New Buff Gunnery Model: I Heard it Through the Grapevine!

[eskimo2]

New Buff Gunnery Model:  I Heard it Through the Grapevine!

With the release of 1.09, bombers will fly in flights of 4.  One player controlled, and 3 ships programed to follow the leader, most likely in a traditional bomber element.  The big question on everyone's mind is:
Who or how will the guns be controlled; player manned or AI?  HTC is known for compromise, and I have heard through the Grapevine that HTCs solution will be a combination of the two!  The lead bombers guns will be player manned (as they are now) and the remaining planes guns will be AI, but the shooting styles and accuracy will be pattered after actual Aces High players!  Naturally, everyone wants as good of a gunner as they can get, so:
Plane #2 AI gunners will shoot like Mitsu.
Plane #3 AI gunners will shoot like Fester.
Plane #4 AI gunners will shoot like Ypsilon.

Happy buff hunting!

eskimo

[Citabria]

I think if HTC uses the player as a model for how effective ai gunners should be and in which types of attacks they are not effective then this system will be very good.

bear with me, I have mastered the art of killing player gunned bombers. and there are guaranteed methods to killing even the best such as craven in his mighty ack star


case in point:

dead 6 attack: high death rate for fighters
low 6 attack: dangerous but harder to track as the fighter moves in for a shot
high 6 attack: if fighter is very fast they are hard to hit, if slow they often get killed by the bomber

12 clock attack: very effective and safe when attacking bombers other than b17g
12 o clock low attack: very effective against all but b17g
12 o clock high diving inverted attack: this is the one that kills all buffs dead 100% of the time and is almost untrackable due to the fighters high speed and the fact that the fighter is constantly moving in an arc across the top of the bomber all the while the fighter is holding its guns on target shreding the buff. my kill to death ratio against buffs with this attack is nearly 1000/1


if htc uses ai gunners similar to the ack code I am leary of how stupidly effective they will be. the current ai ack is extremely stupid in shots that should be cake and waaaaay to good at shots that are just about imposible.

again if the actual players of ah were used as a study for how effective in which angles speeds and deflections an ai gunner should be i think things would improve.

[ 11-03-2001: Message edited by: Citabria ]

[Citabria]

when the players buff gets killed he should be transfered to the next buff in his flight


I was thinking the option to choose in tower which buff in the formation to fly would be neat but after further thought im not sure this would be practical. for bombing purposes the player needs to be the lead bomber and transfered to the next bomber that takes the lead when his buff is hit

[ 11-03-2001: Message edited by: Citabria ]

[Kratzer]

You are forgetting the 'me and some friends' attack wherein you all attack at the same time, and the guy who gets shot at breaks hard, drawing fire, and the others beat the piss out of the buff.  That's the best one.

[Joc]

Im worried about how this will effect my frame rate AGAIN    gets low enough as it is with the fps killer sheep  

[J_A_B]

I like the idea of 4-bomber flights, but I do have a recommendation:

Pilot have the option of NOT having all 4 planes (there are times when the AI planes would be unwanted). Also a server-wide option to turn this feature off (once again, there's times when this should be completely disabled).

Then there's the issue of which planes get the option of having 3 AI wingmen.  Obviously, heavy bombers will have this feature.  But what about medium bombers, or Light bombers?   In my opinion, this feature should be for strategic bombers ONLY.

J_A_B

[ 11-03-2001: Message edited by: J_A_B ]

[vmfRazor]

Well the code for this is already there guys. All they have to do is have the other bombers guns shoot at the area you're sight is on the manned gun. They already do this and accuracy is only as good as the guy aiming them. Just the fire All will fire 4 bombers guns that have Line of site on target instead of just one. The problem with this is only 1 target can be fired at at 1 time. there could be 3 51's IB and can only shoot at 1. This would make the possibility of more gunners joined then just 1. Interesting concept and I look forward to the implementation.

RazorDD

[Citabria]

how will killshooter affect your ai buffs?  

will there be more than one type of formation available? ie: trail, echelon, wedge etc

how will the buffs form up after takeoff if the leader stays at full power? will the ai buffs lag behind using max power and not catch up? (that would rock) perhaps the leader will circle the field at low power to allow his ai buffs to form up on him then go full power when they form up?  


this is very neat stuff.

wtg HT 4 ship buffs make a lot of sense and will bring a new dimension to flying bombers   fascinating

[BenDover]

where did u find this out??      

[GRUNHERZ]

Well Cit naturally the B17s will just shoot through each other, there wont be a killshooter thing to worry about.

[moose]

first thing i thought about this was that it was too gamey.

but the more and more i ponder the 4-ship thing, i like it.

imagine a squad like the DHBGs? sccaary. 10 DHBGs x 4 ships per person?

that's a 40 bomber flight. I'd wet my pants if I saw that.

[Buzzbait]

S!

All the fighter boys will have to get their sh*t together and coordinate attacks, ie. flight attacks. in order to bust up the bomber formations.

I'll bet the bombers guns will still be set up for more accuracy than historical, since even with 4 plane formations, we won't be seeing 1000 plane raids.

[Citabria]

I wonder if the 32 plane (nondot) limit will treat one player (4ship flight) as one object and not adversely affect the number of nondot player aircraft in AH.

curious

[Dead Man Flying]

Originally posted by Citabria:
12 o clock high diving inverted attack: this is the one that kills all buffs dead 100% of the time and is almost untrackable due to the fighters high speed and the fact that the fighter is constantly moving in an arc across the top of the bomber all the while the fighter is holding its guns on target shreding the buff.

I agree with Citabria 100% about this method of attack.  I use it whenever it's available to me and time allows for it.  It is almost always effective at damaging or killing the bomber with minimal damage to myself.

-- Todd/Leviathn

[Furious]

The discussion of how the guns will be fired is all well and good, but what I want to know is how will the bombs be dropped.  Carpet bombing or 4 17's with pinpoint accuracy?

F.

nevermind, i just read the article.

[ 11-04-2001: Message edited by: Furious ]