the low level thing only started after the calibration bomb site was implimented, before that 30k buffs was the norm.
No. Complete wrong analogy.
The low level buffs were always in the game and they were always a problem. However, the 30k zig-zagging buffs with pin-point accuracy was pshycologically considered a much more larger threat because it was almost impossible to shoot them down as compared to the low alt ones, which were more or less easily dispatched.
remember 20k buff called out, TONS IB to intercept, knowing that buff could wipe you out.
What I remember is that there wasn't much of 20k buffs in the old game either. Seeing a high alt bomber was as much rare way back then, as it is now. The new calibration increased the numbers of low alt buffs, but had no effect on the numbers of high alt bombers at all.
The confusion you, or other people are having, is that the time line where a significant increase of the low-alt buffs in the MA was seen, coincides with the timeline overall MA numbers increased twofold. During the inclusion of the new calibration system the MA numbers have seen a dramatic increase from typical 250-ish to 300, 400, and eventually some 600 people during the highest peak of AH1 subscription.
The difficulty of calibration has no direct relations with the increase of the low-alt buffs. The low-alt bombers increased because the MA numbers increased, and with those numbers the gameplay of the MA changed drastically.
Before the critical turning point there was a certain standard between the people. In December 2001, AW closed. Six months later, May of 2002, AH version 1.10 comes out, which the calibration was first introduced.
AH has absorbed most of the old AW player base, plus many players from the stagnant WB - hence the AH phenomenon known as "the Exodus". Also, new generation of younger gamers first entering the flight sim world also flocked to AH since it was the only option left now. With it the MA gameplay changed forever. This was all in 2002.
Using bombers and GVs was never a serious part of the game, and it was mostly for kicks when I first entered the game in 1.05. However, the era of the "Exodus" was when the first complaints of how MA has changed began springing up in the forums. Veterans were disillusioned with the new
"dweebiness" and the overly harsh competitiveness between the countries. During the course of two years the veterans started quitting, and more and more complaints of "dweebism" sprang up like cockroaches.
In this environment the small-scale MA turned into a full-scale gigantic war where efficiency in obliterating your opponent became more important than just having air combat fun. This was when the gigantic jabo raids became firmly established in the game, people started whining about overuse of the "Big Four", and complaints about low-alt bombers popped up.
Large-scale strat objects have almost no impact in gameplay. The only thing which can be destroyed thay directly effects gameplay are field objects. And the bombers, are wildly inefficient when they try to hit stuff which pops up within 15 minutes. The field conditions change by the minute.
So, why are they flying bombers low? Why the increase? Because, people who fly deck runs don't see bombers as bombers, but as an overbloated jabo plane. It's basically blimping up the old massive Typhy raids into a much bigger scale - where a single formation of low alt bombers carry more ordnance than 20 Typhoons.
Basically, the increase of low-alt deck run buffs is an extended, b*stardized version of the old 'suicidal jabo' debate, nothing that directly concerns the difficulty of calibration. Even if the laser-guided bombsight comes back, these people who fly deck runs, will fly it in the same manner.
The difficulty of calibration may encourage or discourafe SOME of the bomber players, but it will not effect the main course of how bombers are used in the game. The dweebism of kamikaze attacks, the voluntary sacrifice players are willing to do to win a reset, and the absence of strategical targets - these are what drive people to do deck runs. Difficulty of calibration is only one of the factors, and by far not the largest one.
i dont "bomb" because i can not calibrate well, and i think that low or dive stuff is beneath me.
You don't bomb, because you don't want to miss some bombs, or spread the bombs out with long delay time. You don't bomb, because your expectations remain on a tactical level while using a buff - you want to pick out individual targets and kill them at a field, which you can't do.
now, i will consider taking buffs after a city. now that is just me, but i think there are others in similar belief.
That is how it is supposed to be. You're supposed to go after stuff like cities or factories. They don't change, bustling with enemy activity, like airfields do.
However, going after cities or factories are a waste of time.
If hitting cities and factories did matter, I'm very sure you wouldn't mind slight calibrating errors at all. You woul still be able to land some bombs on the target, and that would effect the outcome of the war.
And that, proves my point.
