Exactly Hans. That's the point. Beef up Buff's bombs, so blast radius have a meaning, and carpet bombing can be done. Harden structures like cities, factories and HQ to the point that a Jabo attack is meaningless, unles it is a MASS attack. Tune down Buffs .50's, fix the firing angles, and add dispersion to model some reality in the weapons system. Use some gyro lining time on the Norden sight, so the buff pilot has something to plan before IP, and straight route from there to the target. Model cold damage to the crew so that no space-shuttle bomb missions are possible at no cost. You still could fly over 30k, only not on a permanent basis, just as a defensive manouver.
I FULLY agree with you. Jaboing airfields is the way to go when you want to close an airfield. There is no sense in having some Sputnik with laser-targeting device and fire-and-forget bombs pinpointing acks from 20k. Same lack of sense I see in jaboing a City. Factories and HQ....blurry. As a gameplay concession, I would assimilate them to kinda cities. So no jabo there, unless massive and with high loss ratio.
I realise that these mods would make Buff missions a bit harder. But the problem I see (and this is from my particular point of view, I'm not qualified to voice other than my own position) with Buffs in AH is that they are too easy to fly, too easy to defend by themselves, too easy to deliver ordinance, WAY too easy to aim and pinpoint individual targets at stratospheric heights and, at the very end, when flown 35k and over, they only open the possibility of porking a whole string of bases with no real possible (in terms of AH risk/reward) counter.
I definitely would fly more buff if that kind of things were modelled. I don't know if I am the only one at this point, but I would love having to plan a route to have a good lining, I would like to have to think what .salvo and .delay are best for a particular target, and that kind of stuff.
The absolutely best time involving Buffs I had in AH was I think in 1.05, in island terrains when a MASSIVE formation of buffs with hvy fighter escort attacked Rookland's HQ, city, fields....scrambling in G10's, messing with the Fortress, being wiped out by escorts and/or buff fire, was the only resemblance of the real thing I can think I had in AH, when we talk about Buffs. ANYTHING that promotes that kind of flying has my vote, regardless the possible loss of the solo flyer. I think hardening the flight model will penalize the solo flyer, for sure. But the hardened strategic targets would encourage Buff escorted formations. Well, I think It would.
Buffs are fun. Are REALLY fun. But you have to be in a Buff formation to fully understand that. Now, as a final point to all prior tweaks, get rid of in-flight GPS, board a 5-6 planes mission, stick with a competent buff driver, and I bet you WILL sweat.
Cheers,
Pepe
