Crop Circles on Moscow Map?

[TG-55Panthercules]

The thread about which map had better terrain/airfields got me thinking, and I realized most of my test runs in QMB have been using the Stalingrad maps, so I went in and did some free-flying QMB on the Moscow Autumn map.  I was puzzled by what appeared to be circles of some sort (see below).  I thought at first that they might be some sort of gun emplacement areas, but they didn't appear to be that when I zoomed in on them.  They looked a bit like what I've seen flying over the midwest USA when farmers are using a certain kind of irrigation equipment (that pivots around a central hub and waters in circles) - was that a thing in 1940s Russian agriculture?  Or maybe they're crop circles? (Was that a thing in 1940s Russian ufology?)

 

Any ideas what these are?  (my best guess - I had all the target options like artillery and stuff turned off in the QMB so I could just fly around unmolested - does the QMB put the emplacement areas on the map even though it isn't going to put the guns in them for the mission?)

Edited March 29, 2017 by TG-55Panthercules

[Juri_JS]

Maybe it's caused by irrigation equipment, but similar circles can develop when prehistoric burial mounts are flattened by modern ploughing. I've often seen such structures on aerial photos from central Europe.

[=ARTOA=Bombenleger]

those crop circles where made by aliens in Yak 3Ps! :D

[kissklas]

That is strange! It could be harvesting done in a traditional way. I saw a technique once that looked a bit like this. You would start out cutting the grain either with scythe or more modern equipment, and pile the grain in the middle as you move outwards.

[Mysticpuma]

There isn't a Moscow map in Cliffs of Dover?

[seafireliv]

A graphic anomoly. I doubt it`s burial mounds or the mythical crop circles unless these are photographic textures taken from the real thing.

 

Or an Easter egg joke by the devs, but I doubt it.

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

Saw that for the first time today. Didn't think much of it and assumed it was irrigation circles like in the US heartland.

[Freycinet]

Cloning tool usage gone wrong.

[Cybermat47]

When I first saw them, I thought they were shell craters from the Battle of Borodino (1812), but they're all over the place, so that can't be it.

[TG-55Panthercules]

Well, it isn't what I suspected - I went in and flew another QMB mission with all the ground targets turned on, and there's still nothing in those circles.

 

I hope maybe the devs could shed some light on this?

[TP_Silk]

I suspect that in actual fact it could be old craters from artillery/bombing attacks that have now become overgrown. That's not as interesting as some of the other suggestions though.

[ShamrockOneFive]

I always thought they were irrigation circles personally. But I don't know if that's actually the case.

Edited March 29, 2017 by ShamrockOneFive

[BlitzPig_EL]

No way it's irrigation.

 

From Wiki:

 

 

Center-pivot irrigation was invented in 1940^[4] by farmer Frank Zybach,^[5] who lived in Strasburg, Colorado.^[4] It was recognized as a method to improve water distribution to fields.^[3]

[TG-55Panthercules]

No way it's irrigation.

 

From Wiki:

 

You don't think it's possible for the Russians to have copied it, at least on a limited basis, by 1941?  It didn't take them that much longer to copy the B-29, and that was waaayyy more complicated than circular irrigation would have been.

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

No way it's irrigation.

 

From Wiki:

 

This is a terrible way to try to validate that it doesn't have anything to do with irrigation.

 

"The American's invented it a whole year before the battle so there's no way that technology could have ended up on the steppe a year later!"

Edited March 29, 2017 by Space_Ghost

[Cpt_Cool]

Guys remember your history. Its lend lease irrigation equipment duh. It even came with made-in-USA 100 octane fuel.

[seafireliv]

Irrigation began about 5000 years ago. You`re telling me that it took till 1940 before someone figured out a way to have the water spray out in a circle on a field? That`s hard to believe.

 

It may not be documented, but it could have easily been around before the official invented date. Also don`t rely on wikipedia for anything concrete.

