Spotting enemy aircraft (online)
 

Recently, after flying many bomber missions, I've decided to try out the fighters, for some change. And after getting somewhat comfortable with the Hurricane and with the Spit Mk1a (both 100oct), I set out to get into combat on the ATAG server.
However, I find it quite hard to spot enemy aircraft; bombers in particular. Yesterday, I encountered several Me109s (and got pretty much outclassed by them ;) ), but, I've yet to meet one or more bombers, be it AI- or human-piloted. I followed Vectors from Chain home, looked for AA explosions over the RAF's home territory, but nothing so far.

I don't want to cry "Bug!" on this, but did I do something wrong perhaps? Could it be the same issue as it is with the tree setting, where you have to change (and, optionally, re-change) the setting in order to have the trees displayed properly? Can I get some additional hints on where flak explosions are mostly positioned, in relation to the plane being shot at? Has someone had similar experiences? Or do I just have to look harder? :)
Reminder: I'm talking about online play now.

P.S.: I run a resolution of 1920 x 1080

P.P.S.: I remember actually getting visuals on AI bombers on the ATAG server quite some time ago... I believe it was in the timeframe of the second-to-last patch.

Hi Redroach,

On the ATAG Server you don't get radar reports of enemy a/c, but "sighting reports" from other friendly a/c (human and AI). Instead of vectors, you get the enemy a/c headings at the time of the "sighting" (subject to change), their position, and their altitude. Noting the time of this "sighting" and comparing it to your onboard clock will give you the means of interception when checking the in-game map.

I used to fly at much reduced resolution to get higher frame rates and found that it was easier to spot distant pixels. However, the graphics were IMHO pretty ugly, so with a video card and monitor upgrade I decided to fly at 1920 x 1080. It's freaking difficult at times picking up distant enemy contacts, and it hasn't been helped by the pixel to LOD transition causing the aircraft you're closing on to temporarily disappear at approx 500 meters range. (Don't know if this has been fixed in current beta).

The black flak is very inaccurate, but does indicate the presence of enemy a/c in the area. The little white flak bursts are very accurate and useful for spotting and tracking a fast moving enemy fighter.

Hope this helps.

S!

Snapper, spotting and LOD issues are still the same. I use same resolution as you do and sometimes can spot the very distant dots but help me twiddelydoo when they get closer..:( Instant loss of sight as they melt into the background.

Oh.. didn't know that those were "sighting reports" - thank you for that hint!

And what I fear is really true... there is a bug! That's nasty! My appreciation for the recently-much-improved CoD suddenly took a big turn downwards!
Just as I thought we got rid of game-breaking bugs (my subjective view), another one pops up!
Why did I open the Thumbs-up thread again? :(

It's enough to drive ya nuts! LOL

The momentary plane-disappearing act is off-putting, but after awhile I found I kinda expected it and just automatically anticipated where the dot would suddenly reappear as...a plane. Usually. Sometimes I fail to reaquire it and curse the CoD gods! ;)

I've found the plane-sighting reports work fairly well, as long as you keep track of your current location (usually pretty easy on the current Channel map). As soon as I see a report come up on a custom Server Window (since I can never understand what the helll the controller is saying), I pull up the ingame map, check the grid ref of the enemy a/c and its direction of travel, and roughly calculate the bearing and alt I need to take to intercept. Sometimes it's a no joy if the e/a changes its course and/or alt in the meantime, other times I experience an "aha" moment when a tiny dot(s) appear roughly where you predict.

Good luck and hope to run into you online!

Snapper

Yeah, that's what I did so far, too! Looking up the Grid on the map, while keeping the target's course and alt in mind - but the success was limited, as I said :)
Additionally, I've found the target info from ground crew to be completely useless - it always says the same... judging by the dev's modus operandi so far, I assume they've just hard-coded some lines in and hope that nobody will notice! :D

How long does it usually take for bugged-out planes to reappear?

Edit: Tested again and I can confirm that but now... A juicy target (Bf110) just disappeared at some distance, and I just couldn't find it again :(
However, at least some people don't seem to be bothered by this - a Bf109 (human) tracked me for some time, as he proceeded to shoot me down...
Maybe there is some method to solve this? Like it worked with the tree LoD issue, with some setting needing to be changed (and possibly re-changed) - but I got no idea which setting, or even settingS that might be :(

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...&postcount=430

It may be worth revisiting this small conf.ini change with the latest patch. It did reduce/eliminate the disappearing dot, but affected overall frame rates, too.

