Questions on changes since 1.04 ;)

[Degas]

I've posted before that I am rejoining the game after a long absence.  I've been in the MA now for a few days, and I have some questions.  I've been all over the HTC site, as well as most of the linked sites I can find, and gotten no help whatsoever.  HTC's help pages don't even MENTION cities and supplies, for one thing  Maybe someone can point out to me where I've missed the explanation on these new "features"?

Any help appreciated

1.  Cities)  These are brand new to me.  I notice that there are many bases (almost all) with associated cities.  I have also noticed that the Map Room for one of these bases is now located in it's adjoining city.  Also, I have seen that, in order for a base/field to be captured, you must first reduce the city to 0%.  My question is:

Can you capture a field/base simply by destroying the city, or do you have to destroy the base, too?  If you take the city to 0% and shove 10 drunks into the Map Room, have you captured that field (even though it is 100% intact)?

What is the purpose/significance of the cities out in the middle of no-where (some with the "C" icon)?

2.  Supplies)  Confusing as hell, in some aspects.  When our radar goes down, everyone starts running supplied to HQ.  But they don't want to start re-supply until something is at 0% (I'm assuming the 'dar).  My questions:  

Can someone please fill me in as to how supplies work, all along the spectrum?  I have been running supplies to GV's that are guarding/attacking a base.  How close do I have to drop them to a GV in order for them to be re-supplied?  If they are on one of our bases, can I drop the vehicle supplies anywhere on the base, or do they still need to be close to the GV's?

I've also seen people in chat talking about "Before you start dropping supplies to the field, drop them to the City.  Repairs will go a lot faster if the city is at 100%"  or some such.

When you go into the strat list, and you see fuel at a base is at 25%, I assume you can shuttle "field supplies" to that base to improve that.  Am I wrong?  How does that work?  How about ammo?

What effect do "field supplies" have on the repair time for such things as acks and barracks?

3.  Bombing)  This used to be fun.  One pilot, one plane.  I've worked in the TA with the new bombing mechanics.  More realistic, and less fun.  OK, I'll live with it.  Bombing in an active attack is pretty much porked by these changes, UNLESS you have a gunner aboard.  At least that's my initial impression.  

In the TA, I pretty much got the system down.  Hit U, keep the crosshairs locked on one spot in the terrain for 2 seconds while holding down the Y key.  Bring up the map, click on your target to set altitude.  Hit U again, and you have a green + cursor as your new aim point.  DO NOT EXIT THE BOMBSITE.  Put your eggs on the green cursor and they go where you want them to go.

Here are my questions:

If you load out 12 500lb. bombs, does that mean you have a 36-bomb load-out in your 3-plane flight?

In the TA, I hit ack dead center and didn't destroy it.  This is a HUGE change from the old version.  Someone in there with me told me that they had changed the TA and not only increased the amount of damage it takes to destroy objects, but also made it impossible to capture bases.  Why would they do that?  I was loading an ack up with full loads of 20MM from a Niki, and STILL not taking it down.  I still see fighters de-acking fields, so is it that much different in the MA?

I just logged out of the MA after trying a bomb run.  I went through the exact same procedure that I was using in the TA, and yet the bombsight WOULD NOT CALIBRATE.  When I would hit "U" the final time, the bombsight picture would come back, but without the green cursor.  Any ideas on why this would be?

One comment on the new bombing mechanics:  Pinpoint bombing is outta the window, apparently.  Even when my bombs are dead on target, they are straddled all around the ack/strat/hangar/whatever.  We used to be able to drop a 500 pounder into a 55 gallon drum, with enough skill and practice.  Once again, I guess realism got in the way of fun

4.  Clipboard)  Just a minor glitch here.  Question:

While in the MA, I brought up the clipboard, and changed maps to "Medium Field".  When I went back to "Normal World" map, it was screwed up.  Instead of showing just my local region, it showed the whole map.  Nothing I could do would restore it to the non-zoomed regional default.  Any ideas?

That's enough for now, I'm getting CTS here, lol.  Once again, thanks in advance for any help you can give

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by Degas
I've posted before that I am rejoining the game after a long absence.  I've been in the MA now for a few days, and I have some questions.  I've been all over the HTC site, as well as most of the linked sites I can find, and gotten no help whatsoever.  HTC's help pages don't even MENTION cities and supplies, for one thing  Maybe someone can point out to me where I've missed the explanation on these new "features"?

Any help appreciated

1.  Cities)  These are brand new to me.  I notice that there are many bases (almost all) with associated cities.  I have also noticed that the Map Room for one of these bases is now located in it's adjoining city.  Also, I have seen that, in order for a base/field to be captured, you must first reduce the city to 0%.  My question is:

Can you capture a field/base simply by destroying the city, or do you have to destroy the base, too?  If you take the city to 0% and shove 10 drunks into the Map Room, have you captured that field (even though it is 100% intact)?

