Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Latrobe on March 11, 2011, 01:19:28 AM
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I'm starting to think that HTC tweaked the way dar bar works. I'm flying into A1 just after the arena switch to off hours. Only 1 enemy dot in the sector way back at our base that is creating a very small dar bar. As I near A1 I spot 4 dots in the distance and a few more behind them all looking to be anywhere from 3-7K. I check the map and there is no red dar in the sector (or any surrounding sectors either). Then suddenly the dar bar grows to fill half the sector. I find out that there are 10 enemy fighters from 5-10K. Not sure why there was no dar bar for 10 planes well over 500ft. Last I knew, any plane flying over 500ft in a sector would show a dar bar, the only change to dar in the past (since I've been playing) is the radar coverage dropping down the 65ft.
Has HTC changed the dar bar to only show when you or friendlies are flying within a certain range of the enemy? Or am I just going crazy and just not seeing the dar bar on map?
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Usually just after I join an arena, the roster takes a good
5-10 minutes to load and the darbars on the map to get
sorted out.
I'm thinking that it was a similar 'issue' on your end, but
I could very well be wrong.
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Has HTC changed the dar bar to only show when you or friendlies are flying within a certain range of the enemy? Or am I just going crazy and just not seeing the dar bar on map?
I don't think there are intentional changes in the way the darbar works. What you just noticed are irregular glitches that do happen. We (Rolex, me, and someone who's name I can't remember now :() did some extensive tests on Mindanao the other day.
While basically working as usual (darbar at 500ft), we had significant discrepancies between our frontends. A friendly in the next sector did not create a darbar for me, but for the guy flying next to me, and not only for a few moments. I could run into an enemy at altitude with darbar only coming up a few moments earlier (no, no one of us just crossed into sector), but I can see darbar by single enemy cons many sectors away, behind the frontlines.
Not too long ago, an enemy mission was called out inbound to our field on Mindanao. As there was almost no darbar, everyone expected them to be NOE. When I finally encountered them, a full length darbar suddenly appeared and I had many buff formations overhead at 5k!
I wasn't the only one, there was quite a lot of "WTF?" and "How did they climb that fast" on countrychannel.
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I've been attacked from time to time at alts up to 15K by planes in sectors that have shown no darbar at all.
Doesnt happen often. But it has happened more then once.
I've also seen large darbars in sectors that had no planes up but a large amount of GVs.
Again. Doesnt happen alot but its happened more then once.
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I personally like the reality of the inconsistancy. I think it adds a level of realism and requires us to be acutely aware while we are in the air. Often times it is my own SA that gets me shot down and I find myself becoming more aware of my surroundings these days. Of course in real life we would have been briefed on the location, altitudes, and missions of friendlies sharing the skies but often times weather fouled even that up.
So I give it a :aok and hope it stays this way :cheers:
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Every now and then you'll also get momentary enemy dardots outside radar coverage.
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Yesterday i lifted from a base one sector away from a base that was shut down. I figured I would get there and find a boat load of low cons swirling around the town like a flushed toilet, the dar bar was only showing what was a basic one plane dar bar. Well much to my surprise there where 5 bombers floating over the base and town flattening everything in sight! The fighters that where there where at deck level to several thousand. I have noticed this happening more often latley. Oh yeah I had been logged on for about 20-25 min.
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As far as I'm concerned, the dar is total FUBAR since they made the original 65ft change.
Last summer we had an RT meetup with about 12 of us getting together. Nobody had the same dar, all the same country, all the same arena.
I regularly talk with the enemy and share screenies. Mine will show no enemy, theirs show a full bar.
Nobody admits it, nobody cares to talk about it.
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conspiracy
:noid
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Had an occurence like that last night in orange. We had prepped a port for capture and had the goon 3 min out. I noticed a small dar in the sector north of the port. Then it switched to the sector west of the port, then to the sector northeast of the port. The port was in the southeast corner of its sector, fyi. Then as the goon approaches from the southeast a zero appears dead ahead at 3k. It was annoying to say the least, but things like that happen.
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I'm not sure when we made the last radar setting change, but it may have been at the same time as when the off hour was change. How radar works has not changed but people may not understand all. I use the word sector counts for the dar bar.
