Pretty sure no one plays with clouds selected in their graphics. What if wasn't an option? In the old days of nose to tail Dogfighting, the clouds and Sun were a tool for pilots. You could escape a Pilot on your six by climbing up into the clouds to hide. You could continue climbing up into the clear blue sky and circle waiting for your opponet to pop out looking for you. Many pilots would put the Sun to their back and dive into a fight or attack protected by the blinding Sun light. How much of a difference do you think it would make to your game if you had to deal with the clouds on a constant basis? Myself, I think it would add a touch of realism to the game and provide a way to turn the tide in a game. Thoughts??

I remember when I first started, i had clouds on. Took me a couple of games saying to my self,how can they see me
Clouds on for all would definitely help with bombing runs.

[M]Skyripper wrote: Pretty sure no one plays with clouds selected in their graphics. What if wasn't an option? In the old days of nose to tail Dogfighting, the clouds and Sun were a tool for pilots. You could escape a Pilot on your six by climbing up into the clouds to hide. You could continue climbing up into the clear blue sky and circle waiting for your opponet to pop out looking for you. Many pilots would put the Sun to their back and dive into a fight or attack protected by the blinding Sun light. How much of a difference do you think it would make to your game if you had to deal with the clouds on a constant basis? Myself, I think it would add a touch of realism to the game and provide a way to turn the tide in a game. Thoughts??

Yes please sounds like a great idea.

I like the idea of clouds on for all....

Noobs and bombers hiding in the clouds would require a whole new level of hunting skills for the top guns....

it could change the way a mission goes down depending on which way the wind is blowing....the different tactics would be fun and interesting....

Until the first person whines that 'they snuck in a cloud all the way to bomb my....'

If the clouds moved or were randomly placed each mission it would be one thing.. a good thing.. but otherwise if they were permanently on & in place they would just become like another mountain or other terrain feature that would benefit one team or another every time.

Just my opinion..

Clouds would be great if Zup could get ahold of the lag it most likely produce.

Are you guys kidding me, UFOs can hide in the clouds. I really don't want to have to worry about mid air collisions with the UFOs, therefore no clouds.

Also FAA regulations require that a person be instrument rated in order to get near the clouds. How many of you have a instrument rating, probably only a couple so the rest of you would be breaking FAA regulations causing the government to get involved.

I don't need the government involved and I don't need hidden UFOs.

Interesting point Zebra. And Sir Crockett, hadn't considered UFO's. That could be another interesting addition to deal with!

The radar screen wipes out part of the cloud advantage. I would kind of like to see it go away. Then you would need to allocate defenders for your base or carrier. That would change the dynamics.

The UFOs are only a problem to the pilots who dont have tinfoil-lined flight helmets!

Good point TR! I wouldn't mind losing the little red "target" arrows too. Would add another challenge in locating the enemy. Then we would have to scan around the sky, just like they did in the old days.

[*M] TR wrote: The radar screen wipes out part of the cloud advantage. I would kind of like to see it go away. Then you would need to allocate defenders for your base or carrier. That would change the dynamics.

The UFOs are only a problem to the pilots who dont have tinfoil-lined flight helmets!

I agree TR, I would like to see the radar gone as well. Makes coordination of teams much more realistic.

I think the red arrows could stay since they only indicate planes that are visible if you were looking that direction. If you were truly flying, you would be scanning all directions to spot enemies.

If there is no radar, we need team chats. No exception.

Oh, and we need a smaller vision angle so we can see a wide amount of planes and such.... but :\ just a though...

So no radar and team chat. A small group could climb into a cloud bank, coordinate and commence an attack. A scout plane could call out the approaching enemy and a true Dogfight would develop. I like where this is going. Zuperman, you getting all this?

Lol, you guys have the clouds turned off? Maybe that's part of my problem...

Do you guys think that features like that add to the lag issue? I mean if I'm running the app with all the features on and others have them off and others still have some on and some off, wouldn't it cause each individual app being run across multiple platforms to run slightly differently and maybe cause the sync to be off? Just a thought but I'm guessing it doesn't work that way. Maybe someone with some tech knowledge could chime in. I say either on for all or off for all. That way we are at least trying to start off on an equal footing.

Jimboslice27 wrote: Do you guys think that features like that add to the lag issue? I mean if I'm running the app with all the features on and others have them off and others still have some on and some off, wouldn't it cause each individual app being run across multiple platforms to run slightly differently and maybe cause the sync to be off? Just a thought but I'm guessing it doesn't work that way. Maybe someone with some tech knowledge could chime in. I say either on for all or off for all. That way we are at least trying to start off on an equal footing.

I absolutely believe the graphics add to lag in any game played. Most players i know turn off nearly everything except guns and engine. I don't see that any others add a benefit to the game, and maybe contribute to lag for all.

I think it should stay an option because they do take a decent amount of rendering power, and those DFers who play on underpowered devices need to be able to turn them off. I've always left mine on, and kinda assumed others do the same. I don't find it overly difficult to kill someone in the clouds, I mean, their name's still there, you know where to shoot! Man up and leave the clouds on!

If the clouds were "full time" would we have to provide them with health insurance?

I have always run with the clouds on, I guess it adds some realism. I would prefer to see no radar and team chat as it would bring a whole new dynamic to the game. I don't think either would be difficult to accomplish, and I don't believe either would add to the in game lag either.

Jacob10000 wrote: If the clouds were "full time" would we have to provide them with health insurance?

HAHAHA! Well, I guess it would depend on which server they were in!

I feel silly.. I had no idea you could turn clouds off. I have been using them for "cover" for close to a year now.... D'OH!

Hmmm... now that we established that some play with the clouds and some don't, did we accidentally discover one of the contributors to the Mighty Lag? All the more reason to make them permanent!