Hardcore Arena

[Saxman]

Random thought:

What would people think of having a separate "Hardcore Arena," with more sim features including things such as:

1. Complex engine management - Manual supercharger gearing, fuel mixture, etc.
2. Disabled ammo counters.
3. Friendly Dot Dar only within radar range.
4. Halved icon distance.
5. Full day/night cycle.
6. Complex bombsight.
7. Additional components for damage modeling - Control cables, oil and fuel lines, degrading control surface/wing effectiveness (damaged wing skin looses lift, damaged ailerons are less effective, etc.).
8. Damaged structural components might fail under excessive stress (IE, a damaged wing might rip off more readily under G forces than if it were intact).
9. Modeled pilot responsiveness - Aircraft modeled so controls account for historical machines not having HOTAS (IE, some aircraft might not be able to manipulate flaps and throttle simultaneously, delays between activating control on stick/keyboard and actual effect in game to reflect this, etc).

That way, those players who would like these more advanced features can enjoy them, without affecting the main server population.

[SmokinLoon]

I like it.  However, I'd say make the ID icon range about 600 yards with a simple red "1ENG, 2ENG, 4ENG" until the enemy plane gets to within 600 yards.

Seriously, just how well can a pilot judge a plane when the closure rate is 600+ mph?  If you're flying over Berlin in 1944, it may be easy to narrow it down to about 4 or 5 single engine planes but otherwise it is anyone's guess.  Keep the ID ranges close.  Let the fog of war mean something.  Heck, I say do that in the MA's.

[Lusche]

That would be a lot of development work for most probably ony very few participating players, so I personally would doubt it's worth the effort... but that's just me.

[Butcher]

EW arena? Dead
MW Arena? DEad
WW1 Arena? Dead
AVA? Dead

Its a great idea, but Aces just doesnt bring the numbers to fill arenas.

[Karnak]

Manual supercharger gearing,

Not to derail, but what is this?

I am not sure, but I don't think superchargers were typically operated manually.  I base this on a Mossie pilot's comment that when climbing through the altitude where the supercharger's gear changed you had to be careful because one supercharger would often change gears hundreds of feet below the altitude the other would change gears at and that caused one engine to suddenly be producing a lot more power than the other.

[Saxman]

I believe the Corsairs (and possibly other aircraft with the R-2800) had to manually switch between the high and low gear on the supercharger.

[Rino]

I like it.  However, I'd say make the ID icon range about 600 yards with a simple red "1ENG, 2ENG, 4ENG" until the enemy plane gets to within 600 yards.

Seriously, just how well can a pilot judge a plane when the closure rate is 600+ mph?  If you're flying over Berlin in 1944, it may be easy to narrow it down to about 4 or 5 single engine planes but otherwise it is anyone's guess.  Keep the ID ranges close.  Let the fog of war mean something.  Heck, I say do that in the MA's.

     I'm still baffled by people saying they can't identify an aircraft until it's 600 yards away.  Heck the
smoke trail on a Phantom was visible alot farther away than that.  Of course rarely did both sides of a
fight use the same aircraft in WW2.  Yes, it happened, but rarely and you could probably tell by the
direction of flight if the bogey was a probable hostile or not.

     I think the important thing is to spot movement, it draws the eye and the way someone is
reacting to your movements can be a big clue.

[Oldman731]

Random thought:

What would people think of having a separate "Hardcore Arena," with more sim features including things such as:

1. Complex engine management - Manual supercharger gearing, fuel mixture, etc.
2. Disabled ammo counters.
3. Friendly Dot Dar only within radar range.
4. Halved icon distance.
5. Full day/night cycle.
6. Complex bombsight.
7. Additional components for damage modeling - Control cables, oil and fuel lines, degrading control surface/wing effectiveness (damaged wing skin looses lift, damaged ailerons are less effective, etc.).
8. Damaged structural components might fail under excessive stress (IE, a damaged wing might rip off more readily under G forces than if it were intact).
9. Modeled pilot responsiveness - Aircraft modeled so controls account for historical machines not having HOTAS (IE, some aircraft might not be able to manipulate flaps and throttle simultaneously, delays between activating control on stick/keyboard and actual effect in game to reflect this, etc).

