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#4494138 - 10/22/19 08:37 PM Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels  
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Bernardo Offline
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When playing flight sims, I usually play with labels turned on as I feel this is not such a cheat as the AI has an upper hand with Situational awareness over humans (due to graphic on monitors and other factors).
So if I play with labels on WOFF, (and you do to) what is the most realistic setting for the distance factor in the Labels Avg Distance section.

#4494150 - 10/22/19 09:22 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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DukeIronHand Offline
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Oooo. This was huge discussion a few years ago and, IIRC, a consensus was reached.
Try the (worthless) SimHQ search function and see if you can find the thread.
I don’t recall the answer (not using labels) but Robert Wiggins may remember.

#4494155 - 10/22/19 09:51 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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I use a distance factor of 1 with dot distance of 5000. These are distances we used in the DID campaign, I believe, for an experience pilot. We were using dot labels only but it should apply to full labels just as well.

With that said, I will get on my realism soap box and beg you to try flying without full labels, at least as an experiment. WOFF is an excellent recreation of what a real pilot would see and experience in WW1. When you turn on full labels and/or the TAC you damage immersion and it starts to look a bit like a Nintendo game. Dot labels are a nice compromise. Also, playing with full labels and/or TAC hurts our ability to develop situational awareness skills ... we never get better at spotting and tracking enemies if we let the computer do it for us. Lots of us play with no labels or dot labels and we survive and get kills just fine. Just something to consider if you lean towards "historical simulation" rather than "video game".

Last edited by 77_Scout; 10/22/19 09:54 PM.
#4494159 - 10/22/19 10:13 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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Bernardo, I will second Scouts recommendation. I was pulled kicking and screaming into the “no label, no in flight map, no TAC mode years ago and never looked back. If you do not like it, by all means use them. It’s all about having fun. There ain’t nothing like getting jumped because you didn’t notice that small speck sneaking up on your butt! All the best however you play it.


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#4494183 - 10/23/19 01:08 AM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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I use labels to identify aircraft during a fight. I'm not very good at recognizing the difference between, say, an Albatros DII and DIII. Once I know what I'm up against, the labels are turned off. It helps me when I write my claim.

#4494208 - 10/23/19 03:52 AM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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Rick_Rawlings Offline
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I find the dots pretty reasonable (with some exceptions, like being able to see them through your plane) and I think I have them set to about 4000 and I generally seem to see the enemy about the same time that the AI does and vice versa...

Last edited by Rick_Rawlings; 10/23/19 03:53 AM.

The older I get, the more I realize I don't need to be Han, Luke or Leia. I'm just happy to be rebel scum...
#4494226 - 10/23/19 10:39 AM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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I reiterate what Scout said. I used to be a full labels type of player, back when I first started. The day I went no labels, it all changed for me. The game was more exciting (more healthy anxiety) and it definitely increased immersion to a whole new level.


I got fired as the door man at a sperm bank.
Apparently it's in poor taste to tell leaving customers "Thanks for coming."

Former U.S. Army Medic - SGT.
#4494254 - 10/23/19 03:18 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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Bernardo Offline
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Scout and MFair.
I tune them on and off for a second when I am completely lost. and can't find the fight after looking in all directions. Hopefully that will stop as I get better....\

I also usually tun labels on and off when emerging from a cloud.
As once I come out, my altitude and direction is never the same as when went in.
If I can't find out where my squadron went, I will never find them again.

#4494282 - 10/23/19 07:19 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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Cloud_8 Offline
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I like to have friendly labels on so I can learn the names of my squadron members and keep track of the formation lead, etc. I used this post from OldHat (link below) from a while back to edit out the enemy labels so all I see are friendlies. Seemed a good compromise to me.

https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4100878/How_to_edit_labels_in_WOFF

#4494298 - 10/23/19 09:22 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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I don't use labels, just the dots... If I do loose contact with my flight I just carry on with the patrol and sometimes I pick them up again.
If it looks like a bunch of the opposition is heading in my direction I'll just leg it back home.
I do sometimes get lost, and if so, once back over to friendly air space I'll just land at the nearest airfield... usual crack, launch myself over to their bar, have a friendly chat and a drink and drop the hint I may just be slightly geographically embarrassed! oops

#4494335 - 10/24/19 05:28 AM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Cloud_8]  
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JJJ65 Offline
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Originally Posted by Cloud_8
I like to have friendly labels on so I can learn the names of my squadron members and keep track of the formation lead, etc. I used this post from OldHat (link below) from a while back to edit out the enemy labels so all I see are friendlies. Seemed a good compromise to me.

https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4100878/How_to_edit_labels_in_WOFF

You can use WOFF Multimod/Customiser instead and edit labels(colors, opacity, background, etc.) while checking its in friendly GUI.

