AAA/Flak, mannable

[Amboss]

There's been some discussion about adding more AAA to airfields. So I was thinking on how mannable 88mm+ AAA pieces could be implemented, though its prolly nothing new.

Basically I came up with a system where you'd use a dot command to set a base altitude (.alt 5000) and then use the throttle on your stick to increment/decrement the altitude by steps of 50 or 100. Basically the throttle would be used to make small adjustments of the time fuse on the AA shells. The currently set altitude would display in the top left part of the screen, just as it does on naval guns.

Alternatively we could use time units rather than units of alt for historical accuracy, though I prefer alt units from a gameplay point of view.

Anway, just an idea. Feel free to tear it apart.

-Amboss

[Blue Mako]

Originally posted by Amboss
Anway, just an idea. Feel free to tear it apart.

Need to fix the mannable ack no-tracers bug first.

[JimBear]

Just Curious, but why is it a bug?

[Amboss]

I don't think they use tracers in 88+mm AAA though, which is what this thread is about.

-Amboss

[LePaul]

Originally posted by Amboss
I don't think they use tracers in 88+mm AAA though, which is what this thread is about.

-Amboss

He has a point, he is referring to the 37mm that doesn't show tracers.  Fix that, then I completely agree with you about mannable 88mm guns.  That would be great for high alt fighters/buffs attacking a field.

[HFMudd]

This is from memory so the exact details might be a bit off but is in general how Flaks were opereated:

The Fliegerabwehrkanone cannon were all electrically coupled to a central director which was fed from a 41D gun laying radar.  The radar would provide azimuth, angular height and range to the central director.  The gunner at the central director would dial these values in and then, via the "Flaknet", these settings would show up as the settings on a set of duplicate dials on the individual Flaks gun director.  The gunlayer of each 88 in the group would then match his dial set to these.

I'm given to understand if visibility permitted it was common for the azimuth reading to be ignored and the direction set via the Flak's optics.  The gun director (which was steroscopic) of each individual Flak could mechanically compute the predict the course of the round.

So, it would actualy be realistic for the timing of the fuse to be set by the system and leave the actual aiming of the gun to a human.  Your shells would detonate at the right range but you would need to get the lead correct based on some feed back from the system.

[Holden McGroin]

Originally posted by JimBear
Just Curious, but why is it a bug?

Also tracers show from gunners position, but not from anywhere else.

[BenDover]

i don't think it was a bug, something to do with gameplay (*shrug*)

My wish list for manable guns:

Be able to see tracers from manable 37mm sites
Be able to see tracers from you OWN 5" guns on the ships
88mm puffy flak sites
anti-tank enplacements

[sling322]

Why do you need to see the tracers?

Just kill all the guns and your problem is solved.

[BenDover]

well what if the last guy who killed the last AI ack was killed ITP?

Then you arrive on scene, see no tracers from the ack, wouldn't you calmly be flying around the field, waiting for a plane to vulch?

But not all the ack is down, some manable gun sites are still up, and someone is gunning in one of them, he would be firing and trying to zero in, seeing where his tracers go makes his life easier

Whereas you see no tracers and keep on flying around calmly

Suddenly, you hear a loud bang and your wing falls off

wouldn't you be pissed off when you figure out the guy was in a gun pos?

[Frost]

It's very obvious if an ack has been destroyed or not regardless of whether you see tracers.  There is either a white spot or a dark one.

[J_A_B]

Whether you see tracers isn't the issue.  The issue is that you see no tracers while HE can.  He can use his tracers to aim and such without having to worry about that giving him away.

Sort of the opposite of the GV problem where you can turn off your tracers but othert players still see tracers.

J_A_B

[Amboss]

I beg to differ, when I have no tracers set I see no tracers in my field gun.

-Amboss

[BenDover]

you've just turned them off

[sling322]

Originally posted by BenDover
well what if the last guy who killed the last AI ack was killed ITP?

Then you arrive on scene, see no tracers from the ack, wouldn't you calmly be flying around the field, waiting for a plane to vulch?

But not all the ack is down, some manable gun sites are still up, and someone is gunning in one of them, he would be firing and trying to zero in, seeing where his tracers go makes his life easier

Whereas you see no tracers and keep on flying around calmly

Suddenly, you hear a loud bang and your wing falls off

wouldn't you be pissed off when you figure out the guy was in a gun pos?

So you're saying that your SA is so bad that while you are circling a field waiting for a goon or for someone to vulch that you cant look at the ground and see whether or not the acks are up or not?

Hmmmm......it would seem to me that a quick move of the hat switch while circling is all it takes.