TOD I am thinking of

[Squire]

Well first off I will give the very broad outline, and then ask if #1 it would be accepted to be run, and #2 if there is any interest in it.

"Night Hunters 1942-45"

3 Frames representing Night Operations in Europe and the Pacific.

This would be run a little different because it requires a 2/3 to 1/3 ratio for all 3 frames, and although each frame would be scored, it would not be scored as a "whole" TOD. Essentially 3 "stand alone" TOD frames, run consecutively. Reason? well, some squad would be required to be axis in one frame and allied in another, and the frames are representing different campaigns, so a combined score would make no sense.

Ok the plan:

*Frame 1: The Baby Blitz on England. The "Steinbock Raids" in the Spring of 1944.

Battle of Britain map

RAF(1/3): Mosquito FB VI

LW(2/3): Ju-88, and Fw190F (Jabo)

Targets for the LW are the London area and docks and the Portsmouth docks.

*Frame 2: Target Berlin 1944. RAF Bomber Commands night offensive.

Germany map

RAF(2/3): Lancaster, and Mosquito FB VI (8 max in the Intruder role)

LW(1/3): Bf110G, Fw190A-8 (Wild Sau, 20 percent max)

RAF Target is Berlin

*Frame 3: Leyte Gulf 1944. USMC and USN Night fighters fend off Japanese Kamikazes and torpedo bombers attacking the US Fleet.

Phillipines map

IJN/IJAAF(2/3): Ki-67 (Kamikaze and torpedo units), B5N Kate (Kamikaze and torpedo units)

USN/USMC(1/3): F6F and F4U-1C off of 3 CVs.

Targets for the IJ are the ships in the task force, especially the CVs. The IJ are informed as to the position and course of the US fleet at all times, as they have radar equipped a/c spotting for them.

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Every squad gets at least one crack at being night fighters in the series.

Special settings:

*Bar dar only, set so that both sides always have it in range.

*Either no icons at all, or d1.0 for enemy a/c. I will get more feedback on this.

*Night fighters based max one squad per base

Scores based on attrition as well as bomb hits.

****************************************************

Ok, now before all the yelling starts regarding the icon thing. Here is the deal. Night fighters would stalk their targets after spotting them, and close to usually very short range before firing. Thats how it is done. If you have d 3.0 icons, there is no way in hell a 110 will close on a Lancaster without the Lanc spotting him.

As for bar dar, both sides usually had enough GCI, radar warning receivers and/or AI radar on board to give indications as to wether enamy a/c were nearby (for bombers and fighters). AH does not yet model a/c radars, so, this is a design compromise. Dot dar, imho, is too much of a give away, the bombers need some cloak to protect them.

Night ops are a cat and mouse game, its not like day operations. Its about carefull planning, and skillfull attacks. I think it would make for a very intense, and unique TOD.

Before anybody says "Snapshot". Well, no. The ratios and rules have to be adhered to closely otherwise it will not work imho. TOD squads can get this done.

So, how is your night vision?

Regards.

[Heinkel]

I like it Night scenarios have always been fun to me. And since frame 3 has Kamikazes, it might bring some new squads into the TOD

[Nifty]

We don't have the tools to do it the way you want to do it in relation to icons.

Second, and I'll be honest with you, I won't ever fly a TOD I myself don't find "fun."  I think night in this game is absolutely ridiculous (we don't have night fighters, we don't have search lights, we can't control if someone turns up the brightness/contrast/gamma correction on their monitors effectively giving them night sight).  Night makes me log off in the MA and CT (thankfully most CT setups just have dawn and dusk with no night at all.)  Night makes a lot of people log off, or at the very least, complain.  Given that, it's not something I'd subject to the TOD even if I enjoyed night flying in the game.

However, if we could do it "right" and more than 75% of the TOD participants said they'd enjoy it, I'd look into doing it (and honestly, NOT fly it myself) or convince skernsk to do one.

I think the best way to do it though, is if it's even done, to run it one frame of a TOD.  Our TODs aren't meant to bounce around like you suggest.  3 frames in the same theatre.  They are really squad based mini-scenarios, without all the elaborate planning that goes on months prior by the CM team and weeks prior by the CO staffs.

[Squire]

Ok I see from a post from Flossy that they can only be d3.0 for events. Not ideal, but I still think the design could work with some slight adjustments. It might have been required to do it with icons anyways, to help folks with smaller monitors ect.

If a few players screw around with their gamma, well, I dont see that as an event killer honestly .

Btw, many night fighters did not have radar, we do have night fighter types in AH that would work. The first Mosquito NFIIs sent over Europe did not have radar. The 110G and the Mosquito VI and the 190 were all deployed without radars in night intercepts.

Lack of searchlights keeps coming up, well, night fighters did not rely on them (in fact they were more for the AA units) so again, I dont see that as a big deal. Besides "night " in AH isnt so dark you have to have them, so Im not sure why its discussed as a roadblock.

I will also say that there is not 100 percent realism in the day designs either, is there? Why do we have special rules in the TODs like fuel burn rates and dar ranges? Each design requires special rules, and always have.

Its just a single event, nobody is suggesting we never do daylight ops again you know?

In any case, perhaps after 1.11 is released, after Midway, I just thought I would throw the idea out there, in general terms.

[Greg Stelmack]

The fun part is, we could do night-fighter events in Air Warrior. We could turn on all the radar, turn icons off completely, and turn the visibility way down. I remember creating off-line night-fighter missions for AWII.

Sounds like some RFEs

[Nifty]

heh, the hidden meaning in my post is you should bark up skernsk's tree more than mine.  

[daddog]

I have a request in for "other" icon options to HTC.  I hope we will have them by the next release or sooner.