Variable Visibility

K K Rossokolski · 02-02-2009, 10:35 AM,

junk2drive Wrote:Page 118 of the 1.03 1.04 manual

Dusk-Night: This is a special setting that allows the visibility to change after 6 turns from a day scenario to a night scenario. There is a percentage chance that night will appear on turn 6, and continue to attempt to change to night at the beginning of each turn until successful.
Dawn-Day: This is a special setting that allows the visibility to change after 6 turns from a night scenario to a day scenario. Night must be checked in order for this to work. There is a percentage chance that day will break on turn 6, and continue to attempt to change to day at the beginning of each turn until successful.

Thank you, I stand corrected....up to a point. The point being that there is a LOGICAL absurdity in the above. We have for some 200 years been able to accurately predict the times of sunrise and sunset for a given location. The D-Day planners did not have to consider that the sun might not rise at the expected time. They KNEW it would...no probability except 100%. What they did NOT know was what the visibility..essentially a function of weather.. would be, except that it would be greater than the night.

I know CS is a great game, but to be above the immutable laws of physics makes it something special. The concept of a probability scale that the sun might or might not rise at a known time at a known location is, quite simply, bizarre...... beyond parody.

**Jason Petho** · 02-02-2009, 12:22 PM,

K K Rossokolski Wrote:I know CS is a great game, but to be above the immutable laws of physics makes it something special. The concept of a probability scale that the sun might or might not rise at a known time at a known location is, quite simply, bizarre...... beyond parody.

How long until that dense morning fog lifts?

Jason Petho

K K Rossokolski · 02-02-2009, 01:15 PM,

Jason Petho Wrote:How long until that dense morning fog lifts?

Jason Petho

Not the point, mate. The book says "This is a special setting that allows the visibility to change after 6 turns from a night scenario to a day scenario. Night must be checked in order for this to work." If night is checked, it must become day. (There may be a transition twilight period),
We are are not talking about visibility, we are talking about day and night....CS attempts to recognise this with a different screen light quality. There is a check box on the Scen Editor.
There may well be a fog. But it says above that we change after 6 turns from a night to a day scenario, which can ONLY mean the sun comes up. You might not see her through the fog but it is daytime nonetheless. And the time at which it happens at a given point can not be subject to a dice roll. It is a mathematical function of the Earth's relative position and actual aspect vis-a-vis the sun. Ambient visibility effects might well be in place, and are certainly a realistic option, but they hardly override the fundamental difference between day and night. As to the morning fog... who knows, depends on lots of factors, as you know,and a decision is certainly compatible with a computer dice roll.

**Jason Petho** · 02-02-2009, 02:14 PM,

K K Rossokolski Wrote:Not the point, mate. The book says "This is a special setting that allows the visibility to change after 6 turns from a night scenario to a day scenario. Night must be checked in order for this to work." If night is checked, it must become day. (There may be a transition twilight period),
We are are not talking about visibility, we are talking about day and night....CS attempts to recognise this with a different screen light quality. There is a check box on the Scen Editor.
There may well be a fog. But it says above that we change after 6 turns from a night to a day scenario, which can ONLY mean the sun comes up. You might not see her through the fog but it is daytime nonetheless. And the time at which it happens at a given point can not be subject to a dice roll. It is a mathematical function of the Earth's relative position and actual aspect vis-a-vis the sun. Ambient visibility effects might well be in place, and are certainly a realistic option, but they hardly override the fundamental difference between day and night. As to the morning fog... who knows, depends on lots of factors, as you know,and a decision is certainly compatible with a computer dice roll.

The rule provides the opportunity to change from visibility of 1 or 2 using the night rules to a visibility of whatever the present visibility is in the scenario (whether that be 7 or 14 or whatever) after turn 6. While dawn can be accurately predicted to the minute, the local weather effects cannot be predicted, such as fog or morning mist common in most european countries. So yes, dawn may be at 6:48am, the fog may not lift until 7:32am (limiting visibility and targetting abilities as if it were night).

Hence, the variable aspect.

Of course, it has to be chosen for use in the scenario design, leaving the scenario designer the option of using it or not.

Jason Petho

K K Rossokolski · 02-02-2009, 03:07 PM,

Let me put it another way. The CS presentation for a night scen is significantly different for night as that for day, REGARDLESS of visibility assigned by the designer. In a word things are darker, as indeed they usually are at night.
Does that presentation change at Turn 6 to the brighter day screen? Or is the change dependent on the dice throw?