Recon

[Smirfy]

Minor thing and I'm not sure if it is entirely possible but the ability to fly fighters, Bombers and patrol aircraft in the recon role at reduced effectiveness in the same way fighters can become Bombers

[RedLancer]

I seem to remember a discussion on the tester board that aircraft provide some detection if they fly over something on the way to a target - I may be wrong though.

[Smirfy]

There are just some situations in game where you have nothing to shoot down but don't want to convert to Bomber and would rather have increased recon there is also the cases were older marks were used in the recon role but we're not dedicated aircraft so Recon pilots were flying fighters and bombers.

[marion61]

If you turn on the interdiction button, or recon buttons, you will notice that the path leading up to your AD's is reconed very well even tho it is outside your actual recon area. The area leading up to any AD gets a little boost in these values as they fly over. It's about 3 hexes wide.

In practical use, when I fly recon and naval patrols, I don't fly straight to the zone. With naval if there is something that needs interdicting on the way to the zone, I will fly by it. This will create naval thru that area, because naval and recon are all about how many sorties you get into an area or hex.

The reverse of this is also useful if your looking for the other players planes, where they are flying in from. You can track their progress pretty well by watching the interdiction numbers rise or fall, then you set AS in it's way, way before they reach their targets.

It looks to me that they have already factored this in to the extent possible.

[Helpless]

Right now only recon AD's (recon planes) plot hex recon values. As John says we considered to have multi-functional aircraft missions, but it was a bridge too far at the moment.