Night Arena

[PJ_Godzilla]

My asbestos jockstrap is at the ready.

However, after reading the recent wishlist entry on the Fairey Firefly, I don't see how we can continue to avoid the sticky topic of night interdiction. Many aircraft in the RW WWII planeset are stellar at night, less so in daylight use. Consider any of a number of examples like the Bf110, Ju88, etc. Both shone as nightfighters but in the LW MAs, both are marginal at best.

Besides, wouldn't a little night bombing scenario much like a darkened version of Der Grosse Schlag be fun? It'd be a great place ot showcase aircraft we don't yet have (it would help motivate their development) like the P-61, He219, Short Stirling, and various iterations of F-dubs (like the schragemusik-equipped 190s). It would add another dimension to the game.

Okay, somebody get the habanero juice. Somebody else get the enema bag. I stand ready for flames.

[Krusty]

No. Night fighting is not the same as just flying a plane at night. Most "night fighters" in real life can only catch bombers if the NF is running full power and the bomber is cruising. On top of that the entire mechanic of night fighting, from taking off, navigating in pitch black, following radio leads and contacts you can't see ("take course xxx here, 10 miles out", and "visual range," and "he's behind you now" etc) it's not even remotely comparable to flying AH at "night"

And there's no point in having an arena. Only people flying at night are the ones that don't want to be engaged. HT said most of the server logged off every time the server cycled to "night time" so they removed it. They have the actual logs and know what was happening. They made the right choice.

[EskimoJoe]

"Hey, let's have a night arena, that'd be fun!"

Just remember, at one point somebody said "Hey, let's have a WWI arena, that'd be fun!"

[EskimoJoe]

Krusty, our posts were within a second of each-other....

 

[Yeager]

ya, hate to say it.  the WW1 naysayers are STILL wrong.  WW1 needs more tender loving development.  It will mature into a more used arena as soon as the DR1 gets fixed and more planes, tanks, zeps, arty and other such interesting stuff gets added.

And yes, night sucks.  Still, the P61 would be a GREAT addition to AH

[gyrene81]

it would require eliminating the ability for the gamers to adjust the gamma enough to turn night into day...don't think that's going to happen any more than an arena dedicated to night fighting.

[PJ_Godzilla]

No. Night fighting is not the same as just flying a plane at night. Most "night fighters" in real life can only catch bombers if the NF is running full power and the bomber is cruising. On top of that the entire mechanic of night fighting, from taking off, navigating in pitch black, following radio leads and contacts you can't see ("take course xxx here, 10 miles out", and "visual range," and "he's behind you now" etc) it's not even remotely comparable to flying AH at "night"

And there's no point in having an arena. Only people flying at night are the ones that don't want to be engaged. HT said most of the server logged off every time the server cycled to "night time" so they removed it. They have the actual logs and know what was happening. They made the right choice.

How would flying at night be "not engaged"? It appears to me to be merely a different type of engagement.

I also think the WWI arena could/would be a hell of a lot of fun if it were developed.

I also take Gyrene's points as credible. The lighting issue is criitical. Night time ISN'T always pitch black. Consider this example account of a visual kill at night:
<snippage>
Occasionally success alleviated the boredom. Ground control radar vectored the 6th Squadron’s “Bluegrass 56” over Saipan for five minutes, until R/O Flight Officer Raymond P. Mooney picked up the bogey on his airborne radar. He reported that:

"the Bogey was traveling very slowly and after closing to 400 feet our craft held position for 3 minutes and finally got visual contact. Bogey was a Japanese single-engine dive-bomber (Kate). 90 rounds of 20-mm was fired point blank into the enemy plane. The fire was plainly seen to enter the right wing and fuselage. By accident cockpit lights flashed on in our craft blinding pilot and preventing further observation."
<end snip>.

Why did he hold for 3 minutes to get visual? To verify friend/foe? I've seen other accounts of v-kills at night. This is but one example.

Otherwise, the closing speed issue is potentially valid, depending on the interceptor in use. However, of the known types used in nightfighting (P-61, 110, 219, P-70, P-38, F6F, FW190, Ju-88/188/388, others) I don't see why this would be such a huge problem.

[FLS]

I always enjoyed fighting in the dark when we had night. You could barely see the bandit and you had to keep an eye on your gauges.

[EskimoJoe]

I find myself somewhat torn when it comes for a full-on nighttime.

Yes, I would like a more in-depth day/night cycle in the MA's, but
no I would not like a full on pitch-black combat environment.

[Ping]

I always enjoyed fighting in the dark when we had night. You could barely see the bandit and you had to keep an eye on your gauges.

 I enjoyed it as well but obviously in the minority.
Any scenarios ever been planned using an early dawn takeoff or Dusk final?

[Dichotomy]

I like it when it goes night in AVA.. makes it easier to sneak up on people. 

[Shuffler]

I think the AVA goes dark sometimes. Fun for awhile.

[MachFly]

The only way night would be realistic is if we did not have the icons, icons defeat the purpose of night. If the icons would get removed it would be next to impossible to spot an aircraft even during the day, it would even be a lot harder than in real life.

-1

[Delirium]

If the icons would get removed it would be next to impossible to spot an aircraft even during the day, it would even be a lot harder than in real life

A monitor cannot replace the MkI eyeball, least not until we have much better resolutions with true 3d gaming platforms. I truly wish the AvA guys would concede this point.

Hence why we have zoom, and Icons, it is to give you the functionality you have in real life. But there is absolutly no way to duplicate real eyeballs in real space on a monitor with out adding information in a different manner than you have in real lift. Hence why we have the items  like icons,ranges, and zoom to duplicate the fuctionality you have in real life.

Icons didn't kill nighttime in Aces High, the ability to boost gamma to simulate daylight, did.

edit: night time was also removed because few liked it.

[Delirium]

Here is something for the AvA guys.