Ready...Aim...FLAME!

[MadHatter]

Ok, I know I'm probably going to get nailed for this, but since this is a wishlist, this is what I would like to see.

First and foremost, I'm a buff driver. I fly a fighter when I have to or when the Bish/Knights need to practice on downing fighters. (Apparently someone installed a bullet magnet on my Spit and I have yet to figure out where the d***ed thing is) I started playing little over 3 weeks ago, and I love it. It has been a long time since a game has frustrated the hell out of me (stoopid fighters) but been extremely enjoyable.

1: PBY-5A Catalina. This is one of my favorite planes in the WWII era. Don't ask me why, I don't know. After doing some research, I think I have a way to incorporate it into the game. A PBY could easily fill 2, possibly 3 roles.
                    A: Anti-shipping. In WWII there were squadrons known as the Black Cats. Designated by a flat black camo scheme and lack of markings. Generally these planes carried a compliment of 2x500 lb bombs / torps and the main goal was to disrupt supply shipping in the Pacific theater. "Between August 1943 and January 1944, Black Cat squadrons had sunk 112,700 tons of merchant shipping, damaged 47,000 tons, and damaged 10 Japanese warships." (Wiki) In game we could use these "Black Cats" against task forces. These planes had a range comparable to the B-17, just less armanent.
                    B: CV Resupply. Ok, Yes CV's are a pain in the rudder to deal with already, but in essence they are floating bases. If the PBY can land within 1000 meters (hell make it 200) of the cv and drop supplies, let the CV be repaired. You can add certain limitations to it. For instance make it so 12 drops are needed to repair a CV and no matter how many drops the CV will always move slower after getting lit.
                    C: SAR. (This is the possiblility) If a pilot bails over water, or has to ditch, let the PBY pick them up.  It can count as a successful bail for the pilot and a success for the PBY. If PBY can land within 200 meters, maintain position for 2 mins (or 1 min) then its a success, if the PBY can land it. Now before anyone goes crying about stats or intentional bails, think about it this way. First of all, with the amount of squeakers and tweekers playing this game, can you honestly believe that besides the initial novelty of the idea (that time when something new comes out and EVERYONE has to try it) how many pilots would be willing to run SAR operations? I would, but thats besides the point. This game has no accountability for a death/bail, at least nothing I can see. On top of that, how many pilots, once downed, would be willing to wait for a pickup? I think that some of the more mature pilots would. I know it's seems like I'm shooting holes in my own boat here, but the point is that SAR would not make that big an impact on the game, but the possibilities of it can, if it was used correctly.


2: B-29 Superfortress. God, I swear I swear I can hear every Zippo in the community just get flipped open, hold on guys. I have done research and I have read the past posts on the issue. But, this is still a wishlist. I would like to see the 29 in the game. High altitude bombing is a blast for me. Make the 29 a perk plane, can't have formations, can only carry x amount of bombs, doesn't matter, I still want to fly the damn thing. And before anyone starts screaming about 1 plane being able to wipe a town out, I can do that anyways as it stands. 1 B-17 at 20k loaded with 50% fuel and 12x500 pounders can wipe a town out. Just ask Scooby or Swoops, hell, ask anyone in the 81st. I've done it. The 29 is not going to be that big of a change. And if people are truly that worried about one plane, then I suggest running missions to take bases and start flying patrols more often, instead of the "i'm an uber-pilot I'll attack this base on my own" mentality that seems to pervade. (squeakers, I'm lookin at you)

3: Actual Nightfall. Ok I see the sun go down, umm, ok Moon's coming up, why does it seem like it's still high noon up here? Ok I play the late war orange arena, but I would like to see an actual night in the game. A planes usefulness can change drastically at night (not to mention make bombing more challenging) It would be nice to see what happens.

4: Merchant Shipping. We got ground convoys running alll over hell's half acre out there. I've seen where a truck convoy came to supply the ONLY base on an island (where'd it come from), lets have shipping convoys to supply the ports. Gives the bombers/divebombers more targets to play with, and let it affect the CV groups.

5: Concussion Shake. This is going to sound stupid to many, but if I'm flying in flak and a burst goes off near me, let the plane get jolted a bit. Again, more of a challenge to bombing strats. Like the Doctor said, "The worse it gets, the more I love it!"

I guess what I'm driving at is more of a strategic feel to the game.  Either way here's my dollar and two cents. Sorry for the wall of text but from what I've seen, not many people read omgpplroflmoakthxbai fluently so I figured to type it out.


                      -MadHat

[mbailey]

2: B-29 Superfortress. God, I swear I swear I can hear every Zippo in the community just get flipped open, hold on guys.  

 

I havent had the pleasure of meeting you in the MAs yet sir, but i like your style.

Well written, well thought out, no flame here, but im sure some of the angry trolls here will be along shortly. ( grabs fire extinguisher and points it toward MadHatter )  I got ya covered sir. 

<S>

Mbailey

[Soulyss]

1: Actually I think the idea of adding a plane that was able to take "ship" supplies and help repair CV's may be the first real inventive idea I've heard that would actually allow the PBY to bring something new to the game.  Otherwise it's just a slow lightly armed bomber with minimal defensive armament.  That being said, I think it's a beautiful airplane and I would probably fly it from time to time if it were in the game.

2: I've never heard any official stance on the B-29 from anyone at HTC but my guess is that it can simply fly too high, too fast, and carry too many bombs to really work in the MA's. Which is a bit unfortunate since it is such a historically significant aircraft.

3: We actually had night (it's a server setting/variable), and while kind of cool and interesting at first, once the novelty wore off it was more frustrating than anything else when you can't see other planes in the arena.  Again it was tried and HTC decided to not include night during general MA play, I haven't seen an "official" reason for them.  But it's probably safe to assume that the decision was made that MA gameplay is better off without it.

