Originally posted by Wotan
Fluffing in ah is not about simulation or the experience or even the game but the "ha ha ha look at me".
That's about right.
Now, before I get started, I used to be a dedicated fluff driver. Some of the real old timers probably remember how painful it was to attack my B-17
. For you new whippersnappers check the stats on 214CaveJ for the beta tours and this handle for the first few tours.
Skill to drive a buff? Not hardly.
A chipanzee can avoid hills and turn on the auto pilot.
LGBs with pinpoint accuracy. Put the xhair on what you want to blow up and hit the button. Not exactly nuerosurgery.
No need to setup your bombsight to account for winds et al. It's more point and click than the F4U-1C could ever hope to be.
No navigation skills are necessary with the GPS map. Your position and target are clearly marked at all times. Even your route is marked if the mission planner was real thourough.
The only skill involved in when ya gotta get on your guns. Are you a crack shot or are you just spraying lead and praying.
More tactical thinking required muck? Hardly. How hard is it to ask "what needs to be hit at xxx?" then put the xhair on whatever people tell you to drop on. Again, it's not nuerosurgery.
The let's talk about the FM. Sure, they hit the numbers for power/speed/climb etc etc. But what's this crap of rolling a fluff with a full bomb load 60degrees on its wing trying to avoid fighter attacks? Oh yeah, no friendly collisions and no formations either, so it doesn't matter right? And we won't discuss the fact that yer fully loaded fluff can out turn just about every fighter in the game from 15k and higher when yer turning from the gun positions.
And how do the gunners, especially the waist and upper gunners, maintain thier ability to shoot during these manuevers? I've been inside a -17, and I damn sure wouldna wanna be in the waist guns with the pilot standing the bird on its wing. Can you say silk approach? I knew you could.
I'd love to see one of you fluffers stand yer bomb laden bird on it's wing and the retainers for the eggs break and blow yer bellybutton outta the sky. I'd pay to see that, along with the shocked look on yer face. And let's not forget all the crap that would go flyin around inside the airplane... maybe model something knocking the pilot out cold from hitting him in the head during an extreme manuever.
I left the heavies and learned to fight in the fighters because I got bored with fluffing.
Don't try to tell me fluffing takes skill. I've been there, done that, and have the T-shirt.
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Now, with all that said, there are some dedicated buff drivers out there who warrant respect. They actually fly the birds like were flown, try to maintain thier formations, don't mess with that gamey crap of standing a buff on its wing using thier rudder controls while in the gun positions. They actually go for the simulation of flying the heavies. These guys warrant, and earn, my respect.
