If HTC wants to update the Ki-84 series, I'd rather see the -Ib or -Ic armament models (4x20mm / 2x20mm, 2x30mm) added to the mix.
Although it pains me to disappoint a fellow Ki-84 fanatic, I'm sorry to inform you there was no version of the Hayate fielded with two 30-mm cannons. The model which you describe as the -Ic carried, in practice, a single Ho-155 30-mm cannon in the starboard wing, nothing in the port wing and two Ho-5 20-mm cannon in the cowling. The single installation reflecting the availability of this weapon which was only entering mass production at the war's end.
Fielded units might number as little as three, and apparently even they flew on occasion with that cannon removed. it can't really be regarded as anything more than an experimental or testing version.
The model which you refer to as the -Ib was essentially fielded in response to the appearance of the Boeing B-29.
The hardest part to establish with this model is the numbers actually produced. The four cannon version being manufactured at one point in parallel with the two cannon version with the unique aircraft identification numbers for that type being assigned a new starting position to allow room for the accommodation of the continuing production of the standard model.
Photographic evidence is not useful because externally the differences are only a slightly different size, shape and location of the gas ejection ports on the sides of the forward fuselage. The instrument panels were also different to accommodate the slightly larger breeches.
Current research can do no better than to place the production numbers of the four-cannon version somewhere between 100 and 350 models produced. This is from an approximate 3,500 Hayates produced in total.
The reception of this model if introduced to Aces High is difficult to predict. On the one hand we now have the B-29 which was the reason the four-cannon version was produced and so one could argue it is justified. On the other, it is indistinguishable from the two cannon version visually and a little known fact about the Aces High Hayate is that it is basically the poorest performing
mainstream production model fielded (I must qualify this statement by ignoring the so-called emergency construction versions, which were total poo).
We currently have the so-called Ki-84-Ia early production version, this was
replaced on the production lines (during the approximately 18 months of production in total) by a late production version which was lighter and had a slightly more powerful engine. The four cannon version was based on
this model, thus if this is introduced to Aces High, it would be a lighter, more heavily armed and a more powerful version of the current Hayate we have.
