Photo recon

With the impending Spit mk9 having a strong role in PR, I would like to see (one day) Photo recon being an actual thing in DCS, whereby images are captured somewhat close to the correct kit that was onboard and saved to hard drive. Viggen and beyond is also something that can benefit, as long as the actual loadout doesn't require a new 3d model - each PR variant may or may not be more difficult to produce as an armament variation or a module, i'm looking for the easier to do stuff.

One of the nice things we did in a former squadron was run the weeks Sunday mission as a recon earlier in the week and use the screenshots as part of the Sunday briefing. It was a lot more immersive, check below the picture we used in one brief from a Su25 optic.

For the Spitfire I'd specifically love the ability to take photos, but the mission type itself gives a reason for solo misisons on both sides, finding 109's or Spits far from home and a different type of combat.

This is defiantly up my street for an idea, fingers crossed!

+1

+1, would love to have recon picture systems.

+ list of dynamic tasks in multiplayer with added recon photos or even gun camera videos :-)

+1 Recon systems would be amazing.

it would be so awesome to see a simulated recon role be implemented. having the recon pop up as an inclusion into the briefing would be so cool. Dicing could really spice up the collection of intel.

How would you expect it to work though in terms of mission editing and game play?

Are you expecting to be applied to every unit, so a mission is rated on number of units spotted?

Do you need to tag specific units in the ME, so it could be pass/fail based on that criteria, or do you need the recon data available so you can build missions outcomes/campaigns around which targets have been tagged?

I could easily see branching on campaigns controlled by how well you've gathered info.

What about buildings? locations? sheep? etc? How would they need to be marked?

Let me have a crack at suggesting a design:

Game play

Game play is more loose and simple, you have a camera, as per the aircraft you press the button, it takes (some) pictures out of it's lens and saves them as per screenshot, perhaps with filtering such as B&W, zoom, IR, whatever, depending on the actual camera system.

Up to that point, its nothing but a method of taking elaborate screenshots and in my original request is all I'd considered as it has use to be used however the players wish.

Mission editing/SE

I didn't consider any recon actions or scripting engine changes as part of this but you've suggested a further involvement that could be expanded on. Unfortunately, the concept this side is not original as was already suggested and then scrapped by ED/Polychop. However, in terms of design, I don't see any need to add a "recon flag" to units, we already have a detection system (which I beleive might at this point be slightly overpowered) but nevertheless visual detection between targets is already in game now.

The implementation as I see it, would look for a new event class called "ON

PHOTO" and do the detection check at that event time rather than the usual 1 second pulse of normal detection routines currently in game. You could then use the detection as a condition in ME - ie if you want a message to screen, use a trigger 'once' with a condition 'recon' and a drop down target then an appropriate action of your desire. If you want - you can use the points system that not many people use for scoring.

The current limitation of detections is units, you could use an infantry soldier in a location or even multiple at the same time for area wide specifics.

Mostly I see this for value in RP, immersion, briefings at multiplayer level - actually detecting recon targets mid missions isn't "as" useful as the effect afterwards. The only issue is the visual detection system currently, I believe it limits to 2.4nm or something but I don't know how it might work for photo recon, if they need to make a different detection algorithm.

What people do with photo recon ie scoring, campaign, triggers or just using the pictures as a desktop background is limitless, off the top of my head have a concentric ring of airdefences and send in your best recon attempt if you like.

How would you expect it to work though in terms of mission editing and game play?

 

Are you expecting to be applied to every unit, so a mission is rated on number of units spotted?

Do you need to tag specific units in the ME, so it could be pass/fail based on that criteria, or do you need the recon data available so you can build missions outcomes/campaigns around which targets have been tagged?

 

I could easily see branching on campaigns controlled by how well you've gathered info.

 

What about buildings? locations? sheep? etc? How would they need to be marked?

Photo recon missions are very much at home on the multiplayer arena especially with continuous and (somehow) dynamic missions. Even more so when the objective is ground advance/conquest. Not to mention high class assets (comm center, HQ, troops concentration etc). For example, knocking down a comm center would cripple half of the ground assets for like 30 minutes in multiplayer (in practice this would be translated as alarm state green for all units affected). Same would go for airfields, heliports etc.

In single player, this would be actually easier as previous posters said above. There are already detection zones and one can use the F10-Other to actually simulate a photo (or more). An example would be : when the recon enters such an area the clock starts. If you orbit at least 5 minutes (this is subject to change, of course) then F10 gets active with an entry "Recon Photo". A variation would be the more photos , the more points you get. Exiting detection zone would reset the clock and make F10 menu vanish until the same condition as above are met. Once you land then campaign would basically gives you multiple options. If you have few points then campaign would follow with a mission having a limited set of intel. You got more points? Perfect, intel will increase (in practice this means a more detailed photo) and so on. Everything is possible, we are bound only by our imagination. Sometimes, this small brainstorming posts can achieve loads in regards with the immersion.

+1 We have gun cameras don't we? So why not reconnaissance

This would be especially nice in the Normandy map, given that Spitfires and other aircraft did extensive photo recon leading up to the landings and the intelligence that was gathered played a significant role in the success of the landings.

So if this capability was added in some manner, it would allow for some historically realistic missions.

This would be cool after 2.5 is finished