New Form of / Trigger for Physical Effects on Pilot Character?

[Frogisis]

I did a google search and search of the forum and found one thread mentioning something similar, but not so similar that I was satisfied with it as an answer, so:

 

Last night I was taking the P-51 up for a jaunt to get the hang of it in preparation for some warbird missions, and after dropping my tanks and trying some maneuvers while descending again my pilot character experienced some alarming symptoms I haven't seen before, and I wanted to know what it's supposed to represent and if it's either a new thing entirely or the conditions for it have been changed, so I know what to watch out for.

 

It took the form of a ringing in the ears and a "rushing blood"/heartbeat sound while the external world volume was muffled, an audio effect you're probably familiar with from many first-person games when your character is picking themselves up from an explosion or other physical trauma, and lasted ~8 seconds before fading and the external world sound returned to normal volume. What did I just subject the poor guy to? (edit: lol and it WAS an effect in DCS, not my actual ears)

 

It happened twice, correlated with and almost certainly caused by a series of snap rolls I was trying out to see if they really were a useful way to bleed off airspeed during a hurried descent to prevent overspeeding as I saw someone suggest in a video, between what TacView shows as 17,500 feet and 9,000 feet. I did about 6 snap rolls total but it only happened the two times, between 4 to an entire 15 seconds after the last roll.

 

Like I mentioned, I did a search for this and only found one thread mentioning DCS simulating auditory effects like ringing in the ears and muffled sounds, but as a symptom of high-altitude hypoxia. I'm not really satisfied with this explanation since nothing manifested earlier during about 20 minutes up at 25,000 feet, and I'd checked the oxygen blinker immediately after it happened and saw it was still blinking away. Also I'd tested out the hypoxia effects once or twice in the A-10C just to know what to look for, and this event wasn't accompanied by any darkening or narrowing of the view like that was, it was purely the "soundscape" effect, but this was years ago and the effect might have been modified or my memory might be wrong.

 

My first guess was that it represented blood rushing to the pilot's head due to the centrifugal force of the snap roll, but I always thought blood pooling upward took the form of red-out, whereas this was something entirely new and purely auditory I hadn't experienced in DCS before, and it didn't happen during the maneuver itself but with a substantial delay. Maybe it's representing the body's shocked and confused response to blood rushing in and then rushing back out? Did I actually damage the oxygen system? Maybe I just made the guy regular dizzy?

 

Either way it scared the crap out of me and if it's on purpose and not triggered accidentally I love it, it's very well done & convincing and sounds great with headphones. I just wanted to make sure I know what it is and what causes it, and if it weakens your pilot in some way, cumulatively making them more vulnerable to GLOC for a while afterward, etc. I've done snap rolls and plenty of other extreme maneuvers before in DCS, but as far as I can recall this is the first time having this effect triggered, which makes me think it might be related to the 2.5.6 update, being either entirely new or having the activation conditions for it loosened.

 

 

***TL;DR*** hearing got all weird and ringy after doing some rolls what happen

Edited February 16, 2020 by Frogisis

[Anklebiter]

You sure it was coming from the game and not you? :)

[JIMJAM]

It would be cool instead of instantly dying you experience "injuries". Even if it is a gradual loss of vision or the old effect of the screen going red. Watching the terribly overpowered AI shred you with every bullet hitting a critical system is no fun. Struggling to limp back to base is.

[Frogisis]

You sure it was coming from the game and not you? :)

 

hahaha definitely. I was flying some more last night and it happened again! It seems to be unique to the P-51, or at least to the WW2 planes, as I didn't get the same effect flopping around violently in the F-16. I meant to save the track but I got distracted by another issue involving models not loading beyond a certain distance and went back to the mission editor, having forgotten all about it. It didn't even happen after a maneuver this time, though, but just during trimming out after takeoff. I'll definitely remember to save a track next time.

 

It would be cool instead of instantly dying you experience "injuries". Even if it is a gradual loss of vision or the old effect of the screen going red. Watching the terribly overpowered AI shred you with every bullet hitting a critical system is no fun. Struggling to limp back to base is.

 

Yeah, something like that would definitely be an interesting wrinkle, like having to land before you bleed out or something. The difficulty would be in deciding on the implementation and criteria, though—I don't want to imagine the arguments over how realistic this or that amount of time remaining conscious is after this or that wound, and certainly wouldn't envy ED having to thread the needle of including it in a way that would make for a satisfying experience for people in that you can clearly understand what's happening to your avatar and know what to do about it.

 

Fortunately I don't think it would even come up very often, but it would be a neat surprise and challenge if it did, like a mechanical failure or a bird strike. For now, i guess we can just imagine that our pilot avatar is as tough as can be and can power through any wound that doesn't kill them outright.