Author Topic: .spot [PlayerID] & .mark (Read 213 times)

CavemanJ · « **on:** January 12, 2001, 06:56:00 AM »

Neat new command that is purely a gameplay concession.

When a player decides they want to act as a spotter for someone firing 5"/38 or 8" shells from the fleet (or for panzers/mobile arty for that matter) they enter the command .spot [PlayerID]. Once this command is used the spotting player gets neon red (or any verra high visibility color) tracers* on rounds fired by the person they are spotting for.

This will make it easier for the spotter to to determine which shell hits are from "his" gunner, allowing him to more accurately adjust the gunner's fire since he can easily pick it out of the lot of shells that are in the air. 3 8" turrets and 4 player manable 5"/38 guns equal alot of shells in the air to try and pick the right ones from.
(* maybe ground splash could be in the same color)

To stop spotting, the spotter gives the command .spot (w/o any player id) and no longer sees the psychadelic tracers

A companion to the .spot command is the .mark command for those players firing the ships' guns or other artillery pieces. Simply put, .mark sets the 'marked' coordinates to the position where that gunner's last rounds landed. This does away with the total inaccuracy of clicking on the map to mark coordinates and gives the gunner an accurate reference to where he needs to train those big guns to be in the area of his target (base icons on the map are 2-3miles/side or larger, depending on map zoom, and a base fits inside a 1/2mile square on the terrain). A spotter would still be needed to make sure rounds are landing on target and to help the gunner accurately shift fire from one target to the next on a base.

There is no companion command to reset the coordinates marked with .mark. A click on the map is sufficient to reset them.

flakbait · « **Reply #1 on:** January 12, 2001, 07:47:00 AM »

Hell yeah Cave! I'm all for this!

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Flakbait
Delta 6's Flight School
"During the Battle of Britain the question 'fighter or fighter-bomber?'
had been decided once and for all: The fighter can only be used as a bomb carrier
with lasting effect when sufficient air superiority has been won." Adolph Galland

Pongo · « **Reply #2 on:** January 12, 2001, 09:06:00 AM »

Removes one of the biggest problems in arty spotting. Knowing if you are spoting the right shots. This is really important in ship battles historically. Why would you remove it?

CavemanJ · « **Reply #3 on:** January 12, 2001, 09:43:00 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Pongo:
Removes one of the biggest problems in arty spotting. Knowing if you are spoting the right shots. This is really important in ship battles historically. Why would you remove it?

#1: I said it was purely a gameplay concession at the start of the post

#2: In the real world a firing battery will send 1 round over, the FO adjusts, then calls 'fire for effect' and all guns start unloading or calls for another spot round.

In extreme cases an FO can give the coords and a pattern, say a box around a particular position, and call 'fire for effect' w/o any spot rounds and pray there aren't any short rounds

#3 The real world versions of the ships we have to play with had much more complex fire control directors and could be more accurate w/o the problems we have in the MA, not to mention the training of all parties involved.

Hence it's a gameplay concession to make the big guns more fun to fire and promoting coordination between countrymen at the same time, and to work towards a goal using organized and coordinated attacks.

Give me a fully trained gun crew aboard ship coupled with the fire control directors and trained FOs and I'll edit the original post to say "never mind"

[This message has been edited by CavemanJ (edited 01-12-2001).]

Tac · « **Reply #4 on:** January 12, 2001, 11:19:00 AM »

How about this cave:

The spotter plane does that .dot command and gets the neon tracers for the gunners he is spotting for.

However, it would be nice for the gunner himself to be able to see the icon of his spotter. Thus, if the spotter is 12 miles away, only the gunner would be able to see his spotter's icon. This would help a lot in ranging.

CavemanJ · « **Reply #5 on:** January 12, 2001, 11:33:00 AM »

No need to mess with the icon code Tac.

The map is fine for getting the initial bearing/range by clicking on it. If you're using an aircraft as a spotter the gunner can .wingman [PlayerID[ and the spotter can tell the gunner when he's over the center of the base. The gunner then clicks the white dot on the map and voila, initial range and bearing are set.

Then it's up to the spotter and gunner, working together, to get the rounds on target.

CavemanJ · « **Reply #6 on:** January 13, 2001, 01:25:00 PM »

Had an additional thought on this.

.mark [PlayerID]

When used it will set your marked coords to the same coords as the PlayerID you enter. This would allow 3 gunners in the CA 8" guns to have gunner/spotter range in the shells, then the other 2 gunners .mark [1st gunner] and they're all set. Adds even more cooperation into the sea bombardment of a base

pzvg · « **Reply #7 on:** January 14, 2001, 08:33:00 AM »

I read it somewhere's,forget where, that the Japanese used a dye on the naval shells that would color the splash so they could adjust fire, Don't know if that's true but it is interesting.

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pzvg- "5 years and I still can't shoot"

popeye · « **Reply #8 on:** January 14, 2001, 11:57:00 AM »

I like the idea of a spotter plane being able to mark the target, and set the range/bearing coordinates, but the colored tracers for the spotter are a bit too much IMO.