Dogfight Server Icons

[Sid]

Gents

Need to get the icons sorted out on the dogfight server Rog is running for us. Can anyone pass on the method of getting them set as:

Grey Icons (or red & blue will be OK)

Plane ID approx 2 Km

distance indicators @ .5 Km

Much appreciated.

Ta

[gec]

if u do not use any sw that will do it for u here is the way to do it manually:

create a file in the game folder called let say icons.cmd. edit it with notepad and put this inside:

mp_dotrange FRIENDLY DOT 15.0 TYPE 0.0 COLOR 2.5 NAME 1.0 RANGE 0.5 ID 2.0
mp_dotrange FOE DOT 15.0 TYPE 0.0 COLOR 2.5 NAME 1.0 RANGE 0.5 ID 2.0

change the settings according to this:

Setting the dot ranges, or icon ranges is quite easy. If you haven't created the com files section to alter dot ranges, do so as they are very useful.

Basically it there is no real brief on the dot ranges and how to use them. So from what we have discovered I will pass on in this page.

The basic idea of the icons and ranges is so you can identify other aircraft by the following,

Code:: mp_dotrange FOE COLOR 2.5 DOT 15 RANGE 5.0 TYPE 1.5 ID 1.0 NAME 1.0 mp_dotrange FRIENDLY COLOR 2.5 DOT 15 RANGE 5.0 TYPE 1.5 ID 1.0 NAME 1.0

FRIEND or FOE by COLOR , Red or Blue(colour for our english readers)

DOT , This is how far away you can see the dots of other aircraft

RANGE , This is the distance to aircraft indicator

TYPE , This is the aircraft type, like JU87

ID , This is the player id. The same as if you press "s" ingame and you see a number or letter indicator.

NAME , This is the player name.

The numbers beside each is the distance or range in km that each starts to work. By careful tweeking you can tune the ranges to suit map design and aircraft types.

A nice feature of it is the COLOR. Why? Because if it is set to less distance than the others like the example with the range set to 5km and the color set to 2.5km. The effect you get is a distance range fading in at 5km that is dark grey. When it reaches 2.5km it changes to the color of the team that the aircraft belongs. The effect is like you can see the plane markings. If you set the color at the same as the range you get the color at that range and no grey effect.

With this knowledge you can play with grey/color along with dot,types,id and name. The trick is to balance making it too easy or too hard. Hence why i get you to make 3 setups in my coms file section so you can have an easy, medium and hard setup.

Generally we can see quite far in real life, but depending on aircraft size we can spot one at long range. Unfortunately as a dot IL2FB doesnt seem to do this beyond a certain range and all aircraft turn to dots. I found about 15km for dot range quite good for a starting point. Less can give you the effect of poorer weather and you cant see to far, and a long dot range can give you a clear day effect. On the whole set this at a reasonble distance or you will never find each other if you dont have map icons on in the difficulty settings.

If you set the difficulty for map icons on and by careful tweeking of the icon ranges you can get a nice balance of a radar effect, where you can see the other aircraft on the map(like being directed by radar), but set harder settings on visual ranges. If you set it too easy though bomber types will never stand a chance.

Something to think about with combination of difficulty and icon ranges is the map design. If you make it to easy to find each other with bomber setup type missions where the tagets have more importance than straight dogfighting, the bombers will never achieve the mission. After a while you can judge the balance. A good test is to play the same map 2 different settings

when u r done, open the server.cmd file with notepad and put

f icons.cmd

before the

mission LOAD ...

statement.

[B16Enk]

Thanks Dragan, that's what I needed!

Should be good to go now Sid.

[Sid]

Yay, thanks Gec.

Rog

[Tonar]

Sorry Rog,

Sweper and I did a little dance today with no Icons.

When I change them off line I just bring up the command line ingame(shift/Tab) and enter this:

mp_dotrange FOE COLOR 0.0 DOT 15 RANGE .5 TYPE 2.0 ID 0.0 NAME 0.0

[B16Enk]

OK I amended the syntax to match yours Tonar, but with the parameters as posted by GEC.

[gec]

always glad to help