Recon mechanisms?

[xvii-Dietrich]

 

@Gambit21 wrote that it was possible to contrive a recon mechanic, namely:

 

"... this is already possible with some creative mission logic)..."

 

Ref:

 

This has me intrigued.

 

However, so as not to de-rail the other thread, I've started a new one here.

 

What ideas are out there for creating some form of "reconnaissance" with the existing mission toolkit?

 

Any ideas?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JimTM]

There's a basic idea on pg. 83 of the mission editor manual.

[Gambit21]

11 hours ago, xvii-Dietrich said:

 

This has me intrigued.

 

However, so as not to de-rail the other thread, I've started a new one here.

 

What ideas are out there for creating some form of "reconnaissance" with the existing mission toolkit?

 

Any ideas?

 

 

 

Basically a trigger over the area/units that you want the player to fly over, coupled with a mission objective MCU, and maybe subtitle.

Pretty simple.

 

So for example I have a recon mission (led my AI in this instance) that takes you over a rail yard, and 2 airfields.

When over the rail yard, and the first airfield, the navigator says something like "not much going on down there", and over the second airfield the guns light up, and the navigator says "looks like plenty of transport activity" etc etc.

 

You can make the trigger zone as large or as small as you want to.

Maybe you want the player to identify the types of units guarding  a bridge, and he had to fly there on his own (no AI leader) then I'd make the trigger smaller, and set to "dome" so that the player has to fly at a fairly low altitude over the bridge. Only then would the mission objective trigger be flipped, and the subtitle "Looks like 3 tanks and a flak gun" or something similar.

 

It's best to give the player a specific target and idea of what he needs to do. A more open-ended recon mission is possible, but it's more likely the player will mess it up somehow.

It's best to 'lead' the player a bit I find.

 

So while it's no perfect, it's more than workable.

[xvii-Dietrich]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Yes, I can see how reconnaissance can be emulated with the BoX mechanisms now.

 

If I understand this correctly, there is basically there is no mechanism for the player to "open the camera shutter", it will trigger regardless if the correct aircraft goes through the correct zone. However, it would be possible to set a minimum altitude (for high-alt recon), but putting the base of the cylinder zone up at altitude. As far as I can tell, there is no way to handle cloud obscuration either, right? Although I'm guessing it should be straight-forward to put time limits in place to handle time-of-day/lighting-conditions.

[LLv34_Temuri]

1 hour ago, xvii-Dietrich said:

If I understand this correctly, there is basically there is no mechanism for the player to "open the camera shutter", it will trigger regardless if the correct aircraft goes through the correct zone.

Exactly

 

1 hour ago, xvii-Dietrich said:

However, it would be possible to set a minimum altitude (for high-alt recon), but putting the base of the cylinder zone up at altitude.

Yes. To be more specific: you set it to check a sphere. Cylinder will trigger at every altitude.

 

1 hour ago, xvii-Dietrich said:

As far as I can tell, there is no way to handle cloud obscuration either, right? Although I'm guessing it should be straight-forward to put time limits in place to handle time-of-day/lighting-conditions.

Correct.