Do we really want to limit the way people can play the game in the MA?
I agree that for the sake of most player's sanity, something needs to be done about dive bombing b17's and Lancs...that is, unless it would have actually been possible to do that sort of bombing in those aircraft, however unlikely it is that someone would actually do it. The mentality behind the practices in question here seem a bit childish and arcade like, but so it is that many of the people playing this game are children and are used to arcade games.
I see nothing wrong with skip or toss bombing if it was possible from those aircraft as wel, (and if the game would allow bombs to skip across the water.) It is rather dis-heartening to watch as a flight or flights of low level heavies come out of nowhere at treetop level and flatten your base, or when a stream of kamikaze Ponies, Jug, 38's, 110's or any other type of plane come out to sink the CV your based on, but should we put a stop to innovation and creativity just because it's inconvenient and not "historic"? (we shouldn't forget that kamikaze attacks ARE a historic aspect of ww2 combat, however unfortunate that may be.)
If it is true that the bombs would not drop correctly from certain angles of pitch up/down in certain planes, then that needs to be implemented in the game. In the case of the Ju88, which has divebomb flaps, was it possible to drop bombs from the bomb-bay in a steep dive, or only externally mounted bombs? If only the external bombs can be dropped in a steep dive, then at a certain angle, the bombs in the bomb-bay should be disabled and not drop whether bomb doors are open or not. Or allow them to drop and model an accurate result of that action...like damage to the plane or bombs hanging up or mechanisms being damaged. This same limitations should be placed on any other bomber whose payload would not release correctly from a certain angle...including the A20.
But I hesitate to say we need to FORCE people to learn to do something the "corrrect" way. Main Arena is NOT a historical scenario and the free-for-all mentality exists, like it or not. Bottom line is that we just can't tell people how to have their fun. The game is based loosely on historical WW2 air combat with the added features of vehicles and ships. Just the fact that early war and late war planes can go head to head and that planes from the same or different historical military branches or countries can go at each other should be an indicator that this is not an historical ww2 simulation. It's a flight sim based on ww2 era equipment, but no one is or should be telling anybody else how or what to fly, when.
I don't agree with the idea that people need to be forced into conformity with acceptable practices dictated by what was "historical" or not. For Pete's sake, we can be killed and then re-up again. How "historical" is that?
It is frustrating that people don't appreciate the potential in the game though. HTC and many contributing players have devoted much time and effort to provide a great ww2 based flight simulation experience. I for one, like it to be as historical as possible, but I stop short coming up with ways of making other people stop acting silly just because it interrupts my little version of fun.
There is the MA for this free for all mentality. The CT is supposed to give us historical match ups of aircraft and equipment for those of us who would like things to be even more historically based. The DA is there for those who just want to get in there and fight 1 v 1 and such. There's special events for those of us who like having well planned scenarios based on historical events and the like. Basically it's all here.
But we shouldn't expect anything more from the MA than accurate representations of aircraft capabilities and other combat equipment. So if divebombing was not possible with a heavy, then lets make it so it's not possible. But we simply shouldn't dictate what is fun and what isn't for others. If somebody gets a kick out of sinking the CV, and the only way he knows how to do it is to crash into the thing with a Lancaster as he drops his bombs from low level, then that's the way it's gonna happen. Make as many rules as you want and somebody will find some way around them...you can bet on it. (look at the bad word filter on the text buffer as an example. People are so creative in finding ways to say what they want within the rules of the buffer but with all the intent and content that the buffer seeks to filter)
That's the innovative and adaptable human being for you. Yeah, its a pain in the butt to some of us to have to deal with. But how boring would life be if we were all AH2 robots that did everything exactly the same way. That would be SO predictable. And as we all know from experience in the game...being predictable usually gets you killed.
