What we need for bombing in next patch

[Baine]

I've been trying to get the hang of the new bombing thingie with lots of off-line practice and most of my on-line time in buffs. I'm still having a hard time hitting things. I'm dropping short or long more often than I drop in the general area.
Implementing these suggestions would help me and maybe some other buff drivers

Speed display in bombsite _ getting an accurate hit requires maintaining a constant speed, but once you're in the bombsite, you lose the ability to judge speed. If I know I calibrated at 200 knts, I could make adjustments for the drop if I knew my speed was slower or faster. I could also fiddle with the throttle to try to maintain speed. In real life the bomber at least "had a feel" for the plane's speed,  something lacking in the virtual world.

A lookup feature: When i'm in f6 mode, I can't lookup from the site to see if I am really flying straight toward the target. I have to wait until the buildings or field appear in my site to make adjustments. This probably throws things off too (does drifting left or right bleed off airspeed, I'm figuring it does). I'd like to be able to look up, see the field approaching through the nose and make slight alterations before pasting my eye back on the site. Probably be easier than jumping to f4.

Allow for bomb dispersal _ The way I understand it, we can set the interval of the bomb drops, but can't order the drones to fly a little wider apart. I'd like a feature that would allow for such a command, to enable the buff driver to lay down a larger footprint of bombs. Right now my bomb drops look like a hall runner leading up to my target (and usually stopping just out of range


 ) I'd like it to look more like a full-room carpet.

And finally _ the ability to enable a second small window at the top of the screen, where you could enable f4 or f5 views while in the bombsite. Yes, I know this would give buff drivers a much bigger advantage against fighters than they have now, but in real life there was a whole crew of gunners scanning the sky while the bombedier did his thing. The second view would be disabled as soon as a gunner joined.

[Innominate]

Originally posted by Baine

A lookup feature: When i'm in f6 mode, I can't lookup from the site to see if I am really flying straight toward the target.

It's already there, just hit your "look forward" key while in f6.  it's the 8 on the keypad by default.

[Vipermann]

My biggest problem is not being exactly lined up on target and needing to change the heading as the target comes up. I'm sure this must affect the drop since I have yet to hit anything with any accuracy.

Would it be possible to add a heading indicator. When you select a point on the map one of the displays on the left in the bomb site could be heading to target. You could note this and then jump to the pilots chair to line up with that heading, or have a current heading compass in the bomb site which you can line up with.  I'm pretty sure this is fairly realistic as well.

Any thoughts?

[Furious]

I made this suggestion here:

http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58492

Its still a good idea.


F.

[Baine]

Very good idea. That alone would help improve my accuracy,  since I wouldn't be making last-minute course corrections to get onto target.
Of all the ideas I suggested, the one you suggest is the one I'd most like to see.

[Octavius]

Originally posted by Baine

And finally _ the ability to enable a second small window at the top of the screen, where you could enable f4 or f5 views while in the bombsite. Yes, I know this would give buff drivers a much bigger advantage against fighters than they have now, but in real life there was a whole crew of gunners scanning the sky while the bombedier did his thing. The second view would be disabled as soon as a gunner joined.

Good idea!  Perhaps a toggle-able setting that offers 3 variable distances the drones will fly.  


Another separate idea would be to lower the amount of lbs needed per object be lowered, especially hangars or other field targets.  Have you ever seen a 1000 lb bomb detonate?  You'd never forget it.  I'm pretty sure a direct hit would take out a hangar and a blast from a near miss would severely damage it.  Not sure how accurate I am, but I feel it would make buffing a lot more enjoyable.

[Ghosth]

Damage for the hangers was dialed up when the Lancaster came out. Country's were able to shut down an entire front with 3 or 4 lanc's so HT upped the damage.

I think its time it came back down again.
Also while he's at it he could double the target number by useing plane revetments that could be destroyed with a 500lb bomb.

[Turbot]

I went "offline" in the Training Arena for a bit where they have the green "X" thing to show you where your bombs will drop in hopes of tuning-up my bombardier skills.

While doing this I learned that while speed is important, where the largest error was occuring was in the settign of altitude.  I found that great care is required when clicking on map to set the altitude and cllick on the same field at different spots often returns different altitudes!  (An odd feature for a flat field - and the margin of difference was sometimes as much a 900 feet - quite significant.)

Try this yourself (in TA) see what you find.  A perfectly calibrated sight will have the green "X" and the crosshairs of your bombsight in agreement (but only for the calibrated altitude).  Watch how huge the difference is as you move along the ground, not from speed, but altitude alone.




P.S. (It would be a mistake to dial down the hangar strength I feel - people are quite proficient with JABO and this would make it quite a bit easier)

[Shiva]

P.S. (It would be a mistake to dial down the hangar strength I feel - people are quite proficient with JABO and this would make it quite a bit easier)

Ignoring for the moment that what I've seen happening in the MA when a field is being captured is that the only thing that gets taken down at the field are the FlAK emplacements, so that the field is immediately useful after it's captured, it seems to me that the answer to that is not to artificially harden the buildings, but to make the targets more dangerous. Double the number of FlAK emplacements at each field to make it harder for someone to dive in and hit targets at the field without getting shot up by the field defenses.

The game already has the 37mm FlAK 43 L/89 modelled from the Ostwind, the quad .50 MG from the M16, and the single .50 MG from various vehicles; the 20mm FLAKvierling 38 L/112.5 shouldn't be hard to add (particularly if the Wirbelwind is to be added to the GV mix). Mixing these four types of guns into the field defense would create a more layered defense that would have to be suppressed before a field could be jabo'ed with impunity. However, the level bombers, flying above the FlAK limits, would be able to hit any target they choose, subject only to attacks by defending fighters.