This, in my opinion, is fundamental announcement that might change tactics and strategies in MA at a revolutionary(but acceptable to both Stratos and Quakers) scale. There are so many possibilities and variables, just thinking about them is enough to make one's head spin!
Please hear me out on my observations...
The Buffs:
1. Increased total payload
One pilot is in control of four buffs. Two~three people in a mission easily makes it 8~12 bombers in the air for a single destination! What they lost in quality, they make up with quantity: the true spirit of strategic bombing campaigns!
2. Increased effectiveness in defensive guns in quantity
8~12 bombers in a defensive box. Barging through it with intent of mutual destruction, as Pyro pointed out, will not work.
3. Changes in strategies
Like Sunking said, when 10~20 buffs are onthe way for your base, the defenders will have no choice but to intercept them, if they want to play and fly in that area. Taking your part in the mutually hostile sides of the bombers and the interceptors, like "the real stuff of WWII", will be important.
The Interceptors:
1. Quicker engagements to buffs
Loss of accuracy in bombing - with random drifts - will force the buffs to fly in a lot lower altitudes than former versions. There will be no 20k~30k buffs "smart-bombing" all the vital hangars with "laser-guided" accuracy. I expect to see most buffs near 8k~15k.
2. Decreased effectiveness in defensive guns in quality
The interrupt gear Pyro mentioned, will allow for a lot less effectiveness in defensive guns. Against a single Lancaster, a interceptor faces only two .50s in a 6 O'c attack. The skill level and frustratingly long time needed for a careful interceptor to plan his attack, is gonna be a lot less. Besides, if the 'interrupt gear' concept works in a universal level, guns on the 'drone' buffs will probably cease shooting when there is a friendly buff caught in the line of fire. And if the kill shooter option work this way too, multiple player controlled boxes will have to be careful when they spray away otherwise they will shoot down their own buffs(the buff the shooter is on).
3. Self-regulating factors of buff numbers
If we use Tac's notion as an example(40 bombers flying to target at 5k): that is going to be 10 people participating in a buff mission. But there are a certain factors that regulate the effectiveness of such brute force. For one thing, the aiming process with "Norden" style bomb sights is gonna take some time. If it works anything simular to the one I have seen in "B-17 Flying Fortress: the Mighty 8th(from Microprose)", it's gonna be a critically long time. . While the pilot is at the bombardier's sight, the whole "box" is virtually defenseless for that whole amount of time - unless he has another player on board to man guns for him.
This means, to effectively defend the formation and bomb at the same time, 10 people will have to pilot and bomb while another 10 mans guns for them. 40 bombers flying at 5k, in truth, will need 20 people, not 10, unless they want to be totally defenseless flying straight and level at certain speeds for a long time while the bombardier mans the "Nordens". When's the last time you see a 20-man buff mission?(Even when gunners can be lenient in enetring and exiting buffs like Pyro says, how many people have you seen willingly join another man's buff as a gunner?)
40 buffs at 5k piloted by 10 pilots without gunners, would be an ultimate "all-you-can-eat" buffet for interceptors while bombers are on their bombing run
Like Pyro said, using buff formations to deadly efficiency is gonna take a lot of careful planning and hard team work. There ain't many people with this kind of coordination out there. Brute bomber missions where every newbie can up a buff, follow the formation, drop easily and spray around like mad, like we have seen before in previous versions, is just not gonna work.
.......
I think with 1.10, we're gonna have some realistic trends in strategies within
ACCEPTABLE limits of gameplay.
