Airfield Reform

[Seagoon]

Chapter 2 in the Seagoon Files...

Dear Hitech,

I love your game, I'm a hopeless addict. I also really appreciate all the hard work you guys put in to this game. I've never played a Multiplayer game that was as well maintained, improved, and supported.

I say all that so you won't think this is a whine merely a cobbling together of ideas for reform of the airbases. Many of these have already been requested by other players, and at least one request is definitely a consensus position.

Make the Airfield 88's Mannable: I don't think it would be a stretch to say that pretty much everyone hates the automatic puffy ack. Can we bite the bullet and make those guns manned positions? That would get a big thumbs up from everyone except perhaps the super-low-level B24 drivers. But to paraphrase Gollum, "We hates them forever."

Add depth to the variety of manned guns on the field: It should be possible to do away with the "auto guns" entirely if this was done (I know many would prefer that). A big airfield should have mannable 88s, twin 40 mm oerlikons, Quad and/or single 20mms, and .50 cal and twin .30 MG positions.

The Refuel/Rearm pads need reform: At present they are simply too hard to get to. If we must keep them as they are, why not also make it possible to get refueled and rearmed if you drive your plane into a hanger? Additionally - why not make it possible to repair a damaged plane in a hanger (obviously this should take more than a set 30 seconds) say between 30 seconds and 1 minute for each damaged component?

Any peer feedback or critique is appreciated.

Thanks for listening.

- SEAGOON

[mars01]

Interesting.  The fact that we can only defend a base with one or two guns out of six or eight sux.  I would like to see all guns manable and if no one is in them then the AI takes over.  would make the most sense.

Rearm - I have no problem finding the pads at the end of the runways, I like the idea of fixes in the hangers seems like more of  score potato need tho, why not just reupp.  IMO if all the hangers are down can you still get fixed?  Only advantage I would see.

Now rearming and refueling at VH, that is something I would like to see.

[hitech]

Disagree that removing auto guns would be a good thing. By doing so it would increase vulching. It would remove the ablity to use it as cover when you are trying to escape.

Making 88's manible is much more complex then you might think. Primarly because they are a timed fuse.

Agree on the rearm pad position, had all ready been changed for a future release.

Not going to do plane repair. The only resone I can think of that people ask for this, is they wish to increase there sortie streak.


HiTech

[Stang]

Originally posted by hitech

Making 88's manible is much more complex then you might think. Primarly because they are a timed fuse.

Yeah but I don't think a player could ever be as accurate as your AI puffy ack HT  

[StarOfAfrica2]

Originally posted by Stang
Yeah but I don't think a player could ever be as accurate as your AI puffy ack HT  

You just havent noticed the homing device mounted underneath the cockpit on your plane.................

[Seagoon]

Thanks for the reply Hitech, I sincerely appreciate it.

Any chance off adding some more player controlled mixed calibre weaponry then?

- Seagoon

[mars01]

Any chance off adding some more player controlled mixed calibre weaponry then?

Good question, would love more manable even if they arent controlled by AI.

1 or 2 manables on a field isn't adequate to fight the vulchers and hords.

Fields with 3 manables at least give you a chance against these guys.  1 Manable is almost useless.

[bustr]

Would it be possible to add more manned smaller calibers in twins and quads around the feild?

[Tilt]

Originally posted by hitech
Making 88's manible is much more complex then you might think. Primarly because they are a timed fuse.



HiTech

Work put into a player adjustable time (range) fuse could then be implemented on some ships guns intead of the proximity fuse.

Plane repair could work like vehicle repair............. using vehicle supplies.  Set such that repair can only be performed with the engine off and the ac stationary.

In fact this could replace refuel/re arm pads but allow ac landing  to be "refitted" by supplies left by fellow players either on the field or at remote grass strips.

I would wish the effective ness of the re arm pad to be a function of a "supply logistic" at the field. (but not one that was easily porked)

[fuzeman]

Originally posted by hitech

Making 88's manible is much more complex then you might think. Primarly because they are a timed fuse.

HiTech

Hmm... I can tell time and I'm a fuze, can I man those 88s?
Hopefullly it uses a digital clock though, that clockwise and counterclockwise still gets me confuzed.

{ Darn glad I haven't picked up my shovel in a long while. }

[Zanth]

"12Aug40. Navy informally requested priority development of proximity fuses with particular emphasis on anti-aircraft use"

"12Aug42. Cleveland (CL-55), on her shakedown cruise in Chesapeake Bay, tests the newly developed proximity fused antiaircraft projectiles for the first time under simulated combat conditions; she destroys all three target drones with four proximity bursts. "

"26Oct42. South Dakota downs 26 aircraft at Santa Cruz using proximity fused shells. [See 5Jan43]"

"5Jan43.  Helena (CL-50) becomes the first U.S. Navy ship to use proximity-fused projectiles in combat, downing a Japanese Aichi "Val" carrier bomber off New Georgia, Solomons. "

From a timeline page I found http://www.ww2pacific.com/notuntil.html  lots of other interesting stuff there too

[Midnight]

Originally posted by hitech
Making 88's manible is much more complex then you might think. Primarly because they are a timed fuse.

HiTech

HiTech.. if they are using a Timed fuse, how come they are so easily able to re-set the fusing?

On real 88s, the fuze-man would have to set the time based on a calculation of range to target, which of course converts to time of flight.

That being the case, a gun crew would be hopelessly ineffective against a fighter aircraft that was buzzing around at 250+ MPH, especially if it was rapidly changing direction and altitude.

Anyway, if the 88s aren't supposed to be just track and shoot then they shouldn't be shooting at anything that isn't flying (basically) straight and level. If they are to be shooting at fighters, it should be more of a "wall of flack" type defense, rather than the tracking shots of puffy ack we see today.

[Zanth]

In the war 88's could be directed at ground targets too.

"Combat History: The 88mm FLAK (FlugzeugAbwehrKannone) was originally intended exclusively for anti-aircraft defense. But at its very first use by the Legion Kondor volunteer unit in the Spanish Civil War, the Flak gun was also used on the front lines to attack bunkers and pinpoint targets with anti-tank shells, or against enemy troops, using time-fuze shells with high exploding points."

http://www.strategyplanet.com/commandos/88mm.html


An 88mm gun crew in action in Russia, 1942. Note the range-taker on the right.

[CMC Airboss]

Originally posted by hitech

Making 88's manible is much more complex then you might think. Primarly because they are a timed fuse.

HiTech

Would it be possible to model the rounds with proximity fuses as we have with the CV and Cruiser 5" guns?

MiG

[Zanth]

Deadly 88mm's were emplaced like this at Halfaya Pass on Rommel's orders. When dug in with their barrels only a little above ground they were difficult to detect and destroy. The white rings painted on its barrel, like notches on a gunslinger's revolver, tally the number of British tanks the formidable gun has destroyed.



Originally used as an antiaircraft weapon, the 88mm was turned against the armor of the Eighth Army with harrowing effect. "It could go through all our tanks like butter," one awed Englishman later attested.