Community Preference Initiative

[MusseMus]

Originally Posted by Bokononist

There are a few things you can do to help id planes from a distance. First and foremost, get on the ATAG Teamspeak channel. Friendlies will identify themselves, and will help you learn tactics as well. Also look out for flak, use the black flak as a rough guide, and the white flak is much more accurate. Opposite applies when you're over enemy territory of course, unharassed planes will be enemy in this case. Flying with a wingman also greatly improves your chances.

Thank you for your helpfulness Bokononist.
I do watch for signs of flak when over land, but the benefit with some kind of object icon/label for friendlies is not only to identify friend from foe -I would love to know the name/callsign of the teammate next no me. Maybe being able to warn him if he's in danger etc.

I also use teamspeak and I’ve had great fun the times I found someone to fly with, but it seems very few are using it (at least when I’m online) so I still feel a bit lonely up there.

[Bokononist]

Originally Posted by MusseMus

Thank you for your helpfulness Bokononist.
I do watch for signs of flak when over land, but the benefit with some kind of object icon/label for friendlies is not only to identify friend from foe -I would love to know the name/callsign of the teammate next no me. Maybe being able to warn him if he's in danger etc.

I also use teamspeak and I’ve had great fun the times I found someone to fly with, but it seems very few are using it (at least when I’m online) so I still feel a bit lonely up there.

I really don't understand why more people don't use the ATAG Ts3 server, and yes, it is annoying when there are Friendlies that you can't communicate with. I just try my best to team up with those that are on at the time.

[Ze-Jamz]

Originally Posted by MusseMus

Thank you for your helpfulness Bokononist.
I do watch for signs of flak when over land, but the benefit with some kind of object icon/label for friendlies is not only to identify friend from foe -I would love to know the name/callsign of the teammate next no me. Maybe being able to warn him if he's in danger etc.

I also use teamspeak and I’ve had great fun the times I found someone to fly with, but it seems very few are using it (at least when I’m online) so I still feel a bit lonely up there.

I think also people get a bit fed up with lots of chat over their game...everyone seems to stay in the same rooms even when they are just winging in pairs etc...ATAG gives us plenty of rooms to choose so you can use chat more effectivley without being drowned out by everyone

~S~

[swift]

Learning to fly without labels is tough but doable. Also with training one can id planes from pretty far off (particularly by colour) at least in terms of friend or foe.

Labels would destroy immersion greatly for me.

I also think it is quite realistic that it is not easy to identify a plane from far. Just treat any unidentified dot as a potential enemy until you identified it as friendly.

[MusseMus]

I will give it another go tonight and hopefully I find someone on Teamspeak willing to pair up with me

Originally Posted by swift

Learning to fly without labels is tough but doable. Also with training one can id planes from pretty far off (particularly by colour) at least in terms of friend or foe.

Labels would destroy immersion greatly for me.

I also think it is quite realistic that it is not easy to identify a plane from far. Just treat any unidentified dot as a potential enemy until you identified it as friendly.

I agree it would be unrealistic if the object icon/label appeared from too far away. If a label with name/callsign was to be added (which I really doubt ), it should be at a distance where you are already able to identify friend from foe/type of plane (not sure exactly how far away that is).

Again, I'm not sure this is even possible to implement.

[adonys]

There is a way to remove the empty feeling of a MP server with a big map:

integrated (coop) missions on the same server:
- server blue message saying with 10 mins in advance on which airfield the mission will start (bombers, escorts)
(- blue players landing their current planes to get one of the mission's spawned planes)
- blue players filling in bombers/escorts plane ranks, the remaining being AI
- scramble towards objective
(- red server side announcing the eventual detection of incoming blue raid and its ETA)
- red server side announcing with 10 mins in advance the airfields from which coordinated fighter flights will take-off to meet the blue raid
(- red players landing their current planes to enlist in counter-raid flights)
- red players filling in fighter planes ranks, the remaining being AI
- scramble

coordinated HQ code:
- HQ code informing their sides about detected/observed enemy side flights, their position and estimated direction/target
- HQ forming AI flights on nearby airfields to take of and intercept, and announcing them to the players in advance, so that the player might join them
- HQ informing players about friendly bomber flights requests for escort
and so on..

player are not so good at organizing themselves, so someone (ie server code) must do it for them