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General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Mathman on December 15, 2001, 04:46:00 PM

Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Mathman on December 15, 2001, 04:46:00 PM
I was wondering if it would be possible to have two levels of damage for the CV.  I mean, one level at 4K (or whatever amount) which would disable flight operations and another at a higher amount for the ship to actually sink.  The flight ops would be disabled for 15 minutes (or whatever) unless it is hit again.  This would be more like what really happened in the Pacific, as no Essex-class CV's were sunk, and only 2 were put out of action (Franklin and Bunker Hill) for the remainder of the war.

The reason why I would like to see something like this implemented is that it would not completely erase the time it took for the CV to get on station with a single attack.  If the CV is close to the port, it would serve the same purpose, maybe more so, if the flight ops were disabled as it currently does with it sunk.

Maybe have it set so that you can only land on it when it is damaged.

Oh well, just a suggestion/request for people to look into.  I just love flying from the CV and capping it.

-math
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: SOB on December 15, 2001, 06:13:00 PM
Great suggestion...I like it!


SOB
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: ergRTC on December 15, 2001, 07:54:00 PM
This is something that should be addressed Mathman.  I think your suggestion is a very good one.  I am a one hit wonder when it comes to sinking carriers and battelships.  Erg with one p47 and ten rockets, your cv is toast.  There is nothing they can do to a p47 doing 530 mph coming in at a very shallow dive.  That is absolutely ridiculus.  I think your idea is a real winner!  That and beef up the flack implacements for players.  4 (I dont count that crap on the ends of the flight deck) flack guns on a carrier.  What made HTC think that was  a good idea?
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Toad on December 15, 2001, 11:18:00 PM
Yeah, I like it too.
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Tac on December 16, 2001, 02:51:00 PM
Yep, I like it.

Make the CV take 10k of bombs to sink.

First 2k damage: Fuel for flight ops goes to 50%

at 4k damage: 50% fuel, no ordenance.

at 6k damage: no flight ops. You can land and rearm but no taking off.

at 8k damage: CV loses speed to half and automatically sets a course for its port.

10k damage: sunk.

Every 5 minutes, the CV repairs 1k of damage.

Also:

BB: 12k to sink. At 7k damage you wont be allowed to spawn PT boats.

Every 3 minutes, BB repairs 1k of damage

DD's : take 5k to sink. When 2 of the DD's are sunk, you wont be able to spawn LVT's.

Every minute, DD repairs 1k of damage.


When CV is sunk, the remaining ships should stay until they are either sunk completely OR the fleet RETURNS to port. Once fleet returns to port (say, sails within 8 miles of the port), the port will repair/replace each ship once every 10 minutes.. so if a fleet lost its CV, and 3DD's, it will take 10 minutes after it arrives to get the new CV and 10 minutes to replace each missing ship as long as the fleet is inside the 8 mile radius from port.
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: shaunmcl on December 16, 2001, 06:49:00 PM
I think your sugestion is a good one.Im all for it but also i think that the AI gunners on CV could be a lot more accurate.For instance, if you operate the guns manually on CV its very easy to shoot down enemy planes. In fact too easy when gunning manualy
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Mathman on December 16, 2001, 09:31:00 PM
Tac,

Thanks for expressing exactly the type f thing that I was trying to get at, though, admittedly, not nearly as eloquently as you did.

Thanks!   :)

-math
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: MAC on December 17, 2001, 09:50:00 AM
TAC!  You are RIGHT ON!   Awesome suggestions!  Forward it to HiTech PLEASE!!!


  :D

 
Quote
 "I drank WHAT?"......Socrates
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: MANDOBLE on December 17, 2001, 11:01:00 AM
Excelent idea Math, I would add some "extras" over the already good sugestions of TAC.
Make the ships as damagables as airfields. Depending on the hit zone, acks would be destroyed, or radar, arrestor wires, course control, main guns, the deck itself destroyed, firing control for battleships, engine stopped, PTs dissabled, LTVs dissabled, aircraft dissabled, troops dissabled, ordenance dissabled, fuel dissabled. Make the ships much easier to damage but much much harder to shink.

Make the repairing of the ships an extremelly slow process (hours) unless they are near a friendly port or an army of goons drop a lot of goodies over the task force.

Also make the enemy TGs visible on map if they are in visual range of a friendly base.