1. The sector counters is rounded to 2 people so if 1 or 2 people are in a sector the sector counter will show the same.
2. You must be above 250 ft to show on a sector counter.
3. Sector counter update rates can very drastically based on arena populations. I believe you get about 10 (don't have the code at home, so I can't look at the exact number) position updates a second of far targets (I.E. planes out of vis range) so if 200 people are in the arena it would take 20 secs for the radar to be updated on 1 player.
4. To show on radar (I.E. a dot) an enemy plane must be above 60 ft and in range of a living radar tower. If this player is FAR target his position updates work the same as Item 3. I.E. only 10 per sec.
5. HQ can effect radar and sector counters based on it's % destroyed.
You can see the update rate time when you first enter the arena, it takes a while before all sector counters move to there correct sectors as you game client is updated with each players position.
I am reasonably certain that there is not any bugs in the radar system and it is working exactly as described above.
HiTech
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Thank you for the explanation. It's been a puzzle.
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two squadies and me were doing a pork run just as the arena opened we flew for about 20min a aquadie called a dar bar for several minutes. I saw none on my end. not until the bogie got within icon range that I saw a dar bar on my end.
semp
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I'm not sure when we made the last radar setting change, but it may have been at the same time as when the off hour was change. How radar works has not changed but people may not understand all. I use the word sector counts for the dar bar.
1. The sector counters is rounded to 2 people so if 1 or 2 people are in a sector the sector counter will show the same.
2. You must be above 250 ft to show on a sector counter.
3. Sector counter update rates can very drastically based on arena populations. I believe you get about 10 (don't have the code at home, so I can't look at the exact number) position updates a second of far targets (I.E. planes out of vis range) so if 200 people are in the arena it would take 20 secs for the radar to be updated on 1 player.
4. To show on radar (I.E. a dot) an enemy plane must be above 60 ft and in range of a living radar tower. If this player is FAR target his position updates work the same as Item 3. I.E. only 10 per sec.
5. HQ can effect radar and sector counters based on it's % destroyed.
You can see the update rate time when you first enter the arena, it takes a while before all sector counters move to there correct sectors as you game client is updated with each players position.
I am reasonably certain that there is not any bugs in the radar system and it is working exactly as described above.
HiTech
This creates more even puzzle for me.
Dar bar altitude: I have never seen any mention about 250ft altitude. And when Rolex and me did our tests on Mindanao, we were never able to create a darbar below 500ft and we were climbing / descending very slowly and gave the counter time to adjust.
Darbar generation: In my example in the earlier post above, the enemy mission, consisting of several formations of bombers, was flying for at least 2 sectors above 500ft, yet the darbar only appear when we stumbled upon them. (Mindanao). Also only since the big dar changes you can happen to run into a gaggle of enemy fighters at 15k that never made dar in this or any adjacent sectors until getting into visual range (not being in a very strong populated arena, and being in nthis arena for a long time). beyond that, this effect appears quite irregularly.
HQ % destroyed? :huh I vaguely remember having read about such things in the times of old, but as long as I play (almost 6 years), HQ is either up or down. There is no mention of HQ being able to be partially down, nor I have ever seen such an effect in all my years here.
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Have noticed some weird things with the (lack of) darbars lately. No darbar on map until you make visual contact with cons 5k over your head. :rolleyes: Squaddies see a darbar, but I don't and vice-versa. It occurs sporadically and on different maps.
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Lusche now that HT mentions it I do remember that you can lose all your radar info, or only bits. At least some of these increments are: friendly dots, enemy dots, and dar bars (not sure if you can lose em partially like dar dots). I explicitly remember thinking HQ had really been whacked really hard one day when we lost absolutely all clipboard radar info.
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I remember when I used to bomb I would not want to take a HQ all the way down. That way it couldnt be resuplied. By doing this though the enemy would have some radar. Like no darbar but only radar targets or vise versa. Dont remember have not played in a year or so.
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Lusche now that HT mentions it I do remember that you can lose all your radar info, or only bits. At least some of these increments are: friendly dots, enemy dots, and dar bars (not sure if you can lose em partially like dar dots). I explicitly remember thinking HQ had really been whacked really hard one day when we lost absolutely all clipboard radar info.
I know that this was possible a long, long time ago... but I have never ever seen a partial loss of radar information in all my ~6 years. And I have seen a dam lot of HQ's being killed. During all that time, HQ was either up or down, and either we had dar, or we had none. No in between.