Boat season is opening!

[Jochen]

Light weight series:

 

 

 

 

I think it would be nice to have some ports where you could launch with PT boat. You could have several players in one boat, one for steering the boat, one for forward gun and one for aft gun. Torpedo's should be easy to model and they could be used with airplanes too.

Since light PT boats of all nations were mainly built from wood, they were quite vulnerable to air attacks. This means that with their historical strenght they would be easy to destroy even with strafing. How this could be prevented without compromising playability or realism?

First of all, boats should not be visible as dots on mat. Maybe they should be ignored on sector counter bar also? Rarely enemies have information about fleets on sea unless they are spotted by air recon. If the boats do not show in sector counter, pilots must go to hunt them wihtout knowledge of their position. This gives boats fair change to get close to their target (enemy port, depot or airfield near coastline) and do their job before they are rightfully obliterated.

Secondly, boats should have ability to repair themselves on sea. Not neccessarily always possible in real life, this would be good compromise. Go to repair mode and float still defenseless for a while and viola! Your fuel leak is repaired!

Boats are also much faster than tanks which means that bases don't need to be very close to eachothers, giving opportunieties to create interesting maps.

Would it be nice to see several torpedo boats strafing enemy port on sunsetm tracers raining on fuel tanks and ack positions...

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jochen
Geschwaderkommodore
Jagdgeschwader 2 'Richthofen' (Warbirds)

jochen
JG 2 'Richthofen' (Aces High)

I want to believe! Fw 190F-8 / G-8 / A-5 to Aces High!

If you ever get across the sea to England,
Then maybe at the closing of the day
The bars will all be serving German lager
Which means we won the war - hip hip hooray!

[Saintaw]

I LIKE IT ! (where is my U-Boat ?)


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Saw/Saintaw
=XO=II/JG2~Richthofen~
GMT T.O.D. SITE
 
JG2 "Richthofen"
Don't shoot ! I am only an observer......

[This message has been edited by Saintaw (edited 04-20-2000).]

[LLv34_Camouflage]

Good post Jochen!

"First of all, boats should not be visible as dots on mat. Maybe they should be ignored on sector counter bar also? ..... This gives boats fair change to get close to their target (enemy port, depot or airfield near coastline) and do their job before they are rightfully obliterated.

Secondly, boats should have ability to repair themselves on sea. Not neccessarily always possible in real life, this would be good compromise. Go to repair mode and float still defenseless for a while and viola! Your fuel leak is repaired!!


These should apply to tanks and other ground vehicles too!


Camo

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Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
 www.muodos.fi/LLv34

"The really good pilots use their superior judgement to keep them out of situations
where they might be required to demonstrate their superior skill."

[crabofix]

YES!!!
I want an E-boat!!

Crabofix "fishslap"
Flygflottlj.19(Lento R5)"swedish Gladiators"

[This message has been edited by crabofix (edited 04-20-2000).]

[Rojo]

I agree with Jochen, especially regarding self-repair.  Actually, many repairs were conducted while underway, depending on how significant the damage.  Also, the American PT boats were twin-engine, so damage models should reflect the possibility of reduced speed from single engine operations.  

Finally, while they were built from wood (the American ones, at any rate; not necessarily true of German E-boats, as I recall), they were able to absorb a surprising amount of damage.  True, a bomb or naval-calibre cannon shell would likely destroy one completely, unless it failed to detonate (which is a possibility; contact fuses require significant resistance to arm and detonate, which plywood does not offer). However, machinegun and aircraft-calibre cannon would often to no more than punch some holes in a PT boat.  So modeling should include the provision for minor flooding, which could be repaired over time (if not too rapid).

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Sabre, a.k.a. Rojo
(S-2, The Buccaneers)

[Luckyone]

For once I understand Crabo.  

[Vermillion]

 

However, machinegun and aircraft-calibre cannon would often to no more than punch some holes in a PT boat. So modeling should include the provision for minor flooding, which could be repaired over time (if not too rapid).

Hmmmm.... I seem to remember seeing guncams and pics of small freighters, frigates, and even a destroyer or two, being sunk by strafing from "mere" .50's MG's.  

I just can't see a PT Boat being tougher than a Destroyer fellas   Much harder to hit, yes, but not tougher.


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Vermillion
**MOL**, Men of Leisure
Carpe Jugulum
"Real Men fly Radials, Nancy Boys fly Spitfires"

[Rojo]

Verm: Your recollection is correct, bud, as far as it goes.  The PT boats weren't exactly what you'd call robust; I was merely implying that they didn't turn turtle and sink at the sight of an enemy plane.  And the point I was making is that exploding rounds would often pass clean through without detonating (unless they hit a solid object like an engine).

As for the reference to freighters and destroyers being sunk by machinegun fire alone, this was more the exception than the rule.  One of the only examples I can recall of a destroyer being sunk solely by mg fire was in the Mediteranian theater.  The unit that did it was none other than the famed Tuskegee Airman. However, there were something like eight or more of them in on it, flying P-47's.  They went at it for quite some time, too.  

As for freighters, it wasn't generally the physical damage of the mg rounds, but the fires that would start and quickly go out of control.  Freighters were not equiped to deal with the sudden and serious damage that occurs in wartime.  An interesting discussion, nonetheless.

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Sabre, a.k.a. Rojo
(S-2, The Buccaneers)