Photographic Reconnaissance Mission; need some advice.

[SpinyNorman 1]

Hi All,

 

This might be a pipe dream, and might not be worth the trouble, but I was thinking about making the RECON mission a bit more realistic by having to actually

'photograph' the target . But I need some advice from the experts.

 

My current plan is along these lines:

 

I have a 'Camera' gun, invisble and effectless (apart from shutter sound) mounted underneath my 2 seater facing 90degress down. You have to re-load it

between shots as you would plates in the old cameras. It is just a big enough caliber to damage a target on a STRIKE mission.

 

So this is where I need the advice.

I was thinking if you can change the parameters of RECON mission to be the same as STRIKE, but the conditions for success be damaged target rather than destroyed target; then as long as you hit the target with your camera and 'damage' (photograph!) it, then the mission was successful.

 

Can this be done or are the Mission Parameters locked?

 

I was also wondering if you can add ground targets to STRIKE ( or to the new adjusted RECON) missions, so you could have to photograph a Bunker2 or a watertowerDestroyed; i.e. Enemy positions along the front line.

 

There are obvious flaws, like it will still say in the debrief that the target was damaged (rather than photographed, unless that can be changed too?), if

the Top Brass wanted detailed photos of Bridges or Bunkers, they are quite tricky to 'hit' and take several passes! Also if you loaded up with le prieur or

bombs you could quite convincingly 'photograph' with those! But just a tinkering thought.....

 

Thanks guys, sorry about the number of posts I'm throwing up at the moment.

 

SpinyNorman.

Edited October 16, 2012 by SpinyNorman

[Lazarus1177 164]

I think the mission parameters would probably prevent the merging of a strike and a recon mission(unless you want to fly an armed recon).The only recon missions I fly are photographic ones(hence the name recon).To make it a bit realistic,I use the viewlist mod by PureBlue.While flying over the target,I switch to the belly camera and take a couple screens of the target.It's actually really fun with lots of Anti air threats and maybe some fighters on your tail!However,it stops being fun the moment you're shot down so flying close to land and under a lot of threats requires a certain level of skill.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Lazarus1177

[SpinyNorman 1]

Yeah I agree Lazarus, I guess it's just as easy to replicate it by doing a screen shot or something,

Jjust thought it would make the recon mission a bit more of a realistic challenge, and have the success of the mission reflect on that. At the moment I tend to barrell in jinking around, hit the white triangle and dive away swerving, or fly silly high.

 

My thinking wasn't so much to merge RECON and STRIKE. But make rather make the RECON mission an almost exact copy of STRIKE, with the difference being outstanding success = damaged target, and maybe adding some frontline targets rather than just Airfields etc. So instead of RECON being like ESCORT, where you just have to get planes to the waypoints, you instead have a target you have to hit and 'damage' with your Camera.

 

Like I said, might be a Pipe Dream, and in the end not make that much difference, or be too challenging and your chance of surviving it are too slim!

[Panama Red 22]

Lazarus1177:

Where can we find the PureBlue viewlist mod ???

[+ojcar 157]

When in recon mission, I simply fly around the target zone in circles "letting my observer to make the pictures" and then run like hell to my lines!

[Panama Red 22]

ojcar:

When you do that you could always look down and press the "screen print" button and take a real picture to see if you were on target.

[+ojcar 157]

Good idea!

[SpinyNorman 1]

hahah, yeah I reckon I'm getting too complicated with this!

I have this mental picture now ojcar of you doing a couple of nervous circles, shouting at your observer to hurry up! meanwhile flak going off and scouts scrambling, then a quick roll away and a tree top race to the lines!

[Panama Red 22]

Now if you were in the LFT (Austro-Hungarian Air Force), most early pilots were Enlisted and observers were Officers, so you would be shouting at the pilot to get the heck out of there after taking your pictures.

 

The Austrians early in the war felt that Officers need not get their hands dirty doing the mundane/dirty work like flying. These thoughts obviously changed later in the war when Officers became pilots too.

[SpinyNorman 1]

I can imagine that would have been some very bad cases of back seat driving! Getting chaffeured around by your 'contraption wrangler' up the front.

Edited October 17, 2012 by SpinyNorman

[Panama Red 22]

That is exactly how they viewed it too.

[SpinyNorman 1]

Hey Panama, just updated my realistic sky mod of yours I had to the latest release, awesome work!

[Lazarus1177 164]

@Panama Red:The viewlist mod is actually for the Sf2 series by thirdwire but it might work with First Eagles 2.Look in the SF2 downloads section.

[33LIMA 972]

FWIW I think the idea of just taking a screeenie of your target area is fine - provided it isn't the massive hedgehog of Spiney's forum name :). But - altho 'mission success/failure is an overdone concept in flightsims, and in FE doesn't affect campaign play to much if any extent - it could also be a good feature to have that little extra bit of feedback, with 'mission susccessful' indicating that you had actually got a decent photo of the mission objective, and not the field next door.

[Panama Red 22]

Looking at the PureBlue viewlist and the old YAP2 recon camera viewlist (forward, down, left and right), is making me wonder if I could make a viewlist for FE2 that will accomplish what is discussed above.

[SpinyNorman 1]

Interesting thinking...Yeah I think my line of thinking was far too complicated, was just wondering about getting that mission feedback, I just found myself not even looking at what the target was I was supposed to be reconnoitring, just dodging flak madly and hitting the white triangle and getting out of there! But I have just starting having enough of a look at the target so my observer could get off a snapshot, then carry on dodging and jinking.