TXWard wrote:
I like the idea that the planes have 'x' number of turns to exit safely before they crash land as soon as the fuel runs out.
So do I, but AFAIK this site has a policy of not changing the original game rules, so I suspect this proposal will never be implemented. 
I thought the original post was questioning why this unrealistic situation is the case in the game. Your answer merely explained why fuel continues to be consumed but does not address why a plane out of fuel can run the same as if it had fuel with a wiped out engine. It's not realistic, it is for playability that it is the case.
I'm missing something here... there should be no difference between a plane with a broken engine and one with no fuel, as long as manoeuvrability is concerned, right? Both planes should be gliding! 
The fact that the game ends shortly after all planes exhaust their fuel does not really address the point of the question, if you ask me.
My point is that it is just better from the programming point of view to have planes with broken engines exhaust fuel, for two reasons: no extra code needed to prevent fuel expenditure in a plane with a broken engine, no extra code to prevent endless games in which two or more planes glide around with broken engines and fuel left. The only "drawback" is that planes with broken engines lose fuel, which from the gaming point of view is just identical to having them NOT consuming fuel. So it is no drawback at all really, the way I see it.
Bye,
neko |