Moding Aircraft Visual Abilities i.e. Additions to the AI_Sensor.dat

[Der Teddy Bar]

Essentially I have the ability to add sensors to the AI_Sensor.dat.

Besides addressing the Escort Visual Sensor we have also added these new Visual Sensors to as best as possible configure the Visual sensor to suit its unit. For example...

- The Merchant Visual Sensor has in comparison the Escorts Visual Sensor a reduced range and capability. The reduced capability is most evident at night.

- The Fishing Vessel Visual Sensor is the same as the Merchant Visual Sensor with reduced range to be in line with the vessels height.

- The Elco Visual Sensor is the same as the Escort Visual Sensor with reduced range to be in line with the vessels height.

Now for the aircraft...
There will be a single seat version & and all other aircraft version.

The single seat version will have a restricted bearing to say 120 degrees which would be used for the Hurricane & Walrus.

I would not be too keen to do much in the way of restricting the downward view as the planes will then probably never see anything.

That then leaves the maximum distance. What do you think should be the maximum range that the Aircraft AI should be able to see and why?

[gouldjg]

DT,

I cannot really comment on aircraft ranges as I never seem to leave 1940 due to tweaking and thus never seem to deal with them.

What I can say is this,

I, pobably like many others are glad that you have taken serious looks into these areas and any improvement is better than no improvment.

As for ranges, damn thats a hard question so I am going to leave that to the educated.

I am wondering if you are able to get planes to spot sub a peri depth though. I think you said that visual cannot be used under the water.

[Der Teddy Bar]

I am wondering if you are able to get planes to spot sub a peri depth though. I think you said that visual cannot be used under the water. You can set the Minimum Height to be a minus figure. I do know that is does work with say a -1 or -2. I am unsure how deep you can go.

So in answering, yes it is possible....

Do you think people are ready for such a mod?

[Salvadoreno]

You know my answer teddy.. YES!!!! :rotfl: :rock:

[HEMISENT]

You can set the Minimum Height to be a minus figure. I do know that is does work with say a -1 or -2. I am unsure how deep you can go.

So in answering, yes it is possible....

Do you think people are ready for such a mod?

I am, I am! Over here, Look, see, I am!:rock:

[gouldjg]

I am, I am! Over here, Look, see, I am!:rock:

I think you have your answer DT :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: . I too would like to see stories from players whom had just been bombed at periscope depth.

Imagine, your looking at a convoy on a nice clear day and then Boom. Surely that happened did it not?

[Taurolas]

very interesting T...

Airplanes have the advantage of height so bearing in mind you can see calais from dover i'd say visual spotting at 25 miles+ or so for sub hunters if surfaced in favourable conditions or somewhere in that range (afterall they had a crew with binoculars scanning the sea) conditions will of course play a part, Haze, low lvl cloud, waves, surfaced or at periscope depth.

that in turn would of course scare the pants off any sub crew that see a plane as it will already be on an attack run. lets just hope the watchcrew with their :o or the radar man and his :ping: picks em up in time hehe.

Joking aside single engine i'd say 120 sounds good if flying lvl (afterall the wings get in the way especially for Hurricanes) and fighter based aircraft were generally preocupied with other aircraft jumping em so i doubt they would be to interested with ground lvl antics.

Catalinas on the otherhand well near as damnit to 360 as you can get, the pilot / copilot wont miss whats in front and if both pods are man'd then you just about have all angles covered.

[andy_311]

I think you have your answer DT :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: . I too would like to see stories from players whom had just been bombed at periscope depth.

Imagine, your looking at a convoy on a nice clear day and then Boom. Surely that happened did it not?

That's already happened to me in GW loads of times 44 onwards hit one ship escorts none the wiser next the R.A.F turn up

[HEMISENT]

I think you have your answer DT :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: . I too would like to see stories from players whom had just been bombed at periscope depth.

Imagine, your looking at a convoy on a nice clear day and then Boom. Surely that happened did it not?

Actually, something similiar had happened to me on a mission quite a while ago. Perfect visibility, cruising surfaced and decided to take the boat down for a sound check. Cleared the bridge for a standard dive, brought the boat to PD. Scope up and....BOOM, extensive damage to everything aft of the tower. Went to external view to see what happened just before we sunk.Turns out my watch crew never saw the Catalina that bombed us and he must have used the raised scope as an aiming point.

[Sailor Steve]

The single seat version will have a restricted bearing to say 120 degrees which would be used for the Hurricane & Walrus.
The Walrus had only one engine, but it carried a crew of three.

[Der Teddy Bar]

The wording of "being able to see" was misleading. What I am looking for is maximum practical distance that a aircraft crew would generally expect to be able to see a u-boat on a clear day.

BTW, the Walrus looked to only have a forward view though?

[Sailor Steve]

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/Aircraft/Walrus.htm
Gunners have a good all-around view.

As to viewing distance, a non-radar-equiped plane might spot a wake at 20 km or more, if he's high enough. Of course, the boat's crew could see him more easily too. The real danger came from the mid-war radar-equiped Liberators. They had extremely long range and a good radar that could pick up a conning tower from a looooong way out.

[Der Teddy Bar]

The SHIII code is such that air attacks are only performed on the player under 10,000 meters and on targets close to the player.

I am unsure that the Enemy surface factor i.e. your metre squared surface area would have much impact.

It is a tough one to test as it will have to all be done in game.

For this release then we will set the max range to 12,000 and see how the underlying visual factors play out.

[THE_MASK]

Sounds great , release it now and i will give it a go . :yep:

[andy_311]

Normally I usually don't do this in 43 but as soon as I leave base(Lorient)and encouter the u-boat patrolin about 20km out my watch officer informs me "Aircraft spotted" man my flak guns for a shoot out and they go for the AI U-boat. So what gives with the AI's planes something more attractive about the AI u-boats than the human controlled?I found even if you try a shoot out they ignore you and go for there primary target they first attacked.