AI Air Reconnaissance Missions?

[CaesarAug]

Been giving some thought to spotting parameters… The way in which the game handles land and naval spotting is automatic. With the latest SC patches, it seems a bit unrealistic that land-based and especially carrier-based air, should have several hexes of automatic land and naval spotting, seemingly now even in bad weather…

So I was wondering: with fog of war activated obviously, what if all land-based and carrier-based air were restricted to a 1-hex, non-research upgradable, land and naval spotting? That would mean that any “spotting” beyond an adjacent hex would need to be with a specific air reconnaissance mission, right?

This I think would prove interesting for hotseat or multiplayer games. But what about vs. the AI? Does the AI know how to do air reconnaissance missions for spotting? How would such an adjustment affect playing vs. the AI? Is this unduly crippling the AI? Would increasing spotting for the AI help in this regard?

Appreciate any input. Thanks!

[Elessar2]

I've assumed that there are already a multitude of automatic recon flights in accordance with the appropriate distance setting. Would add a lot of micromanagement for little gain, presumably giving each air unit 1 recon flight (or as some mods have done create a dedicated recon unit), tho in my scenarios I make sure to have strike range be 2-5 hexes more than the automatic spotting range, to simulate an occasional focus of recon in a specific area.

Much better would be an algorithm (moddable in the editor!) where the more distant hexes would have nonzero chances of missing seeing an enemy (preferably only for ships mayhaps), the chance increasing with the range. But HC's philosophy has generally gone against such mechanisms, which is an arguable aesthetic choice.

[CaesarAug]

Thanks, Elessar2. Interesting. My concern is not so much spotting per se, but the “automatic” nature of spotting, especially longer-ranged at sea with carriers. Or with comparably modded naval units with higher spotting ranges. If spotting were not automatic but based on conditional algorithms, I think it would be more interesting.

So, in order to simulate this, by reducing (mainly) all naval spotting ranges to 1-hex makes for carrier air recon missions all the more critical. Perhaps increased “strikes” (which can be modded beyond 2) can help compensate so as to make additional air recon missions possible (i.e., not strictly bombing missions), since automatic spotting is limited to just 1 hex.

But it seems to me that this mechanism is better suited between two human players, hence my question: can the AI handle manual carrier air recon missions to scout for enemy naval units before being able to do bombing runs?

[As an afterthought, I suppose the computer-controlled side can be given normal carrier automatic spotting ranges say, from 4-5-6 hexes, to help the AI].

A dedicated air recon unit? Which mods are those? I’d like to see how this is modded. I figure a modified air unit with long spotting and strike range and no combat stats, maybe?

And your proposals, are they already included in your latest War in the Pacific .903? I’m not sure I’m following the logic, i.e., having strike ranges 2-5 hexes beyond spotting range “to simulate an occasional focus of recon in a specific area.”

Could you please elaborate the rationale? Thanks!

EDIT: Ah, ok, I think I get it. Air recon missions beyond automatic spotting ranges makes sense; you don’t need air recon missions at all within automatic spotting radius!