I feel that the bomber vs fighter vs hitting target is well balanced at the moment.
Ever done any surveys to see how many agree with that?
It's not balanced at all.
In Scenarios (which are set up more akin to actual battles -- i.e., large groups of bombers against historical opponents), loss rate of unescorted bombers when found by the enemy is generally about 100%. We have seen this many times in Scenarios,
You cant defend against multiple attackers from different directions.
If you get good at aiming, you're guaranteed to destroy an attacker with a
WALL OF LEAD,
for the first months or years in bombers, you get luck or no defense at all.
You can't defend AT ALL when you need to be bombing your target.
And the argument that it should depend on player skill is nothing but ego stroking. It takes no skill to shoot down bombers, and Brooke's comment proves that beyond doubt.
Lusche knows he can shoot down most bombers with ease. They are his primary targets. He uses them to pad his score. He has a vested interest in seeing them remain easy targets.
The problem becomes in anticipation of a players move, and adjusting to his previous behavior.
So you're saying that you can't program an AI gunner (who happens to know the exact speed of an attacker and can calculate the precise lead) that can't defeat a skilled player?
I know there is a little more to it than that, but I still find it hard to believe that a human player has the ability to "outmaneuver" that kind of precision.
If an attacker is only "maneuvering" on a single axis or stops maneuvering even for a second, he should be toast. If he is constantly maneuvering then it should be exceedingly difficult to get a shot in.
And further, once that precision is established, how could it not be balanced or offset by some kind of harmonics that would occur in a moving craft?
The 2nd choice is to make them random like our puffy ack. In general people really hate dieing to a randomizer
Everyone hates all ways of dieing in the game. I despised the "random" puffy deaths, but it would be a ridiculous game without them.
AI bomber gunners would be no different than field guns.
But if you MUST pretend the "skill" level is an issue, then why not slave the accuracy of AI to that of the "real players" hit percent while in a gunners seat? The better a player can shoot, the better the AI shoots.