The Slot Campaign (preliminary discussion)

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~.

There's lots to consider with the upcoming Slot Campaign..  please see the Sep 21 08 Meeting notes.

here's the place to tell us what you think..

Locked Cockpit?

How often should we switch sides from axis to allied?

and all the other stuff involved in how the campaign should run..

i'll throw in my 2 cents...

  we should draft 4  flights for the campaign.. maybe have one flight from each side switch from allied to axis and from axis to allied each time we switch.. 

  we should switch sides as often as is workable by the campaign builder.. judging from the reaction of the axis pilots in the SEOW test, by the time the third mission was being loaded up, the axis moral was pretty low.. 

locked cockpit may have a negative affect on turn out.. but if that's what the majority want, that's the way we should go.. i really don't like using external enemy views.. Cntrl+ F2, or 'radar' as we call it, is just awful. at the same time.. locked cockpit is very visually restrictive.. what kind of rule are we gonna have for restarts when we plow into each other on the ground?  no restarts i hope.. not with missions expected to be averaging 100 minutes in  length.

labels/icons haven't been brought up..  i'm guessing if the cockpit is locked, we'll want some kind of labels..  my recommendation is to set the dot range.. yes i mean the dots themselves.. to about 6 k.
  you want stealth and surprise?  that's the way to get it.. some of us can see dots way further out than others.. setting them in close would even a lot of that up..  the reason i prefer labels is because i don't see dots past 4 or 5 k out.. we've always left the dots out pretty far so that in theory the enemy can still be found even when labels are in real tight.. but that doesn't work for me.. labels off or in as close as our hosts prefer them, even with dots out as far as ya want.. i don't see dots until they are about 4 k, maybe 5 or 6 tops.. if you feel  this would make finding the enemy almost impossible.... now you know how i feel when the icons are set in the way they usually are.
   

[_AH_taldrg]

~S~ My 2 cents.  IF we are going to fly this as a GAME then anything goes. Use all the gimmics that are available. If we are going to fly this as a SIMULATER and the simulation is WW II then flying around outside the cockpit suspended in mid-air was not done. At least I don't remember it so. Flying in cockpit requires TEAM WORK(lead/wingman)ACM. Flying around by your self, in cockpit mode, will get you dead quick. Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.

[_AH_Boosher]

I think it would be fun to do a closed cockpit campaign. Our squad is rather loose when it comes to formation, sticking together, and team tactics in combat. It would also make the 'rules' about RADAR a non-issue. As for the split/non-split teams, here's how I figure. It's a very different environment player vs. player than it is AH vs. AI. I feel that an adequate campaign length is 10 to 15 missions. That's more than 2 months per campaign and adequately spaced out. If we go H2H, we should do two 'tours.' The first tour would split the sides by lottery/coin-toss/etc.... The second tour, we would swap sides, and possibly squadrons also. (So that may mean swapping plane types based on the year. Instead of just F4F, F4U, and F6F against Zekes, the US types may be facing Ki-61's. Now, personally, I would love to fly a Ki-61 in a campaign, it seems like a real challenge to me.
One other suggestion is that we might do this as we did the VMF-223 campaign, with AH vs. AI. Different environment, but also extremely fun. Instead of going US this time though, I vote we go Japanese. It's always good to get a different perspective.

Just my .02 ducats.

[Foxbat]

S! I am comfortable with settings from full, to what we usually fly. But, I have Track IR, an up to date and fast PC, a large monitor and several years experiance flying this sim. Full cockpit no external views brings all of this into play. We will be flying on the largest map there is in the game.  It will be a stretch for some of us to fly that way given those conditions. However, I have always thought that the missions are what they are. If they are built to be flown this way then thats da way it is. I like BB's idea about the 4 groups and switching them around after every 2nd mission. Or whatever makes it easy. Its possible some may not fly if we go with no views. If its a real big concern, maybe the pole beforehand would be a good idea. Maybe a compromise on the settings like no views but mini map path on or longer dot ranges or tags could make up the differance. No question the Japanese side in each mission would be at a dis advantage if things were straight up head to head in numbers. I think careful thought will be needed to keep things close there.
For example the Japanese planes cannot carry the ordinance to create the same destruction potential as allied planes can. Things like that make this more important when designing the missions. Should be fun and am looking forward to it.

[_AH_Col._Hogan]

If I have to fly Japanese, I request that I be granted Kamikazi rights........

S!

[_AH_Moby]

~S~!

