I had an idea about radar once .. posted a rambling post ni the "gameplay & feedback" about a year ago prolly.
here's a re-do:
it starts with HQ... the center of information for a country. thats all it controls. if it is damaged then the airfields do not get updates on the state of the war.
each zone would also have a communication center. information would travel up from the bases --> info center --> HQ then down HQ --> info center --> base.
if an info center is partially damaged the zone it is in would not send updates to HQ and in turn other zones. it would still be able to recieve messages from HQ via courier and stuff... but not send out messages. if it was totally destroyed then no information would go in or out.
down to the base level. there would be 2 radio towers and a radar dish. the radio towers send and recieve info. the dish gathers it. if 1 tower dies then no out going radar. the other ones dies then no incomming radar. the dish dies then no dot radar as now.
these would have to be hardened up a bit... say 2500lbs to kill IMHO.
here's how the whole thing works together (base #'s made up to give #'s thats all):
you take off from base A1. A1 radar is full up, the zone communications is full up, and HQ is full up. you see what is going on everywhere on the clipboard. while you are flying another zone in your country takes 50% damage to it's communication center. now you do not see bar or dot radar for that whole zone, but they still see yours (the whole incomming vs. outgoing message thing)
now you land and go to base V167 in the zone that lost 50% of it's communications. you see bar dar for the whole map and dot dar in your zone. then a base in the zone gets hit badly, taking out both radio towers and radar dish. now you see no radar for that area of the map, but still see radar everywhere else.
now you take off A231. everything in your country is full up again. HQ gets hit. now you see radar (dot and bar) for your zone but nowhere else on the map. then your zone communications gets hit fully. 100% down. now you see only radar from your base. the rest of the map looks clear.
what you see is dictated by where you took off (NOT where you are) and the status of that area you took off from. if you land and re-load then that becomes your starting point for radar and such. i think this would encourage a more realistic "home base of operations" like real life. also it would make people defend bases and strats more and not just HQ (which IRL they had to do).
there are many varations to this that can be worked out... like 2 communication strats per zone, how info is passed around, and so on. but i think you get the basic idea.
i can explain more if you like (easiest to give and example and hash it out.) in fact do that please. post an example you are wondering about and i will explain my thoughts.
