What are we going

[titanic3]

The thing is, you're almost never going to find enough players to make full use of a CV's AAA guns. Which in turn, turns the CV into a floating runway and nothing else.

However, if you make the CV's AAA guns the way it is now, controlled by AI, (personally) I feel like punching a wall everytime I get shot down by it because this is A GAME. It is NOT a 100% Simulator, it is a game using simulator physics and attempting to balance fun factor AND realism.
And IN a game, I prefer to fight other players, and be killed by other players, not by some random computer number generator that just decided it's your turn to die.

So, how can we solve this problem and not turn the task group into a floating runway or a floating death star?

My solution is this:

Make the CV's AAA lethality scale with the amount of friendly players near it. I'm sure HTC can come up with their own formula for that. Say 10 players = 1.0 Lethality. Every player above 10 only adds 0.25 Lethality. (Ex: 13 players equals 1.75 Lethality).

So you still have a sense of realism of AAA guns hitting your plane and causing damage and giant puffs of black smoke everywhere, but not to the point where it's certain death flying above 3K.

[Megalodon]

to have to do to get rid of or update our Air Warrior Puffy Ack (AwpA). I only call it AwpA b/c it is just like that ack of ages ago.. Random puffs and boom.. I guess it's HTC paying homage to the late great Air Warrior.. I can only guess Air Warrior holds a special place in Hitech's special place.  I can think of no other reason why Aces High ack is just like AwpA.. 

Hahahaha... I remember that mountain top ack west of 83, you would be flying along and all the sudden pow. Just played the AW2 mission where ya start off in an oscar chasin the f4u's...   ahhh the good ole days.


Has a special place for me,

[TheDudeDVant]

The thing is, you're almost never going to find enough players to make full use of a CV's AAA guns. Which in turn, turns the CV into a floating runway and nothing else.

whooooaaaa right here a min.. there is an argument here.. it will come to me.. just a sec..
 

wait...






if they want to keep it, they will defend it.

[TheDudeDVant]

The CV already has an endless supply of PT boats that could also provide additional protection in close. The way it is now, the CV pulls damned near on the base and the puffy ack keeps the defenders below 3k for almost a whole sector while the invaders can grab alt or run to the boats guns for protection without any risk to themselves. It's like a airbase on steroids. All I'm saying is make it more realistic and player controlled.

 

[Tank-Ace]

You can prob guess I am not a big tank fan but kinda annoys me that they get so much attention in a game thats supposed to be about air combat and nothing has really been changed or improved with the puffy ack.

Same goes for cliche damage modelling I got 8 sorties ended from rad hits on 190d in a row, less tanks more sorting out the annoying parts of the game. While I'm at it PWs so when you get slower it induces a PW how does that work?? 

Well, they've kind of neglected the GV's at first, so they're making up for lost time.


Also, fact of the matter is that you can better represent a wider range of scenarios with our current aircraft lineup than with our current GV lineup. We're still missing a Panzer III, an M3/M5, a Valentine, a Cromwell,  Churchill, a StuG, and many many ohters.

[FLS]

I know what doomed the Bismark was the Swordfish was so frikkin slow that the auto-aimed guns couldn't track it. I suppose I would no longer be annoyed with it if the game modeled the puffys NOT changing course in mid-flight to follow your moves, it (seems) quite instantaneous. I prolly get killed by auto-puffy twice a month, not a big deal in the overall scheme of things, though it remains an annoyance

When you change course you are still in the box of possible hits. The ack never shoots directly at you. It just shoots in your general area.

[Shuffler]

I think ack should not harm P-38s

[grizz441]

Keep the accuracy on it the same, just create a function that incorporates a probability of it even firing at you based on your altitude.  As you climb above 3k it becomes more violent and capping at the current settings at a high altitude.  At the very least, it will get rid of the archaic atari like realism of going above a magic 3k altitude and being ferociously fired at with absolutely no transition.

The only thing that needs to be changed for the puffy ack is fixing its ability to track and fire targets on other side of mountains.

ack-ack

I also don't see why that is so hard to do, if you draw a vector from the task group to an aircraft and it intersects a mountain or terrain polygon at a distance less than that of the aircraft then it should not fire.

[Ack-Ack]

Imagine if our ack was like this, the whines would be heard around the world.






Those little white puffs are AAA bursts.


ack-ack

[grizz441]

Imagine if our ack was like this, the whines would be heard around the world.

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)
Those little white puffs are AAA bursts.

ack-ack

They're also pretty high.  Regardless, no one wants to fly a game where you instantly get shot out of the sky by AI guns.  Albeit more realistic, there's nothing fun about it.

[Ack-Ack]

They're also pretty high.  Regardless, no one wants to fly a game where you instantly get shot out of the sky by AI guns.  Albeit more realistic, there's nothing fun about it.

What you guys want is to make it easier to attack and get close to the CV for whatever reasons without fear of any risk for doing so.  Be thankful our puffy AAA isn't as lethal as it was in real life.



ack-ack

[icepac]

I understand the "box" gets larger with G-load and speed but I was wondering if plane size also dictates box size?

If the fighter starts out with a smaller box, that would explain why a fighter twisting and turning at 400mph at 37,000 feet stands little chance of surviving puffy ack.

[titanic3]

So change the lethality for the MA. This is a game, not a simulator. We fly for fun and as close to realism as possible, but there are factors that would probably bore/annoy most players. There is no engine warm-up, there is no taxiing, no fuel mixture, no prop pitch, no mechanical failures. So why should there be a random deaths from AI guns?

The auto-ack on CV's and fields/towns are there for a reason. But they don't kill from 10k+ away, 15,000ft in the air. They only affect a small area.
Puffy ack on the other hand, kills people in the most random fashion: through mountains, zig-zagging/in a dogfight 10,000ft in the air, or as soon as they break the magic 3,000ft line.

Puffy ack needs to either affect a smaller area, have its lethality reduced if the same "killzone" is kept, or have diminishing amounts of accuracy based on distance/altitude/speed.

I don't know about the guys who are FOR puffy ack, but I like to fight other players and if killed, killed by them, not some random computer generator.

[Ardy123]

What you guys want is to make it easier to attack and get close to the CV for whatever reasons without fear of any risk for doing so.  Be thankful our puffy AAA isn't as lethal as it was in real life.

(Image removed from quote.)

ack-ack

If your going to play that card, then CVs can't park themselves right up against the shore (without running aground) in RL either but yet AH they do that frequently. OR puffy ack shells flying through mountains, etc...


EDIT: I do appreciate the quest for realism, but if realism is the goal then strive for it.... Bombers flying straight and level at 10k shouldn't be able to get through to a CV as easy as they do, where as 1 fighter at 18k get hit almost every time.

[Ack-Ack]

If your going to play that card, then CVs can't park themselves right up against the shore (without running aground) in RL either but yet AH they do that frequently. OR puffy ack shells flying through mountains, etc...

Parking a CV right on the shore line has nothing to do with the lethality or other complaints about the puffy AAA, apples and oranges actually.

EDIT: I do appreciate the quest for realism, but if realism is the goal then strive for it.... Bombers flying straight and level at 10k shouldn't be able to get through to a CV as easy as they do, where as 1 fighter at 18k get hit almost every time.

Not saying it's your aim but the majority that want to dumb down the puffy acks want to do so to make it easier for them to attack or approach CVs or strat targets.

ack-ack