Pyro whats the possibility of "spare planes" on runways?

[Jekyll]

Just replace the sheep with aircraft and you'd have an entire air force at each field  

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C.O. Phoenix Squadron
www.users.bigpond.com/afinlayson/index.htm
'feel the heat .......'

[leonid]

It all comes down to polygon count.  Get two many polygons that need to be generated and you end up not meeting minimal frame rate times.  They could make it super detailed with planes lining the runways, but would you be willing to accept a frame rate of 10, or less?

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129 IAP VVS RKKA

[Dinger]

And, ultimately, that's the rub, isn't it?
If you want to make a less-than-laserguided bombsight work, you need to make target-rich areas, but if you do that, you'll take a frame rate hit.
The idea is, a single buff couldn't shut down  a field for very long if there were plenty of things that needed blowing up.  But if there were plenty of things that need blowing up, a single buff's FE wouldn't handle the hit.
Then again, a field with simple polygons and object density approaching that in the cities might do the trick.
I for one would get in a buff more often just for the joy of crushing mustangs on the ground.

[Jekyll]

IMHO, having aircraft on the ground brings one other element into the sim - the possibility of low level surprise strafing attacks on airfields similar to the 'rhubarbs' of WW2, or VF-17's 'Statue of Liberty' play.

Have available aircraft in revetments... doesn't matter if they are just generic aircraft shapes.  These aircraft can be destroyed by strafing or bombing.  No kills should be awarded for these aircraft (thereby avoiding the tendency for the furball to move to ground level to rack up quick kills).  Once these generic aircraft are destroyed, the field is closed to air operations, unless other aircraft are ferried in.

Combine this with a 15-30 second ack delay for attacks below radar level and you're on to a good thing.



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C.O. Phoenix Squadron
www.users.bigpond.com/afinlayson/index.htm
'feel the heat .......'

[chester]

how about randomizing damage form bomb hits?

[Central]

Mino

That's why HTC would make thick cloud layers over the base, making the 17s/26s have to come to a lower alt to bomb. Right HTC? :-))


Another thing mentioned here is don't make the bomb drops so accurate. Although the norden bombsight was pinpoint accurate, plenty of buffs missed their targets.

Case in point is Ploesti, B17 force #unknown, 136 B24s. 7-8 months earlier 177 B24s all missed target.

Well, actually it was smoke cover which kept them from being successful. :-(

Central
Dickweed FG
 http://bombergroup.com

[-kier-]

You don't have to have many more polygons than you have now. Make one plane icon for each available type (representative of the variants later), or even just 4 generic planes (representative of aircraft strength of 25, 50, 75, and 100% strength). Knock those out and nothing launches. No magic C47 full of defending troops, no endless Spitfires. It really doesn't have to be too complicated.