Icon colour

[-lynx-]

OK, we have 2 colour icons at the moment: green friendlies and red for all enemies. There's been lots of arguments pro/con icons the fact is - we need them and they stay for 2 main reasons:

a. we need a distance readout;
b. we need to identify plane type in a non-country specific planeset.

Arguably, they are a pain - difficult to hide in terrain, difficult to set-up a sneaky attack blah-blah-blah...

But: what if the colour of an enemy icon was black? Once you've spotted an enemy plane it gives you all the info you need but it's a little bit less obvious than a red banner we all carrying at the moment. It gives one a chance to disengage by smart flying and clear off unmolested by hordes of 190s  

At the same time one of those 190s has a better chance to set up a nice approach to unsuspecting target without being spotted as easily as it's done now.

500 feet AGL (I hope) radar/icon limit helps but even if you flying higher than 500' you shouldn't be spotted with ease by someone few thousand feet above you just because you happen to have that huge neon sign announcing your presence to the world.

Can we, at least, try? Pyro? HT?

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-lynx-
13 Sqn RAF

[-kier-]

Make it white, says I. It'd make cloud bounces much easier...  >

[TT]

 Good idea. The black icons would offset the effects of radar a little.

[Cobra]

How about some sort of dull grey color...that should be a little harder to pick out then the "red alert" red.

[Minotaur]

I like the red OK  

Mino

[Camel]

Sure would be nice to try some different colors, do any box sims give you an option?

Hell, lets try some'em... maybe just reverse the "red" "green" every once in awhile  

[leonid]

A few posts ago a newbie named 'snafu' brought this idea up:  make all icons white.  His reasoning was twofold, 1)with a single colored icon we'd all have to actually look to see if it was friend or foe, rather than glimpse for red or green, and 2)it would aid anyone in the clouds.  I thought this was a fabulous idea, and certainly a step in the right direction.

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129 IAP VVS RKKA

[Pongo]

Lets try it. people will start using there radios better i bet. more use of other channels.

[scout]

>A few posts ago a newbie named 'snafu' brought this idea up: make all icons white. His reasoning was twofold, 1)with a single colored icon we'd all have to actually look to see if it was friend or foe, rather than glimpse for red or green, and 2)it would aid anyone in the clouds. I thought this was a fabulous idea, and certainly a step in the right direction.

Making all icons one color does sound like a good idea worth trying.

Different idea: Let users adjust icon colors enemy and friendly to whatever they like.
WB does this partially already.

[-kier-]

Scout-

The problem with that is it goes against the very idea this thread was propagating, that is to reduce the visibility of enemies and make ID harder. This is intended to bring the issues of gameplay vs. real life into a more proper perspective (i.e. no icons followed real pilots around, but real pilots had better peripheral vision).  

[This message has been edited by -kier- (edited 11-30-1999).]

[Westy]

"This is intended to bring the issues of gameplay vs. real life into a more proper perspective (i.e. no icons followed real pilots around, but real pilots had better peripheral vision)"

 In real life a pilot did not fly into a furball of 109's, Spitfires, N1k1's and P51's.
 Unless aircraft are seperated by country there needs to be icons because it is impossible to tell a friendly 190 or C.205 from an enemy flown FW-190 ir C.205 on a computer screen or in the arena as they ALL look the same no matter which country they are flying for.
 
 I'd vote for a medium to light gray icon for ALL. and not visible in clouds altogether.
-Westy

[This message has been edited by Westy (edited 11-30-1999).]

[-kier-]

Westy-

Of course you're right about similar aircraft, but the issue of ID is still valid. If we could see objects in their true RL proportions, AND flew in an historical setting, icons might not be needed. As it is now, we are left with the issue of whether we need neon icons.

[Toad]

Why this incredible allegiance to icons?

There ARE other ways to ID friend/foe, even when using all plane types for all countries.

As an example, you can "paint" the wingtips, vert stab, elevators and nose spinners either green for friendly or red for foe. It doesn't have to be red/green either. We can use other colors.

Make the color shift at 1500 yards which is outside of normal gun range even for buff gunners.

Or, instead of letter/number icons, just put four small appropriately colored dots in a diamond formation around the plane shape (top, bottom, left & right wingtips. No range or type info, just dots.

There are ways to do this better.

It seems we always just accept the current system as the best possible one without any real justification. Experimentation has essentially been non-existent. How do we know this is the best method?

[Altair]

My point:
No icons at all for nmy planes: NOTHING.
Just use a kind of "Ground Controler" radio call for aprox bearing of nearest nmy, and also aprox (unaccurate) distance.
not altitude, not number of bogeys if 2 or 3 miles apart.
The "call" should be only aviable once in an amount of time, say 1 minute?.
Icons for friendlies should be retained.

[leonid]

Toad,
The icon idea keeps going the rounds because I think there are many out there who would flip if icons were gone completely.  I, however, am not one of them.

Now to comment on your ideas for icon substitutes.  I think the one about painting wingtips or rudder specific colors within a certain range is absolutely fantastic!  Best idea I've heard yet, actually.

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129 IAP VVS RKKA