AvA has tried 3,4 and 6.  You probably know the result.

- oldman

[Devonai]

As someone currently embroiled in the Misery 2.0 mod for Stalker: Call of Pripyat, I can see the appeal of this type of arena.  The risk is greater, but the reward is sweeter.  Having felt the singular relief of landing a borderline-crippled aircraft in vanilla AH, I can only imagine that the elation of success in a hardcore arena would be even greater.

As previously mentioned, attendance might be slim, so such ideas as transferable perkies, etc, come into play.

[Krusty]

why halve icons? Why not double them? That would be more realistic. 6 kilometers is 3.75 miles. Realistically you can spot and ID many planes large AND SMALL out to 8-10 miles.

Ammo counters are fully realistic. Half the planes in WW2 had some form of ammo counter.

Night cycle? If you want it realistic, WW2 day fighters were NOT fighting at night. They were clear weather fighters ONLY.

Night time and no icons is simply a request from people that want to pick targets without being seen. They want easy kills with the least amount of effort.

[ink]

why halve icons? Why not double them? That would be more realistic. 6 kilometers is 3.75 miles. Realistically you can spot and ID many planes large AND SMALL out to 8-10 miles.

Ammo counters are fully realistic. Half the planes in WW2 had some form of ammo counter.

Night cycle? If you want it realistic, WW2 day fighters were NOT fighting at night. They were clear weather fighters ONLY.

Night time and no icons is simply a request from people that want to pick targets without being seen. They want easy kills with the least amount of effort.

 

ya having a huge neon sign over your plane is realistic


so many times I see you talk about this...and every time you are as wrong as can be....

the simple fact is most planes in WW2 never saw the guy that killed him....and I am sure they were not just sitting there looking straight ahead....

the icon makes it so you can track and see the icon with NO problem.....you can not lose sight easily with an icon.....

don't take a friggen rocket scientist 

[Zacherof]

Always loved duels with icons off.
If you have good camo, that can decide the fate of the fight.

[Triton28]

I'll +1 the Hardcore Arena so long as it doesn't give me the under the ballsack view.  I hate that shot.  Why do they use it?  It grosses me out.   

[earl1937]

Not to derail, but what is this?

I am not sure, but I don't think superchargers were typically operated manually.  I base this on a Mossie pilot's comment that when climbing through the altitude where the supercharger's gear changed you had to be careful because one supercharger would often change gears hundreds of feet below the altitude the other would change gears at and that caused one engine to suddenly be producing a lot more power than the other.

Up until "auto-waste-gate" functions became the norm on internal combustion engines, almost all had some Manuel method of adjusting the out put of the super chargers. When the "waste gate" control method of controlling the amount of in-put by the super charger was introduced by placing the auto-waste gate in the exhaust system, the pilot no longer had to pay attention to the superchargers, as the power settings of the engine dictated how much the blower was needed. Low throttle settings, or idle, waste would be closed and no input from blower needed, but high power or full power settings, waste gate would be wide open and blower would be fully engaged. Bottom line, when the waste gate was introduced, the engine power would dictate where not super charging was needed.
Now don't confuse the super charger with turbo-charged engines, as the assistance by the blower to the engine is derived in two different methods. There are trade offs in both systems, namely "lag" in Turbo's and pilot reaction in manual setting superchargers. BOTH do the same thing, which is to make the engine think it is operating at sea level, even up to 20 to 25K before losing its ability to "fool" the engine!

[save]

if they just could get rid of the GPS .. and automated radar-operator gives vectoring and position if requested in scenarios, I used to follow railroads,roads, learned shape of sea-lines etc to navigate with a map in my knee.