Thoughts from a pilot.

I want to start I did not go in to this game intending to be a pilot as I do enough of that with ArmA and DCS, instead I got forced in to in as it seemed no other player on the server I was in could fly and by the end I was routinely the only pilot on the team. My 13 hours of game time was split most prob 11 hours of flight 2 hours of ground combat, For some reason my beta access is saying I need to purchase the game but im not too bothered as by the time it gets fixed the beta will be over.

Alas, Overall the game is fantastic I love the concept of the game, the money system, etc but I have a couple things I would like to see changed.

TLDR - Start here.

Helis need to be more expensive - Right at the start of a match you see people flying little birds (MH-6) straight in with no regards to getting them out. Now if you do the match a 5 man load of a MH-6 will net you just under 6k which effectively pays off the helo, in my opinion no helo should be able to pay its self of or almost pay its self off in one load. As such I would say the little bird should cost 9k, the armed should be 11k, the Huey 15k and so on.

Heli EWR needs a third tone for missile launches - right now people with SAM's or MANPADDS just hold the lock until the pilot dumps flares then fires as there is currently only 2 tones for the EWR, 1 is for a missile locking, 2 for a lock, there should be a 3rd for a missile actually being launched.

Tail rotors outages are unrecoverable - Yeah this needs to be changed Tail Rotors failing or being destroyed are a real thing, and the recovery from it is taught to Heli pilots the procedure is simple - Lower collective and get in to sustain forward flight to allow the vertical stabiliser to take control for direction travel, I could not for the life of me get this to work in game and so IDK if its just a me issue or if its a thing that cannot be done in game.

The zone - Man you got this big ass beautiful map and yet all the action takes place in a 1 - 1.5km big circle, this needs to change or just make the maps smaller but then that defeats the purpose of hells and such, IMO the zone should either move to a new spot on the map every 20 points forcing teams to redeploy or a easier solution have side objectives that directly impacts the game, for example a fuel refinery if captured, is on a cooldown for 15 mins and provides free refuelling at HQ, same with a vehicle factory but for vehicle repairs obviously. a cyber attack group that is active after any team gets 20 points and when if captured, it deducts 15 points from the team with the highest amount of points if it get captured by the team with the highest amount of points it should then deduct 5 points off the 2nd place team this would have a cooldown of 30 mins.

This would spread out the teams, less focus would be on the zone as right now its just swarm the hot zone and will hopefully also reduce snipers in the zone.

More helis - we have 2 transport focused helis, I would love to see a DAP like heli for example a Wildcat with rockets or a single guided missile aswell as the 2nd seat should be able to use the forward facing optics for recon, this could also be setup for a transport only role as well with no weapon but the optics always remain on, and something bigger with a focus on logistics for example a Sea king this would be able to fit 25 people or 2 pallets in to it and also because we have the huey already so we are sticking with the marines vibe and both of the above helos would be unique I only know of 2 other games that have these helis by default.

Heli customisation - Something I would like to see is the ability to change the weapons on the helis instead of just having a locked selection, so for example the huey the pilot can choose to run it unarmed or have the minigun, m249 or 50 cals on it obviously the more powerful weapons would cost more, the ammo costs more etc also give the pilot the ability to lock the guns as some people would just shoot them in to nothing costing the pilot money just a QOL thing.

Halligan Bar - Should provide Support XP And should be able to pop open Gates aswell as doors, Halligans can absolultly open gates and if this change isn't implemented I feel every FOB will just be gates everywhere.

I think this is it, I did enjoy my time with the game and hope it thrives but we shall see.

Also protip for the infantry dudes bottom left of the vendor you can quick buy you last loadout please use it, and don't get mad at pilots if we leave because we got 10 people and you are taking long to grab your gear I personally give a 10 second warning before leaving if you miss that time you gunna either make you own way to the zone or you waiting for me or someone else to come back.