Aircraft

All helpfiles pertaining to air-to-air combat will go in here.

Airstrikes

Aircraft can target warzones, and thus strike something in that warzone. The precise target selection uses a weighted random system - the gunner doesn't get to pick an exact target. Vehicles are selected in preference to infantry, and infantry are selected according to their stealth scores. +style stealth is the best defence against strafing (or divebombing) aircraft.

+strafe

Bombing is either level bombing or dive bombing on this mush. An attack under about 5000' altitude with pitch at least -50 is automatically considered a dive bombing attack, anything else is a level bombing attack. Dive bombing will accurately place bombs on one target, level bombing will inaccurately splatter the entire countryside. Accuracy for level bombing tails off, very gradually, with altitude. 10,000 to 20,000 feet should give reasonable results.

+bomb

Bombs

Bombing has several commands of its own.

Typing +bombs in an aircraft gives you a display of what bombs if any are currently loaded. It also gives you a list of available loadouts.

Typing +bomb when over a target lets them go! All bombs are dropped at once, you can't choose to drop only a few.

When an aircraft is loaded with bombs its speed will be reduced (exactly how much by depends on how heavy the bombload is, but anything up to a 25 percent reduction is typical). If in combat you want to rid yourself of the payload to bump up your speed, you can, with +bomb/jettison.

Finally, mechanics can choose the bombload of an aircraft, and load the bombs up as appropriate. Use +bomb/load <dbref>/<loadout number> to do this.

Database

A database of all available aircraft can be accessed with the following command :

+planes

Entering

Getting into or out of an aircraft is fairly straightforward.

+getin <dbref>
+getout

When not in a warzone no checks are performed, simply being in the same room is good enough. When in a warzone, a certain number of ticks have to be amassed, and the vehicle must be in the same location as the character wanting to get in.

+getout cannot be used when in flight.

Gunnery

Weapon fire is as simplified as possible in air to air combat. There is only one, very simple command :-

+fire

The code will automatically open fire at the best possible target in range and covered by that weapons fire arc. You don't need to select a target, in other words.

Weapons have an effective range. Within that range, the effect of a hit on an enemy aircraft should be quite deadly, and you're fire will be generally fairly accurate. Beyond that range, the effectiveness of your fire trails off, until it is totally ineffective at double the effective range.

Ammunition is limited so don't fire if they are too far away.

Label

A pilot can label his/her own aircraft, so creating a machine that is definitively Yours. Also lets the ground crew know which one belongs to whom.

+label <dbref>

Mechanic

Aircraft mechanics have two commands open to them.

+prep <dbref>

Refuels and reloads a given aircraft.

+fix/crit <dbref>/<critical>

Use this command to repair aircraft damage.

Finally use +vstatus <dbref> to look over an aircraft and see what is damaged on it.

Piloting

The aircraft pilot has a number of special commands used for taking off, landing, and steering the plane when in flight.

+takeoff
+land

The above two are self explanatory. (Hopefully). When near an airfield +land will land you on it. You must be at 1000' altitude or below, and not further than 1000 yards from the airfield. Taking off is even more simple, just get in the plane, hit takeoff, and off you go.

+power <number>
+heading <number>
+pitch <number>
left
right
+bearing <number>

When in flight, +heading is the command to use to steer yourself in a direction. 0 is north, 90 east, 180 south, and 270 west. Left and right are intended for fine tuning which you sometimes need in battle, they will move you ten degrees in the appropriate direction, helping you line up with targets. Power is engine power, and is a number between 0 and 10. Obviously, the higher, the faster. Pitch is the angle of the aircrafts nose above the horizon. 0 is level flight, +90 would be straight up, and -90 straight down.

Bearing is slightly different in that it moves you relative to your direction. +bearing 90 turns you right 90 degrees, +bearing 270 left, +bearing 180 makes you about face. When you type the +bearing command you get an emit about your new heading, which likely isnt what you typed. Fear not, its supposed to do that.

Your airspeed will fall in a climb, and increase in a dive. If airspeed falls too low you will stall and your nose will dip until you can recover (which is done automatically by your pilot skill). Stalling is bad, so avoid doing it.

If you hit the ground, your aircraft is destroyed and all characters still within it are killed.

While piloting can be a bit tricky at first, hopefully you will get the hang of it with a little practice. The thing to get used to is the difference between your heading, and a targets bearing. Heading is a direction, bearing is however relative to your facing. Bearing 0 means dead ahead, bearing 90 to the right, and so on. Its highly advisable that if you plan on piloting, you practice until you are happy with basic navigation before you try anything more demanding.

Places

Aircraft are identical to ground vehicles in that they may have multiple crew positions. All will have a pilot, but they may also have various gunners or bomb aimers or radio operators as well.

Codewise using these places is done in the same way as ground vehicles. Use places to see which places are available for you, and then +join <number> to assume the position, as it were…

Posing

As is typical here, if you use the following command,

pose <text>

then anything you pose is emitted to whoever can ICly see you. When in combat make sure you always use pose, not :, not ;, not @emit, nothing but pose, to emit text.

In the case of aircraft the number of people who can see you is probably rather large as well, as anybody nearby on the ground can see everything going on above them.

Smile! You're on Candid Camera!

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