Aces High Combat Challenge

[daddog]

Gents,

On the next off night for FSO, February 26th,  I am going to host a possible new event for Aces High. This idea was something Baumer came up with that might have a strong appeal to some players.  My plan is to host this in the Special Events Arena II (SEA II) at 11 PM Eastern. It is the same time as the usual FSO's but will only last an hour or so. Walk on players are welcome or if you want to bring your whole squad that is fine too. If someone wants to organize a side for missions they are welcome to, but it is not required. If we run this, it will only be once a month and on the off night of FSO.

Here is the brief/general description.

OBJECTIVE:   There are 2 main objectives of the Combat Challenge event.
1.)   To create an air combat event that requires the maximum skills from the participants, using historically possible aircraft. Instead of catering to the lowest common denominator this event would be focused at the “experienced” AH participant looking for a new challenge.
2.)   This event could also serve as a testing ground for CM’s to test and tweak new arena settings and judge how effective they are at creating new arena configurations.

DESCRIPTION:   This will be a multiple life event (open to everyone) to normally run 1 hour. The designs will incorporate a small plane set (2 to 4 aircraft per side) and each side will have a couple  objectives ( maybe 1 Attack and 1 Defense). This event will not be scored, but logs will be posted. The primary objective to enjoy the combat and survive. The participants will generally be split 50/50 but that will depend on the plane set. Side CO’s could be selected or may volunteer just like a snapshot in order to organize each side.

BASIC SETTINGS:   The intent is to use all available setting to create the most challenging air combat environment. Examples of some potential settings are:

•   Friendly Collisions- May be on
•   Friendly Icon Range-Will vary
•   Enemy Icon Range-Off
•   Enemy Low Icon Range-Will vary
•   Radar Altitude-Will vary
•   Stall limiter-Forced OFF
•   Bomb Sight-Manual Calibration
•   Ground Auto Ack-2.0
•   Tower only Radar-On

Again this will not be a single life event, but we may use the death limiter tool. For example you may only be allowed 2 deaths and after that you would not be able to reup. It will be posted in the MOTD.

This may appeal to some, others may rather just go fly in the MA. I will post more about it next week. If you do fly check the MOTD for the active fields and simple objectives.

That is about it for now. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up and something to look forward to. The first design will be 1942 across the channel. I will post other details later, but below is the plane set I plan to use.

Allied:
Spit V
Hurr IIC
Boston Mk III
Lancaster

Axis:
Me-109E
Me-109F
Bf110C
Ju-88

[fudgums]

 

[JunkyII]

Dude I hope my internet comes by then

[akbmzawy]

Daddog.

AKKuya and myself have been discussing the Off Night FSO Jeep Races we have planned in the past and have came to a conclusion that there was not enough intrest to continue our events. We have been severely limited by the terrains available to have some challenging races. Also we did not have any desire to encroach upon Shegotya and Marshall on her HMS events by having a lot of killing in our races.

In your post above we will gracefully let our Jeep Races die out and you more then welcome to use SEA I for your new event.

Good Luck.

[texastc316]

Dude I hope my internet comes by then

keep rubbin it. 


sounds cool Daddog, will try it out

[68ZooM]

Yea that looks like alot of fun   

[Krusty]

I'll say it again... Nothing about "icons off" is in any way pretending to be "realistic"


There, I said it.


Hope you all enjoy it, I just couldn't let that bit slide without comment. 

[49Jester]

Agreed, having to "eyeball" your foe, would enhance the gameplay i think. Not knowing, being half the battle that the real pilots had to deal with.
But it does sound great......

 

[Krusty]

No, the fact that you'd be considered legally blind by a long shot if all you could see was what AH put on a pixelated LCD screen, means you'd NEVER see combat in this condition, and nobody else would have either. They'd have been laughed out of flight school and given a desk job with 2-inch-thick glasses. The human eyeball is a lot LOT better than anything this game (or any other) can replicate.

Icons do not create false realism, they make up for a LACK of realism that technology cannot replicate: the human eyeball.

So perfect, the same model's been in produciton for tens of thousands of years!   

[Gaidin]

Krusty,

The Icons off settings are not intended to give realism.  This is a game, its intended to give a more challenging enviroment.  Its intended to make for merges where you dont know if the guys is friendly or enemy, so you have to get a good look at the plane.  This will promote good team/wingman tactics, as well as SA.
I for one, think this will be a fun event and will attend if I am able.  We as CMs can not make any of this realistic.  We just try to use period planes that actually saw combat against each other, and use settings available to us to make that a challenging and enjoyable event.  If you do not like the idea of Icons being off, then by all means stay in the MA while this is run.

[Saxman]

Gaidin,

The problem Krusty is pointing out is that it's not going to be POSSIBLE to make out the plane shapes in anything approaching a reasonable range (to say nothing of realistic) for anyone not playing on a 60" big screen. You often can't even tell the difference in the skins until you're well under 600-800 yards. The other guy is in firing range before it's even POSSIBLE to make out what he is.

Krusty has a VERY valid playability concern.

[68ZooM]

Not to long ago we did a scenario with the enemy icon range off, it turned out extremely fun and alot more realistic it was fun to drag a single fighter off for a 1v1 without a horde jumping in, and teaches you great SA, theres ways to use your views, and zoom to see the planes futher out, if you have been flying this game at all plane reconition is something you should be learning along time ago, you cant always rely on the Dar or Icon range to know whats ahead, I don't think they had Icons in 1942     either way its going to be fun.

Edit... in the MA's i see the plane before the icon anyway, im just always looking around.

[fudgums]

Last night in snapshot, icons were 1000. I knew way before we came close to engaging that they were 109s.

[Gaidin]

Gaidin,

The problem Krusty is pointing out is that it's not going to be POSSIBLE to make out the plane shapes in anything approaching a reasonable range (to say nothing of realistic) for anyone not playing on a 60" big screen. You often can't even tell the difference in the skins until you're well under 600-800 yards. The other guy is in firing range before it's even POSSIBLE to make out what he is.

Krusty has a VERY valid playability concern.

I don't think it will be a playability concern.  It will probably cut out the HeadOn shots, but as Zoom mentioned, if you have been playing awhile you should definitely be able to distinguish plane type by visual recognition as they get closer.  The German/Jap/Russ/US/Italian planes all have distinct shapes at about 1k.  Even on my 19" CRT monitor. Will it be easy for everyone to do this, maybe not, but that is where the more challenging environment that I talked about comes in.  I am looking forward to it.

And just so there is no confusion, I am not trying to bash Krusty.  I am simply trying to point out that this is not a way to create false realism, it is about a challenging environment that will make you think/react differently that you otherwise would.

[Nefarious]

How about ditching the Lancaster and inserting the Mosquito or B-25C?

I'm guessing objectives will be emailed through FSO Mailer?

I will be there!