as to banning level bombers what a pile of horse manure that idea is!
hehe
If you want carrier vs carrier battles this is the map to get them.
Ive run some 10 or so torpedo bombing missions in the last tour or so because i decided i will only ever attack a carrier with EITHER torpedoes or an aircraft that was likely to dive bomb the fleet.This means ill do ju87 SBD VAL etc.
Basically they havent been too successfull. One or two were superbly successfull but the majority are failures due to enemy fighters or manned guns on the fleet. This leads to people using the easier method of level bombing.
The reason is the limits imposed on the torpedoes compared to say a B17.
In the torpedo aircraft you must fly at 100 to 200 foot.
B17 can fly at any level
In torpedo aircraft you are forced to fly at 200mph or less (250 TBM)
B17 can fly any speed during drop
In the torpedo aircraft you are forced to drop your torpedo at around 2500 yards from the target(just about when the auto small arms AA starts to fire at you
B17 has no limit.you can drop your bombs in a vertical dive if you like and the bombs will fall normally.
other problems are the fleets travel at an abnormally fast speed yet the torpedoes travel at their realistic speed.This means that any shot in the rear hemisphere of the fleet has very little chance of even catching the fleet in time.
What id like to suggest is to make the torpedoes match the speeds of WW2 torpedoes BUT with a directly proportional increase in speed to match the fleets excessive speed.
So if the real essex class carrier cruised at 12 knots or so in WW2 yet here in AH its around 30 knots(?) we take the figure of the difference...18 knots and this should be added to the speed of the torpedoes thus they travel further and faster but only in proportion to AH's gameplay concession fleet speed.
This would mean, although graphically the torpedoes will be a little fast we will be using a more similar method of attack to what they used.it will mean we are able to take a shot with a torpedo from much further out.Requiring some skill and luck to hit but you are able to reverse and stay alive to watch the shots and learn what works and what doesnt.In AH now we are forced by the speed of the fleet to drop VERY close to the fleet and they are protected by an easy to use deadly AA system and 9 times out of 10 we die and dont even see if we were close or way off.
Result is people dont bother and just suicide it instead as its pretty much a garenteed sinking.sad but its human nature.
we need to make torpedo bombing more fun and a little bit easier to perform.Keep the slow speed drops, thats realistic and good for learning, speed up the torpedoes a little and give players a chance to take longer distance shots. Make it a bit more enjoyable this way and a few more will try this instead of suiciding or even level bombing im sure.
