ORIGINAL: Element Products, Inc.
Is 8 a good number of team channels?
Is a maximum of 99 hits sufficient for a single combat round?
Is it important to know how many hits came from each opponent or is good enough to simply track the total number of hits?
Two "Teams" would be the most realistic. How many times have you heard of more than two belligerant sides in combat?
I don't see actual number of hits as important, but rather the accumulation of "Damage." See later note.
And yes, each gun should be encoded so the airplane making the hit can be identified. Otherwise how do you tell the "Ace" apart from the other fliers?
When a plane gets hit, it would indicate it by its motor speed being reduced or some other method so that pilots and spectators on the ground can follow all the action.
What is the best indication(s) for a hit to a plane?
- A loud tone? (Could it be heard from the ground?)
- The throttle being reduced for a few seconds and then restored?
- The throttle slowly being reduced more with each hit the plane takes?
- A combination of the above or another idea?
When a hit is registered a "Jiggling" of the hit plane's controls could be used, making the airplane appear to "Stagger" in the air. The amount of jiggle would be in proportion to the intensity of the hit. See later note.
The combat system should be easy to fire to allow the pilot to concentrate on flying.
What is the best way to fire the combat system?
- Using the throttle control? (Setting the throttle to full fires the gun and then the throttle must be reduced for a few seconds before it can be fired again.)
- Using a separate channel (Do most people have free channels on their radios)?
- Continuously fire (for instance, once a second)?
Using semi conductor lasers, with either fixed gear or hand launch, channel five, normally being a toggle switch, could be used easily to fire the laser or lasers.
But since we are trying to emulate real world conditions, there should be a limmited "Ammunition" supply. A real world limit of six second's fire would probably be too short, so it shouldbe adjustable, being set to a limit of twenty seconds or so, and an indicator visible from the grould would be required for knowing when you've run out of "Ammunition."
What should be the maximum range for the system? A range of 50 ft has been suggested by other users. Is this long enough or too far?
By using lasers as guns, a very slightly divergent beam could be obtained with a very low diopter lens, and having one "Gun" on each wing they could be aimed to converge somewhere around 20 feet in front of the plane. With the divergent beam, the effective energy would decrease with distance. Just like real life.
The hit sensors, again to be lifelike, would have to be all aspect. You can hit an airplane from any direction, remember.
Now we get to the complications.
If we limit the number of planes in the furball to eight we can use a three bit code for ID, or four bit would allow 16. Seems to me eight would be enough.
Each airplane would need seven (or fifteen, with four bit coding) accumulators, each would record the intensity of "Hits" from each of the other seven (15). And being real world, we will record "Friendly fire" hits. And they will affect the hit airplane. Real world.
For the damage simulation, an easy and practical method would be to limit control throws. As the total in the damage accumulators increased, the available percentage control throw would decrease, to whatever damage accumulation was decided to be a "Kill." At which point complete control would return to the flier. Suggestion would be flashing lights, one on top and one on the bottom of the airplane to indicate "Kill" to other fliers, and the pilot of the "Killed" plane. These lights, and return of full control could also bethe out of ammunition indicator. When you're no longer able to do any fighting you want to get away, don't you? And the internal system would still show whether it was a kill or "Winchester."
Since the decreasing control of the plane could lead to real flight problems, and we don't want our "Real world" simulation to include real smoking holes in the ground, there must ba a "Bug out" capability. I'll leave that up to you, but it must be there, a way to regain full control of the plane at the pilot's command.
The price has to be low enough for many people to want it. If only three people in a given area are willing to pay the price and fly it, how often will even two of those people be at your flying site at the same time? At $100 I don't think it will sell. $50, it might be popular.
Finally, whatever price you charge, the system must be highly shock resistant as in spite of our not wanting them, mid-airs and smoking holes do happen.
Just some quick thoughts on your proposal, hope they help.
Bill.