At present an NOE is very difficult. More skill? Perhaps or more luck. I think his turn fight issue is one of stealth. One is low, below the old dar setting, prowling around looking to take advantage of an enemy with low visual SA. The enemy booms a base and then zooms away. He does not have a visual on the prowler when he started his boom. The prowler can then maneuver for a snapshot or other engagement. With dar now showing all (or most) of the enemy present this tactic is difficult. The other tactic is to be prowling around an enemy base looking for RTB's or enemy that is low and slow. Now one can check dar in the tower and avoid an ambush.
Ground clutter was a major factor in WWII radar. Thus you see radar towers. This elevates the transmitter and receiver to a level where ground clutter reflections were minimized and lateral range was increased. Even with today's radar tech detection below 500 feet is very difficult and not reliable.
So, IMHO, the current setting of 50 feet is not realistic. I do not like the range of 25 miles, but it was available in WWII with the right terrain conditions. At sea, on a flat plain, or from a high cliff. Our bases, located in a valley, adjacent to rolling or mountain terrain would have blind spots at worse or degraded range.
The current settings are not realistic. They are a "game" thing. I do not like them. Nuff said.
I agree that the settings might not be realistic. However, in the MAs, you must make some compromises with realism to make the game
balanced. Too many people run NOE to roll bases and avoid combat. As such, with the old radar settings, there was no one promoting combat when running NOE. So HTC made the settings a little less realistic with the hope of increasing combat. That should explain your answer.
Also, the new radar settings does nothing to hinder your turn fighting fun. First off, you arent going to be under 500 feet the whole time youre turn fighting. Your altitude fluctuates by several thousand feet throughout the fight. Second, with the new settings, people will be able to find a fight easier and youll likely have more reds and target opportunities to shoot at.
So to sum it up, the new radar settings:
1. Promote combat
2. Adds additional challenges to NOE runs
3. Makes it easier to find fights
4. Allows more time for defenders to defend a base before a raid hits
So why complain?