S3 Series

Near F50 the 23rd and JG51 tangled and promod and I engaged in a game of chicken in which neither one of us flinched, and thus, neither of us won. I lost my vertical stab and an aileron, and rapidly losing control of my P-39, I hit the silk somewhere below 20K. As I serenely floated down about halfway to terra firma, a 109 came at me, guns blazing. As I was just a couple hundred feet from touchdown, a 109 once again made a pass at me, this time hitting me and a "pilot killed" message appeared in the buffer. But...I did continue down to the ground and a "bailed safely" message appeared....I guess my bullet-riddled corpse impacted the ground at less than terminal velocity?

So. Either one of two things happened here.

1. Some foolishly bloodthirsty Luftwobble thought that it was worth wasting ammo and perhaps pranging themselves into a hillside to shoot at a guy in a chute.
OR
2. They didn't know that I was a guy in a chute and mistook me for a plane.

I'm giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming it's option #2. With the short icon ranges, you can't tell what that dot is that you're approaching until you're in firing range....you get range info first in country color then plane ID. Compounding the problem is the fact that sometimes a bailed pilot doesn't render as a chute but instead as the plane they bailed from. I think that's the case here, as on my FE, I didn't see a chute above me, but instead what looked like a chunk of my rear fuselage spinning in space above me.

I'm curious to know what those 109s around me saw vis a vis my chute and could provide an explanation of what they were thinking. I had acmcam running, but unfortunately the cam follows the plane and not the pilot and my plane came down well before and out of range of when and where I was shot at, otherwise I'd be able to ID who it was that shot at me.

I'm also curious to know how this will be scored. WIll it show in the log that I was KIA? Not that I'm a score-whore, but it is kind of a sucky way to get knocked off the top of the S6 survival rankings if I was shot at because a glitch in the game made someone mistake me for a plane.

I will say I was cursing the fact that we no longer have the .45 to take pot shots while in a chute, would've given me at least some false hope of defending myself.

~S~ Brushman,

In another series last spring, I happened upon a Spitfire just off the French coast. From dot distance it looked normal, so I approached the plane from sun side above. As I get closer and closer, the Spit began to fly erratically, almost as if in a vertical dive. As it descended, I broke off and ran for home after being bounced by another Allied player. I looked back and noted to the squad on TS that there is some dweeb sitting on the water in his plane.

Later review of the ACM cam showed that it was not a plane, but rather a chute. In game, it was absolutely a plane - wings, fuse, canopy, props etc...in ACMCAM, it was a chute.

So before you go off thinking someone is a Chute Shooter, take into consideration the possibility that the other player may have an aircraft rendered instead of your chute.

FWIW

~S~

Bman, I'm pretty sure that was me that shot at you. What I saw was a dot which I thought was a plane. The closer I got it got larger like a plane coming at me. When I finally got within 8 which happened very fast, I put a burst or 2 at the dot and didn't even know I hit it til I viewed my acm. As I flew by it rendered that it was a chute,I had no idea that it was a chute falling. It doesn't show up as a chute at long distance like it does in the main. I would never shoot a chute as there is no reason too. I was as surprised as you were. If you want to see the ACM let me know and you can see what I'm talking about. <S>

<S> oledkk. Whilst I was mad at the time and venting on country channel about it, cool contemplation afterwards made me think it through and figure that what you described is probably what happened, and the shooting wasn't intentional. I probably would've done the same thing...fog of war, and the limitations of our display technology and all that. Thank you for the explanation.

<S> Sakai- I considered your scenario in my original post, and I thought that was a possible reason, as I've witnessed that many times myself. I wish I had taken a screenshot of what I saw on my FE...it was the rear air scoop of the P39 that was my "chute". Gotta love the little quirks this game throws at us.

LOL Yeah!

~S~

Also I was the second plane that shot at you, not sure who the first plane was(didn't pay attention when I was viewing ACM) but I did see the other 109 that I thought at the time was chasing you.

<S>

I've seen this as well where a chute actually appears as a plane. With enough alt I'm definitely going to at least attempt to take some control surfaces off to make sure they don't bail. Unfortunately for both of us he's already bailed. I wasn't aware that you could shoot chutes. I know you could a long time ago in 2.77 but I thought they disabled that.

I've seen it often enough that I wouldn't call it rare, but definitely not a common occurrence either.

Saw another thing somewhat related.

(2) Chutes over a river around the 32 area. Just stuck in the air at 5k. I think they were their the entire frame.

I have not seen that before in the S3.

-light

Light I believe those are them funky observation balloons/blimps

Could be Juggo. I flew by them a few times and they appeared as Chutes on my front end. Maybe they had radar hiding in the chutes.

-light