Edited March 29, 2017 by seafireliv

[Blitzen]

Its well known:Space Aliens have taken the city,that's why there is a force field saround the city that prevents us from flying over the captive area...

[Jade_Monkey]

Cloning tool usage gone wrong.

I think you hit the nail!

[Sokol1]

Is not that circles made by pilots trying taxi their planes like in MP servers? 

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Lazyness in use of terrain paintbrush
/ Artifact from terrain texture conversion.

[von_Tom]

Its well known:Space Aliens have taken the city,that's why there is a force field saround the city that prevents us from flying over the captive area...

Now that is picture of one of the great cinema moments. Nowhere near as scary as the remake though.

 

Von Tom

[ShamrockOneFive]

Is not that circles made by pilots trying taxi their planes like in MP servers? 

 

LOL easily could have been me then. Sorry about that folks! :D

[6./ZG26_Gielow]

Panther + Hercules ?!?!?!

[Blitzen]

Now that is picture of one of the great cinema moments. Nowhere near as scary as the remake though.

 

Von Tom

Ok just for you , here's an updated pic, this craft certainly was big enough to create the Crop Circles & create the force field around Moscow! :

( But the original, had a better script & better direction & scarier music...I will admit James Arness as the thing was a bit of a let down, but it was an earlier time..)

[TG-55Panthercules]

Panther + Hercules ?!?!?!

 

Yep - it was the nick I was using playing one of those Greek city-building games (Zeus: Master of Olympus, IIRC) way back when, and just stuck with it ever since.

[Beazil]

Well, I'm not saying it was aliens....

 

 

 

.... but it was aliens.

[unreasonable]

This is a terrible way to try to validate that it doesn't have anything to do with irrigation.

 

"The American's invented it a whole year before the battle so there's no way that technology could have ended up on the steppe a year later!"

 

If it is on the Moscow map it is not steppe - steppe does not start until hundreds of kms further south.  Moscow area has plenty of precipitation during the growing season, irrigation not required. If anything, drainage is a much more important requirement.

 

I like the ancient burial mound suggestion best, but I fear that the texture artifact explanation, though mundane, must surely be right.

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

If it is on the Moscow map it is not steppe - steppe does not start until hundreds of kms further south.  Moscow area has plenty of precipitation during the growing season, irrigation not required. If anything, drainage is a much more important requirement.

 

I like the ancient burial mound suggestion best, but I fear that the texture artifact explanation, though mundane, must surely be right.

 

I'm not assessing what the circles actually are, just pointing out that the statement I was responding to didn't make sense.

 

"X was invented in 1940... There's no way they'd have that in 1941!"

[BlitzPig_EL]

Well Space_Ghost, you need to place yourself in the middle of the US as a farmer in 1940 for a start.

 

No internet, no TV, no rapid dissemination of information...  Just a man on a farm that figures out a good way to efficiently use the water resources at hand.   The industry to manufacture the thing didn't spring up over night, especially in 1940 as the US was still in the tail of the Great Depression.

 

So how did the Russians get the stuff up and running on the other side of the planet a year later?

 

How did they even find out about it?   A spy behind every bush in the middle of the corn belt of the US in 1940?

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

Well Space_Ghost, you need to place yourself in the middle of the US as a farmer in 1940 for a start.

 

No internet, no TV, no rapid dissemination of information...  Just a man on a farm that figures out a good way to efficiently use the water resources at hand.   The industry to manufacture the thing didn't spring up over night, especially in 1940 as the US was still in the tail of the Great Depression.

 

So how did the Russians get the stuff up and running on the other side of the planet a year later?

 

How did they even find out about it?   A spy behind every bush in the middle of the corn belt of the US in 1940?

 

Oh wow... You're being serious... 

[Sandinourcoffee6]

strange when i fly cliffs of dover,i have what looks like a golf course near one of the airfields

[BlitzPig_EL]

That's because it is a golf course.

[Scojo]

Dadgum kids are at it again! Olga, fetch my sickle while I get the horse and wagon ready!