One of the most important aspects of WW2 era ACM has to be the visual cues we get from other aircraft prior to engaging.
Going back to the original Il-2 one of the major failings of that game, and more so in CloD, is some planes simply vanish “right in front of you” as the LOD changes. Not only that spotting contacts (read as “dots”) at real life ranges is much more difficult – not just because of our 2-D monitors. Some of the issues with visual cues in CloD rest with the programmers.
Even so there is an idea that, no matter what, more difficulty means more "realism". Given the limitations of our PC hardware the visual cues we get from other aircraft are already significantly less informative and thus "harder" than real life – less realistic.
As a result of the limited visual cues its my opinion that we see less “realistic” air combat in these games as a result. I heard some folks complain about their inability to find combat on a highly populated server – they simply can not find the “dots” and when they do the dots vanish. Some of that has been posted on this forum. Others simply give up on “air combat” and race across the channel to the closest enemy airfield to “vulch”.
Icons are not the answer and I would never fly with icons “on”. However, in a “certain” way icons do allow for more realistic ACM.
I don't have a “solution” but there has to be a better way to represent aircraft at different ranges then what we currently see in CloD - something that would result in better “true to life” air combat.
Wotan
__________________
|