Kweassa i hope you not serious bah. 38 might as well perked. its icon is like one already. just like other perked planes, if 38 is in area, seems everyone is on it. from my expierence of course. ord load is nice tho
Nope, dead serious.
In my way of thinking, a lot of the problems which we perceive in the MA is caused by the disparity between reality and MA gameplay. Ofcourse, an effort to completely change the MA into a historic ground would be futile, not to mention not very wise. But some aspects could considerably enhance the game experience and get rid of the perpetual complaints.
One of them often mentioned - the suicidal porker mentality.
A lone P-38L can carry an uncommon ordnance load of 2x 1000lbs load + 10 x HVARs rated at 250lbs worth of destructive power. That's 4500lbs load of ordnance - more than needs to destroy a single fighter hangar. Four P-38Ls can shut down a small and medium field by themselves.
A single P-47D-30 carries a 2x1000lbs load, 1x500lb load and extra 10xHVARs - 5000lbs worth of ordnance.
Considering a single B-17 in AH carries 6000lbs and medium bombers besides those of the US typically carry a lot less than that, it's frankly a balance-buster in regards to plane types.
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Ofcourse, most pilots are largely mediocre and it is unlikely they can hit the target with extreme excellence. But since even a doofus would usually bring down a FH if he suicides it twice..
In more understandable words, it means that the risk-to-result factor is highly in favor of the suicidal mentality. The late war monsters, usually US planes, are totally free to access with no outer limitations.
They carry so much ordnance that considering the outcome of the expected attack, a suicidal attempt has a high chance of critically damaging the enemies ability to fight.
In other words, you don't necessarily need to practice and enhance one's skill to make it count for your country. All you need is blind devotion and determination - couple that insane passion with a slight local numbers advantage, and you can achieve local air superiority, even as far as a field capture, with consecutive suicidal attacks. A few people can just slip through and auger themselves into the field and they will at least take a fuel tank with them. Four of these sort of people in the area and a small field is down to 25% fuel or no FH.
What makes it worse, is that the late war planes are optimized fighter-bombers, usually with incredible dive capability and blinding speed. Even a La-7 sometimes has trouble intercepting a suicidal Typh or a P-51D WEPing in a full throttle dive to the field.
Usually only after the the bomb and ordnance is dropped and the enemy pulls out,(which is obviously too late) they can catch up. Since AH doesn't model the realistic speed limits to planes carrying ordnance, not to mention the flight conditions and procedures such as no -G flying during a bomb run, any fool with a heavy bomb load and a bit of alt will pass through the defenses and destroy something(and then, get shot down immediately).
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All of the factors above contribute to one thing: the result of havoc and grief one suicidal plane can cause, greatly outweighs the consequences of death - thus, people will choose to kamikaze something if they need to. It's only one death to the suicidal people - but through a few such deaths they can render the whole enemy presence in the area unable to fight.
Thus, I have made the conclusion that reverting the MA time-line to sometime resembling mid-late '43, is a viable alternative to seek out.
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More details in the NPA thread linked in my sig.