New radar settings and display

[sparow]

Hi all, hi Bosco!

I believe that we have a very good radar sistem, althought "too" good IMHO.

We have radar operating in vehicle bases with same range as in airfields and CVs...It works  flawlessly from 300ft, without beeing affected by clouds or mountains...

I understand game playability issues but isn't this stretching it a bit too far?

Why not have different radar ranges for a Large Airfield, a Medium Airfield and a CV? Why have radar at Small Airfields or Vehicle Bases?

Also, radar of the era were displayed in green round screens and the radar performed a circular movement giving you the signals received from the wave beams...Wouldn't it be more realistic to have such a display?

And, also, available only in tower. When airborne, the notepad would have a "static" print of the last known positions.

Also, mountains, ridges and clouds should affect radar, preventing detection due to massive blocking of electromagnetic waves...

Maybe with this few changes we could make AH radar more realistic and still keep gameplay easy...

Cheers,

[chase4]

Would be really good but would make the game rather difficult for new players who think that we have "afterburners"

[Traveler]

One thing that I would like to see change with radar is the DarBar that pops up in each sector that an aircraft is in.   I can understand the flashing base once an nme aircraft is within viewing distance of a base, but not 12 miles out.  I don’t think it would take much to alter the code or system, game dynamics to only show enemy aircraft that are above 100 feet AGL within the radar ring and only blink/flash the base when enemy aircraft are within 6K of the tower or appearing within the radar ring.

[sparow]

Hi Traveler,

I understand your point. I am a frequent flyer at AvA where we have tried several radar settings in order to bring a bit more realism to air combat.

We tried DAR BAR only, DAR BAR and Friendly DOT only, DAR BAR and DOT DAR with slow updates, several DOT DAR ranges (short, medium, wide)...We even mixed it with short icon range, extra short icon range, no icons, you name it...We even worked with killshooter on and off...

But the point is: is radar (DOT DAR and DAR BAR) overmodelled in AH? Yes, DOT DAR definitely is. Is there a reason for this? Yes, there is. What is it? People needs to find targets, and quickly!

DAR BAR is ok, it simulates the look-outs on watch, calling out sightings of enemy activity and sending them by messenger or reporting them by phone or radio.

DOT DAR is the problem...First, it's too accurate. Second, there are too many stations...

I mean, why so many DOT DAR stations? DAR was expensive and complicated, only major airfields would be able to have them...Take it away from Vehicle Bases, medium and small airfields and increase the range on the remaining ones.

Also, DAR is barred by mountains, clouds and cannot look down into canyons...More, DAR loses precision with increasing distances, mainly due to the Earth's curvature...

Gameplay defended, I believe DOT DAR should be a bit downgraded. As it is, we could home missiles on incoming cons...

IMHO, this would not make things worse for new players, only for old players, used to have a AWACS working for them 24/7.

IMHO, changing DOT DAR a bit would be the best thing that could happen to everyone in AH:

1 - For Fighter Pilots, Situational Awareness would rise to it's best! Players that, in the present, chase dots instead of looking for contacts, would develop SA skills faster than they think they could!

2 - For Bomber Pilots, they would have more room to grab and extra "blind" routes for approaches.

3 - Engagements would be a surprise, increasing preparation and respect for the rules of engagement.

4 - Teamplay would be stimulated and would rise to a higher level

War is a matter of surprise and creation of inbalances. If you know how many enemies, from where and to where are coming, things get predictable...

My wish is not that the whole DAR and alert systems radically change or disappear: nothing like that, only that a few changes are made to erradicate the XXIIIrd century AWACS sindrome!

Cheers,

[Tiger]

Using your basis for this argument...  Dot Dar range should be increased  ALOT.  Radar would pick up contacts hundreds of miles away.

DarBar should be decreased ALOT.  You don't have spotters 150 miles behind enemy lines telling you of enemy activity.



Here's what you do.  Use the existing radar factories as actual radar stations.  Spread 4-6 (depending on map size/geographical arrangement) around the territory.  Give them a 50 mile Dot-Dar radius.  Get rid of Dar-Bar.  Make this dot-bar slow to update, say 45-60 secs or so.

You have a slightly more realistic radar network and you have a strategic target worth bombers destroying and fighters defending.

[Iron_Cross]

I think the best example of how radar was "done right" was the BOB scenario, in AH I.  The only radar capability was the Rooks.  The British Bishop, and the German Knights did not have any radar capability at all.  Many over-lapping radar sites with Rook sector controllers only able to direct Bishop fighters to intercept using the 2XX channels.

That won't work in the MA.  People want to find fights, and since the range on the DOT-DAR radar is about 12-20 miles.  The DAR-BAR, has to soldier on as our early warning system for large raids in the 20-50 mile range.  For what you want hopefully CT will have a radar system that will satisfy you.  It should be out in 2 weeks.

As for increasing the radar strats importance, it is already there.  Blast the radar factory, then kill the  strat city, and finally blow up the radar tower.  They are blind for at least three hours, witch is a lot more down time than going after the HQ alone.  It works, but it takes more effort than a lot of people are willing to put up, especially in the MA environment.

[sparow]

Hi Tiger, hi Iron_Cross,

You're both right. I would leave DAR BAR as it is. But I would change DOT Dar in one of two ways:

One, like Tiger suggested: radar facilities with great ranges might be a good approach if they took under consideration obstructions and the planet's curvature...and got less and less accurate with distance regarding low objects...

The other, keep large range radar at uncapturable large fields, get a slow update rate and the distance quality degradation as above.

You may read in my earlier posts that I would resume DOT DAR visualization to tower...That would give our "armchair air-commodores" something to do as GCI  ... In the pilots notepad, a static print of the status at spawn...  Then, the unknown...Eyes peeled, heads on a swivel...

Thank you for your contribution,