Remove 1 ping kill tracer ack from the game!

[Tac]

Please! There is nothing more than I hate besides n1ks than this gameplay concession!!

Put a LOT of .303's on each field, or make the guns be single .50 cal!

The AA fire is not only ridiculously accurate vs a fast manouvering fighter but its also ridiculously inaccurate vs a slow turning plane 1k over their heads. Id love to see a field with fully mannable guns, with humans on the controls try and do something like that. The result would be the opposite!

Whatever the case is, the single ping ack kill capability should be reserved for PLAYERS not a lame psychic AI. It ruins the game. I can almost compare this AI ack to the guards in EQ... you in trouble, run to them to save your ass, want to die? head to them and die instantly. A single fighter heading into a small field protected by 14X .303's,6 .50's AI guns and 5 player-only 37mm's is gonna have a hell of a time not only flying through such a concentration of fire, but his risks will be lower as the acks are brought down. Also, if he gets hit he has a good chance of losing something that would make him RTB, not this bs of 1 stray shell destroying every component in your plane.

[Maverick]

Why not just do away with ack entirely, that way it will be even more realistic!  

Mav

[MrRiplEy]

Why not tune ack instead so that it has realistic leathality and a realistic chance of hitting fast moving targets?

Most ww2 air combat books I've read stated that the light ack was relatively easy to dodge after being spotted. The trouble (at least in finland) were the smart gunners who sat in the forest and opened fire on the last moment below the aircraft. The tracer beads enabled the pilots to fly INWARDS the stream, rendering the aim of the gunners useless. Even if light caliber ack did hit, mostly it rendered the plane like swiss cheese and forced the pilot to ditch or rtb. Most feared was heavy ack at low altitudes so we have it kinda upside down here.

[Blue Mako]

Ack killed a lot of planes in WW2.  Is it realistic to spend a long time circling a base at low speed and low altitude?  NO.  In RL airfields were attacked at high speed and usually it was a hit and run.  We may not have the best AI for the ack but you shouldn't expect to be able to survive in it for long.

My $0.02.

[loser]

tac, although i did not even read most of your fairly short post, i must make one comment.  

when i am attacking a field with moderately active ack,, i dont expect to make it home. the auto ack seems pretty darn acurate regardless of speed (though airfoil attitude to ack etc is more of an issue.)

however,, if i man a gun at a field,, i have a hellavu time hitting squat...yet i can pluck and roast most fighters attacking a base when im in an osti.. given the same conditions...


im not talking about prox kills or anything else...1 auto ack can out aim and kill a manned gun,, every time

[skernsk]

Remove acks...remove buff guns....remove buffs...remove N1k's........why not make a kist of what to keep it'll be fediddleing shorter!

[-ammo-]

In WWII, the P-47 units were doing alot of Air to ground strikes after the pony arrived in early 44. from the several books  I have read, they took their heaviest losses to ground fire. Generally, the first AC/s that made passes at ground targets went unscaved but then the AAA got manned and it was a different story alltogether. the AAA was thick and incredibly dangerous. The Air to ground missions had a much larger toll on the pilots than did the Air to air missions. Hub Zemke describes some hellacious missions in his book. I am also reading a book right now,"A Flying Tigers Dary", and the author describes some of the air to ground strikes they had and he says the AAA was terrible, they feared it. The trick was surprise. First pass OK, second pass getting risky, third pass is suicide.

Now granted the AI we have doesn't give us the oppertunity for a surprise attack. But what do you do? HTC canbt model huiman error either

[Tac]

Im not saying to remove the acks. Im saying to remove its 1 ping kill ability. Put a LOT of .303s or lots of single .50 cals acks down there and leave the 37mm+ cannons to be mannable only.

Acks in this GAME should be a risk, not a certainty of death.

Your ostie example is perfect. How many times have you seen a field get de-acked, then the vh comes up and 10+ people spawn osties and m-16's and spread all over the field? How certain are you of dying to 10+ people with 37mm guns and quad .50's spewing fire when compared to the AI?

[SKurj]

Leave field AI ack alone.  I regularly wade into ack, and it takes more than 1 hit to take me down.  Then again i don't fly the Glass tailed devil either.

