Ideas regarding photo recon and artillery spotting missions

[mazex]

Initially wrote this in the "Jazzed about Flying Circus - Thoughts on Plane Set" thread "off topic" based on thoughts by ShamrockOneFive, but thinking of it I liked the idea good enough that I think it deserves a thread of it's own....

 

This proposal is especially for Flying Circus but the applies to the whole series really...

 

In WW1 photo recon and artillery spotting where the main missions that the fighters where supposed to protect (just like III/JG53Frankyboy says in the original thread). To expand the domain of non fighter jock missions, how about a scoring system where you get a nice score for images taken over the designated recon target would be great. Add a "camera" view like the bombsight with a simple camera crosshair. Bring it up like the bomber sight and give score for correctly taken recon photos (target in "sight" and correct altitude / angle). And you should only get the full score IF you manage to get home and land safely (thus delivering the photos)

 

Another fun idea on multiplayer servers would be that if someone successfully manages to get home with recon photos they could be available to other pilots in the same team when on the ground in a friendly base. Would be a great way to encourage recon missions as it would be really nice as a bomber pilot to get a good view of the target area. If the game engine could put drawn "boxes" around all targets visible in the "recon screen shot" to emulate that an intelligence officer has looked at the image that would be even better - and should be technically doable rather easy. Just add the normal "target markers" to the screenshot. Bonus for making them look "hand drawn" naturally.

 

Would be really nice to create interesting WW2 missions as well with a camera eqipped Spitfire etc... I would easily pick missions like that for variation of the diet. In WW1 photo recon was a very common mission to my understanding. 

 

Another idea based on missions that where very important and common in WW1 - how about artillery spotting missions. You need to fly over a specified target area and when there the artillerry starts firing and you can select predefined correction orders 

 

Implementing the "photo recon" mission type really should not be that complex... And it would be a very nice addition that makes sense in the core engine.

Edited November 23, 2017 by mazex

[xvii-Dietrich]

Indeed!

 

We had a recon mission system in the Storm of War campaigns (IL2:Cliffs-of-Dover). Each recon aircraft was equipped with four rolls of film, which could be used to recon targets (fly to an area, take the photo, and fly home). Photos were only developed after the plane made it back to friendly territory... and we often had situations where we all were waiting for the recon photos of come in. The recon had two main effects.

 

1. The AI bomber flights in the campaign would not fly against "unknown locations", so you had to recon them first. (= target discovery)
2. Then, the AI would keep bombing known targets until they were confirmed as destroyed. (= damage confirmation reports)

 

Thus, effective use of recon would direct the course and priorities of the war, and then ensure that AI-bomber flights were efficient in their tasks. It was critical to get post-mission recon (we often chose to have a photo-recon Bf 110 flying with our Ju 88 bomber formations). By selectively reconning the targets we wanted to take out, we could influence the strategic direction of the war. Selective recon could put the focus on destroying spitfire factories or knocking out forward airfields.

 

 

 

 

What we realised, was that a handful of players flying fighters or bombers on a server would not affect the overall outcome of the entire Battle of Britain campaign. The numbers are simply not enough. However, it was conceivable for a handful of recon pilots, supported by fighters and special-operation bombers, to direct the strategic imperatives of a an airforce, and thus affect a campaign.

 

What is more, the recon relied on the aircraft making it home. When not just your personal score, but also that of the team and the whole campaign is hinging on the return of an aircraft, it drastically changes your flying style. The enemy team knows this, and their fighter sweeps are as much about hunting down recce-aircraft as they are with scrapping it out with enemy fighters.

 

And if you announced that a recon aircraft was heading home and needed support, everyone would scramble to help.

 

It is a totally different experience.

 

 

 

This style of flying - this style of campaign - works equally well in both a WWI and WWII context. There are some differences, but the principle is the same.

[curiousGamblerr]

^ That sounds totally awesome!

[mazex]

Indeed!

 

We had a recon mission system in the Storm of War campaigns (IL2:Cliffs-of-Dover). Each recon aircraft was equipped with four rolls of film, which could be used to recon targets (fly to an area, take the photo, and fly home). Photos were only developed after the plane made it back to friendly territory... and we often had situations where we all were waiting for the recon photos of come in. The recon had two main effects.

