

Then don't suggest "auto-landing"!    Suggest instead that the landing of some specific aeros be made a bit easier.

(By the way, I don't find landing them all that hard to be honest, now that I've practiced a bit.)

[Jakajan]

 Fair enough - I did a perfect landing tonight with my vtol on my first attempt coming into a landing bay.

 Really aircraft just takes more skill to learn the basic operation than mechs. Aircraft are not for everyone, just the people who want to be good at them.

[CHHš Myria]

Somewhat off the topic but still somewhat relevant, I've actually forgotten which side this happens on Sandblasted for, but it only happens on one of them.

Buy a Shiva and board without touching any movement or turning at all wait for it to powerup, then simply push forward on the throttle only so that you are theoretically leaving the hanger perfectly straight in the direction it faces when constructed - and the left wing of the damb ship will clip the edge of...god knows what but SOMETHING, resulting in you going facefirst into the base fortification walls with an instant explosion before getting off the ground and losing a pricey asset.  x_x

Bugs the hell out of me since I have to extremely carefully make a right-turn adjustment before take off from the runway everytime.

[Jakajan]

 Huh, interesting.

 Tonight I ordered a vtol on that snowy map and oddly it did not spawn, it got sold back to me due to inactivity though...

 come to think of it it spawned, but the hangar door up top did not open and it did not get elevated up - weird huh?

[LordHack]

You can probably repair a VTOL in an Aero hanger, but not on the runway itself, no.

I can land pretty reliably using a M+KB setup. I usually fly using the standard throttle settings (VTOL: all or nothing thrust; Aero: increase/decrease thrust), but when landing I switch to (BF2-style) all-or-nothing.

Aero landing procedure: Come in at low altitude and straight along the runway -- if not low enough or straight enough, wave off and circle back. Keep nose level or very slightly up. Feather throttle so that you are descending slowly even with your nose level. When your plane touches the ground, you must be descending Very. Slowly. (Optional: use CTRL to level wings before touching down.) Release throttle and the Aero stops fairly quickly. Switch to adjustable throttle mode and nudge it up a bit to move to hanger (I've spontaneously exploded from taxiing too fast). Only the front of the plane need be inside the hanger to initiate repairs. Keep in mind that the Aero will come to a stop bizarrely quickly with zero thrust, but it doesn't immediately plummet like a rock, and you can generally drop altitude in this way a bit, and safely recover before completing landing.

Note to devs: Having no CDT-rank Aero (sort of) prevents offline (or even acceptable-risk?) practicing of Aero landing.

You don't need to be in the hangar at all to initiate repairs for ASF.  Will repair from any runway.  Hangar just to sell.

I do however wish you could sell asset from runway (in case you break a wing landing - esp. previously damaged sulla!), or if you start shake lag thing (which usually means you are going to self-destruct on runway).

And -- no to auto-landing, although a little more forgiveness on the gear would be useful.

[HAARP]

Yeah. SPDS* should really be fixed and landing made a little bit easier

I would also prefer of Aeros could only be repaired in the hangar bay, making their land-repair-takeoff cycles a little bit longer than 5 seconds


*Sudden Pilot Death Syndrome

[DaveTheArsonist]

Not sure if this has been brought up before, but have the devs considered re-implementing 3rd person views for ASF only?
I agree completely that 3rd person in mechs would ruin the feel of the game, but as for aero/VTOL I think it might make landing a bit easier for some if we could get a few more angles on what we're doing.

Also I kinda miss seeing the cool blue glow of the jet engines behind as I scream down the runway, and the satisfaction of seeing FBombs obliterating a target from the nosecam

[(TLL)KitLightning]

Not sure if this has been brought up before, but have the devs considered re-implementing 3rd person views for ASF only?
I agree completely that 3rd person in mechs would ruin the feel of the game, but as for aero/VTOL I think it might make landing a bit easier for some if we could get a few more angles on what we're doing.

Also I kinda miss seeing the cool blue glow of the jet engines behind as I scream down the runway, and the satisfaction of seeing FBombs obliterating a target from the nosecam

No! The 3rd Person View will not be implemented in the Beta Release.

[Dragonlord]

Not sure if this has been brought up before, but have the devs considered re-implementing 3rd person views for ASF only?
I agree completely that 3rd person in mechs would ruin the feel of the game, but as for aero/VTOL I think it might make landing a bit easier for some if we could get a few more angles on what we're doing.

Also I kinda miss seeing the cool blue glow of the jet engines behind as I scream down the runway, and the satisfaction of seeing FBombs obliterating a target from the nosecam

No! The 3rd Person View will not be implemented in the Beta Release.

It should not be implemented at all period.
It was a crappy feature in MW4 and I for one dont want to see it used here.