Air 1 Powergaming Rule

I think there’s definitely a distinction between “flying high” and “flying so damn high that your targets have almost zero chance of seeing you”.

Flying high is a choice that can cause some tradeoffs, but flying so high that your targets no longer render you in audio or video (or just can’t point their cameras at you) becomes incredibly problematic.

I believe it’s a problem with aircraft in general. Can’t see them at all, unless they’re pretty damn close to you.

Pegasus pilots have the same issue when trying to lock formation for events (can’t see eachother until we’re very close… actually end up using our smoke trails to find eachother cause they have more of a render distance, lol)

An easy way to address this in the meantime is find the altitude that the helicopter can no longer be seen or heard by players on the ground and set a “rule” or SOP where the pilots are not allowed to go a certain height for turbulence or some other RP reason.

This also should apply to ANYONE that is using an aircraft.

People using them to escape and fly up to no longer be rendered is just as bad.

Intentional or not, it is power gaming because you are using game mechanics to get an unfair advantage.

This would be on par with car chases where people are having connection issues and are teleworking around they are required to swap drivers and if it persists, to surrender.

I believe the driver swap was in the announcements recently.

I mean in the same argument, there’s cars that are so fast they are faster than PD Cars, HEAT cars, and even AIR-1. Does that make those cars power gaming if you go above 200+ mph? Driving so fast that a helicopter can’t even keep up?

• Tunnels

• Bridges

• Overpass’

• Buildings with interiors

• Swaps

• Garages

• Trees

• Bushes

All of these are ways of mitigating a helicopter. A helicopter is supposed to fly high. I make a habit of flying at a relatively high altitude for the purpose of;

• A) Not smashing into a building

• B) Reducing the likelihood of being seen.

This however has it’s downfalls, such as;

• Reduced visibility (Target is smaller and more difficult to track)

• Practically impossible to see through trees (where then we reduce altitude)

• Going under a highway, or breaking line of sight for even a short amount of time makes it very difficult for a helicopter pilot.

Ultimately, creating a rule to prevent how a pilot flies, will just stop people from flying in the fear they’re going to get reported for something that’s completely subjective and you can almost guarantee these reports will only come through if the criminals do not get away. Successful escape attempts will likely not result in reports. (Yes, people are THAT petty).

Assume there is a helicopter above you. Take evasive action. This is a game for adults, we shouldn’t turn on easy mode. We make everything ridiculously easy, it should be a challenge. Someone needs to rip off the band-aid, criminals will enjoy crime more if they had to work harder for it, you’ll savour your successes and learn from your failures.

Addition: There’s a difference between flying out of render distance, and flying high. Flying out of render distance should be bannable, however that is difficult to police, where someone’s view/render distance is set to LOW, mine could be set to Ultra/Max. Do I get punished because my PC is more capable?

Calling that power gaming is certainly a hot take, especially when you have 18 million ways to dodge the helicopter if you even suspect it’s still following you. Nobody says you have to go directly to a warehouse after losing the cops…