Tue 27 Apr 2021, 04:22
I think it's safe to assume that most nightvision in the game should be Gen 2, and Gen 3 should be very rare. Nonetheless, yes, those values are pretty far off the mark.
Here's what I've been doing in my own game -- NODs reduce night penalties by 1. So if you have NODs in dim light, you take no penalty (rather than -1). In dark conditions, you take -1 rather than -2. Spotting ranges I've given out to several hundred meters even in darkness. However, recognition ranges I've defined as significantly shorter than that -- usually no more than 50m or so. Very few NODs of the period had the kind of resolution you'd need to make out important details that would allow you to identify exactly who or what you are looking at. Beyond that range I sometimes allow for a Recon roll to ID, if conditions are good -- but even this with a penalty, if the person is unfamiliar with the NODs.
Things like IR searchlights negate basically all of these penalties and make most details quite clear out to a pretty good distance. Fortunately things like IR lasers and so forth are pretty much non-existent in this time period so there's basically no need to even mention them.
Should probably add to that the significant qualitative difference between eastern and western NODs of the time.
Author, Central Poland Sourcebook -- now available on DriveThruRPG