:grin: Hey m8 normally when we get a radar report on atag, Say bombers heading for calias, example I can take off from manston ,get across channel to height ( 14000 to 15000 ) an when i get there i still have a couple min wait (most all radar reports give you 10 to 15 mins. Before they are there ) Hope this helps once again 10 to 15 mins . But on a couple missions they are already there ,when radar says so , the more you fly ,the faster you will figure which is which

Are you really sure those automatic reports are aircraft that have been "spotted"? Sure, you ATAG guys know best because you implemented it, but it someteimes feels different.
For ex. I had a report yesterday that picked up planes on a grid which was presumably the location of their home airfield, at angels 1,5k or something - which indicates that they've just taken off, something what Chain Home is known to have been capable of :)

Yes m8 even the lone aircraft that it says in grid what ever , when we are hawking above, an it says at 2.5 if we look hard enough ,We will see them ( or the single 109) climbing out . From what i see they are on the money, each an every time, At least from the allied side . If you fly red catch 1 of us on line an we take you to the action

I only detailed how the enemy aircraft reports are generated. If they seem more like Chain Home Defense sightings.....then that's exactly what they are! Enjoy -- that's the main thing. :)

EDIT: I second what JTDawg said, if you see any of us online then jump on Teamspeak and join us. We're an easygoing bunch but it's great having the backup up there.

What's the issue with the Tab-7-1 menu option to request targets?...not the automatic radar calls. I hear Blue gets pinpoint grid reference/elevation and Red gets bearing from your location...which is highly inaccurate most of the time.

While on Red team, I traveled a heading for ages following the request target's vectors one day while just testing it out and it sent me miles and miles out to nowheresville...outside of the map even, where I came upon a blurry textured landmass that was probably Norway or something.

Dunno A.M., haven't used it. Will give it a try and see.

I have been in your TS already... you don't listen or talk too much to strangers though :rolleyes:

And the tab 7-1 thing: tried it a few times and all I got is 3 lines, one saying 30, one saying 300, fighters and one saying 90, bombers... as I said, it's a cover-up once again, from what I've seen

Oh no!!!! I'm one of the most loquacious people I know! Just ask me! :-P

Seriously, Redroach, I apologize. I remember when you were on, there were a few of us on TS, and I had a number of things going on that night that distracted me from the game at hand. Otherwise I would've suggested you and I jump on a separate channel to get you up and running, as I do with many newcomers. Hopefully the other fellas you were chatting with were more helpful than I was that night!

Hey m8 we dont do it on purpose!!! i have to turn up my volume for each person (so if i didn't answer ) I probably really didnt hear or understand what you were saying or might have thought you were talking to someone else, I fly with cockpit open there is alot of noise ! Maybe next time direct your question to a certain player , or who is taking off at manston , More than happy to fly you around the map an show you where everything is at !! Let me turn up my volume :cool: So a hunting Dawgs invatation! let me know!!

You're off the hook, JT. You weren't flying that night; Redroach's comment was directed at me, as it should. I'll keep an eye and hopefully he'll join us again when I can welcome him properly.

dunno who the exact perpetrators were :D
After I exited CoD I noticed a message on my TS that my mic was too silent or something - so maybe some work is needed by me, too ;)

Thats cool , also on new maps fighting much higher now !! 13500 to 18500 but they were there everytime, normally as i see french point flying out of manston ,there they are between my 12 an 2, an huge formation 12 to think 20 bombers salute :grin:

Hey, I edited my conf.ini to get rid of that display bug and I can play smoothly with it on. However, I'm not quite sure if that solves all the display issues.
On the one hand, I was finally able to detect a flight of AI Ju88 on ATAG, pretty far out, just 2x2 pixels or so per contact at a Full HD resolution - I was actually proud of myself ;)
On the other hand, there are times when I follow Chain home instructions of vectoring into f.ex. a flight, still over france, at angels 14, 7 elements, and take updated information into account, and I just see nothing! Or, I see flak over Hawkinge all the time, but I fail to spot any plane being anywhere remotely near the flak explosions, after circling and looking hard for quite some time.
Maybe it's really me, that's entirely possible now - for sure.
But, if there are any more known sighting bugs, preferrably fixable, let me know please ^-^

