TheSuperHackers
Shroud clearing range of Air units are inconsistent
After checking the ini files of the game and being unable to properly micro China Migs and USA Stealth Fighters, I discovered the following
SupW_AmericaJetAurora - ShroudClearingRange = 600 SupW_AmericaJetRaptor - ShroudClearingRange = 400 SupW_AmericaJetStealthFighter - ShroudClearingRange = 300 SupW_AmericaVehicleChinook - ShroudClearingRange = 600 SupW_AmericaVehicleComanche - ShroudClearingRange = 600 Tank_ChinaJetMIG - ShroudClearingRange = 300 Tank_ChinaVehicleHelix - ShroudClearingRange = 600
Auroras, Chinooks, CombatChinooks, Comanche and the helix all got 600 ShroudClearingRange. (needs in nerf in my opinion) The Raptor got ShroudClearingRange of 400 But then the Mig and StealthFighter only have a ShroudClearingRange of 300, this makes it insanely difficult to micro without any scouting.
USA also already has a lot of scouting early on with the spydrone and spysattelite and later on also gets intelligence, but 1 very big advantage they have is there chinooks being able to scout there own base completely. So sneaky strategy`s are more difficult to pull off.
So what if we lower the ShroudClearingRange of the Aurora, Chinook, CombatChinook, Comanche and Helix down to 500, so 1 unit can not scout entire bases. But then make Migs and StealthFighter ShroudClearingRange to 400, buffing these units and also makes them easier to micro without needing scouting units.
A few things come to mind here:
Quad and Gatt have 350 antiair range, the most common mobile antiair units
Comanche flies at 120 speed, Chinook at 150, Helix at 75 - so at 600 clearing range thats 2-4 seconds to react to antiair while at full speed. At 500 clearing range thats more like half the reaction time. It depends a bit on whether or not the antiair is actively controlled. Comanches don't do too great unless stealthed. Chinooks aren't meant to be used in combat much, so a slightly lower clearing range does not change much for them, but the Combat Chinook is used in combat, so no change for me here
For Auroras the reaction time matters not, but a slight adjustment to 500 could mean Alphas not finding an army to bomb, so I'm not against the idea
MiGs are the most useful of the normal planes, a pack of them wrecks armies not unlike in effectiveness compared to the Alpha Aurora. Their short-sightedness is their only real disadvantage. A scouting Helix, Outposts or Lotus can help (would also call this Faction Design, as China has good vision, if invested in)
The Raptor got 400 range so it has something going for it, being able to see enemy aircraft earlier (which doesn't matter, because aircraft are resistant to JET_MISSILE for some reason, so you need 2 Raps to kill 1 MiG even with LGM, no one does that)
Stealth Fighers are a weird case, you would think they have more scouting range because they are USA aircraft, but no. I guess its realistic, as a stealth plane would not operate its own radar, AWACS would. The Stealth Figher has a lot going against it: Promotion Point needed, kinda expensive, stealth in a game where detection is everywhere, only really effective against base defenses, dies easily to these very same defenses. Surely a bit more clearing range won't suddenly make them a must-have
tl;dr Normal Chinook and Auroras -> 500, Stealth Fighter 400, ok - not that impactful, which can be good.
(Just imagine, USA getting an AWACS instead of a Spectre in ZH, large shroud clearing, double aircraft weapon range for all aircraft in radius - would have been, something)
