Radar

I'm don't really have as to how radar should be done but I have seen it work a variety of ways. SupCom's system isn't bad and it's the most noob-friendly.

Here's how radar shadows work in NOTA:
http://www.twitch.tv/goddeofspring/c/1838172

I personally don't like it as it encourages micro, like placing buildings in possible enemy shadows.

Zero-K's system works more like LoS as it's drawn onto the map:
viewtopic.php?f=61&t=34222

A very good point.

As I have said before, how do we know that these super advanced kill bots aren't seeing gamma rays and hearing x-rays? Once you get into the more exotic parts of the EM spectrum things like hills and horizons just don't matter as much any more.

The thing about high energy waves is they tend to go through what you want to be seeing as well.

That said I dont think there's any reason to believe they see in any exotic spectra. What is modelled is radar which obviously works in the radio spectrum and theres vision which is the visible. Vision and even mapping being portrayed as visible spectrum.

Well X-rays a really good at showing metal in people, so it could be assumed that seeing tanks in a forest would be a lot easier then in real life.

Zero-K actually use the same system as NOTA that is inherent to the Spring engine. Zero-K just draws the edge of the coverage with a line by default. It can be changed to be viewed the same in Zero-K as well.

In general I wouldn't say its' a microheavy mechanic. Getting a radar built on high vantage point or moving out a mobile radar to cover a valley requires a bit of extra attention rather than just putting it anywhere in range of the enemy.
Getting proper radar coverage when you are crossing a ridge can be hard and attacking without knowing what waits on the other side or being unable to fire back on units out Line of Sight have to be accounted for as you have to plan ahead and bring radar or spotters along if you plan to utilize your long range units when you are crossing different terrain obstacles into areas where you have little intel.
Using radar shadows requires awareness of enemy radar positions which might be taxing on your attention if you are controlling several orbital bodies but I wouldn't really call that micro.

In a forest maybe, through a mountain or even a hill? Not so much.

Hi just joined, posted some radar ideas on another forum and someone pointed me here, i realize they may have allready been discussed and also may be too much for todays generation of dumbed down gamers. Also i know super realism can be boring but i dont want to see another RTS that requires little to no tactical thought in the electronic warfare department


-Radar detectors, pinpoints enemy radar stations so you have an idea of their intel coverage
-Ground based radar limited range due to curvature of planet. landscape features like mountains and canyons/valleys generate "black spots" which the other team can use to their advantage, ideas of enemie's black spots can be gathered from radar detector intel
-Airbourne radar has much further range and can "see" into canyons but is easy to shoot down, unit is expensive to build so cant spam them, same goes for possible satellite radars

oh, thanks for clearing that up. i'm a novice to most springs games

If an intel unit is expensive enough you can't spam it then it's also expensive enough it's not worth building.

I would like radar systems to not reveil/see a piece of land but just show what units there are (using strategic icons). Maybe with a fancy sonar line (the rotating thingy). That'd be awesome.

Poor judgment and sweeping generalizations, from bmb? Wow. I didn't see THAT one coming.

Anyway, it only takes a SINGLE dose of intel coverage to get most of what you need. Counter intel, on the other hand, often takes multiple payments that increase in scale as more units need to be protected. An expensive radar is still going to win.

you can scout with regular units too, even if there werent cheaper intel specific alternatives

The problem with cheap radar is that you will never have a reason not to build it, and not to build it every where.

Meaning that you didn't really make it a decision about it, so it might as well be tied to something else because of all the decision making you will be doing.

Expensive radar means an opponent won't always have access to it, and that when they do, it will a worthwhile target during an a attack.

We were talking about a scout plane and not a stationary radar though. Even so you have to justify the radar and not just say patrolling a bunch of scouts around your base.

Depends if the scouts even have radar.

TA scouts didn't, only at T2 did they unlock radar aircraft and radar tanks.

TA scouts had radar. It was pretty small( twice their vision range?), so you still needed a ton of them. Big radar was definitely a T2 thing.

TA radar was a lot less useful, so being cheap made sense for the game. Supcom radar is extremely powerful, and the extreme range basically ruined any element of surprise.

I don't remember T1 units having radar, but that might be a symptom of it's poor range.

Yeah. Radar dots only showed up on the minimap which in most cases would be about half a second before the scout actually see them in LoS.