Perhaps, even make the CVs capturable. If you kill all the TG acks, stop the engines of the CV and drop 20 troops over its deck, TG surrenders and is captured. Reasingning it to a friendly port while its previous port keeps inactive until TG is recaptured of shunk. This way you can strike the TG with small bombs just to neutralize its defenses and try the surrender/capture, or strike it with big ones just to shink it.
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: popeye on December 17, 2001, 11:25:00 AM
Agree, damage model for ships could be improved.
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: LePaul on December 17, 2001, 11:51:00 AM
Great ideas, Mathman and Tac.

Right now, a P51D with 2 1ks can sink a ship.  It would be nice to see it bumped up a tad.  Also, add smoke when damaged, etc...can mannable guns be damaged, etc?
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: aknimitz on December 17, 2001, 01:37:00 PM
Excellent ideas Math and Tac, I love it.

Nim
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Seagoon on December 21, 2001, 11:37:00 AM
Hi,

Great ideas TAC and Math! I have yet to find anyone who is happy with the current ship damage model (does such a person exist?) the idea that rockets carrying 60lb warheads could actually sink a an Essex class carrier or one of the British ones with Armored flight decks in a single pass is one of the "arcade game" elements that has to go.

Also, a Cruiser with its armored decks should be even more difficult to sink than the CV.

- Andy
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Aiswulf on December 23, 2001, 10:36:00 AM
I agree.  Fix the fleets and I'd be a happy camper.  Not that I'm not a happy camper already but I'd be even more so.  And isn't HTC's main goal in life to make me as happy as I can be???   :D
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: sling322 on December 23, 2001, 06:59:00 PM
CV suiciders are funny.  I killed the same two guys 3 times a piece the other evening with the 5in guns from the CV.  Each time they were in a heavy fighter trying to suicide JABO the CV.  The ship guns are the 3rd highest among what I have kills in this tour....that is pathetic.  Raise the armor level on the ships please.  I enjoy killing suiciders, but it gets ridiculous sometimes.
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: lazs1 on December 24, 2001, 09:54:00 AM
agree.
lazs
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: StSanta on December 24, 2001, 10:47:00 AM
Make cv's killable by 50 kg eggs. Only 1 needed

[ 12-24-2001: Message edited by: StSanta ]
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: oboe on December 25, 2001, 10:05:00 AM
Great thinking, Math and Tac.  I hope something is done.

Would it be possible too, to have the burning ground target graphics on the ships?   I don't think I've ever seen a fire on these ships after hits.   That might serve as a visual clue to suspended flight ops...
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Hortlund on December 27, 2001, 07:37:00 AM
These are really great ideas.

I think the repairs should take more time though.
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Revvin on December 27, 2001, 07:52:00 AM
Yes good idea provided the repair time is substantial for 2k of ord scoring a direct hit. I think the CV is modelled as it is because 2K would certainly halt operations and force it into dock so the CV dieing as a result of 2K kind of simulates that out of action. Perhaps a few friendly ports can be added to the map, ports that CV's don't lauch from but can return to get repaired instead of trekking back across the map for repair. This way the CV does not get lost after 2K, attackersstill have the chance of sinking it while it makes for the nearest friendly port and also another strategic element is added because countries can now attack these ports to stop them being able to repair CV's.
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Mathman on December 27, 2001, 03:58:00 PM
Revvin,

I understand what you are saying, but CV's, particularly those in WW2 often did not need to return to port to resume flight operations.  Most of the Essex-class CV's that were damaged from bombs and/or kamikazes were able to resume flight operations relatively quickly without the need to return to port.  In fact, only the Franklin and Bunker Hill (I think it was the Bunker Hill) were the only two Essex's that had to return to port after taking severe damage.

I am not asking that the CV's be made invulnerable, just that there is a level of damage that can be repaired after a given amount of time to closer simulate what really happened to them in the war.

Your idea of having them return to port to repair damage is not a bad one.  However, I think that there should be a level of damage required before they need to return to port for repair.   2K should only close flight operations for a brief amount of time (15-20 minutes) unless hit by more bombs.

