So I know this has been brought up many times but I believe I have a more beneficial idea which will encourage players to both protect their own airspace but also actually complete the sun objectives, rather than just play a big game of tdm.
As you know, the map splitting line in Sim is dynamic, as one team completed objectives it slowly moves toward the enemy spawns.
Also a large portion of the air sim game is players blindly rushing around trying to find players or bomb airfields, there are few tactical players who enjoy completing objectives or defending their airspace
Detection of aircraft
First, aircraft can only be detected by a friendly AWACs while they are in friendly airspace.
Essentially there will be a 50 mile radius around the player, once an aircraft enters this 50 mile radius, they will be notified (again; only if the target is within friendly airspace)
Alternatively, if the radius passes the line, an enemy will only be detected once the cross over the line and are still within the 50 mile radius. Or should the player enter enemy airspace but the 50 mile radius still covers friendly airspace, they will be notified of any targets in the portion still within friendly airspace
Also the player will be notified of the closest target in the 50 mile radius at set intervals (e.g. 5 mins)
Again, Targets can ONLY be detected while in friendly airspace
The warning given to the player about a hostile will consist of the following
Target, (Bearing) for (range), (target altitude), (relative movement)
Where:
Bearing is the relative bearing from the players nose to the target, e.g. 010°
Range is the horizontal distance between players in the player chosen distance measurement(metres/feet/miles)
Target altitude is self explanatory
Relative movement is how the target is moving relative to the player, e.g. if both are flying toward each other, they would be ‘Hot’. Both flying away is ‘Cold’. The target flying perpendicular to the player would be ‘Flanking’
Countering an enemy AWACs
As I mentioned, the targets will only be detected in friendly airspace, therefore one way to counter an AWACs would be to complete ground objectives, this will push the line further toward the enemy spawn, which in turn would reduce the detection area of the AWACs, where every square the line moves is a square where the AWACs can’t detect a target
Another counter would be simply to shoot down the AWACs, this would then lead to a cooldown (e.g. 10 minutes) for another AWACs to take off from a random airfield and rejoin the patrol route which would likely be the very edge of the map (respective of teams airfields)
Should you prefer a more ground based system, this could be a large multi vehicle radar site positioned at a random airfield which can be destroyed by A2G munitions, again with a cooldown, ‘Rebuild’ period, before becoming active again.
Alternatively any sort of Jamming added at a later date could be used to block areas of the map from AWACs/Radar view
Why this may work
Sing targets can only be detected within friendly airspace, this will encourage players to sit shy of the border and patrol their own airspace, using the radio calls, rather than just storming the enemies airfield.
Similarly, people will be deterred from storming airfields, as hostiles will be aware of their presence
The other advantage, this will encourage players to complete ground and air objectives, as the more objectives they complete, the more the push the line back and the less detection area the hostile AWACs
Of course for balancing reasons, an AWACs system could only exist above 9.0 for example and upwards, until we receive some form of data link in the distant future, this would be a good system to have in the mean time as it helps the players without being necessarily unfair and will certainly help to make air sim more tactical.
The radar system itself would of course have to be some form of airborne of ground based radar system, either some multi vehicle radar system which has been spoken of before, or some airborne system, which could be something simple, e.g. an A6 model but operating as an EA-6B for example. Or it could even be some form of reconnaissance aircraft, e.g. a Canberra for NATO and an IL28/RU95 for Redfor and at higher tiers it could be an airborne Sentry versus an A50
Thanks for your time and I really hope you consider this idea.