Non-precise radar: looking for ideas

[Alonzo]

Hey all,

 

I would like to add "radar" installations to my map. The idea is that they are an industrial looking target with a bunch of antenna. This part seems easy -- I just threw a bunch of NDBs into a ground target.

 

The fun part is trying to figure out what information a radar would report, and then how to actually achieve that in the mission editor. I don't want the "blips on map" laser accurate radar you get from spotters, nor do I want the almost-information-free "enemy plane spotted in XYZ." What I'd like, and what I believe at least has some correlation to what early radar was capable of, is "enemy aircraft in XYZ, headed NSEW" (I'd love altitude but unless I'm willing to get into spheres for detection, maybe that's too difficult).

 

Anyhow, my current prototype is a central check zone that detects an enemy plane. When it does so, it activates a series of smaller check zones around the central one. When one of these check zones is triggered, I report the direction that the contact is heading. Here's a screen shot of what this looks like for north/east detection:

 

 

I feel like this strategy is full of holes. If a plane flies into the central zone but then another plane flies into an outer zone, I'll get a report from two different planes, which may or may not give me a proper direction. If a series of planes fly into the central zone and head in different directions, I'll report whichever hits the outer detection zones first.

 

Has anyone tried this kind of thing? Any "radar" concepts that are better than "enemy spotted in XYZ" ? Thanks for any suggestions.

[Gambit21]

I've designed them in my head and they never work correctly for various reasons related to logic limitations - some of which you've discovered. For this reason I haven't bothered actually constructing the logic in the editor.

[Alonzo]

Just to close this thread out, I've ended up going with a simple "high/low" radar using two spheres instead of cylinders. The two spheres are vertically above each other so there is both some overlap (radar might read "high" or "low" incorrectly) as well as some gaps in the coverage (radar might not detect a plane that cylinder-based radar would detect). But both of these are worth it, in my opinion, to try to provide something a little more interesting/useful than "plane spotted in XYZ."

[Gambit21]

Thinking more about this, I think random triggers plus custom voice calls could be utilized to simulate a non-precise, less “all knowing” radar.

 

Basically rather than trying to dumb down the detection logic, you dumb down the message output instead. 

[Gambit21]

I was pondering this again while working/driving earlier.

I pretty much designed a fairly complex radar array with voice outputs and randomized "accuracy" built into those outputs.

The array will be accurate so long as it's triggered at  pre-determined intervals along the route. Basically a 'check in" after take off, and another later on, maybe over the target area.

That way the appropriate zones can but connected to radio calls calling out the proper direction from that spot. The AI pilot will make a call, or get a call from the sector radar controller, and

if a flight is spawned, the appropriate radio message will generate/or not generate depending on the decided up percentage/logic.

 

The radar array would also call out friendly aircraft as "bogeys" a certain percentage of the time, just as happened in real life.

 

If I do build it, it won't be for some months. I have to decide if I have a utility for it or not.

I have some ideas cooking, but early days still.