Post Mortem Realism - More realistic deaths
(sources at the bottom of the page)
In real life, planes don’t despawn or randomly spin out just because the pilot becomes unconscious or bails out. They often keep flying until they crash or run out of fuel. Similarly, when the crew of a ground vehicle is killed, the tank might still keep moving “by itself” if the driver was holding the controls. And no, vehicles don’t explode just because the crew is dead.
To improve realism, War Thunder could apply this logic in-game too. Instead of the tank exploding because the crew dies, it should continue doing whatever the player left it doing. If you were driving forward, it keeps going forward. The same should happen if only the driver dies.
In ARB and ASB, this would play out a bit differently. Currently, the plane spirals out or despawns a few seconds after the pilot dies or bails out - which isn’t realistic at all. If the pilot dies or ejects, the plane should just continue flying with the last throttle input. Full afterburner? Then it’ll keep flying straight at high speed until it overspeeds, crashes, or runs out of fuel. When it comes to controls, the plane should keep going straight, since most sticks and yokes center themselves when released.
Problems?
There could be issues in GRB and GSB where it’s hard to tell whether a tank is dead or not. But honestly, that’s how it works in real life too - you keep shooting until it’s clearly out of action or in flames. One possible solution could be a spotting mechanic, where you can “mark unit as destroyed” or similar. But that’s a discussion for another suggestion.
Real life examples
T-80 driving in circles - Ghost tank
F-106 Landing itself in a cornfield - pilot bailed out
MiG-23 crashes into house after flying 900km without pilot
Would you like this in game?
Which game mode(s)?
- Arcade, Realistic, Sim
- Realistic
- Sim
- Realistic AND Sim
- I voted “No”
5 Likes
only in sim it would be a mess if added in realistic.
2 Likes
+1 so my tank can become strategic bait post mortum /j
3 Likes
I feel skeptical about this entry for World War 2 propeller aircraft, given how narrow some of their Center of Pressure vs gravity were designed, and with the fairly constant need to trim, work on the pedals and the stick.
As such, I worry about gaijin’s implementations for fly-by-wire jets inadvertly causing unauthentic outcomes for world war 2 aircraft. In other WW2 flight sims often cited as far more realistic than Warthunder, one observes the similar “spinning out of control” should one pilot-snipe a spitfire, a 109, a fw190 or yak or should one bail out.
4 Likes
I can’t vote for some weird reason.
ive often seen my own plane keep flying for multiple minutes after my pilot dies, is that not the normal in warthunder?
This is a very good idea, overall I don’t see a large impact on gameplay and it would make getting kills more satisfying by giving the vehicles a more physical feel instead of their entity like nature
2 Likes
It depends I think. If the player stays in the game instead of going back to the hangar, the plane continues to spin out and eventually crashes instead of respawning. But if it doesn’t spin out, it just kinda flies forwards and gets forced down by the game bit by bit, kinda like it’s going down a staircase.
i mean yeah theres no form of autolevel or autopilot in air arcade or realistic and gravity does exist so that would happen
Nope, still can’t.
I wonder who else can’t if anyone is sharing the issue.
I’ll try disable my adblocker to see if it changes, but I can see other votes on the forum, just not actually vote on this one lol.
-Edit - Nope adblocker did nothing xD
Upon rereading the topic, I would want to add on
I think the continuous movement after death is a bit too chaotic for war thunders map selection, and also not entirely realistic due to vehicle differences and conditions during consciousness
I think it would be better if instead vehicles just retained their inertia better and continued to TURN in the same direction as they were while alive, but not providing further propulsion as to avoid weird combat
Note this only applies to ground, the air theaters are so large you could down one and ignore it or just shoot off its method of flight
Generally this could be a string to new updates that improve realism, like not everything being set on fire and more smoke like particles on non critical hits, right now everything just explodes or sparks but many pieces of equipment inside a tank will create smoke upon impact, including armor
Now? I think I accidentally disabled the votes earlier and when I tried to reactivate them, it didn’t work. But now they should be up again lol
1 Like
+1 so when all other crews dead my driver can drive back to base and get crew replenishment.
1 Like
Yep yep, totally up now :)
1 Like