Turn the icon's off

[daddog]

A soft colored halo outlining the airplane (red or green) ID's friend or foe and resolves the blending into the background issues.

No distance marker ever.  A variable rate flashing -/+ to indicate closure direction and relative velocity.

Id plane type at a range determined by aircraft size. Just take the smallest airframe in the game (109 I think is smallest) and scale ID distances out from that baseline. A 109 size airplane can be reliably identified at about 6000 feet in planform. Bigger is further.

I like this idea to.

If nothing else this thread does offer a lot of suggestions to HTC and lets them know many in the community would enjoy other icon options, especially special events.

[LLogann]

Courtesy of BnZ:


Only 2400 ft away is this plane that you cannot identify.

Lots of words........

[hammer]

ah cc in game. thought you had something definitive from RL.

[Chapel]

I like this idea to.

If nothing else this thread does offer a lot of suggestions to HTC and lets them know many in the community would enjoy other icon options, especially special events.

This idea isn't to bad, I really like the scope of it. The halo especially helps against dark backrounds, and determins the airspace the aircraft is in. In addition to this, I'd like to see it also use the following:

The halo doesn't appear until you "aquire" visual of the bandit. At close distances, you only have to be looking at the aircraft for a split second or two before the halo appears, and it appears instantly. If you're at a much longer distance, say 6000K, then the halo would take many seconds to appear and could fade in/out depending on if you're looking at it or not.

So at long range you could see movement, keeping the A/C in your view, then the halo would fade in and identify it. Alternatively, if at long range, you might "accidentally" have an aircraft in your visual scope, but unless you're concentrating on the view, you might miss it entirely.

I feel it's about the best as it could get, with the limitations of the 3D vs. 2D argument. 

[BnZs]

Or we could leave as is, if the bandit you're bouncing sees you, so be it,you get to do some of that pilot shQ%@#$$t. 

[mechanic]

on this computer mulligan built for me i could handle it.

What i would love is more customisation of the icons. Do you want range displayed? do you want the country displayed? how about the option to have a single pixle red dot as the icon. Then you can maximise your viewing  enjoyment personaly.


It would be great to have an icon deadband slider on each end of D6.0 to D0. Then you could set it so that plane closer than X yards have no icons eg. from 200-0yards.

Mess to much with icons though and you lose the purpose. Icons enable the old or the young to all be blessed with the eagle eyes of a 20 year old WW2 ace just like we can all withstand an equal ammount of G.

more options for customisation would be sweet, imo.

[Wingnutt]

on this computer mulligan built for me i could handle it.

What i would love is more customisation of the icons. Do you want range displayed? do you want the country displayed? how about the option to have a single pixle red dot as the icon. Then you can maximise your viewing  enjoyment personaly.

the hangup there is if everything is optional, and nothing is forced, everybody(the vast majority) will used whatever gives the biggest advantage.

[mechanic]

exactly, like i said a line or two down..

Mess to much with icons though and you lose the purpose. Icons enable the old or the young to all be blessed with the eagle eyes of a 20 year old WW2 ace just like we can all withstand an equal ammount of G.

[DaddyAck]

Bah, Icons! I do not like them, hence I hang out in the full switch servers of IL2 over hyperlobby.  But with AHII since the planes in the MAs are not split into Axis and Allied sides, lack of icons would make visual identification near useless.  By that I mean if you are in a BF.109 and ID another Bf.109 you would still not know weather if was rook, bish, or knight (unless you use VOX).  If the arenas were splt like the AvA arena with a clearly axis and allied oriented plane set on each side then icons off would work, if you ID that same 109 in this instance then you know not to fire.

But this game is what it is.  Yes icons are not very realistic, but that is just part of what makes this game have its broad appeal.  Some like myself like engine management/overheat/break down, we like no icons and visual identification, we are not opposed to flying at 7-10km.  But there are others that just want to jump in and have at it for a quick couple of sorties.

I think esentially HT has done a good job of incorporating a mix of realism and functionality itho this game.  He has made a game to wich there is a broad appeal and one to wich the hard core and casual and even the "air quake" types can all mingle together.

[BnZs]

But this game is what it is.  Yes icons are not very realistic, but that is just part of what makes this game have its broad appeal.  Some like myself like engine management/overheat/break down, we like no icons and visual identification, we are not opposed to flying at 7-10km.  But there are others that just want to jump in and have at it for a quick couple of sorties.

I would love to have higher alt fights and perhaps more complex engine management in AHII, but this no icons as "realism" that people keep harping on is highly debatable, even in an AvA enviroment. As has been demonstrated ad nauseum. No icons would be more aesthetically pleasing perhaps, but it is not terribly realistic to be unable to type a fighter-sized aircraft only a mile away in CAVU conditions, without resorting to extreme zoomed views which are a PITA themselves from a function/fov/having to fool with even more keys/buttons just to look around standpoint.

[Dawger]

All of those icon ideas I posted come from Dobs. Warbirds guys will recognize the name.

He is an F15E guy in the USAF and participated in an effort to develop a more realistic icon system. The ideas I posted are directly from him, a guy with real world experience dogfighting trying to get it into the game. The halo, +/- and aspect and range dependent ID all come from what he perceived as a realistic compromise in game.

[Dawger]

ah cc in game. thought you had something definitive from RL.

Oh....I have definitive from real life but that doesn't matter one bit. A 109 size airplane is reliably identifiable at 6000 feet

You are looking for some guy to travel back to 1943 and do an icon study.

[hammer]

Oh....I have definitive from real life but that doesn't matter one bit. A 109 size airplane is reliably identifiable at 6000 feet

You are looking for some guy to travel back to 1943 and do an icon study.

No, what I'm really asking is the source of "A 109 size airplane is reliably identifiable at 6000 feet". I've seen numbers like this, much larger numbers, and much smaller numbers thrown out there as fact but there are never sources to back them up. Six thousand feet is about 1 1/4 mile. I can generally, given the right road conditions, ID auto types at that distance with a reasonable degree of accuracy; particularly the non-generic types. It seems to me plane's would be easier in general given the right angle (hence my earlier statement about viewing angle having some impact on icon distance).

I like the halo idea. I think the system where an ID gradually fades in as a plane is in your view (is that WW2OL?) has some merit. I agree that the AH system is less than optimal. I'm just curious about the source for the 6000 feet.

BTW, my response you quoted was to LLogan's statement where he quoted my note about anecdotal evidence of extremely long ranged identifications and said it had recently been proved. I was asking what proof that was.

Regards,

Hammer

[Tr0jan]

Courtesy of BnZ:
(Image removed from quote.)

Only 2400 ft away is this plane that you cannot identify.

Fly closer then   

[AWwrgwy]

Oh come on.  This isn't about flying so you can't see icons.  You can do that now if you choose.  This is about flying so others cannot see your icon.

I get tired of getting picked by some bnz cherry picker because he can see my icon.
The pilot has to make a different set of choices when he is over a base with 20 cons and 20 friendlies not just
pick the red icons.

It's another "I'm getting killed too much/too easy" rant.  You want to fly without icons?  Go for it.  ALT + I.  I for one see dots.  Bushes and GVs look the same to me.

The discussion is nice, but why ask to impose on everyone what you already have the ability to do yourself right now?



wrongway
(after a weeks imposed absence)