Question for CM's / FSO designers

[Hornet33]

Guys for all the hard work you do for FSO's. One question / gripe though.

Why is it all the FSO's here lately have had the fuel multilpier set so no matter where you launch from, your fuel critical trying to return. When I first started flying FSO it was always set to 1 because FSO was meant to be as accurate as possible. The plane would go as far as it would in real life type thing. Now it's getting to the point where fuel is more of an enemy than the enemy themselves.

We lost over half our squad last night because an F4F COULDN'T go 250  miles on 100% internal fuel alone. My SBD launched with 75% fuel flew about 240 miles and the engine died when the tail hook grabbed the wire. Does this seem right to anyone????? Before anyone says "Should have taken drop tanks!!" our initial orders only had us taking 50% internal fuel. I flew it offline and quickly realized we need as much gas as we could carry. We were also ordered to attack an airfield so everyone needed to carry bombs, so drop tanks were not an option for us.

This is only a suggestion, but if FSO is supposed to be realistic then keep the fuel burn set to 1 all the time. Lets fight the enemy instead of our fuel consumption.

Again big to you guys that put all these things together.

[daddog]

That has to be frustrating. Sorry to hear that.

I used to have a rep in my squad for not having us take enough fuel. I would say take 50% or 75% and they would ignore me and take 100%. More than once we all have had to ditch due to the lack of fuel. Once we all went down in La5’s because we ran out of fuel.

I used to write all my Squad Ops with 1.0 fuel, over time I started putting in 1.5, but nothing was set in stone. Admin CM’s would put in what they wanted. With 1.0 it would seem to give players plenty of fuel, so much so it really was never a factor in planning. With the terrains we have now 1.5 seems about right. It forces Frame C.O.’s (those that do their home work) to consider things like bombs vs drop tanks. Forces players to watch their fuel too. Most of the early war AC have to take 100% fuel as opposed to 50% or 75% with a 1.0 setting.

I am reading a book called “Aces of the Eighth” and there is a common theme. Fuel almost always was a factor for these guys. Most of the time they had to RTB before they wanted to.

The trick is if a C.O. has time to check out the orders prior, he needs to bring up any problems with fuel to the Frame C.O. and deal with it. Of course real life gets in the way and we often don’t have time to deal with it. Back in WWII it was real life.

[Dace]

Originally posted by Hornet33
our initial orders only had us taking 50% internal fuel.

From my orders..don't blame me.

JG44 - 50% SBD 50% F4F, Attack A12, all targets are valid, work
 hangars first. Fuel and ord is CO choice.

[Hornet33]

Hahaha, you beat me to it Dace, sorry about that. I went back and read the orders after I made that post, and was going to make an edit to it. Didn't mean to imply it was your fault either. We kicked butt last night because of your plan:aok

As far as the fuel thing, I just think it would be nice to have it consistent. Set it to 1 and never mess with it again so there is at least ONE setting we can count on never changing. Lets face it not all the CiC's and squad CO's will fly every mission offline to check fuel rates, and there have been targets assigned in the past that could not be hit with the aircraft available and fuel burn set to whatever and return. The Channel Dash FSO was one of them. 3rd frame there was an airfield DEEP behind German lines that had to be hit. The ONLY aircraft that could possibly make it was the Boston III. The nearest base a Boston could launch from was almost 200 miles from the target. We made it in but most never made it out. We had to run from fighters and that put everyone behind the fuel curve, and if I remember correctly the burn multiplier for that one was over 2.

Like I said, lets keep it consistent and REAL. Set it at 1 please!!!!!!!!

[Dace]

No worries mate.

[skernsk]

I do test my targets to make sure they can be hit before sending them out.  I used the setting at 1.5 to make loiter time an issue (mainly to the Allied side).  This is because the Japanese planes have superior range, but lack ammo.  I expected them to have to RTB for ammo long before fuel was an issue ... what I did not want was a flock of blue planes loitering over the base vulching.  I actually considered it being set higher.

If CO's do not plan or test, that is up to them, but in my opinion is not the fault of design, it is the fault of the CO.  

I understand your frustration, nobody wants to go down due to fuel issues, but at the same time, I think that having to look at the fuel gauge and get a little worried is part of the 'realism' to me and I try to make that a part of the frame.

[Dace]

That is what I was thinkin', in this case the fuel burn was set to 1.5 to balance the event a little better. Like skernsk says If it woulda been at 1.0 the blue planes coulda hung around to vulch the IJNs who had Fuel still, just no ammo to fight. This way when the IJN were outta bullets, the USN were outta gas. I think it turned out pretty fair actually and to me, a fuel issue is just another immersive aspect of FSO and all events.

[daddog]

That is what I was trying to say, but you guys said it better than I did.

[68falcon]

IMO it brings more reality into the event. When I first started flying FSO, as previously stated, fuel was not a factor at all. Now the flight lead of our squad is calling out rpm and manifold settings in order to have enough fuel to complete our mission. We use the E6B quite a lot