I hate "Gamey" fixes, but to be dead honestly the whole CV thing is pretty gamey already.... it doesn't get damaged, it only dies outright. It doesn't slow down in turns, it travels at top speed all the time, even in turns.
I'd:
Do what Pongo suggests with bombs, making AP bombs, and planes that really were used vs. anti-ship, give more damage. The Val and SDB are both useless because they barely have the ability to get to a carrier, and then even if they get there they carry less bomb load than almost anything else. Change that, make them have more effective anti-ship bombs. Secondly, improve torpedos. Give them more range, and more speed, plus give some method of aiming while at the fringes of ack cover. Take off all icons from 5 inch guns, give them a chance to survive when in low... with icons on it's impossible. To stop the silly turning CV issue, where the CV can instantly change course at top speed, instead make any course change take up to a minute before it occurs. You submit it, then a random amount of time up to a minute (or maybe more) elapses before the CV actually turns. You wouldn't get CV's instantly turning out of torpedo attacks then. You could also put a red/green light on the back of the island on the CV and alert planes about to take off that the CV is about to turn (a side benefit). Remove any effects of planeguns/rockets from ships... a .50 cal shell hitting the CA should have no effect. Also, give the shore guns some teeth, both in hitting power, and in some tools to help with aiming. I simply can't believe that a shore gun would not have some sort of aiming device to help. The CA sure does... it's a critical difference in the game.
Against airfields, I seem to feel the problem is with the large numbers vs. small numbers of important targets, and the impact that a single suicide attacker can make if determined. You rarely see suicide attackers make a significant impact at a large field because they simply can't put in enough suicide sorties to really make much of a difference.. even if there are 2-3 of them making constant attacks. Thus, the solution to me seems to be to increase the number of targets, and make each less important, so no one person can completely change the battle, yet a couple of guys, even in suicide attacks, can at least make a difference.
Concept, delete hangers at airfields and make aircraft revetments instead. Make 1 revetment for each plane in the game, or maybe double up. Spread them around so a single suicide attack will get 1, but someone who can make 2-3 passes without dying can likely kill 2-3 and still escape. Also clump them a bit so bombers have something to carpet bomb rather than pinpoint bomb, and might kill several in one pass. Each revetment controls the spawning of 1-2 planes, and destroying it will stop the spawning of that plane type for the 15 minutes it takes to rebuild. Make the position of the planes types to each revetment totally random so there is no pattern and people don't immediately target specific revetments to kill certain planes. Even make the revetments change over time so one field isn't constantly the same. This would allow a single attacker to make a difference, knocking out a couple of planes, but probably not end the fight completely with 3 suicide attacks into 3 hangers, knocking out all fighters. It would also give a benefit to survival, at least until you had made your 2-3 passes in something like a P-47 and dropped all your bombs.
One last point, give back the ability to crater airfields and damage runways... that alone might make bombers much more useful. I remember the days of broken gear on heavily cratered runways, I don't think it was a bad thing.
Dunno, just thoughts. The airfields might even look much cooler.
-Soda
The Assassins.
