Intro
1.0 will see the revamp of deviation and thus infantry combat, yet vehicles (air and ground) in PR have not gotten a lot of love for the longest time. Tank battles in PR are extremely unrealistic due to the lack of FCS, making them feel very static. With a FCS, tanks will be able to fire on the move and thus battles will be more dynamic. Since the creation of a true FCS system is probably not possible in the BF2 engine, I will attempt to use an elaborate work-around to create the illusion of a FCS through clever game mechanics and animations.
My idea is based on the TV missile from BF2. This concept is already applied on PR's hellfire missiles and player-guided bombs. I will be as concise as possible in my explanation. There will no doubt be questions, but I'd rather clarify my idea through answering questions than writing a wall of text which may or may not be universally understood right away.
Steps:
1) When the gunner spots a target in FCS mode while the tank is on the move, he would "designate" the target.
2) This "designation" sequence would spawn an invisible missile/tank round that is stationary slightly above or in front of the tank. This "missile" would have similar properties as the TV missile in BF2, and the gunner's view would be transfered to this projectile. The hud of this "TV Missile/Tank Round" would be similar to the sights from the internal tank sight (to create the illusion of the gunner still looking through his sights). Since this projectile is floating in mid air and separate from the fast moving tank, it is therefore relatively still and can act as the stabilized gun sight of the tank. The gunner can also adjust the point of aim just as he would to a TV missile or a PR Hellfire if the enemy tank/target is not stationary, and thus simulating the tank's firing computer tracking the target.
3) When the gunner is ready to fire, he would press another "fire" command that is linked to the vehicle speed-boost code of BF2. This will boost the otherwise slow moving or stationary projectile to the speed of a normal tank round, thus simulating the firing of the round. At the same time, the screen should go black and shake due to the "recoil" in order to smoothly transition back to the gunner's view inside the tank to help create the illusion that the gunner's view never left the tank at all.
The projectile should have a limited time to live and a slight zoom so gunners can't see their own tank zooming into view because that would look silly. A reasonable time to live should be determined through testing. It would probably be around 5-10 seconds. Of course, the manual mode of fire that is the current system should complement this new "FCS."
Although this may not be the most realistic FCS system, but it will allow tanks to fire on the move, which is a realistic feature in itself. This system may only work for tanks (maybe attack choppers) since they have a relatively slow rate of fire. I would not know how it could be implemented into fast firing APCs and IFVs.
Since I'm not a coder, I must solicit the help of the community coders to help determine whether this idea is even feasible. Feel free to ask questions. Also I don't know how it would look from the 3rd person.
1.0 will see the revamp of deviation and thus infantry combat, yet vehicles (air and ground) in PR have not gotten a lot of love for the longest time. Tank battles in PR are extremely unrealistic due to the lack of FCS, making them feel very static. With a FCS, tanks will be able to fire on the move and thus battles will be more dynamic. Since the creation of a true FCS system is probably not possible in the BF2 engine, I will attempt to use an elaborate work-around to create the illusion of a FCS through clever game mechanics and animations.
My idea is based on the TV missile from BF2. This concept is already applied on PR's hellfire missiles and player-guided bombs. I will be as concise as possible in my explanation. There will no doubt be questions, but I'd rather clarify my idea through answering questions than writing a wall of text which may or may not be universally understood right away.
Steps:
1) When the gunner spots a target in FCS mode while the tank is on the move, he would "designate" the target.
2) This "designation" sequence would spawn an invisible missile/tank round that is stationary slightly above or in front of the tank. This "missile" would have similar properties as the TV missile in BF2, and the gunner's view would be transfered to this projectile. The hud of this "TV Missile/Tank Round" would be similar to the sights from the internal tank sight (to create the illusion of the gunner still looking through his sights). Since this projectile is floating in mid air and separate from the fast moving tank, it is therefore relatively still and can act as the stabilized gun sight of the tank. The gunner can also adjust the point of aim just as he would to a TV missile or a PR Hellfire if the enemy tank/target is not stationary, and thus simulating the tank's firing computer tracking the target.
3) When the gunner is ready to fire, he would press another "fire" command that is linked to the vehicle speed-boost code of BF2. This will boost the otherwise slow moving or stationary projectile to the speed of a normal tank round, thus simulating the firing of the round. At the same time, the screen should go black and shake due to the "recoil" in order to smoothly transition back to the gunner's view inside the tank to help create the illusion that the gunner's view never left the tank at all.
The projectile should have a limited time to live and a slight zoom so gunners can't see their own tank zooming into view because that would look silly. A reasonable time to live should be determined through testing. It would probably be around 5-10 seconds. Of course, the manual mode of fire that is the current system should complement this new "FCS."
Although this may not be the most realistic FCS system, but it will allow tanks to fire on the move, which is a realistic feature in itself. This system may only work for tanks (maybe attack choppers) since they have a relatively slow rate of fire. I would not know how it could be implemented into fast firing APCs and IFVs.
Since I'm not a coder, I must solicit the help of the community coders to help determine whether this idea is even feasible. Feel free to ask questions. Also I don't know how it would look from the 3rd person.