Time to Keep Icons, But............

[Cobra]

Loose the Range Counter.

These weapons have their historical lethality.  Kills happen quick in here because we automatically know the range, therefore, we automatically know our adjustment on our shots.

I don't advocate getting rid of the Icons.  We need them, but we don't need the range counter.

For all those furballers out there, this would give you longer fights and alot more interesting fights as the shooting distances should get closer.  And if not, well the odds of hitting at long range just got higher because you don't have that digital read out clicking off the ranges for you.

Hehe..a vote for no range counters is a vote for closer, longer-lasting knife fights!

Cobra

[Westy MOL]

It's a step in the right direction imo.

 -Westy

[SeaWulfe]

I posted before in MA... How about removing icons when the plane gets in the gunsight? LIke what happened with the 47D-11 this past release.

Is it any different than not having range? Nope.
-SW

[Eagler]

"Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes!"  

Yep, be cool to have to wait until your gunsight was full of nothing but enemy plane, wingtip to wingtip..

What about making it a selectable icon option to start?

Along this line, I'd like to see a generic icon, say an asterisk, dangling above the plane until you are within visual identification range which would be longer for bombers and a shorter distance for ftrs.

Eagler

[JimBear]

Just losing the range counter (or it going off under a certain distance) would be a plus in my book. As far as the nme filling my windscreen, when the fights that close unless they go Boom I invariably end up getting a collision as the one winged plane or tailless A/C careens into me  

[Ripsnort]

To me, as a trainer, this would make the arena yet more unfriendly to new users.  How about a compromise, either:
A)A high realism arena (not feasible today)
B)instead of a 3 digit count down (ie. 449, 448, 447)  have a single digit count down (400, 300, 200)

[Zigrat]

I think the best option was actually designed by avionics designers in the USA!

If you ever played a modern jet sim, you know when you lock up a bandit, and he is in guns range, a small circle appears around him at around a mile and a half (remember modern guns have longer effective range than ww2 guns)

as the bandit gets closer, they dont give the distance in digits but rather make the circle around him shrink (ie at .75 miles distance wil be a half circle)-- at 0 distance the circle disappears because you have collided  


something like this woudl be best. Mabye a bar under the con that shrunk with decreasing range, or a circle like mentioned above. i think we do need some type of distance reckoning because of lack of depth perception, but an analogue representation (since our eyes are analogue) would be much better than digital imo.

[Tac]

Although I'd prefer all ENEMY icons gone (and knowing it wont happen...$#$@# dweebs, fork you to hell!     ) I think it would be best if the icons:

1) Showed "what is seen" plane type. Aka, a 202 and a 205 would say "Machi", 152 and 190 would just say "190", etc.

2) NO LASERANGER. Instead put a "+" if you are gaining on the con and a "-" if you are losing ground to the con. Think of it as a redshift/blueshift kind of indicator.

Zigrat, that would still give people an idea of range, it doesnt take a genious to figure out that 900yds would be in the shrinking range bar.  

[Toad]

I support experimentation with icons.

I don't think it is currently feasible to get rid of them and I believe the constant yammering to do so hurts the case with HTC.

I DO think we should all get together and POLITELY and INTELLIGENTLY ask HTC to allow some testing of other methods.

Just my .02.

[Zigrat]

Tac, i believe we need *some* indication of range due to the lack of depth perception with no range given at all beyond 1.5ksince farther than that is close to infinity given the spreado of your eyes and depth perception loses effectiveness.

[Tac]

Yes zigrat, but at around d1.3 is when you see the shape of the plane coming in to you... take a few iconless fights (or drone hunting) and in no time you will be able to tell if its at d1.3 or at d800 or less.

But as it was said above, its worth experimentation.

[Toad]

I think the my suggestion would be to start gradually. Make one relatively small change at a time and see how it goes.

Radical change will P.O. a lot of players and may well eliminate some good ideas that might have been successful had the process been advanced gradually.

As I've mentioned many times, there have been some really fine ideas in a lot of threads on this board. I hope we can give a few a try.

[popeye]

IMO, the range counter is more about rate of closure than gunnery.  I think we need it to compensate for the 2D display.

[Westy MOL]

<shrug> Not sure what to say. Good points all around, from the pro and con camps, but icons as they are need work. Something to make them less "in your face" obvious yet usable by all skill levels. And from what I've seen to date (in any sim/game)no one has the answer.

 -westy

[Jekyll]

How about Zig's idea of the circular range counter, but taken one step further.

The 'range dial' would fade into view depending on how long it was in sight.  An icon for a distant aircraft would only 'fade in' to view if that view was held for some period of time, whilst the icons for closer aircraft would fade in much more quickly.

Lose sight of the con and the 'fade period' starts from scratch.

Oh wait a sec....... its already been done.