-math
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Revvin on December 27, 2001, 05:04:00 PM
2k of ord would do a hell of alot of damage especially when from above on the lesser armoured decks away from the belt armour aroudn the hull, granted maybe not enough to have it sail to port but I think even considering AH game time (ie not really reflective of real time) 15-20 mins is a little unrealistic. I see alot of talk here about suicide attacks but many of them are anything but..its just CV's are so hard to get near, to only have them inoperable for 15-20 mins is not a fair reflection of the effort to get bombs anywhere near them or for that matter to even get torpedo's near the fleet with the laser range finding ack which is not realistic at all. The Bismark had supposedly the best defensive capabilities of anything at the time and was escorted by the Prince Eugen and yet nine Fairey Swordfish bi-planes got in range, dropped their ord and flew away without loss and these were slow underpowered cumbersome bi-planes that were only there because the British had nothing better at that time.

I agree a CV should take a lot more damage, perhaps 2k for 25-30 mins to reflect the ammount of time needed just to clear the decks let alone fix them and maybe have a little more ord required to force them to dock at a local ports dotted around the map.
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Mathman on December 27, 2001, 11:54:00 PM
Yes, 2k will do serious damage.  The 15-20 minutes was used as an example.  One that, IMO, is a reasonable one considering the amount of time that bases are rendered unusable.  

Many people have pointed out that the flight decks are not armored and, thus, should be easier to destroy.  What they are ignoring, either intentionally or not, is that the reverse is also true.  Because the decks were made of wood, they were easily patched.  As I have mentioned before, only TWO Essex carriers were damaged beyond what could be fixed at sea.  If you would like, I will post pictures of the many carriers that were damaged and how long they were put out of action.  I think you may be surprised at how quickly they were.  I know I was.

Just as an example, the Yorktown was hit by dive bombers at Midway.  I believe it was three direct hits and a few near misses that damaged the watertight integrity of the hull.  There was extensive damage to the ship.  Within an hour, maybe two, it was able to conduct air ops.  In fact, the Japanese torpedo bombers that attacked it thought that they had attacked a second carrier because, to them, it appeared to be completely undamaged.  This was in 1942 and an earlier class of CV that did not incorporate the damage control capabilities of the later Essex class.
 
We are not asking that the CV's be made invulnerable.  We are asking that a scaled damage model be put in place for them, one that reflects what happened in real life.  If this is not what is wanted by the majority of players, fine, I think everyone here can live with it.  We have for over a year since the carriers were put in place.

I feel that what Tac has put forth as an exa mple of what would be a good damage model is a very good starting place.  Is it perfect?  No, but it is much more realistic and better for what we have in the MA than what is in place now.

-math
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Hortlund on December 28, 2001, 03:56:00 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Revvin:
The Bismark had supposedly the best defensive capabilities of anything at the time and was escorted by the Prince Eugen and yet nine Fairey Swordfish bi-planes got in range, dropped their ord and flew away without loss and these were slow underpowered cumbersome bi-planes that were only there because the British had nothing better at that time.

Bismarck was alone when the Swordfish attacked. Prinz Eugen and Bismarck split up after Hood was sunk to confuse the brittish navy in pursuit. 15 Swordfish attacked her, and two torpedoes hit. No swordfish was shot down, but all of them was hit and sustained damage. Had the aircraft been made of wood or metal, some or all would have been lost.
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Nordman on December 29, 2001, 07:36:00 AM
Great ideas Math and Tac. I love'em. But I hope, if they make this idea come to life, that it won't be easy to "deack" fleet. Specially with small bombs. IMO it will have to need some serious bomber skill to hit fleet guns/acks from a ceratin amount of altitude. I mean, it IS a moving target.. Again I lay my faith iin HTC and believe they will do a great job here as they have done everywhere regarding this game  :))

-XroverX
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: Bluedog on December 29, 2001, 11:15:00 AM
Excellant ideas.
The ports that could repair fleets, but not spawn them, could perhaps be float plane bases, if such a thing is possible ( I am guessing it would be, given the fact that LVTs can float and move on land, why not something that can float and fly? ).
Use Catalinas, Emillies(<? that big beautiful Japanese flying boat anyway) etc for fleet resupply, in a manner similar to how a C47 or M3 does it on land, but instead of dropping, you must land within fleet 'boundaries'( or on the CV itself if they were made truly amphibious) to release a 'fleet repair/supply package'. Maybe even give the float planes some sort of ASV short range radar, giving them the additional role of enemy fleet finder/scout.
Admittedly, any plane that can float would be a sitting duck in the MA environment, but they sure would be interesting.  :)
<S> Blue
Title: CV Suicide
Post by: SirLoin on December 29, 2001, 12:08:00 PM
You are right on the numbers with that suggestion TAC..  ;)   ;)   ;)