Pilot Archive
Thread: Non-mechanics thread: Cockpit on or off?
Imaridril
Sat Apr 23, 2005 4:33 am
#27
Mine is off 99.999% of the time. I use the hat on my stick to look around all the time, so even on ships like a TIE fighter, that have good forward visibility, I would still have a ton of my view obscured while trying to look around with the hat.
BannedinFrance
Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:11 am
#28
On, all the time.
Except in a rix, because half of the damn ship is in front of you blocking your view. If I want to peer around the nose of my fighter to see my target, I'll go re-load combat flight sim 3.
Imaridril
Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:13 pm
#30
RandorDax wrote:
I have tried both in all honesty. I am an immersion mavin and love the whole "being there" feeling. It is indeed much easier to dogfight with the cockpit off, but lets look at this a bit different. When you get in a car, the dashboard is THERE. You can't remove it for a better view and you certainly don't try and hoist up fro your seat to see better. Some people buy cars strictly on the visibility alone, performance and look being secondary.
That being said, I feel the option to turn the cockpit off should be removed. If you buy a honkin big ship, deal with it. Those that say it's not cheating are trying to console themselves and others, for using the featureso they won'tfeel guilty. Fair enough. If you fly with it on and manage to kill the same things as someone who dosen't, youare a better pilot (IMO)as you are forced to use judgement without being able to see. Ask any airforce pilot, half of thier skill is knowing where all their targets are without being able to see them. Of course the HUD does help a lot.
Im in a ship the cockpit is there. ON.
Cudos to all the "real" pilots!
In a "real" space fighter all those control panels you see around the cockpit would actually be providing you with information, plus the HUD in a "real" space fighter would surely provide more info on your surroundings than what we getin the game. Not to mention that fighters in Starwars are designed for looks and not for function. If we're going to pretend that a TIE fighter is a practical space fighter, then we have to assume that there are some sort of displays, or control panels, or holo-projectors, or whatever that give the pilot the ability to "see" past the tunnel vision that the front window provides. Turning off the cockpit view can be seen as approximating all the additional inflight tools that a "real" space fighter surely must have, but are beyond the scope of a computer game to simulate. I don't feel the least bit like a "cheater" for turning off the cockpit view, however I'm glad there are apparently so many people who feel that doing that is cheating. It just means that I'll have more people to go up against who are intentionaly handicapping themself for no good reason.
BeakerMike
Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:22 pm
#31
I fly with it off almost all the time, the only time I turn the cockpit on is if it's a new fighter so I can check out the inside. On that note some cockpits are better then other's as well.
JediNg
Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:33 pm
#32
I think the rebel ships' interiors reflect real life design too, with the exception of the X-Wing. Fighters will generally have very good visibility, while bomber oriented craft will have less visibility. X-Wing because the lower part of your view is taken up by control panel. TIEs on the otherhand, are the worst design ever, in terms of what a real life design team would do that is. Worst visibility ever. Lol.
Hoenir
Sun Apr 24, 2005 8:53 am
#33
I have to fly with it off, because with only 512K RAM in my system, flying with the cockpit on reduces my framerate and makes space combat choppy at best. I don't understand why a static artifact would increase the load on the system, but it does.
As for the people harping about visibility and "cheating", who needs visibility anyhow? I would fly blind if I could, honestly... I am always using the radar and the reticle to track my target, I never visually scan space to find what I'm chasing.
Message Edited by Hoenir on 04-24-2005 11:57 AM
Mezazine
Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:25 am
#34
Coming from a real life visual flight rules pilot. If i had the visibility of some of these fighters i would be dead in real life already. In a real aircraft i can looking around the aircraft easier and then I might have air traffic control to help me out too. cockpit off please.
Message Edited by Mezazine on 04-24-2005 09:26 AM
Andur_R
Mon Apr 25, 2005 6:24 am
#35
To RandorDax
Right on man!! See my earlier post. I always fly with it on so it feels real. I wont say that it is cheating to fly with it off. I wont have to. The anger and intense reponses from those that fly with cokcpit view off seem to take after a guilty 3 year old child "Am not, am not!". Hey we didnt say it was cheating, just that in our opinion we feel it may be an unfair advantage. If you dont honetly feel like it is cheating, then why do you feel guilty and get all angry and defensive?
Washell
Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:38 am
#37
RandorDax wrote:
That being said, I feel the option to turn the cockpit off should be removed. If you buy a honkin big ship, deal with it. Those that say it's not cheating are trying to console themselves and others, for using the featureso they won'tfeel guilty. Fair enough. If you fly with it on and manage to kill the same things as someone who dosen't, youare a better pilot (IMO)as you are forced to use judgement without being able to see. Ask any airforce pilot, half of thier skill is knowing where all their targets are without being able to see them. Of course the HUD does help a lot.
Im in a ship the cockpit is there. ON.
Cudos to all the "real" pilots!
My friend and neighbour used to a firefighter in the dutch airforce. He has had drills on how to rescue a pilot from a F-16. During those drills he has taken the oppertunity to sit in the pilots seat.Both of us like Falcon 4, the commercially availableF-16 simulator. A pilot in the cockpit of the F-16 has a vision limited to the turning range of the human neck. If he looks forward he has a free view with the HUD displaying all the relevant data. Only during non-combat situations he'll look down to the instrument panelto change settings, check ETA and such.Modern fighters are even better at this aspect, more needed info on HUD and Head Mounted Displays.
Human vision is roughly 180 degrees, we're limited to about 60 degrees ingame.
The most imported thing in aerial combat is Situational Awareness. Turning the cockpit off greatly improves my SA. And I'll keep turning it off until weget 3D goggles with motion sensors.
My cockpit is turned on in Falcon, you need it with padlocking to get the visual references. And it has a clear default view of the hud and sky, you'll need to look down to see the instruments.
testify4
Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:53 am
#38
Per my earlier post, I did try flying with the cockpit on for awhile to get back in to it. I liked it alot, and made the adjustment pretty quick, but my pair of RE'd "white fireball" lasers make it impossible to dogfight with the cockpit on. When fired, there is a flare that obscures most of my vision for a second. All you can do is track the recticle in the HUD and hope you're on target when firing them linked.
So, I need to buy some new lasers if I want to fly with it on. They should do something about the wacky effects of some of these blasters.
So, I need to buy some new lasers if I want to fly with it on. They should do something about the wacky effects of some of these blasters.
Andur_R
Mon Apr 25, 2005 9:41 am
#39
Now I am ALL for that. I agree. I am not arguing about cockpit on/off because I know of reasons to have off and have seen that firsthand. I think the largest problem is that the fighters were developed as is in the way of looks and not much thought was given to the "role play" aspect. Weapons glaring on the view is just one example. The thought seems to beOh well, they can always turn the view off if it intereres or fly 3rd person. NO!. Fix the problem.
Its kinda like what I have been reading on the cybernetics for Rage expansion. Oh it enhances this and that yadda yadda. You can "equip" it on or off like a piece of armor for a bonus. NO. Look, if a character chooses to amputate a left arm for a cybernetic the option to lose the cybernetic and go back to an arm should not be there. You dont get that choice in real life so why in game? I think my largest complaint of the newer expansions is that this game is slowly loosing the Role Playing aspect.