Good points Zarkov, but puffy ack is still the thing I most dislike about the game. It does a lousy job of protecting bases from bomber attack and is only a minor deterrent to vulchers. You can avoid dying to it by not flying straight and level for more than a second or two, but its just plain irritating for no good purpose. If HTC halved its range for fighters it would help.
The AI that controls it is just so bogus. 3001 feet above the AA gun and it switches on, 2999 feet and it turns off. No lag, just instantly off.
Twist and turn all you like, it follows you exactly. In real life, AA batteries had mechanical computers which calculated plane trajectories. There was a 30 second or so lag between the aircraft position and speed being fed in, the solution being calculated and the shells arriving at the position the aircraft should be at. If the plane turned in that time, the shells would arrive well away from it. Putting a 30 second aim lag on the puffy AA AI would do a lot to suspend my disbelief at the way it works.
