Nothing to do with the "Uber Planes" Thread's

[snafu]

ICON's  
 Thought it was about time we left the "Uber Planes for Aces" to it's own devices and see what it brings, and ressurect the Icons issue.

How about Icons only for Friendlies......

This would mean that it would be far easier to "Jump" other pilots as in real life. It would also give Goon's a fighting chance of sneaking into a field during CAP's etc and give ground support a better chance of forming up together to pound the hell out of field targets etc. (I know the dot's are still a bit easy to spot but it's got to make it more realistic).

You would still have Friendly Icons so 6 call's etc would not be affected. You could still see your wingman. The only drawbacks I can envisage would relate to working out the direction of the enemy at longer ranges (But using the Radar would give you that info - Assuming it isn't knocked out), and "Newbies" would probably be an even easier target for the 1st few weeks or so until thier SA was developed enough.

So...
Come on Shoot me down on this.  

TTFN
snafu

[popeye]

""Newbies" would probably be an even easier target for the 1st few weeks or so until thier SA was developed enough.

So...Come on Shoot me down on this."

You did just fine all by yourself.    

Seriously, I think the game environment is confusing enough for newbies, that they don't need to be repeatedly vaproized by unseen opponents for the first few weeks.

I seem to be in the minority who think that the icons we have now are mostly just fine (for the MA).  You youngsters with 20/20 vision can do what you want in an HA.  I would rather try to out fly and out shoot the other guy, than to see who has the better optometrist.    

popeye

ps.  Wonder that the "hard core realism" camp would think of a One Life Per Tour HA....  There's some "pucker factor" for ya.  

[This message has been edited by popeye (edited 05-18-2000).]

[ra]

Ok my string has been pulled.  There are no icons in real life, but flying without icons opens up other aspects of non-reality, ie fighter pilots who can't see an enemy plane 500 yards in front of them.  Until we start using Hi-res 3D VR goggles where we can see the world with the same visual acuity as a real-world fighter pilot, we're stuck with some sort of visual aid: icons.

We'll be living with icons of some sort for quite a while, so we may as well look to improve them than just declare 'get rid of em'.  Here is a collection of ideas, mostly old ones, for improving icons:

-reduce icon range
-don't put the icon directly over the plane where it can be used in deflection shooting; put it at the 10 o-clock or 2 o'clock position, so if you are deflection shooting at a plane you can't see, the icon won't give away his exact position under your nose.
-have a time-delay on icons; when you switch to a view, icons would not come on until .1 seconds for every 100 yards away the other plane is.  eg if a plane is 500 yards off your right wing, when you switch to right view his icon wouldn't come on for .5 seconds.
-give each aircraft type its own icon range factor to reflect its relative ease of visual detection; big brightly colored planes would have icons come on from farther out than small, camo'ed planes like a Yak 9. Big can of worms, I know.
-Have icons come on farther away for planes that are above the horizon relative to the PoV than for those which are below the horizon.  MOST of the time planes in the real world are more easily seen against the sky than against the ground.
-have it so icons won't diplay for planes which are not visible to the pilot-- behind hills or under your wingtip or nose.  This is probably way easier said than done, or it would have been done long ago.  It would solve 90% of the complaints about icons.
-change icon increments; right now icons above 1000 yards away show in 100 yard increments, when they fall below 1000 yards they change to 1 yard increments.  Have icons below 1000 yards move in 10 yard increments: .98k, .97k; then shift to 1 yard increments < 100 yards.

Just a start, feel free to chop away.

ra