What is the purpose/significance of the cities out in the middle of no-where (some with the "C" icon)?

To capture a field, you need to destroy the town at the base and then drop a Goon full of drunks over the town to capture it.

The cities you see scattered on the map marked with the C icon represents your main city, which is basically the main hub of your supply line.  

2.  Supplies)  Confusing as hell, in some aspects.  When our radar goes down, everyone starts running supplied to HQ.  But they don't want to start re-supply until something is at 0% (I'm assuming the 'dar).  My questions:  

Can someone please fill me in as to how supplies work, all along the spectrum?  I have been running supplies to GV's that are guarding/attacking a base.  How close do I have to drop them to a GV in order for them to be re-supplied?  If they are on one of our bases, can I drop the vehicle supplies anywhere on the base, or do they still need to be close to the GV's?

I've also seen people in chat talking about "Before you start dropping supplies to the field, drop them to the City.  Repairs will go a lot faster if the city is at 100%"  or some such.

When you go into the strat list, and you see fuel at a base is at 25%, I assume you can shuttle "field supplies" to that base to improve that.  Am I wrong?  How does that work?  How about ammo?

What effect do "field supplies" have on the repair time for such things as acks and barracks?

When you drop supplies over a field, the supplies will cut down on the repair time for whatever has been damaged or destroyed on the field.  

Since the main city is the main supply hub, if that is damaged to a point that it can't send out supply convoys to the damaged strat targets, repair time will increase for those factories/depots that are damaged.

For example, say the main city is down to 0% and not sending any supplies out and you have a ammo factory that is damaged.  The ammo factory isn't going to be supplied until the main city is repaired enough that it can send out supplies again.  That is why it is smart to destroy the main city first before taking out the HQ.  Increases the time the HQ will be down.

As for vehicle supplies, they have to be reasonably close to the vehicle and if it's not, then the GV can simply drive to the supply crate and use it.[/b][/quote]

3.  Bombing)  This used to be fun.  One pilot, one plane.  I've worked in the TA with the new bombing mechanics.  More realistic, and less fun.  OK, I'll live with it.  Bombing in an active attack is pretty much porked by these changes, UNLESS you have a gunner aboard.  At least that's my initial impression.  

In the TA, I pretty much got the system down.  Hit U, keep the crosshairs locked on one spot in the terrain for 2 seconds while holding down the Y key.  Bring up the map, click on your target to set altitude.  Hit U again, and you have a green + cursor as your new aim point.  DO NOT EXIT THE BOMBSITE.  Put your eggs on the green cursor and they go where you want them to go.

Here are my questions:

If you load out 12 500lb. bombs, does that mean you have a 36-bomb load-out in your 3-plane flight?

In the TA, I hit ack dead center and didn't destroy it.  This is a HUGE change from the old version.  Someone in there with me told me that they had changed the TA and not only increased the amount of damage it takes to destroy objects, but also made it impossible to capture bases.  Why would they do that?  I was loading an ack up with full loads of 20MM from a Niki, and STILL not taking it down.  I still see fighters de-acking fields, so is it that much different in the MA?

I just logged out of the MA after trying a bomb run.  I went through the exact same procedure that I was using in the TA, and yet the bombsight WOULD NOT CALIBRATE.  When I would hit "U" the final time, the bombsight picture would come back, but without the green cursor.  Any ideas on why this would be?

One comment on the new bombing mechanics:  Pinpoint bombing is outta the window, apparently.  Even when my bombs are dead on target, they are straddled all around the ack/strat/hangar/whatever.  We used to be able to drop a 500 pounder into a 55 gallon drum, with enough skill and practice.  Once again, I guess realism got in the way of fun

Not much of a bomber myself but I can at least answer one of your questions.  Whatever ordnance loadout you take, the drones will have the same loadout.
 

4.  Clipboard)  Just a minor glitch here.  Question:

While in the MA, I brought up the clipboard, and changed maps to "Medium Field".  When I went back to "Normal World" map, it was screwed up.  Instead of showing just my local region, it showed the whole map.  Nothing I could do would restore it to the non-zoomed regional default.  Any ideas?

Don't know if that's an issue or not but it's easy to work around.  Just use the Insert and Delete keys to zoom in the map when it happens.  Happens to me all the time too.

That's enough for now, I'm getting CTS here, lol.  Once again, thanks in advance for any help you can give

Anytime



ack-ack

[memnon]

As far as the bombers go when you are not in the TA you will not get the green + because this is used for training purposes only. Another bit of info that might help is once you are on final for your bomb run and looking through sight move your sight to the target you want to hit zoom in and then hold y key for at least 10 seconds the cross hairs need to be absolutely steedy while you are holding the y key. There is a great web site (or at least i think it's a great web stie) called Combat Hanger that explains in full detail from start to finish about bombing runs and how to set everything up. I don't have the addy right at this moment but as soon as i have access to it i will post it.

