No more range icons

[MANDOBLE]

I know this topic has been discused hundreds of times. I'm here with what i think could be a good idea to get rid of range icons.

The system is simple, based on "aproaching speeds" and consist on:
- A central vertical line indicating an absolute speed of less than 2 mph.
- left dots indicating a negative speed.
- right dots indicating a positive speed.
first dot: >=2 & <5 mph.
second dot: >=5 & <10 mph.
third dot: >=10 & <15 mph.
fourth dot: >=15 & <25 mph.
fifth dot: >25 mph.

   

The left image shows SPRFLY aproaching fast (>25mph)
The central image shows SPRFLY loosing by less than 10mph.
The right image shows SPRFLY with almost no gain or loose of distance with your plane.



[This message has been edited by MANDOBLE (edited 03-08-2001).]

[straffo]

what would be great (for me at least) would be a desapearing icon under 1K it could lead to :
more bounces
more succesfull evasives

[Karnak]

MANDOBLE,
Not bad.  It looks like an improvement on systems that I have suggested elsewhere.  I think you'd need to have less granularity though.  Something like:

The system is simple, based on "approaching speeds" and consist on:
- A central vertical line indicating an absolute speed of less than 5 mph.
- left dots indicating a negative speed.
- right dots indicating a positive speed.
first dot: >=5 & <10 mph.
second dot: >=10 & <25 mph.
third dot: >=25 & <50 mph.
fourth dot: >=50 & <100 mph.
fifth dot: >100 mph.

My suggested adjustments wouldmake your image indicate the following:
 
The left image shows SPRFLY aproaching fast (>100mph)
The central image shows SPRFLY loosing by less than 25mph.
The right image shows SPRFLY with almost no gain or loose of distance with your plane.

(I hope you don't mind me using your image)

Straffo,
You can take away Icons when you give me a virtual reality headset with a resolution and frame rate equal to real life and when there are no lag jumps on the part of the enemy. Then it will be realistic.
All the talk you guys are doing now is BS. Realism, my ass. What you're suggesting is so much more difficult than reality its scary. And you think its realistic. Thats laughable.
It also punishes those who have smaller monitors or slower computers and have to run at lower resolutions, and that has nothing to do with skill.

 

Originally posted by HiTech:
I realy do get sick of the realism argument because people who use it only wan't there special nit pick on realism but want to protray realism as the only goal worth going after. To that I say bull pucky, Realism is a game issue just like every other topic such as, fun,socail issues, technical issues , balencing getting new players into the game vs provideing a challeng for older players,balancing the difference in all peoples equipment some people have 25" monitors running at 1600x1200 others run 17" at 800x600 now tell me no icons is even close to fair between those 2 different systems.

------------------
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother

Bring the Spitfire F.MkXIVc to Aces High!!!

Sisu
-Karnak

[This message has been edited by Karnak (edited 03-08-2001).]

[MANDOBLE]

Karnak, IMO >25mph is easily perceived by the human eye and the current AH graphics. But the "pixel" technology makes difficult to appreciate speeds of less than 25mph, and the  judgement of the relative speed is vital in any engangement. So, IMO this system is good to get rid of the range icons but maintaining the hability to judge the aproaching speed of two aircrafts.

[straffo]

<edit> shouldn't have used Caps or bold should have thinked more before posting

Mandoble and Karnak please accept my apologises for ruining your thread  .



[This message has been edited by straffo (edited 03-08-2001).]

[Karnak]

straffo,
I agree that the icon colors should be user selectable so that yoy can adjust it for visibility.

It is not fair that you have trouble seeing them and I do not.

------------------
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother

Bring the Spitfire F.MkXIVc to Aces High!!!

Sisu
-Karnak

[Maverick]

Other than changing colors of the icons I see no reason to make any changes in them. If you don't like icons, don't use them. No one forces you to use them as there is an option for you to disable them. Please do not attempt to force others not to have them just because you do not like it.

Mav

[Toad]

Actually Mav, there have been a number of suggestions made that might improve both the realism AND gameplay with respect to icons.

There's probably been at least a dozen threads on this and this community is a pretty creative outfit.

This basic icon system has been in use for well over 10 years and CPU's, Video Cards and Monitors have all improved. No reason not to give some of the new ideas a try as well.

Do a search in this Forum and the General Discussion for "icon" in the title and check out what you find.

There really is some good stuff that would enhance the visual cues while making the "iconery" less intrusive.

Of course, this is all IMO. YMMV.

[Jekyll]

Mandoble, Karnak, nice suggestions there.

And Karnak, thanks for re-posting HT's famous quote from a couple of months ago.  It's the best laugh I've had all day  

So, no icons is unfair to guys who don't have 25" monitors at 1600*1200?  So therefore we shouldn't have it?  Well how about the guys who don't have full HOTAS suites:  aren't THEY disadvantaged if they are flying with a two button joystick or (God forbid) even a mouse?  If you don't have rudder pedals you are disadvantaged against someone who does.  Or how about if you don't have a microphone, and cannot run RW - are you not disadvantaged against a pilot who can get his warnings and maneuvering advice from a squaddie via RW?

The AH icon system is straight out of 1985:  14" monitors and 256 colour graphics?  And THIS is the best we can do in the year 2001?

Sure icons need to stay, but do we really need the icons we have now?

Again, nice suggestions guys <S>

------------------
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Chapter 13, verse 11

[LJK Raubvogel]

Good suggestions, anything besides the neon billboards we have now would be an improvement.

[J_A_B]

In an arena with no icons whatsoever, how are you supposed to tell friendly planes from enemy ones?  Remember, the same planes are available to every country.

Furthermore, making the game even LESS accessable to the average computer owner, will do nothing to increase AH's player base.   The game is tough enough as it is.  Remember, it IS the smallest of the online sims by a large margin.  You'll never have miltiple arenas or many organized events until the player base grows.

I see nothing wrong with ICONS.  I am not in a real plane; my monitor doesn't have any depth of field or sharpness of vision.  The ICONS make up for what my eyes could do in reality.  The planes are unrealistically difficult to see against the landscape--ICONS make up for it somewhat.

The only change to ICONS that MIGHT work, would be to round the distance to the nearest hundred yards until you're closer than 100 or so, rather than closer than 1000 as is currently the case.  That would be closer to what the human EYE does.

J_A_B

[Tac]

"how are you supposed to tell friendly planes from enemy ones"

Friendly icons remain, enemy icons are off.

Try playing a H2H game with no enemy icons, after a few fights you will see the beauty of it  

[Brazos]

I see no beauty in getting eye strain,

And if your searching for that dot hidden in textures, your straining your eyes, peroid. Icons are an evil we have to live with until res and 3D depth of field gets better. It's not the same as input devices like rudder pedals. I know guys with no pedals that cream fellas who have 'em. But if a larger monitor aallows you to ID targets first, that's a simple advantage.

Braz

[straffo]

 

Originally posted by LJK Raubvogel:
Good suggestions, anything besides the neon billboards we have now would be an improvement.

Neon ? you speak for you for me they are ... well dunno it would correspond to a light grey