Patrol Arc - Please explain

[Hanzberger]

ORIGINAL: Yamato hugger

From what little was said on the devs forum on it, each plane searches a 10 degree arc, so if you have 4 planes in a squadron, you want to limit your search to 40 degrees. From experience I can say that leaving it at a 360 is near useless. As supreme commander of which ever side you play, you get the honor of dictating the search arcs for each of your squadrons. Bet Yamamoto loved doing that every day. Wonder if he did it before or after breakfast?

Well I think we need to look into this a little further. I was working up some quick numbers but to say "each plane at 10 degrees" is really not enough but at least a starting point. What we truly need to know is what square mileage would be on the positive side of things. Then take that number and put a "XX Degree/ plane on it" so it would be easy to figure out in your head. Maybe 10 is the magic number but if you look at it, that isn't very much. [X(]

[Hanzberger]

Using the 10 Degree theory, which I am intially thinking may be a good rule of thumb I came up with this rather crude picture.
Now this is based on 10 planes with different ranges:

RED: 10 Planes with a range of only 5.
10 X 10 Degrees=100/12*=8.33 (Hexes) The half moon red area would be your 1st and second clicks going clockwise. (2 clicks) Note: only 8 hexes in between. Red squares represent the search area for this example.

PINK: (Terms' favorite color[:D]) 10 planes range 6
10 X 10=100/10*= 10. A little easier math this time whew[X(]
Again, the fully shaded pink area's are your 1st and 2nd clicks. 1st click being about 5 O'clock and the 2nd being about 7 O'clock. Note: 10 hexes in between.

GREEN: 10 Planes with a range of 7
10 X 10=100/8.57* = 11.67 (I'm calling it 11 here to stay under the 10 degree rule.
Shaded Green areas are your two clicks. yada yada yada
NOW THE DARK BLUE AREAS IS JUST AN OUTLINE OF A RANGE OF 7.
You can kinda see that your search area is limited ###ASSUMING### the 10 degree rule is correct. [:-]
(*)Explained here:

A range of 7 would be 42 Hexes divided by 360=8.57 degrees per hex. (outer rim from take off point)
A range of 6 would be 36 Hexes divided by 360=10 degress per hex, etc....

Well I am just trying to help someone out hope this makes sense. [8|]
ALSO PLZ CHIME IN AND LET THE COMMUNITY, or just me heheh, know what is an EFFECTIVE DEGREE PER PLANE.
I suppose the only way to really test this would be to play a sim game without FOW.
ANYONE????????[>:]

[jazman]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: jazman

I was making it up about the Emperor.

Well, I still have the book. [;)]

I wanted to save you the trouble of looking it up. [:'(]

[Rocco]

The whole search arc thing doesn't seem that well thought out to me.
 
One plane searches 10 degrees, ok, then how come there is no difference between a plane with a max of 12 hexes and one with a max of 4 hexes?  There is a lot more area to search the further you go, but still 1 plane=10 degrees?
 
I know you can argue plane speed and fuel make a difference, but short leg planes could refuel over twelve hours, etc.
 
 

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: Rocco

The whole search arc thing doesn't seem that well thought out to me.

One plane searches 10 degrees, ok, then how come there is no difference between a plane with a max of 12 hexes and one with a max of 4 hexes?  There is a lot more area to search the further you go, but still 1 plane=10 degrees?

I know you can argue plane speed and fuel make a difference, but short leg planes could refuel over twelve hours, etc.

Your search aircraft will often shadow the first TF they contact--you might want to double or triple up.

[tbridges]

When a complete air group is set to "Naval Attack", will it locate its own targets, or do I also have to commit part of the group (or another group) to "Search" in order to find the enemy TFs for the "Attack" group?

[Kumppi]

Air groups in naval attack mission will not conduct searches. So like you said, either commit a part of the group to do naval search or have another group perform that task.

[Hanzberger]

ORIGINAL: Rocco

The whole search arc thing doesn't seem that well thought out to me.

One plane searches 10 degrees, ok, then how come there is no difference between a plane with a max of 12 hexes and one with a max of 4 hexes?  There is a lot more area to search the further you go, but still 1 plane=10 degrees?

I know you can argue plane speed and fuel make a difference, but short leg planes could refuel over twelve hours, etc.

I really don't know Rocco. I'm hoping to keep this thread going to try and figure it out. What is the formula that works, that is the real question. Your right about the short leg planes, didn't think of that, I wonder if the Team did.[;)] Maybe planes with radius of 120 miles or less could do a full circle search.

[Oldguard1970]

Search arcs seem pretty basic.  We have limited recon assets. If we use them to cover a whole 360 degree circle, we have to expect very thin coverage.  The search arcs allow us to focus attention in priority areas. 
 
The thing about 1 plane = 10 degrees suggests to me that I should be particularly careful about where I define the starting azimuth.
 
Any recon plane search at less than max range will be more effective within its smaller coverage area than that same plane searching at max range.  (Of course, the plane searching at max range also has some chance of spotting a TF that is farther away.  Take your choice.)