 

1. The AI bomber flights in the campaign would not fly against "unknown locations", so you had to recon them first. (= target discovery)
2. Then, the AI would keep bombing known targets until they were confirmed as destroyed. (= damage confirmation reports)

 

Thus, effective use of recon would direct the course and priorities of the war, and then ensure that AI-bomber flights were efficient in their tasks. It was critical to get post-mission recon (we often chose to have a photo-recon Bf 110 flying with our Ju 88 bomber formations). By selectively reconning the targets we wanted to take out, we could influence the strategic direction of the war. Selective recon could put the focus on destroying spitfire factories or knocking out forward airfields.

 

 

 

 

What we realised, was that a handful of players flying fighters or bombers on a server would not affect the overall outcome of the entire Battle of Britain campaign. The numbers are simply not enough. However, it was conceivable for a handful of recon pilots, supported by fighters and special-operation bombers, to direct the strategic imperatives of a an airforce, and thus affect a campaign.

 

What is more, the recon relied on the aircraft making it home. When not just your personal score, but also that of the team and the whole campaign is hinging on the return of an aircraft, it drastically changes your flying style. The enemy team knows this, and their fighter sweeps are as much about hunting down recce-aircraft as they are with scrapping it out with enemy fighters.

 

And if you announced that a recon aircraft was heading home and needed support, everyone would scramble to help.

 

It is a totally different experience.

 

 

 

This style of flying - this style of campaign - works equally well in both a WWI and WWII context. There are some differences, but the principle is the same.

 

Wow - that is an interesting and cunning implementation to be able to set targets for the AI flights - and the "post-mission recon" part is a very nice addition.

 

So - merge that with my proposal with the "view available recon photos" for the non AI pilots that want to be prepared before bombing (maybe add that you get more points when bombing targets that have been verified by recon before?) and we have a great solution if the recon photo also triggers a target for AI flights (if available in the scenario). Adding the "trigger event" to all allied players of "Target X destroyed - needs to be verified by recon photo before getting full score" where you in a non AI environment also would get the "post-mission recon" added. After a successful recon photo both the recon pilot and the bomber pilot could get additional points.

 

And really - this should be possible to do in the game and even with some less advanced implementation than our "dreaming" it will add very interesting mission types both for SP and MP with pre and post recon missions!

Edited November 23, 2017 by mazex

[Retnek]

I flew those recon-mission quite often and it has been great fun, I really miss it! Not only the chance to direct a part of the air offensive this way, it's a interesting pilots job, too! Different from the bombing sorties, much longer flights. There's a need for detailed planning the photo runs over one target or several sites along the route. Sneaking in behind a bomber formation or flying a detour over the sea? Hiding in the cloud layer? Go high & fast, with or without contrails, lower weight is higher speed but less range. A Spitfire I had no problem to catch a recon Ju-88, but for a Hurricane it was much more difficult.

  Flying recon is a good option when Real Life offers a sudden time slot. Recon results were needed all the time and most important: bring her home and there's a result counting for your side, deep immersion.

Edited November 23, 2017 by 216th_Retnek

[xvii-Dietrich]

And really - this should be possible to do in the game and even with some less advanced implementation than our "dreaming" it will add very interesting mission types both for SP and MP with pre and post recon missions!

 

 

What Storm of War used was an in-game menu option (TAB-4). This allowed a pilot to trigger an event. The menu simply said "Take photo sequence (4 left)"... then, 3... 2... 1... and finally "No recon photos left".

 

On the server, these events would record the pilot, time and the aircraft location. The server-side utilities would then compare the location with a secret list of targets and decide what to do. Results could be posted to the web immediately, and new AI flights would respond accordingly (existing flights would complete there mission, though).

 

IL-2:BoX does have this (yet).

 

However, by introducing some form of "pilot-activated-trigger" would allow the mission builders to script all sorts of things, ranging from recon to logistics to liaison to rescue missions.

 

Hopefully, we'll get such a mechanism soon. It would be wonderful to implement that style of campaign in IL-2:BoX.