Author Topic: option for informative friendly icons (Read 378 times)

Tsingis · « **on:** February 25, 2008, 11:12:18 AM »

I propose following additions to displayed information of friendly aircraft in the clipbard and icon...

Clipboard:
-mission as F/A/B represented by a letter next to map dot or small image such as the one representing player's own aircraflt, but smaller
-altitude with some accuracy, updated as clipboard is opened
-status as RTB indicating that plane has shortage of fuel, ammo or plane integrity preventing further engagements with the enemy

Icon:
-F/A/B/RTB

Amount of clipboard and icon information associated to friendly plane statuses would be toggled by each player as needed.

Explanation:
In order to further improve SA, I thought how convenient it would be to know who among friendlies is performing fighter, attack or bomber mission.
For example seeing a fighter mission indicator associated to clipboard marker of a friendly plane, it would make sense to bring engaged enemies to that direction instead of high and heavy flying attack plane or bomber whose mission the same move would possibly compromise.
As an additional improvement to this it would be useful in some cases for the pilot to be able to check oneself as RTB ('.rtb'...for the same reason as mentioned above) and this information to be displayed in the clipboard as an option.

Basis for this sort of information being displayed is the idea of HQ that forwards mission information between squadrons to increase cohesion of the entire country, making it a more efficient war machine.

mipoikel · « **Reply #1 on:** February 25, 2008, 11:59:25 AM »

DaftDog · « **Reply #2 on:** February 25, 2008, 05:12:49 PM »

uhhhh......... whaa?

Tsingis · « **Reply #3 on:** February 25, 2008, 05:25:14 PM »

In a war, fighting units usually have a general understanding of other units around them and their tasks.
In the beginning of every airborne sortie player chooses to fly it as fighter, attack or bomber.
A fighter might be expected to engage targets as they are encountered.
An attack plane might be expected to carry heavy load of ammunition and explosives and pursue to reach enemy airfield or other tactical targets as fast as possible before engaging hostile aircrafts.
A bomber's target may be very far away and absence of engagements during the entire sortie is often preferred.

Because the information of objective chosen by a player for all sorties is recorded by the server for scoring anyway,
I see that an option to display that choice would benefit general gameplay more than witholding that information.

The manner in which the additional information would be displayed should of course distract and obfuscate the clipboard view to the minimum. To achieve this, a mouseover -function on a dot representing a friendly plane might be a practical solution.

ridley1 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 25, 2008, 06:57:16 PM »

I see what you're saying...but...

Is this automatically displayed or chosen manually by the player? Either way...things change on the way to whatever fight you've chosen

Way too much stinking code when all ya have to do is hit F12 and ask.

trotter · « **Reply #5 on:** February 25, 2008, 07:00:44 PM »

I've never even thought to consider this before. I think it's a very very interesting idea, and would change this game as we know it. However, I wouldn't want to see it go too far. F/A/B would be enough information I think, perhaps an .rtb toggle as well. Documenting damage, fuel status, ammo status, would just be too much.

As a strat tie in, I'd like to see accompanying radio relay stations that would go with this feature to simulate the constant communication that would be involved in this. Destruction of relay stations would short out F/A/B information in a particular zone. Rather than the all or nothing HQ dar destruction we have now.

Still undecided about your idea overall, but it is very original.

Tsingis · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2008, 07:41:47 PM »

The option would be toggled as I proposed in my first post:
"Amount of clipboard and icon information associated to friendly plane statuses would be toggled by each player as needed."

In my opinion range radio works very well informing others about detected enemy activities. I would not expect to see detailed information about hostile contacts in the clipboard (such as sortie type or altitude...although radar might have this capability).

Still using just range radio, text or voice, has its limits.
Friendly objects of interest can be out of range or people in range may be incapable, unaware or unwilling to relay information about their status and objective. For example a person may be engaged by the enemy.

Giving the option to leave friendly status information traffic out of the range radio would deacrease its load, which I think is a good thing.

Sure all these additions to game functionality require some implementation and resouces which are subject to priorities. Not knowing the complexities of the game engine, I can only wish that my proposals are not overly demanding.
In this case we are talking about information that is already in the system but not displayed (sortie type, altitude and so on).