What do we need to do to reintroduce buff importance?

[FDisk]

Make it so all ack needs to be destroyed (both field and city) and the
vehicle and fighter hangars must be destroyed to close the field.

Gawd, it already took us 2 weeks to get off the Minado map.. I don't got all day to get one field... or the 20 people to do it.

[Wotan]

1 p47 can kill a hanger plus soft another so hanger destruction isnt gonna make buffs important.

The ability of a lone buff however has the potential to help a field capture by striking at strat targets.

Theres a whole new "importance" of buffs in the current main. That's what Skurj post was about and he is dead on right. Not only does that come closer to the "historic" role of buffs but it fulfills a need a lot of buffers have called ,for more targets.

Nothing about field capture requires a buff. Not before 1.08 not now, not after. field capture is about overwhelming the defensive capability of a base. Whether by deception or furball. A jabo is ideal fer this he can deliver ord kill uppin cons and supress ack.

[GRUNHERZ]

Whirl very simple.

Just fly and fire straight at the acks at medium high speeds, about 300-350mph. Come in from some alt, a few k, in a dive,  and line up to shoot at 2 or 3 acks in 1 pass. DO NOT turn at all or roll/sideslip much for any reason in this attack or in the exit. To exit after your furung pass, just fly straight and low to the ground then climb back up when out of rtange and reapeat diving attack.

They wont hit you.

[SKurj]

Buffs porking the field you are currently attacking is almost a waste of time now.  In the past the occasional buffer who gave some thought to the problem would pork the neighbouring field's fuel or ammo.
To be successful, more buffers thinking is required +)

I think it will be very very tough to get a field to the point where its hangars stay down for anymore than they used to, so the vulch is gonna be more common in 1.08 captures.  The buffs now, should be porking the neighbouring field's barracks, and possibly VH, as well as neighbouring depots.
These above are the PRIMARY buff roles.

Secondary buff roles, and jabo primaries: ack and structures at the base/town intended for capture. Jabos should also be sent to intercept any supply convoys.

Primary fighter role: vulch +) Secondary:  DAMNIT this one is most overlooked... some fighters should position themselves so that ANY enemy fighters coming from neighbouring bases can be intercepted.  When the secondary role is ignored, is when your brave goon pilots get shot down.

more ramblins

SKurj

[lazs1]

if the fluffers can't ruin a lot of peoples fun with no effort or talent then they won't fly.
lazs

[Westy MOL]

"What do we need to do to reintroduce buff importance?"

 Make it real. Not some bland soy subsitute.

 IMO the thrill of shooting down a buff or even flying one is now tantamount to eating a tube of Pringle "potatoe" chips done up with oleo. I do it now only if there's nothing else to go for and even then only out of necesitty usually. To stop, as Neil Young would say, "The Dweeble and the Porkage Done"

 Westy

[Wotan]

seems that way lazs.........

cant get anyones attention on channel 1 typing "I bombed your train station"

[Loyalist]

You don't need a buff to pork a base's barracks though. Simple Jabo missions are all you need for that.

Again, what do we need to do to reintroduce an importance to buff flying?

[J_A_B]

If you want buffs to become an integral part of the game, then they need to be a necessary part of the things people do the most--base capture.

If the targets at airfields (hangars, fuel, etc) were tougher to kill, and HAD to be killed before capturing the airfield, then bombers would enjoy much more use.  

No amount of strat targets will make bombers more important, because most people simply don't care about strat--a bomber pilot probably isn't going to feel "important" when he repeatedly bombs an undefended depot.

Making base buildings somewhat tougher AND requiring their destruction to capture a base nails two birds with one stone--not only do bombers become important, but the bases are no longer so easy to capture (and perhaps player resupply becomes more important too).

Will this happen?   Who knows.

J_A_B

[Loyalist]

If the targets at airfields (hangars, fuel, etc) were tougher to kill, and HAD to be killed before capturing the airfield, then bombers would enjoy much more use.

I like this idea.

[Wotan]

who cares how buff pilots "feel".

buffs whether u like it or not are unimportant to base capture. by far the minority in ah are "buff" pilots. Most are usually new and as they learn AH they move to fighters.

The thread i thought was about the "importance" of buffs and this can be found in roles that are unique to buffs.
It is not in base capture but in strat bombing. Yup its boring and thankless but who cares.

Want excitement fly a fighter. You wanna nap, cook dinner, do laundry or mow the lawn up a buff.

You gotta your auto take off ,auto climb ,auto level then when you get to target push a button 4 or 5 times and rtb. This doesn't change if you hit fhs or depos. A buff can help base capture by  hitting targets that actually help. fhs can be killed by jabos those jabos can then supopress while 1 buff can go pork the depo that supplies that base.

[jpeg]

Originally posted by Loyalist:


I like this idea.

As do I

[SKurj]

Should we dig up all the posts about not enough targets for buffs?
You are given them and u complain??  the current strat system permits u to virtually shut down a team without ever attacking a base....
The problems really are "instant gratification" and its tough to do much alone...
S'up to you to figure out which you prefer.  I fear that the community may have requested features like the current strat without thinking about what it would mean..  Strat guys wanted a more in depth strat layer, well the enthusiasm for that seems to have died off, less than a week after its release...

If developers succumb to every whim of the community the game dies.. been proven b4...  
Watch what you ask for..

SKurj