Matrix Games Forums

Something that occurred to me while reading the other SAM thread...

Someone pointed out that the aircraft abort behavior might be dependent on the scenario size. Especially on smaller scenarios, it can make a huge difference to how AA perform when aircraft show up and start being targetable at 8km vs 2km. And on small maps, the aircraft can often escape to the safety of the map edge before AA weapons can even turn to face the target.

I don't like the idea of aircraft abort behavior or AA performance being dependent on a virtual thing like the map size because it is an obvious unrealism.

It would be nice if the game did some simulation of aircrafts outside of the scenario area, so that aircraft can be shot at/forced to abort before entering or after leaving, depending only on the AA weapon's range and line of sight.

If there are technical limitations that prevent this from happening for a long time, that's fine, I'll wait. But I do want to get this out there.

Some additional notes:

1. This only applies to fixed-wing aircraft. Helicopters don't have this problem as they aren't zooming in and out of the AO at high speeds.

2. Since we're only dealing with fixed-wing aircraft, it might be a fair abstraction to ignore terrain outside of the scenario. Then you don't have to load a potentially huge map area into memory. Just deal with the AA weapon's max range and check line of sight to the scenario edge.

It's true that the aircraft appear and disappear in the edge of the map. When they're off-map they cannot be engaged. Outside the map there's nothing, so the LOS cannot be checked. Aircraft and anti-air units are affected by this, because if the map is very small they may not have time to react. That's why I don't recommend using aircraft on small maps. Long range weapons lose their advantages. In real life some anti-air missiles can lock the target only if they're behind the aircraft, and perform retaliatory strikes, but we don't have this feature in the game because aircraft tend to disappear after they've passed the target.

Yep, I've noticed all of those things.

You can't check LOS outside the map area, but like I said, it might be a reasonable approximation of reality to just check LOS to the map edge. Especially if in return the aircraft can be fired upon in their approach to the AO, or retaliation against aircraft escaping the AO, instead of appearing and disappearing into thin air, it would be a net gain for accuracy.

Or even just having the AA weapons facing the right direction when the aircraft appear (assuming LOS to the map edge where the aircraft is arriving), would be an improvement.

Example:
t = seconds of advanced warning before the aircraft appears on the map edge
t = (detection range - distance to map edge)/aircraft speed

This time would give AA units an opportunity to get their weapons pointing in the right direction, which does appear to have a big impact on how soon they can start firing in-game. Consider also that aircraft are loud and infantry/unbuttoned crews would be paying attention in that direction even if they couldn't see the aircraft.

Also, this reminds me of another issue. Infantry carried SAM launchers (and probably all infantry weapons) turn WAY too slowly. I've seen them be unable to turn fast enough to track an aircraft on even a medium sized map. I'm pretty sure a human being is capable of turning to point a weapon much faster than they are able to in game. Might be an oversight.