#4494340 - 10/24/19 09:20 AM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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Multimod can modify the view.xml eh?
Tried to turn my dots from grey to black but they still look grey in-game. Missed something.

#4494343 - 10/24/19 10:01 AM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Trooper117]  
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Originally Posted by Trooper117
I don't use labels, just the dots... If I do loose contact with my flight I just carry on with the patrol and sometimes I pick them up again.
If it looks like a bunch of the opposition is heading in my direction I'll just leg it back home.
I do sometimes get lost, and if so, once back over to friendly air space I'll just land at the nearest airfield... usual crack, launch myself over to their bar, have a friendly chat and a drink and drop the hint I may just be slightly geographically embarrassed! oops


The only “flying aid” I use is the in-game map. How folks like you, Lou, and others, navigate by looking at the well done, but not distinctive, game terrain is beyond me. If I had a map that matched the game terrain (roads, rivers, woods, towns) it might be a different story.

But that’s me. But I fault no one for using in-game aids. We have all flown in real life and I probably have more experience in medium to nap of the earth flight in both aircraft and helos then most.
IMHO spotting and tracking visual aerial targets (and ground targets for that matter) is much more difficult in-game then in real life. Not WOFF’s fault just the limitations of the human eye, electronic graphics, and computer monitors. Use what you want! Have fun!

#4494352 - 10/24/19 12:03 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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I sometimes navigated by landmarks in Rise of Flight. It was pretty interesting and I ended up following rivers and roads much more than I ever would with map helper. In WOFF even a modded the ingame map isn't really accurate enough for me to follow. Then again, I'm infamous for my abysmal sense of direction.

I don't use labels other than to quickly check the exact model of the planes I'm shooting down. It would be nice if the claim system allowed you to claim stuff like "Nieuport scout" or "V strut Albatros" rather than the very specific or extremely general options currently available.

I'd recommend anyone with reasonable eyesight to try the game without labels. You'll quickly learn to recognize various aircraft even from distant silhouette. Dot labels or reduced AI spotting settings would probably even the odds when it comes to detecting aircraft. I use neither and I'm almost invariably the one getting jumped.

#4494355 - 10/24/19 12:37 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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You can also use the very detailed, accurate maps I created for OFF/WOFF, either by printing sections of them as needed or, better yet, on a second monitor sitting next to your main "cockpit" screen. These maps are of the actual in sim terrain and thus offer you the ability to navigate from them, in much the same way our RL counterparts did 100 years ago with the maps they used on their knee boards.

.


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#4494356 - 10/24/19 12:46 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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mvp7 Offline
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Thanks Louvert, those are indeed very nice maps. My second excuse for not navigating manually is that you can't really look over the side of the cockpit at all in WOFF which makes looking at any landmarks (or bombing targets) ahead or near the aircraft very tricky.

#4494357 - 10/24/19 12:49 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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@ Duke... I do use the map and WP markers from time to time, because even with Nibbio's modded map it is difficult to get an exact fix on where you are.
The woods and water features do not correspond to the map, but the roads I find are the best features to help with some kind of orientation.
In other games, IL2 1946, RoF, IL2GB etc it's far easier to navigate as the maps actually correspond to what you are looking at on the ground (no need for waypoint markers etc) as you have much more detailed info to work with on the map.
In WoFF however, as the mission can end in success just by landing at a friendly field, it's not such an issue once I'm back over the lines, as any friendly field will do smile

I've navigated using VFR in light aircraft, found it no problem... I even used to teach navigation believe it or not, but in a game sometimes it is not as easy as real life, lol!

#4494374 - 10/24/19 03:28 PM Re: Distance Factor - seeing your enemy with labels [Re: Bernardo]  
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@Trooper
I don't think, that you can compare WOFF Landscape with ROF. The textures of ROF are good (and need low performance) but the world is relative easy in my eyes, prepared for simple visual navigation.
In WOFF -my Impression- they wanted to develop a historical-credible ww1-world at first. And only because of that you have this fantatsic WOFF-landscape.
Nibbios Inflight-map is not perfect, but a great improvement. And in my eyes you can navigate with it, It needs training and that's normal, because in real life every VFR-Pilot must lern "to read the ICAO-map" and to compare it with the much more detailed world outside. Which pilot can do it after a few lessons?

@Louverts Maps are great. I have all.


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