need help to use artillery as spotter (radar)

[kraut1]

Hi All,

I want to use a flak gun as a spotter to have something like a Radar and created a test mission but I get no messages from the spotter.

My plane is a FW190-A3 (german)

I placed a Flak38 (german) and defined Spotter Radius = 5000 (Unit meters?)

As enemy plane I placed a IL2(russian) that is flying towards the Flak38.

I don't get Messages.

What I am doing wrong?

Best Regards

 

 

[coconut]

Hard to tell without seeing the mission file. From your description you are doing everything right, but the devil is in the details.

 

By the way, you need to be within a certain radius of the spotter to hear these messages, maybe 10km or so. Normally when you get close enough it will send you a greeting message "This is volcan, winds from the north-east" or something similar.

Edited September 19, 2015 by coconut

[kraut1]

Hi Coconut,

Thanks for your answer!

I wanted to attach the Mission files but I have not the permission.

I think I made a beginners mistake.

Best Regards

[Matt]

The spotter radius is that radar you can see in MP on the map.

 

If you want a message to appear, create a trigger:checkzone around the flak gun. Adjust the zone (radius in m) and for what planes it should react (Axis/Allies/Neutral). In your case, you have to set allies=true under plane coaltions. Then create a translator:subtitle. There you enter the text you want to read when the plane enteres the check zone. You also have to change the duration of the message, because it's default is just 1 second. Then you only have to "add target" from the trigger:checkzone to the translator:subtitle, so that the checkzone activates the subtitle.

Edited September 19, 2015 by Matt

[coconut]

Matt, I believe kraut is referring to another feature. Using subtitles isn't a very good solution, as it can't tell you the relative position and direction of the enemy planes unless you get into non-trivial logic.

[kraut1]

Hi Matt,

Your Suggestion with the control Zone is good too. I have already tried out. But in this case I wanted to use the flak as a spotter to get the relative position and direction.

Many thanks for your help!

[coconut]

Some of the usual suspects: Check that you set the country correctly. I can't count the number of times I've made neutral units just because I always unconsciously expect German planes and vehicles to be German by default, and the same for Russian ones.

 

I think it may also take some time before the spotter actually sees the planes. It seems for instance that AA such as flak38 let planes do one pass before they react.

 

You could also try with vehicles. I have mostly used trucks and half-track flak38 as spotters, maybe there is a bug with other units?

 

Also, check the time of the mission. If it's before sunrise, planes aren't seen unless there's a spotlight on them.

 

Another factor may be the skill level of the unit. Some units (planes, I think) have better visibility the more skilled they are.

Edited September 19, 2015 by coconut

[Juri_JS]

Coconut, do you have a mission where automatic radio messages from  spotters really work? It never worked for me and I only use them to make enemy planes appear on the flight map.

[coconut]

You can try RatasAndStukas (available from mission4today), but I didn't do anything special, really. I'll do a test on a simple mission.

Edited September 20, 2015 by coconut

[Juri_JS]

Maybe we have a misunderstanding. I've looked at the RatasAndStukas missions and the messages are triggered by checkzones and don't come from the spotters.

[coconut]

There is also a spotter over the airfield being attacked. I'm pretty sure I've heard it report enemy positions. I wonder if it only happens in MP, and not in SP. I'm currently trying with a simple SP mission, and I can't get the spotter to speak either.

[coconut]

Yep, that was it. Works in deathmatch, not in single player. Which is kind of silly, as the biggest benefit is immersion, which is more important in SP than in deathmatch. It's also pretty annoying in MP when you get AI message spam for 64 players.

 

Spotting.zip

Edited September 20, 2015 by coconut

[Juri_JS]

This sounds like a bug.

By the way, which kind of messages do spotters send in multiplayer? I don't play online, so I don't know.

[coconut]

I remembered that quick missions included the spotter chatter, so I played one, recorded, and looked at the mission file from the tracks. It turns out it works in single player too! What you need to do, and it's not entirely intuitive, is to give a cover command to the player, targeting the spotter on the ground. See attached mission. SpottingFixed.zip

 

As for the chatter, see the screenshot below for an example.

