JEK,
I'm sure HiTech and the others at HTC have the JU-87 on their list of planes to put in the game, but so far they have decided that other planes are more important to make the game well rounded.
In addition (this is my opinion), right now the arena is balanced out in such a way to make light aircraft dive bombing nearly impossible. It is so tough to do, it seems as if HTC is trying to discourage it. Here is my reasoning:
First, it takes a direct hit by a large bomb to kill just about any ground object in the game. This appears to be how HTC balances out the amazingly good accuracy of the heavy bombers. Instead of decreasing building hardness, increasing bomb damage radius, and then decreasing bomber accuracy, all objects except the AAA take a direct hit to destroy.
Second, the AAA lethality and accuracy strongly discourages dive bombing. To get the accuracy required to actually destroy anything except an AAA emplacement, you have to release your bombs from low altitude in a steep dive. This is very nearly suicidal, and is still very ineffective. A JU-87 would be very vulnerable in the AH arena because it isn't fast enough to get back out of the AAA and it still wouldn't be accurate enough to take down most ground objects.
Anecdotal evidence - I did some online testing. When I dive bomb, I can (with practice) place my bombs within 50 meters of just about any target. I can generally place bombs aimed at buildings with the bomb crater touching the building itself. Even touching a hangar with a large bomb isn't good enough to destroy it however. I've also had bombs hit on the FAR side of a hangar at such an angle that the bomb had to fly THROUGH the hangar roof to get there, yet the hangar survives.
The type of buildings and other ground objects used in the AH terrains should be extremely vulnerable to even smallish bombs. A 500 lb bomb hitting within about 100 ft of the big hangars ought to wreck it (given the type of hangar shown by the art), yet it takes a direct hit to kill it. Worse, the vehicles have the same hardness. I saw a heavy bomber carpet a vehicle field with small bombs, and one bomb went off close enough to an ostwind that the ostwind was halfway inside the crater. Even a 100 lb bomb should have knocked the darn thing over, yet the ostwind was undamaged and actually drove into the crater then continued firing.
Most ground objects in AH except ammo bunkers and fuel tanks in revetments ought to be blown to pieces by a near miss. But since the heavy bombers never miss, the hardness has been set so it actually requires a solid direct hit to destroy most targets.
Given the current balance, another dive bomber in the game would be a complete waste. It would be largely ineffective except in massive groups or when flown by one of the handful of people in the game that have figured out how to get results with them. Until last year, I did "dive bombing" for a living in RL, won bombing competitions against my instructors when learning how to use non-computing fixed bomb sights, yet I can't figure out how to make it work. All modesty aside, if it's impossible for me it's probably pretty damn tough for everyone. There are a few people in AH who can destroy entire fields by themselves in one sortie, but not many are that accurate.
I'm not slamming HTC, they have their reasons for the current hardness/lethality/accuracy balance. I'm just explaining why a dedicated dive bomber would be wasted effort at this point. If the target hardness was lowered and the bomb frag radius was increased, I'd say that the JU-87 would be a great addition. But that would mean that the high alt bomber accuracy would have to be changed, and HTC has not yet done that despite the outcries of a vocal player minority on that subject.
Long answer to a short question, but each added plane has to fit into the arena gameplay, and the JU-87 doesn't fit right now IMHO.
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eagl <squealing Pigs> BYA
Oink Oink To War!!!
