Is that a RATO in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

[nickel5]

More to the point, what about the illegal perks NKL5 claimed, using an illegitimate 20 mm cannon? 

I hereby surrender all said perks to you Max!
Have fun! ==<—O—O—>==

[RODBUSTR]

 Another folly.   That is in designing them so a player can keep them on  at any speed and use them for a fantasy like get away instead of it's intended use of shorter take off distances.

[Krusty]

Technically they could be used that way. Same as technically some planes can carry rockets AND bombs when historically they only ever chose one or the other -- Hitech allows the correct option even if the doctrine and decisions of the actual WW2 use were slightly different.

Or, did you think that B-25Hs were used to hunt lancasters with their big gun? That Tu2s dive-bombed carrier fleets and then turned to dogfight fighters with 20mm cannons? Do you think that LA-7 was ever found at 25K? Don't mistake actual capability with training and doctrine, which changed over time as priorities and knowledge changed as well.

[Greebo]

Of course AH players use planes in ways they were not used in RL, because the MA environment is a game where allied nations' planes fight each other, ranges are much shorter and above all players don't die doing stupid stuff like they would have in RL. The planes however are fairly accurately modelled using real world data and with less of the game balancing/player pressure/national bias you get in some other games. Giving the Ar 234 abilities it lacked in RL like rear facing guns and an emergency speed boost hurts the game's reputation for accurate modelling.

I very much doubt hanging onto the pods would have been an acceptable option in RL. The reason for fitting them was to reduce take off distances, fitting them and not using them would have increased the take off distance even more. Even if a long enough runway could have been found then hauling all that weight up to alt and to the target would have greatly reduced the range which wasn't all that great to start with. The RATO pods' have an awful shape for high speed flight, is their compressibility and trim change at high Mach numbers modelled into AH? Was the structure designed to withstand the stress of high speed pod drag and vibration rather than thrust? I can't see how HTC can know this as Arado would have never bothered to do high Mach wind tunnel or stress testing with the pods so where would HTC get the data? I think they are just leaving it like this so the 234 gets some use but I'd rather they just got rid of the bogus modelling and removed or reduced the perk cost to compensate.

[oboe]

Maybe they could be made to 'break off' like many aircraft's landing gear does when airspeed reaches a certain point?  That might preculde players from hanging on to them as 'getaway' boosters.

[Krusty]

Greebo, from a gameplay standpoint I agree. From a technical standpoint, there was nothing stopping them from staying on the wings other than the weight and drag penalties. In reality they were taking off from rougher, shorter fields than we have in-game. So while WE have the runway length to build our speed with the additional drag/weight, they might not have had the option and HAD to use them or else hit the trees.

However, it was up to the pilot to trigger them.


In terms of gameplay and compromise for the greater good, I would suggest possibly making them automatically fire as soon as you hit 50mph airspeed. However, please note this WOULD be an arbitrary decision and not a historical limitation.

I think we also need to remove those tailguns ASAP. Total work of fiction and fantasy. Might as well put 20mms on P-40s. Adding a forward firing 2x20mm ventral gunpod would be icing on the cake.