4:  There are some convoys, they include trucks, trains, and a barge.  The trains originate from a hangar like structure (follow the tracks and you can find it) I'll admit that I've never tried to find the origins of the truck convoys, the barges I believe just spawn a few miles off the coast.  Beinging interested in the low level strafing attack aircraft used by the 5th airforce I would personally love to see more "soft" targets that could be hit by machine guns and smaller bombs.  


*edit*
I almost forgot to add that I wouldn't worry about being frustrated by not having the hang off fighters yet.  Three weeks is a drop in the bucket against the learning curve towards getting really good in fighter vs fighter combat.  I've been doing it 10 years now and I'm still learning things, that's one of the things I love about it.  What you'll find is there are lot of nice folks around here that are more than happy to help you out.  Just be patient and polite and you'll be surprised how quick people will be to lend a hand.  Scheduling some time with a trainer will go a long ways towards helping improve fighter flying (shoot an email over to trainers@hitechcreations.com).  This game takes a while to master but with some help it doesn't take that long to get beyond the point of just being a flying target.

[Jayhawk]

Welcome to the BBS, you'll learn not to write posts like that in the future.  Just kidding

I do really like the idea of the PBY resupping CVs.  The others are good as well but most have been discussed in detail and I'm sure some guys will fill you in on that topic. 

[E25280]

1: Actually I think the idea of adding a plane that was able to take "ship" supplies and help repair CV's may be the first real inventive idea I've heard that would actually allow the PBY to bring something new to the game.  Otherwise it's just a slow lightly armed bomber with minimal defensive armament.  That being said, I think it's a beautiful airplane and I would probably fly it from time to time if it were in the game.

2: I've never heard any official stance on the B-29 from anyone at HTC but my guess is that it can simply fly too high, too fast, and carry too many bombs to really work in the MA's. Which is a bit unfortunate since it is such a historically significant aircraft.

3: We actually had night (it's a server setting/variable), and while kind of cool and interesting at first, once the novelty wore off it was more frustrating than anything else when you can't see other planes in the arena.  Again it was tried and HTC decided to not include night during general MA play, I haven't seen an "official" reason for them.  But it's probably safe to assume that the decision was made that MA gameplay is better off without it.

4:  There are some convoys, they include trucks, trains, and a barge.  The trains originate from a hangar like structure (follow the tracks and you can find it) I'll admit that I've never tried to find the origins of the truck convoys, the barges I believe just spawn a few miles off the coast.  Beinging interested in the low level strafing attack aircraft used by the 5th airforce I would personally love to see more "soft" targets that could be hit by machine guns and smaller bombs. 

#1 sums up my thoughts nicely.
#2 my theory (and it is only a theory) is there is a limitation / problem with the remotely-firing turrets.  To be effective, the player would have to be able to control convergence.  If you code that in, then there is no reason not to have it on the other buffs, too -- the resulting increase in volume and intensity of complaints about the already oft-complained-of deadliness of buff defensive fire would likely incinerate the state of Texas.
#3 from what others have said, when night used to come around, half the arenas would log off immediately.  This pretty much indicates it was doing nothing positive for the game at large.
#4 Also agreed.  Train busting would be especially cool if you weren't always killed within a nanosecond by the train's ack when you get within 1000 yards.
and #5 -- I like the idea of more shaking with close bursts, but since many if not most buff pilots fly from F3 view, it would likely only be noticed in the bombsight.  Not that this would be a bad thing -- it would add some challenge to the lasar bomb sight if it actually bounced every so often on your approach.

[b4o2s9s]

I like the ideas. Night wouldn't work unless HTC changed the game time to something other than real time. Without that, players in certain areas would only be able to log in during night hours, which is fun for a while, but just gets to be too big a pain. 

[chewie86]

why not a limited night like the limited sunset we have ... wouldn't 45 / 60 mins of night time work?

[Soulyss]

why not a limited night like the limited sunset we have ... wouldn't 45 / 60 mins of night time work?

That's essentially what it was, dusk proceeded into night then to dawn.  I don't remember the actual times involved but I think "night" lasted something like 10-15 minutes.   As I mentioned above once the novelty wore off it was just sort of a nuisance and made it hard to locate other aircraft in the arenas.

[Beefcake]

Nighttime in the Old MA was only about 15 minutes long, and everyone still complained.

[Jayhawk]

Was the old night just in a single arena?  Night could be limited to just one area (Blue or Orange) so those who didn't want to fly in it could choose the other.  If you didn't want to fly at night, don't go to that arena.

[Soulyss]

Not only back in the single arena days but back in the v1.xx days.

[chewie86]

Nighttime in the Old MA was only about 15 minutes long, and everyone still complained.

eewwww  :|
I want the names of these suckers  

[jolly22]

We have night time in the special event arena, why not have them in the MA!

[Soulyss]

Nighttime in the Old MA was only about 15 minutes long, and everyone still complained.

eewwww  :|
I want the names of these suckers  

*raises hand*  
 

I actually thought it was really kind of neat at first.  But after a few weeks I started to not like it at all, IMHO it just was less fun when you couldn't see who you were fighting.

[Rich46yo]

If the B-29 isn't historically represented with actual bombloads, AND, allowed drones like any other bomber, then its not even worth modeling. A few purist's might "just want to fly it" but 95% of the game will add up one perked 29s bombload, compare it to 3 unperked Lancs and their bombload, and will do the math while leaving the B-29 to sit with the AR-234 in the hangar. Even 1 29s 20,000 lb load cant compare with over twice that on free Lancs.

If you want B-29s controlled then do it with perk price and/or limit what bases they can stage at. With 3 of them carrying a perk price of 400 to 600 I dont think you'll see to many dive bombing CVs.