Vehicle supplies should be dropped at least 500 yrds away or closer (I think 800yrds is alright).

Ack-Ack covered everything else.

[Degas]

Thanks for all your answers, you guys are great

I won't have any more questions.  Unfortunately, the bombing changes they made mean I won't be re-subscribing.

Want to wish my Rook buddies best of luck, tho!

Take care, all....

Yonder (the buff pilot formerly known as Degas)

[memnon]

I hate to see anyone not resubscribe because of the sight setup in the bombers there are alternatives to using the bomb sight. I'm still new to this game so i'm not a great buff driver. I believe that you can with practice drop from alt using the f3 key witch allows you to look outside the plane but this is very difficult considering you have to take into account wind and when you should drop due to alt. I'm sure if you ask around there are plenty of people that drive buffs that don't use the sight when making there runs but they do tend to stay low on the deck but maybe they have perfected there runs to where they can do it at alt.

Here is the web site i told you about if your still interested.
http://www.combathanger.com/

[Cobra412]

Degas actually with a little practice you can do pin point bombing.  There is some very good threads out there on how to do this almost perfectly everytime.

The Training Arena has it's stuff set high so folks won't just go use it as a mini MA and take bases.  So killing anything in there is extremely difficult.  But I actually find it's a good thing when it comes to training with bombs.  Reason I say this is because you can get a good visual indication of where your bomb(s) hit in relation to the target your trying to destroy.  If you can hit in that same spot multiple times then you take it for test run in the MA.  This comes in very handy when trying to drop multiple targets with one weapon.

Unless you plan on bombing at alts above 16k it's really not hard to get the bombing stuff down.  I typically give myself about 1 and a half to 2 sectors away from my target depending on my starting altitude.  That will give me enough time to get to alt, maintain my speed, open doors and let that stabilize and adjust for course deviations.  I jump in the bomb sight, push full forward once in visual range of the target area and zoom in.  Find what I want to hit and calibrate off of it.  So long as I'm lined up pretty well you can make course adjustments from the bomb sight if need be.    To keep your speed constant use your chin gunner position and your rudder input to adjust your course instead of your main stick from the cockpit position.  

I'll find the writeup for bombing in here and post it for you so you can read it.  It sounds complicated but in reality it's very simple.  Once your comfortable with it you'll start ripping bases apart one by one with only single bomb releases.  Big thing too to remember is get some escorts to fly with you.  I've been rather frustrated when I get jumped by 3 and 4 cons because I had no air support.  Plus it adds to the excitement when you see the battle going on around you.

[Tarmac]

Sorry they took the training wheels off your buff.  However, there is hope.  With a little bit of practice (maybe a half hour) you can get good accuracy.

After about an hour experimenting with the "new" buff sight, I can easily hit pretty much anything from 10-12k.  And I fly buffs maybe once a tour.  With practice, you can calibrate the sight in around 20 seconds, so it's pretty simple to do it even when there's a fighter trailing you.  

A bit of practice makes the new sight nearly as effective as the old one.  Nobody good learned to fly fighters their first try; why should buffs be any different?

Check out this thread

http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57667

as well as sites like combathanger.com and netaces.org for bombing tutorials.  It's really not worth quitting over.

[Degas]

I'm not quitting, I'm just not going to re-subscribe  As for the bomber question, all you have to do is look at the difference in the game since I last played in 2001.

We used to have dedicated bombing squadrons allied with fighter escort squadrons.  We were doing historically accurate bombing missions from 25-30K, where we would have to fly for 30 to 45 minutes from halfway across the map to achieve altitude.  We would bomb our target, take our losses and RTB.

The few bombers being flown in the game now I see at 8K max, but usually are low level suicide attacks to take out some pesky GV's.  The only "strategic" bombing being carried out (that I've seen in a couple of weeks) are HQ raids.  We used to do those too, but our main effort was contributing to the overall war by incorporating high altitude bombing with fighter and ground attacks as part of massive campaigns to further the goals of our Team in the war.  We used to do this as part of organized missions.  In two weeks, I've seen about 4 missions posted (Rooks), and not a single bomber in the missions.

"Training wheels", indeed.  Spoken like a true f1d3r p1l0t

I know you will never change the other aspects I didn't like:  Furballers ignoring the object of the game, and "stealth" gooners who are already up, see your message asking if anyone has troops for a particular base, watch you take off and waste 30 mins. of play time, and then rush in and dump their drunks before you can get there without saying a word.

Taken all together, these are the reasons I'll spend my money elsewhere.  My thanks to Fuze@hitechcreations.com, who emailed with the offer to train me up in bombing under the new model.   And fair winds to all