 

I also suspect that these spotting messages have nothing to do with the spotter feature in the FME, which only control the radar. Maybe it works that way: any unit you are covering that sees an enemy will give you a vector to that enemy and ask you to attack it. Which means that one could for instance have a high-flying bomber give you positions of enemies using messages. All you need to do is give a cover command to the player when it comes close to the spotter. That would only work in SP, though.

[Juri_JS]

Thank you, that's a useful information.

[JimTM]

Thanks Coconut. I'll add this information to the mission editor manual.

[JimTM]

Hi Coconut,

 

It looks like your SpottingFixed.zip contains the same files as Spotting.zip. I don't see a cover command in the SpottingFixed mission.

 

Jim 

[coconut]

Sorry Jim, I zipped the wrong copy of the files. This one should be correct.

 

SpottingFixed2.zip

[kraut1]

Hi Coconut,

I edit a campaign mission file and there it was the same as  you told us (player has to cover the spotter).

At the moment I don't have the time to try out everything what I have learned.

Many thanks for your help!

Best Regards

[JimTM]

Thanks for the update Coconut. I tried the searchlightsu (Russian) and ndb objects and they worked fine. I think that either of those two items would be good standard spotters because the ndb provides a homing beacon and the searchlight allow you to spot night and day.

 

Cheers!

[JimTM]

Here are some tests that I did in single player. I'll distill them down to a concise procedure for setting up ground control in the manual.

 

Spotter is "Volcano"

Player is "Raven"

 

10,000m radius plane radar area

10,000m radius spotter attack area

8,000m radius spotter radar area

 

Unknown spotter blue dashed circle area

  - ~3,000m in mini map

  - Very small in GUI map

  What does the blue circle represent?

 

In some situations, spotter location is marked with blue corner brackets and enemy plane is marked with red corner brackets.

 

Test Set A

==========

 

Keep player plane radar area clear of enemy aircraft.

 

Test 1: Fly outside spotter attack area

 

Results:

 

Enemy spotted within attack area

Volcano: Raven, this is Volcano, engage enemy fighters, out

Raven: Raven, 1, fighter spotted, 10 o'clock, engage, out

No brackets around spotter or enemy

 

Test 2: Fly inside spotter attack area but outside spotter radar area

 

 

Results:

 

Enemy spotted within attack area

Volcano: Raven, this is Volcano, engage enemy fighters, out

Raven: Raven, 1, fighter spotted, 10 o'clock, engage, out

Blue brackets around spotter until enemy spotted within attack area, no brackets around enemy

 

Test 3: Fly inside spotter radar area

 

Results:

 

Enemy spotted within attack area

Volcano: Raven, this is Volcano, engage enemy fighters to the northwest, out

Raven: Raven, 1, fighter spotted, 10 o'clock, engage, out

Blue brackets around spotter until enemy spotted within attack area, no brackets around enemy

 

 

Test Set B

==========

 

Keep player plane radar over enemy aircraft.

 

Test 1: Fly outside spotter attack area

 

Results:

 

Enemy spotted within attack area

Volcano: Raven, this is Volcano, engage enemy fighters to the south, range 6km, out

Raven: Raven, 1, fighter spotted, 10 o'clock, range 6km, engage, out

No brackets around spotter

Red brackets around enemy when spotted within attack area 

 

Test 2: Fly inside spotter attack area but outside spotter radar area

 

Results:

 

Enemy spotted within attack area

Volcano: Raven, this is Volcano, engage enemy fighters to the south, range 6km, out

Raven: Raven, 1, fighter spotted, 10 o'clock, range 6km, engage, out

Blue brackets around spotter, changes to red brackets around enemy when spotted within attack area 

 

Test 3: Fly inside spotter radar area

 

Results:

 

Enemy spotted within attack area

Volcano: Raven, this is Volcano, engage enemy fighters, range 6km, out

Raven: Raven, 1, fighter spotted, 10 o'clock, range 6km, engage, out

Blue brackets around spotter, changes to red brackets around enemy when spotted within attack area 

 

 

Jim

Edited September 21, 2015 by JimTM