4 buffs to a pilot!

[Wilbus]

no no no Cajun, online of course, HTC don't make stuff for offline play, sure you can shoot drones but that's about it. All of the stuff added in AH has been for Online so far, why would they make it for offline only?

[popeye]

AI is bad.

[Taiaha]

Originally posted by faminz

ps: now imagine yourself as a lone defender with 40 heavies on the horizon....
target rich environment or useless battle against overwhelming odds?

This is when you know you're in the Luftwaffe. . .

FDutchman raises an interesting question: what about goons?

Multiple ship goon formations could be useful for resupply, but at the same time I have mixed feelings about being able to unleash hordes of drunks on targets.  On the one hand, great skeet-shooting opportunities for the Osti and M16 inclined.  On the other hand, could make base capture too simple.

I am very excited to see where this goes.  Depending on how it is implemented, it could completely change the MA.  You'd have to see things like designated, organized CAP, an end to single-fighter assaults on bombers (try that with a four ship information and experience the all too brief rush of realistic immersion in the Luftwaffe experience); an on the other side of the coin, imagine being part of that bomber group and seeing six 110Gs coming in for a high side attack. . .  Because of all of this, it could mean a drastic reduction in furballing opportunities--and since we know that's what a lot of people like about AH (not a criticism, just an observation, not averse to a good furball myself, etc.) if that happens, might we see buff formations exiled to other arenas?

Regardless of what happens, there's no doubt that it will make AH even more of a distinctive flight sim experience in comparison with the competition.

[Imp]

4 Buff formation without AI would make things even worse for Buffers. We can only engage 1 target now while in RL each gunner could engage a different one. Thats not fair for buffers.

One gunner per plane is only good for fighters attacking in group.
One attracts fire while the others kill the buff (that sucks for buffers). Slaving all guns to 1 gunner on four buffs would mean 4 dead buffs in this situation (that sucks even more).

Thats not HT's goal. I hope

Get ready for alot of whining guys

Maybe HT as a magical solution tho. He usually does

We'll just have to wait and see wont we.

S all, especially 1st Nasties, KG2(Shadow) and Mongrels

[tofri at work]

I am absolutely sure, that Hitech knows all these problems and for that he had delayed the 4 buff formation to 1.10.

My guess is, that he will draw a line between horizontal buffs and dive bombers.

While horizontal bomber will fly in this 4 buff formation with reduced (more realistic)guns and a big bomb dispersion, the classic dive or low level bomber like JU88, IL2 or the coming A20 will still fly as single buff.
But these will have the great advantage of precise target bombing.

[H. Godwineson]

How will four ship formation take off from a base?  One at a time and then join up in formation?  Or altogether?  How will they land?

Curious, Shuckins

[Kaz]

If the flight leader died, what will happen to the formation?  

in other simulations that i've played if the lead plane dies the human player goes to the wingman's plane and so on. seems to be a pretty simple and effective way of dealing with it.

How will four ship formation take off from a base? One at a time and then join up in formation? Or altogether? How will they land?

this shouldn't be hard either from the missions i've seen where everyone takes off one behind the other same goes for landing. as for forming up i've seen other simulations boost AI aircraft performance for brief moments just to get them all in place. after that there's no problem. landing would be easier all they'd have to do is throttle back and follow the leader in if the leader in. if the leader augers well they'd land safely they're not that dumb to follow suit. another option would be to have the leader give the  AI buffs a command to return to base where they'd break formation and land on their own.

[cajun]

Originally posted by Wilbus
no no no Cajun, online of course, HTC don't make stuff for offline play, sure you can shoot drones but that's about it. All of the stuff added in AH has been for Online so far, why would they make it for offline only?

Thats what I thought but Pyro made it sound like it was only for offline.... I'll reread his post...

[cajun]

Hmmm... I must have missunderstood it when I read it, I dunno if I'll like a 4 bomber formation being controlled by 1 player, What I allways liked about AH was how realistic it is, how there has to be a player controling each plane, taking of of fields instead of just appearing 20k in the air and so fourth.  I like bombing, but I dunno if mixing AI controlled planes in with multiplayer will be such a good idea, they would have to cost something, maybe perks or something... but what about h2h play? you would have to be able to turn them on/off.