Puffy Ack Laser Accuracy

[Electroman]

I'm wondering if maybe the puffy ack damage model over the city strat could be looked at? There seems to be some rather inconsistent damage going on.

For example...

Scenario 1:
I went up the other night to hit a city strat in Lancasters as it was a close spawn and losing Lanc's better than losing say a set of B29's. Due to the close proximity I took 25 % fuel and was only able to get up to about 10,000 Ft or less. I made 2 full passes on the strat with minimal puffy ack damage at that low altitude and was able to go back and land all 3 bombers

Scenario 2:
Last night I went up in B29's again to hit a city strat. This was an almost 2 hour round trip flight taking off with 75% fuel and arrived at the strat at 28,000 ft. Puffy laser ack hit me and INSTANTLY I was on fire and lost a bomber.

Now...I'm all for puffy ack and having damage but the above 2 scenarios seem just a little lopsided to me. Lanc's are not the most durable planes as we all know, especially at low alt over puffy ack. B29's take a lot more damage and at almost 3 times the altitude get blown to bits after 1 ping. It seemed to be previously when I would get hit almost always there would be damage (i.e. - center fuel tank gets hit) - not instantly getting set on fire.

Could someone take a look and see?

Cheers,
Elec1

[Scca]

Unless it's changed, it was just bad luck...

From memory, the game engine draws a box around your birds.  The box gets bigger the higher/faster/more you maneuver.  Somewhere in the box the ack will explode.  If your plane's in that spot, you take damage. 

Sometime you're the windshield, sometimes the bug...  That said, it seems auto-puffy has been less vicious to single planes with AHIII.  Use to be I was getting killed on the first burst 80% of the time.

[oakranger]

Beating on a dead horse topic.


Skuzzy, we need a emoji "beating on a dead horse". It will fit perfectly on BBS.

[Wiley]

It seems like autolevel sets you up spectacularly to take a puffy to the melon.  Particularly if you're flying a 262.

As HT's stated before.  If you're changing alt and speed, the random box is large.  If you're not changing alt and speed, the random box is small.

If I'm in range of puffy I follow the advice I read somewhere about dealing with RL ack- Alter your course every 3 seconds.

I almost never get pinged.

Also, the horse is indeed dead, dust, beneath the earth.

Wiley.

[Zimme83]

Still havent taking any damage or lost a plane to puffy ack while in bomber...

[ghi]

Change id, you are acting like a over electro-magnetized flack magnet proxy fuze. 

[Vraciu]

Puffy ack is way too accurate.  I got lasered by a CV again yesterday.   Even with insane jinking I was getting popped at max distance. 

(Fixed.   Thanks Kingpin.)

[1ijac]

If you are on the maps that have the 2 flak bases close to the city, then here is what you are battling.

1.  54 auto flak guns at each Flak base.  (2 flak bases = 108 auto flak guns)

2.  The city has 2 flak towers.  (North tower has 4 auto flak guns, South tower has 4 auto flak guns.  A total of 8 auto flak guns)

Depending on your change of speed, altitude and location around the city, that is a lot of flak that gets thrown into the air.  The regions were designed to protect those strats with flak. 

Add to that a total of nine 88 guns at each flak base for those players who may be hurling rounds at you from the guns when you are near them. 

It is actually amazing that you make it through the exploding flak when you fly near the Flak bases.  Yet, bombers still make it through and damage the city strat.  The flak is actually doing what it supposed to do.  Protecting the city from aerial bombardment.


one-eye

[Kingpin]

Even with insane jinxing I was getting popped at max distance.

Well there's your problem right there, V: you're supposed to JINK yourself, not JINX yourself.   

In all seriousness, the thing to remember is that jinking only increases the size of the random box.  That means you have a smaller chance of being hit, not no chance of being hit.  Sometimes your number just comes up.

By the way, I was the one who suggested a few years ago that the ack box size be increased based on speed, and changes to direction and alt and Hitech was kind enough to implement that after it was discussed on the Wishlist.

<S>

P.S. I don't recall anyone thanking either one of us for that.  I guess ack is just universally disliked by everyone no matter how infrequently you get hit.  But it was a real problem for real WWII pilots.  I think I read once that more P-47s (and maybe P-51's too?) were lost to ack than to air combat, IIRC. 

 

[Electroman]

It seems like autolevel sets you up spectacularly to take a puffy to the melon.  Particularly if you're flying a 262.

As HT's stated before.  If you're changing alt and speed, the random box is large.  If you're not changing alt and speed, the random box is small.

If I'm in range of puffy I follow the advice I read somewhere about dealing with RL ack- Alter your course every 3 seconds.

I almost never get pinged.

Also, the horse is indeed dead, dust, beneath the earth.

Wiley.

Thanks for the info Wiley.

I was straight and level on approach for city strat when it happened in bombsight at constant speed.

Out of curiosity - Is there a level at which it becomes less accurate / random (at least over cities)?

Ghi - you're probably right...I'm a flack magnet

Cheers,
Elec1

[Vraciu]

Well there's your problem right there, V: you're supposed to JINK yourself, not JINX yourself.   

Shot down by autoack....now I suffer being downed by autocorrect.       

In all seriousness, the thing to remember is that jinking only increases the size of the random box.  That means you have a smaller chance of being hit, not no chance of being hit.  Sometimes your number just comes up.

Ack has me on speed dial.   

[Volron]

Something I learned from Lusche when hitting strats:

Burn your center tank dry.  This will reduce your chance of catching fire by a bit.  Almost every time before this, I was shot down the same way; fuel tank catching fire.  In fact, I only remember TWICE the whole time I've played, where I was shot down due to something else.  Both those times was pilot snipe.

Wonder if drones are still invulnerable to flak?

[Electroman]

Something I learned from Lusche when hitting strats:

Burn your center tank dry.  This will reduce your chance of catching fire by a bit.  Almost every time before this, I was shot down the same way; fuel tank catching fire.  In fact, I only remember TWICE the whole time I've played, where I was shot down due to something else.  Both those times was pilot snipe.

Wonder if drones are still invulnerable to flak?

Another excellent point! I usually in the B29's burn my center tank first but this time I had forgot so quite possibly this is what caused the issue. Will try again with that in mind next time

Cheers!
Elec1

[Drane]

[Greebo]

I vaguely recall doing some offline testing of the dual flak base/city set up on CraterMA using an air spawn and noticing that Lancs seemed to blow up less frequently than B-29s. Maybe its because a formation of B-29s is a bigger target and more likely to get hit.