[ADDED B570] satellites orbit and positions

[aluminumx]

Is there any way to change the start position and orbit of satellites? If so, how?

[BradOrbital]

Would be great if we could get it to plug into an open source satellite tracking program and import the positions in realtime or simulated.

[smudge56]

Ok just back after being away for my anniversary. Has to be done after buying this great game. [:)]

What can you do with satellites? Can they give you intelligence as they pass over targets etc.

[Dimitris]

Yes. They can be used either for locating new targets (see "The Four Horsemen" for a good example) or for performing BDA on already-known ones.

[smudge56]

Ok have to ask what's BDA?

[nawarren]

Battle Damage Assessment

(tells you how effective your attack was, i.e weather target is knocked out, and no longer a threat or weather you have to order another attack).

[El Savior]

Is there a limit how many satellites can be in orbit same time? When I add all satellites for Soviet side (1983) and all for US, oddly only few US satellites was added and Soviets had plenty of them.

Secondly, it would be neat if we could add ALL current active satellites with one click. Example choose russian and all satellites orbiting that time will be added to scenario and deorbited or not launched will be disabled. Now I had to manually add each groups of satellities. Or am I doing something wrong?

[Dimitris]

ORIGINAL: El Savior
Is there a limit how many satellites can be in orbit same time? When I add all satellites for Soviet side (1983) and all for US, oddly only few US satellites was added and Soviets had plenty of them.

There is no hard limit. The numbers you see are historical; the Soviets did usually have more recon/surveillance sats up (the US had a lot more SIGINT & com-sats).

Secondly, it would be neat if we could add ALL current active satellites with one click. Example choose russian and all satellites orbiting that time will be added to scenario and deorbited or not launched will be disabled. Now I had to manually add each groups of satellities. Or am I doing something wrong?

Nice idea, thanks! Added to our stack.

[incredibletwo]

+1 El Saviour

Are there ASAT missiles in DB3000?

[Russian Heel]

ORIGINAL: incredibletwo

+1 El Saviour

Are there ASAT missiles in DB3000?

[mrfeizhu]

I think orbits satellites in lower space are some what fixed. They have some ability to change position but not by that much. Orbits very high in space are in a geosynchronous orbit, they will always be over on section of the earth. If there is a crises the government will lunch a satellite on a specific orbit this way they will have information on an area every 90 minutes or so depending on the height of the orbit. I like using satellites in the game. I never thought about them until seeing this post.

[jdkbph]

Interesting thought. Many low orbit satellites do have a limited ability to perform a plane change maneuver. This however requires a lot of delta v (applied perpendicular to the orbital plane at the ascending or descending node), which will use up quite a bit of fuel and shorten the life of the satellite. Not something to be done lightly, but doable.

JD

[El Savior]

You cant make modern scenario without satellites. They add another dimension and are very useful ELINT platforms. Still learning how to employ them but few test scenarios I made simple made scenarios feel more real when you have more information about the enemies.

Kudos to devs that they added this feature.

[Dimitris]

One-click (per country) addition was added in Build 570.

[Feltan]

ORIGINAL: El Savior

You cant make modern scenario without satellites. They add another dimension and are very useful ELINT platforms. Still learning how to employ them but few test scenarios I made simple made scenarios feel more real when you have more information about the enemies.

Kudos to devs that they added this feature.

I think that is rather a strong statement -- modern scenarios can indeed be made without satellites. I believe here is why:
- Not all modern nations have access to satellite information.
- The game already displays a wealth of intel data on the map; it would be easy to "over do" it and present an unrealistically high amount of accurate information.
- Not all satellites, and not all nations that operate them, expect or have the capability for real-time data transfer.
- Not many militaries are able to consume real-time satellite information, nor do they have the equipment/doctrine/training to suggest a satellite passing overhead is transferring data directly to tactical units deployed at sea or on land.

Personally, I haven't been adding satellite assets to my scenarios for those reasons. When you look at the map display, you are benefiting from satellites that passed over the area of operations hours, days or weeks ago already. Adding real-time satellite information is guilding the lily in many cases -- you already likely have a much better visualization of the battle space than a real-life commander would have.

Regards,
Feltan