Originally posted by Wotan
depends on the detail level of the maps. If its possible can navigate by terrain features (roads, rail, rivers etc) then go for it.
Until then folks need to know where they are so can follow way points etc.
Its not going be very fun wondering aboutr with no clue as to where you are.
Wotan, m'dear... I have mentioned to you before that KG2 back in WB2.77 flew several S3's no-GPS. Barring the last of them, there werent even any roads to follow. And our accuracy was good - we found our targets, bombed the wotsit out of 'em and found our way home, no problem.
Anyone - and I DO mean ANYONE - that thinks that flying no-GPS is too hard should try it first. Make yourself a map of the terrain, print it out, plan some sorties (PROPERLY! That means being able to plan WHEN you will be WHERE and then flying it like that), use your paper map. IMO anyone crying that they dont want to take the trouble to learn the capabilities of their simulated planes doesnt have a place arguing about what is supposed to be a better simulation of WW2 air combat. They can go and debate about what makes a more fun MA, and I'll respect their opinions on that; that's their thing, they know what they want from it, who am I to criticise that? .
But personally, I couldn't care less about what makes a better MA. I care about what makes a better simulation of WW2 air combat. Just bear in mind that if you do a good sim in the first place, you can also put in the "training wheels" for use in the MA for those that want em. Whereas if you make a game that thinks ONLY in terms of the MA and doesnt allow for greater realism... then you're restricting the range of things your game can be used for to the more arcadish end of things, and you upset a whole chunk of the community who'll simply wander off as soon as they find something more realistic (and with greater long-term interest).
Of course, if the TE were tweaked to produce nice outline maps rather like the Glars maps or Max Overlay maps of years gone my in WW2 flight sims, things would be a tad easier... :-}
The .location command I suggested above would give folks a fall-back that hasn't existed in WB or AH before. With THAT in place, navigating would still be very easy. In fact, the .location command, if implemented right, would add an incentive to fighters to fly as a group.
Imagine - big furball has just ended, and our heros start to think about rtb'ing. They wonder where the heck they are. They all do .location. 30 seconds later, the results come back - they get a scatter of dots. Somewhere in the middle of that scatter of dots is the most likely position of their unit 30 seconds before. But meanwhile, each of them knows that their own .location returned a result no more than 25 miles/40km out, so they at least know roughly which way to turn for home.
Now, being pessimistic, let's say that theyve never seen home base prior to taking off on this sortie before, and that there's a 50per cent chance that they will pass within visual range of it (more like 60%, but the probability could be tweaked). If they see home, fine. if they dont, they guess which way to turn. Maybe they land at another friendly base. Wups! that kind of thing happened in real life. What's the biggie?
GPS and unrealistic airborne radar are the two things that kill the realism and make things more like an aracade shooter more than anything else. Both militate very strongly against buff survival. Removing GPS would make fighter pilots think about what theyre doing OUTSIDE OF THE DOGFIGHT for a change, and implementing .location would still mean that no-one could ever get hopelessly lost. Heck, if you're still worried, simulate some kind of radio beacon at airfields. Depending on which way it worked (range or bearing) and how it was implemented, it could even add an interesting feature to MA gameplay (do I ask for a beacon flash from my field, which the enemy can also detect or not?).
Apologies to all my friends (and others) that favour fighters, but c'mon, time to get off the trike and at least go to a bike with training wheels. We NEED the removal of GPS. We NEED the game to allow skills appropriate to bombers to have some meaning in the game (including navigation), and we absolutely NEED to dampen the things that favour fighters over bombers to a ridiculous extent.
IMO. :-)
Esme