Okay, now I'm genuinely confused. After reporting above that I could track a formation all the way, quite the opposite was true yesterday.
After the usual lack of success following "chain home" instructions, I followed the type of report that is reported in big yellow letters in the middle of the screen ("Ju88s have been spotted over Calais, heading west".
To my delight, I could make out a formation, consisting of about 25 elements, followed by another one, also around 25. I hooked myself on the trailing formation, only to see all the dots de-spawn, pretty far out. Then I went for the leading formation and the same happened... after a while of frustration, one of those "ghost" formations apparently bombed their target (completing a blue objective) and I could make the formation out again, only to have it despawn again :(
This is really another game-breaking bug! I'm annoyed big time...again :(

P.S.: I wondered what was the difference between this experience and the one in the post before. And I think the formation on the post before was escorted by a human player, in contrast to yesterday. Could it be that the code only considers KIs with human friendlies in the vicinity "real"?

These are indeed "ghost" formations which are a major glitch in this sim. Many of us have wasted much time, fuel, and strategic positioning chasing these things all over Kent and the Channel. My understanding is that they are like mirages, reflecting the existence of true formations somewhere else on the map....only to disappear like ghosts as you approach. I have encountered single contact "ghosts" as well, but less frequently. The absence of defensive flak is the only real clue, but obviously you have to close on this ghost formation anyway to witness that aspect. Frustrating and confusing to all of us.

Blimey Red,

Have you just discovered the ghost dots? They've been here since the beginning.. probably the worst thing for me apart from the create new launcher crash

I believe Red has many 1946 hours under his belt (along with other sims), but has just recently joined us online in CoD. He is in the process of discovering the, ahem, occasional blip that we've been enjoying all this time. For some strange reason, I doubt Red has spent the requisite 50 hours of reading time that is required to go through all the bug reports since March, 2011! LOL

yep, I flew a lot of Il21946, though mostly custom-built offline missions :D

And I'm a CoD owner since release (pre-ordered the CE >.<), but after witnessing what happened, threw it away for quite some time and got back rather recently - and then, exclusively fixating on bombing with the Blenheim.
So, sorry, those glitches are, well, not totally new for me, since I read about them, but now I encounter them for the first time in person, which is, of course, much more annoying ^-^

I'm not entirely sure if the AI bombers attack mission objectives. The missions may have changed on ATAG (i remember talk of a new high altitude mission, that might be it), but i'm pretty sure that in the ones i flew last week the AI only attacks targets that are not required to end the map (usually they go for airfields where players spawn).

That being said, maybe the setting you enabled in your conf.ini is responsible for the ghost dots, as this problem had been largely fixed for the default installations. I think i haven't seen any ghost contacts at all with the two latest test patches (the current beta and the alpha before it).

I'm sorry to confirm the "ghosts" still haunt us, even with the latest beta patch. :(. I wonder, though, if they're more prevalent in some missions than others.

Our mission designer wizards are, as I write this, designing missions with AI bombers that are more numerous (larger formations & more frequent), fly higher, AND (you'll like THIS, BD!) --- attack targets necessary for the Blue Team to take the map. Not only will this encourage Red Team (RAF) fliers to gain altitude quickly to intercept these ongoing threats to survival, but the Blue Team fighters are encouraged to provide effective escort to enable the AI bombers to achieve their objectives. If Blue Team bomber pilots wish, they may either join the AI formations (difficult in a practical sense), or more readily fly their own missions to greatly hasten the process.

I know one of these missions is already in the ATAG Server rotation, I and a few others are separately testing a new one on a private server. Blackdog, I know your input and others go a long way towards the creation of even more challenging & satisfying missions and is always greatly appreciated.

I believe AI bombers just attack airfields and not mission objectives.

Someone who I can't remember said they believe the ghost are because of despawn scripts.

I personally believe they are caused by a secret weapon being developed and tested in an area on the map known as beer goggle ally.

Thanks for the input guys ;)