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I had this idea ages ago...I'll try to remember it.

A lot of people want atmo-flight, but the nay-sayers say it'd be too complicated to have the ground stuff going on, and the air stuff, at the same place, at the same time. Simple solution then. Don't do it that way.

All you need to do is create a "Zone" for Atmospheric Flight, that is inaccessable from the ground. On Tatooine, for example, they could create a "Beggars Canyon" Zone, which would be a pilot race course. There'd be a building at one end, where the official-type people and the race droid would be housed...that'd also serve as the Airport. From it, you could travel to any other Starport on the planet (but not into space). You'd access the Airship terminal, launch, and race round the Beggars Canyon track, much like you do in one of the special levels on Rogue Squadron. Beggars Canyon could be "off the edge of the map" on Tatooine...or on the other side of the planet, or something like that. The airport would only be accessable by ship, from a Starport.

Another thing you could use Beggars Canyon for is shooting womp rats. Rather than registering yourself with the race droid, you could register with a farmer, who's annoyed about those "pesky Womp Rats". He'll pay you for each Womp Rat you successfully shoot.

Coding-wise, all you'd need to do was create a "bottom" to a space zone. The bottom would be the ground. You'd have to have autopilot level on permenantly (since people will be flying on repulsorlifts, regardless of their craft-type). Starfighters equipped with space engines would have handling problems. The TIE would have turning problems too, but to keep it fair, design an "Atmospheric Engine" that you can substitute for your standard space one, of you ever want to fly in an atmosphere. Also, develop Airspeeders that are unable to carry non-Atmospheric Engines...the T-16 Skyhopper as a "basic" availiable-to-all ship, the T-47 Air(Snow)speeder as a Rebel Airspeeder, perhaps the TIE/At "Atmospheric" for the Imps, maybe that "Dunespeeder" that was in the pre-JTL paintings as Privateer, perhaps the LAAT/i Republic Gunship as a MP ship, etc.

Beggars Canyon would only be the start. That'd be the "neutral" Air Combat Zone, with very little in the way of combat. For a place to have combat, you could introduce the branches of Kashyyyk, and have Rebels flying against Trandoshan slavers, Imperials flying against Wookiee liberators, people fighting the Rodians hunters that are camped out, etc. The "bottom" would be the upper canopy of Kashyyyk...unless you wanted to give us some obstacles, in which case, move it below that, so we can weave through the upper trees.

Other locations, based on non-existant worlds (ie. worlds that aren't yet mapped) could include Bespin (Cloud City), which could be quite fun to do, with raiders after the Tibana Gas, and so forth. Kessel could have an Air Combat Zone, with pirates and smugglers around after the spice. Hoth could be added, allowing Rebels (and Rebels only) to fly around, patrolling the area around Echo Base while it is constructed, leading up to an eventual "Battle of Hoth" event, which could then open the world up for everyone. And I'm sure there's probably an Imperial planet that could be used. Some of these ACZs (Air Combat Zones) could have multiple "Airfields", allowing players to fly from A to B.

The ACZ could also be a jumping-off point for developing Coruscant. If a few "landing platforms" were created, floating in the skies of Coruscant (like Space Stations in JTL), they could be used as the airfields for the ACZ. Players could fly from one to the other, visiting the major sites of Coruscant. Places like the Senate building, Imperial Palace, Museums, Shopping Malls, etc, could have a landing site of some kind, in addition to the main "Starport" landing pad. If you want to leave your ship behind (or have something like a YT-1300, which is too big to cruise around in), Coruscant could offer "Airspeeder" rentals...perhaps vehicles like the one flown by Anakin, that you could rent out (as well as craftable ones) to cruise around. Instead of "Shuttles", there could be Air Taxis to take you around the city. The actual amound of ground space needed for Coruscant could be pretty small. If you coded in a number of "Landing platforms" (numbered), players could choose which, out of a set of instanced Imperial Centers, they landed on. The city could offer a few Imperial quests; extensions to the Imp theme park. It could also have a Black Sun theme park...or parts of.



Thats all I remember at the moment. What do you think?

Hmm... an interesting idea. I dont see how just letting us fly around in the atmosphere would conflict with the current system though. The weapons damage is correctly porportionate to ground weapons anyway. And for ground forces to return fire, they could put anti air weapons into the game. Like missles and souch. And if planes are hard to hit for ground people? too bad. like GI joe's going to nail a passing mig... If you have ever tried to target a passing plane when you were walking around on an mp ship you will notice it pops up as a vehicle with one staeady ham bar. We could just implement it like that on teh ground. it would not be too hard. But yeah I like your idea if normal atmospheric flight wont work. I'd love to see a imp vs rebel beggars canyon race

Message Edited by TheBrandeni on 04-14-2005 10:37 PM

I like the idea. would be really nice if you could then land at player shuttleport type structures.

I love the idea.

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Andur_R wrote:

I dont know about the air to ground combat addition but a lower level that separates ground from air players would be feasible. Thats a cool idea. Rather than docking at a space station, I just fly my Y-Wing into the atmosphere at predetermined waypoints and then land in the space port circle of each city. You would have to have a brief load time to separate air from ground play as you enter/exit the vehicles though with the existing terminal. I know you say there are ways it would not conflict, but trust me. I dont have the credits to load my machine with a 2.5 + Ghz processor and 2 GB DDR Ram to not separate atmospheric from ground play.

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I think you mis-understand my linking thing. You have two separate areas. One of them is an air area, where you fly around against NPC fighters. In addition to those NPC fighters, there are also NPC ground targets who move along the "floor" of the area, who you can target and destroy. They'd be just the same as having mobs and asteroids and things to deal with, except they'd only move along two dimensions.

The other is a ground area, where random bursts of energy shoot down from the sky. There'll be graphics representing fighters above (fairly high above), on the "ceiling" of the area. In addition, a few NPC craft may make low passes...this would be no different than having something the size of a Krayt Dragon pass overhead...they'd just need to alter the height at which the craft spawned (like having butterflies floating above the ground). When they were on the map (ie. they spawnat one side, fly over, and then despawn on the other side), they could be targeted, just as if they were a creature passing overhead. They'd just need a very high health, so that only powerful guns, like player-controlled static "turrets", could successfully damage them and bring them down - they'd need a LOT of hits from a standard weapon to be brought down.

Message Edited by Rekov_Quakae on 09-16-2005 04:52 PM

it would be nice but as you said the lag would be killer and the return would be too little to make it worth the effort.

id love to see the option when at the starbase to "Land on Surface" it wouldnt be flight in the atmosphere but it would be cool to set down near your house. starfighters would just be treated as a ground object while POBs would be treated as a building and would have a access ramp when landed.

when clicking the land on surface a map window would pop up where you select or enter a location and then hit confirm and it would load like landing at a starport. in a starfighter you would appear outside your craft, while in a PoB you would remain in the ship but could just walk down the ramp and out.

Message Edited by SarlacBreath on 09-17-2005 10:03 PM

Message Edited by SarlacBreath on 09-17-2005 10:05 PM