Radar and the AvA arena

[Mister Fork]

Being a former comms & electronics guy in the military, I did a paper on the history of radar from early 1939, into WWII, and modern systems back in 1993.  My findings included findings that German technology was advanced compared to Allied back in the early war and how their bombers were using beaconing and radar to pinpoint bombing. Sort of equiviliant to GPS today.    Russian radar technology during WWII was non-existant, as was Japanese. Both were nothing more than our current sector bars til the end of the war.

What I did for the AvA arena is comprise a series of suggested DAR settings that represented both Axis and Allies development during the 6 years. In order to combine the effectiveness of German radar early in the war, and then the Birtish/American developments later in the war (which surpassed German tech), I basically choose an even ground for both.

Here was my proposal posted in the Admin forum on August 25, 2003:

Let's face it, we all know that in WWII radar was not what it is today.  Radar use in Aces High is two-fold.
a - to inform pilots where friendlies/enemies are
b - to warn of attack

There is a delicate balance between setting radar so that it doesn't ruin gameplay but enhances the timeline setting. Here's what I propose. We should use radar settings based on historical settings with gameplay in mind.

Proposed Radar Rules

• Full friendly on. Air command could tell you within proximity where friendlies are and it's quite realistic. Since we can't talk to CAC (combat air controllers), full friendly makes sense
• Tower enemy on.  We can lenghten or shorten this setting based on date of our setup. Airfields always had spotters until radar could go beyond the binocular and could spot aircraft up to 79200 feet away (15 miles).
• Sector range should be set according to historical data + a factor to improve gameplay.
• Sector radar altitude should start at 3500 feet for early war and come down to 1500 feet by 1945. WWII sector radars used HF antennas (wires on a tall mast or tower) that could only pick out 'sectors'.  The were vunerable to hills and were always pointed 'up' at a low angle (2 degrees).
• Tower radar (beamed radar) height should slowly come down but never below 500 feet for 1945.

The following list is a realistic table on radar settings for WWII based on date (in feet):

Date_||Tower___|Height|Sector__|Height|note
1939 || 079200 | 3000 | 105600 | 3500 | a
1940 || 079200 | 2500 | 132000 | 3000 | b
1941 || 079200 | 2000 | 158400 | 2500 | c
1942 || 105600 | 1500 | 237600 | 2500 | d
1943 || 132000 | 1000 | 316800 | 2000 | e
1944 || 158400 | 0750 | 343200 | 1500 | f
1945 || 237600 | 0500 | 369600 | 1000 | g

a. Tower radar does not exist. Spotters can seetargets up to 20 mile but ID at 15. IIF equipment makes it appearance.
b. Sector radar improves range to 25 miles.
c. Sector range improves to 30 miles. Tower radar makes it appearance on ships and airfields but range is poor at 15 miles.
d. Search radars now appear at most airfields but range is still poor at 20 miles.
e. Search radars now improve to 25 miles with . Sector radar improves.
f. Radar units at airfields appear as large rotating rectangular antenna arrays with a large range up to and over 35 miles. Targets can be tracked with ease. Land based radar stations abandon HF antenna arrays to more conventional rotating radar sets.
g. Rotating beamed radar now replaces most stationary radar sets.  EWR units can track far ranges.

Sources:
A Radar History of World War II: Technical and Military Imperatives. L Brown, Carnegie Institution, Washington DC, USA. ISBN:0750306599
http://www.radarworld.com

To simplify, we removed the altitude setting and set it to 500 feet.

Here is our current proposed setup:
Radar Ranges

512x512 Large Map
1939 || 105600 | 237600
1940 || 132000 | 316800
1941 || 158400 | 343200
1942 || 237600 | 369600
1943 || 264000 | MAX
1944 || 343200 | MAX
1945 || 369600 | MAX

256x256 Medium Map
Date_||_Tower__|_Sector
1939 || 079200 | 105600
1940 || 079200 | 132000
1941 || 079200 | 158400
1942 || 105600 | 237600
1943 || 132000 | 316800
1944 || 158400 | 343200
1945 || 237600 | 369600

128x128 Small Map
Date_||_Tower__|_Sector
1939 || 039600 | 052800
1940 || 039600 | 052800
1941 || 039600 | 079200
1942 || 079200 | 105600
1943 || 105600 | 132000
1944 || 132000 | 158400
1945 || 158400 | 237600

If you all like  the new settings, we'll use them from now on.

[Jester]

Is this the same chart that was always posted in the CT STAFF FORUM as a "Sticky?"

I don't remember who worked up the original - but it always seemed to work pretty well. If it is still there could you please post it as well so we can compare. If it is gone I will see if I can get a copy from Brady.

!

[Mister Fork]

Originally posted by Mister Fork
Here was my proposal posted in the Admin forum on August 25, 2003:

You mean me?

Jester: Yeah, they work well.  It was my posting and what you see above is the original...  

[Jester]

Couldn't remember if you or Brady had worked them up.

I DO REMEMBER we tested the originals thourghly with what "Historical" info that we could find and we got roughly the same results. (I remember vivdly because I was the radar target for most of the tests!).

If they are the same as the orginals I say we go with them along with the 500 ft. min. We used them on many a set-up and scenario and always had good luck with them.

You did good work on the originals Forkster!  

My only concern would be changing the radar circle for differnt size maps. Will this jive with what capabilities of what was "Historical?" Will people complain that the radar coverage is "Different" due to the size of the map instead of the historical settings? See my point?

!

[Oldman731]

Originally posted by Mister Fork
If you all like  the new settings, we'll use them from now on.

These settings were implemented last night.

- oldman

[Mister Fork]

Originally posted by Jester
My only concern would be changing the radar circle for different size maps. Will this jive with what capabilities of what was "Historical?" Will people complain that the radar coverage is "Different" due to the size of the map instead of the historical settings? See my point?

The radar size is mostly proportional line with the size of the map... mostly.  I suppose that we could look at 128x128 vs 512x512 should be four times, but the radar range is set to balance gameplay vs the desired functionality.   What we came up with is what made sense - reflect the increased land size, but keeping historical perspective in mind, versus the gameplay/functionality element.

A lot of things to consider when we came up with those ranges.