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Idea - Rescue Helicopter and Downed Pilot in need of Rescue

26.0k Kendog84  4 months ago

Idea - Rescue helicopter and a pilot in need of rescue

Here's an idea for some builds that lets you play "search and rescue" type of custom-scenario in Free Loam mode.

Thing you need number one:
Plane that flies and crashes at some point (but pilot will bail out and land safely!)
-Plane can be a regular one or an FT-controlled autopilot type. Latter will fly around to a random landmark (which gets selected with RNG).

-After a random amount of time (using some kind of FT based RNG), the plane will "become uncontrollable" or something (and reason/excuse for our pilot figure to bail out), and pilot fig, attached to the plane, will eject/bail out of the plane. He/she/it will deploy parachute and land either on a terrain, or in the water.
Fig must be durable. Make sure to set the part HP high and PartCollisionResponse to None, FOR EVERY PARTS of the fig. It's important!!
It also has to float waist up, and not be too heavy.

To make it easy for you to find them, they can have some signal lights as well as a "signal flare" launcher, which they would automatically use when you lock on to the guy with your missile.
For this to work, the plane has to be very low-part, and pilot fig has to have the main cockpit, and also some wings attached and hidden on it though (this is to avoid critical damage (which causes its target marker to disappear).

Ok, now, the "pilot-in-distress" part is done (for now).

Thing you need number two:
So, now that we have a pilot in need of rescue, what else do we need? A rescue helo, of course! And how do we make one? The rescue part?

There can be many ways to do it, but I'm thinking of a winch/crane with a big and powerful magnet.
So once the pilot bails, you go and find them, and you lower the magnet. Pilot gets attached to the magnet, and you carry them to one of the airports. Rescue is complete! The day is saved! Yayyyy!

Your rescue helicopter must be very stable and easy to fly, though. I modified a heli build to make a proof-of-concept for this idea, and even though it was incredibly stable and easy to fly, catching a tiny human sized thing floating in the ocean using a constantly moving magnet was super hard. Maybe a better mechanism to catch the pilot is needed, like a cage, or pincher/rake of sort (that you drag with your helicopter until it catches the pilot fig).

Maybe, also, you can add some FT controlled "arm" to the pilot, so once you deliver it to a safe place (indicated by distance to a given set of XYZ map coords) and release it from the magnet, it waves at you to show gratitude. Or something. I think this will be fun. Someone give it a try, and please tag me if you do. I'd like to give it a try.

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  • Profile image
    3,232 SPsidearm

    @Kendog84
    My brain goes kaboom with such requests.
    And about that F-84....

    one month ago
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    28.6k YarisSedan

    damn! can't wait to see the end results!

    4 months ago
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    26.0k Kendog84

    Here's some features I'm building into my second proof-of-concept bailout plane (or, more like pilot).
    As for rescue helo, I still haven't found a suitable candidate for it.

    -Automatic Airbrake that activates when the pilot is in the water (to stop or slow down sliding - it's very hard to catch the guy when they are sliding in the water at 100kph)
    -Flare launcher for signalling
    -Parachute for safe landing
    .
    And some features I'm hoping to implement
    -Rudimentary pose-changing mechanism using rotators (stretching legs after bailout, head or body turning towards player if you lock onto the pilot - not sure how well I can implement this)
    -Ability for the pilot to tell when its in close proximity to "safe zones" (eg Wright Airport etc.) based on map coords
    --This would be used to trigger some stuff stuff which tells the player that they've successfully delivered the pilot to a safe zone (maybe like a little hand waving animation)

    +1 4 months ago
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    26.0k Kendog84

    @rexzion
    I'm thinking of simply using cumulative VerticalG or sum of positive G time as a trigger for bailout. Plane can be a normal one without FT-autopilot. This should allow for some randomness (given how randomly AI flies planes) without having to do crazy stuff. Making a stable enough helo seems like the harder part to me.
    I have some new pilot themed figurines that can be used for this, so I should be uploading them soon (fingers crossed).

    4 months ago
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    44.4k rexzion

    this is 100% possible but it would take alot of time and effort

    +2 4 months ago
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    @PlaneFlightX oh, Sad

    4 months ago
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    49.5k PlaneFlightX

    @MIGFOXHOUND31BSM26 from my knowledge of SP and FT this can be achieved but it would take me years of development to create unfortunately.

    4 months ago
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    With this treasure I summon @planeflightx

    +2 4 months ago