Full real settings, switching sides, flying the for the disadvantaged side and coming out on top occaisionally, BRING IT!!!

I would like to see a short blurb on increasing dot ranges for those who haven't yet, or may need to or just want to, for those with the "average" but capable computer......  Full cockpit with no externals is easy to get used to after a few missions, and good intel helps of course, but every little bit of tweaking helps, and I know the dot range increase helped me before I really started enjoying the closed cockpit stuff with AH.  Any other recommendations for those without Track IR would always be welcome too, I guess... I wish I could offer some other than the dot range increase....

Also, if Hogan gets suicidal Kamikaze priviledges, please do not assign me as his wingman......  ;)

Mobes

[_AH_Toccs]

From having flown Zekes/Wildcats a bunch, locked pit full switch doesn't appeal that much. 

I find having enemy icons at least makes the game playable for lesser experienced pilots.


Suggest:

locked pit, no externals, short range (say 2 km) enemy icons.

[_AH_taldrg]

~S~ Toccs and what is  <locked pit full switch > and Moby...how does one go about increaseing ones dot range?

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~. Dotranges are set by the host.

   and while we're on the topic... the term dotrange...    most of the time i hear us say dotrange we are not using the literal meaning .

dot= the four pixels drawn by the game to represent a plane far away from you.
range= the furthest distance from you at which the game will start rendering, or drawing, the dot on the screen so you can see it.

  it   literally means the furthest away you can be from a plane and still be able to see it..  it's the distance at which dots that are visually representing  the planes  will be rendered by the game.   for example the dotrange is set to 16k by default... so when a plane is 15.9k away from you in a game, you should be able to see a dot representing that plane on the screen somewhere... i believe the game uses four pixels to draw one dot.   

  if the host were to change the dotrange to 10k, then the game wouldn't draw that dot on your screen until you were 9.9k away from it.. any further and the game simply won't draw the dot on the screen, making it impossible for you to see it from any farther away than the dotrange setting.   


most of the time i hear change the dotranges, it is used to refer to the line of text that  we happen to call icons..

what we call icons are the line of text you see next to the planes..when they're turned off.. you'll most always hear  " are the icons turned off?"
    There are about 5 different bits of information in that line of text.. and each of those 5 different pieces of info can be individually set to different distances for when they appear.   there is color, type of plane, range, ID, and player's name.  ..  we seem to refer tol that whole group of settings as dotranges.   

i just thought this little bit of clarification might help keep us from getting confused as we discuss what dotranges and icon settings to use..   

[_AH_Jack]

Thanks, Beebs.  Now, let me get this straight...Dot range is where we can see a four pixel 'dot' on the screen where an enemy or friendly plane first appears, right?  It's not where we see the Hindu women?

[_AH_Jack]

Sorry...didn't mean to offend any Hindu AH members ...

[_AH_Tbull]

Please make your two cents payable to Tbull. After all, all the projects I have been doing this summer I could use it. Jack look for the black dot's if you start seeing red ones please seek help.   

[_AH_Toccs]

TD, locked pit full switch means:

cockpit locked - no externals, no icons, no padlocks, no lap dancers, and no sex in the champaign room. Like a neutered hamster in a cage.

I recommend locked pit, no externals, limited enemy icons.   Allowing enemy icons helps avoid friendly fire.

[_AH_Johnny]

Like TD says, " If they did not have it in WW2 and if you want to be real sim players, you shouldn't have it here. "
If they didn't have it WW2, why should we have it here?  Full Real Settings is as close to full real as this game gets ...
I like the settings we normally use. Think most of us do. That's why we use them. Full real, it's not as much fun. Games are fun.

.015 cents

[_AH_Moby]

~S~!  I totally agree with Johnny, love of the game happens because it's fun, BUT, I do enjoy being challenged in game and the full real settings would do that for me, not turn me off playing....  Full real  might not be as appealing for others. Not a problem.  I guess what I meant to say in my original post is, as Johnny has previously stated, I love the game exactly the way it is and the way we play it, because it's FUN. 

The settings we currently use are perfect. 

However, I personally would not back away from joining a coop/campaign with full real settings if it were planned out as well as the ones we have been doing are, with locked pit, icons on or not, whatever.  With that, if future AH campaign settings get more realistic or stay the same, totally fine with me, (as long as we don't go to easy full screen wonder woman settings....)   I am so middle of the road, I makes me sick....   :lol-034:

~S~!


Mobes

Where do I send my $0.02 again, Tbull?