Fly a N1K +) at a small field at least u can dive on ack, and wipe all ack off the field without ever leaving the acks range +)

SKurj

[Voss]

Please, turn the ack UP so it kills even better! I hate seeing planes fly through unscathed, getting vultched in landing with useless ack, a single spit de-acking a field, or those silly snake turns the F4's use to kill acks. Total dweebery!

Make them use rockets, bombs, and GV's!

 

[Midnight]

AA sucks. It is not equally deadly to all A/C either.

2 times this TOD alone, I have had a single enemy plane come right through full field AA defenses without getting killed.

1st time, I was re-arming at A1. Watched an N1k at 5.9 being shot at by 88mm. Watched as the N1k drew closer and closer. Watched as the N1k got to within 2.0 and still flying fine as ALL AA guns shooting away. Sat in disbelief as the N1K opens fire at 1.5 and single ping kills me.

In anger I jump to a manable AA gun to kill the N1k and then watch as the damed thing flies carelessly back and forth killing every single AA on the field, including mine!

What a crock of BS!.

2nd time, a lone LA7 coming in VERY fast as I sit on the re-arm pad. I watch as the guns are firing at him and he flies straight and level RIGHT AT my P-51. I .ef when the LA7 crosses 2.0 distance and watch from the tower as he flies right past the re-arm pad and then keeps on going like nothing happened.

I on the other hand get my P-51 over an enemy field at 6k (almost the edge of AA range) and it nails me as I am in a sweeping turn going over 400 MPH. I loose the whole wing sinlge ping....

What's up with this crap HT? This needs to be fixed. I grow more and more tired of the P-51 being so easily killed by AA, while other planse seems to be almost immune.  

[Blue Mako]

<el knitwear>

Agreed with midnight.  Need to look at how AAA tracks some aircraft better than others...  Saw an F4D and La7 come through ack to vulch me SEVERAL times this morning, each time the ack didn't even ping them, even though all acks were up.  This sort of thing happens quite often.

Make the AAA more deadly to low and slow  aircraft.

[Tilt]

Originally posted by Tac:

Put a LOT of .303's on each field, or make the guns be single .50 cal!
.

I would agree with this...... machine gun defences were (in the main) multiple pits firing small calibre stuff..particularly on single runway fields.......

We could allow closer over the field combat but with mgs making  run way vulching difficult.

By all means keep a mix of 20 and 37mm player manned guns on smaller fields and allow bigger AI guns at larger fields.

Above make AAA shells (anti buff) more effective.

Tilt

[hazed-]

Tac i see what you mean mate and i agree.

What we see in AH when hit is very much death or living.The half wing graphic was a good addition as are the loss of elevators,ailerons and rudders etc.

What do we get more fun out of?

for me a jabo onto a field blow some things up straffe guns and fuels etc then if i am hit id like to have more oppertunity to have to nurse my plane home.as it is if that ack hits, 9 times out of 10 im a flaming lawn dart!.Not because of another human has skillfully shot me down but because the ai ack is deadlier!Tacs trying to say ok have ack hit us YES but have it cause damage that makes continued attack difficult or impossible but let us survive a few more ack encounters!
I agree, make those kill shots damaging,take ailerons and elevators off or half the wing.(still have the death shot like a pilot hit and if the engines hit enough it givesout like it should) but lets not die so damned often.
Im fed up with flying 20minutes doing an attack that works because ive used it successfully many times only to be hit by freak shots! Ive logged off in disgust and anger many a time  

[Tac]

exactly hazed. Like I said, how many of you have been in a de-acked field and have had the vh come up.. and have the other side spawn a lot of osties and m16's?

Your chances of getting hit by an ostie or an m16 increase if you are slow and over them or heading straight into them. A high speed pass will usually allow you to hit them and escape before they can track you and hit you (and if they see you coming in and start firing, you can swerve out of the bullet's way and egress). Try that with an AI ack, the instant you change direction or vector, the AI ack will have a round already OTW to you.

Maybe HT should revisit the targeting logic? Put a delay on when it re-aims the target? If the guns now instantly compute your new vector AND move the gun AND fire it at the same time, no wonder hi speed passes dont work when low speed turning planes barely get hit! a .5 second delay maybe?