Question about puffy ack.

[Vinkman]

Looks as intense back in WWII as we see in game ...

(Image removed from quote.)

Look at all the flack bursts in this picture (on the left edge of the picture) ...

(Image removed from quote.)

Doesn;t look like a single gunner to me. 

[Wiley]

...and people flew into that.  Every time I see that kind of pic it just staggers me to think of the amount of courage it'd take to voluntarily point an aircraft into the middle of a scene like that.

Nothing but respect for those guys...

I think it'd be nice if the puffy maybe required an LOS check at least.  Its performance at distance seems a bit suspect as well.  A lot of first barrage deaths occur at ridiculous altitude and distance from the carrier group.

Wiley.

[pervert]

This is a combat simulator not ww2, if I find the time to log on I don't want to have every sortie cut short by some random roll of the dice by a piece of code, especially if I am nowhere near the CV. Why not throw together an offline mission were you get instantly owned by puffy ack, or get an oil hit or rad leak or pilot wound and have to rtb nearly every sortie and tell me how that works out for you, I'd like to know how long you'd keep playing that authentic WW2 experience??

Close to the CV yes, being instantly killed miles from the CV no thanks, in real life WW2 would ack even get a chance to fire with so many friendlys swarming around in front of its guns??

Its one of the big pointless things that happens in the game and in no way adds to the gameplay, its just annoying end of. It needs changed.

[icepac]

OK...I change my mind about puffy ack.

While I was fighting a ME163, we passed over corner of the city strats 4 times carving all over the sky at near 400mph at 30,000 feet and I got hit all 4 times I passed close enough to city to cause puffy ack to start shooting.

Then my opponent gets awarded my kill even though I was behind him shooting the entire time.

He never once was in a firing position and was absorbing my bullets when ack blew me up.

It was never this accurate in WWII and I now believe something needs adjustment badly.

[Slash27]

Pervert is saving me a lot of typing. 

[icepac]

Can we have the puffy ack "box" get larger with altitude.

I just got hit at 39,000 feet going 400mph in a wide turn.......the first shell sent up blew off a wing.

I don't seem to remember seeing huge amounts of ack as picktured below at 39,000 feet.

[Tk3997]

Puffy ack must not hate me nearly as much as you guys because I've only died to it a handful of times and I love me some CV action... I do agree it should check for LOS as that's common sense, and altitude isn't factored in it should be, and perhaps the targeting routine might also be adjusted to favor bombers more then fighters (as obvious threats to the CV/Start) but beyond that I don't mind it now. Flying into ack is a calculated risk as it should be, the puffy ack needs to be reasonably deadly to have any deterrent effect at all. It's not SUPPOSED to be safe to fly into, if you don't want to die too it stay low (the 3000 foot ceiling is already a huge concession, there's no real logical reason it couldn't be firing straight down to the deck like the manned guns) or avoid CVs. Otherwise suck it up, and besides it's not like puffy ack is the only thing in game that screws you with bad luck we've all been hit by some guy spraying an ostie all over the sky, or pinged once for a pilot wound at 1k, or had some guy turn directly into us with no chance to avoid a collision bad luck happens: deal with it; at least you get to respawn.  

[pervert]

Can we have the puffy ack "box" get larger with altitude.

I just got hit at 39,000 feet going 400mph in a wide turn.......the first shell sent up blew off a wing.

I don't seem to remember seeing huge amounts of ack as picktured below at 39,000 feet.

The CV gunners scan the sky with telescopes looking for the 40k guys, that'll teach you! Bet your glad you spent all that time getting to that alt to be shot down by a bit of code! 

[hitech]

Can we have the puffy ack "box" get larger with altitude.

I just got hit at 39,000 feet going 400mph in a wide turn.......the first shell sent up blew off a wing.

I don't seem to remember seeing huge amounts of ack as picktured below at 39,000 feet.

It all ready does.

HiTech

[Scca]

It all ready does.

HiTech

I think his point is maybe it should be bigger at that alt...

[Butcher]

What I really hate is the fact puffy ack rarely gets bombers or dive bombers, the heavy dive bombers that is who always come in without getting hit, however a fighter doing 400 in a tight turn or S-split gets its wing blown off almost every time.

I did have it pepper me 4 times in one flight today, lucky me there wasn't damage other then big holes in the wings, however I did a test and ran Lancs at 10k over a CV and didn't get hit once, mean while that one fighter flight was at 18k doing 400mph.

[E25280]

I wont even fly a fighter near (5 or 10 miles near) a cv anymore.

it's already essentially ineffective at killing threats to the cv's, so why is it even there?

If it is keeping you from flying within 10 miles of the CV, for fear of being shot down, how can you possibly claim it isn't protecting the CV?

[kvuo75]

If it is keeping you from flying within 10 miles of the CV, for fear of being shot down, how can you possibly claim it isn't protecting the CV?

yeah, it keeps harmless fighters away, but doesn't do too good a job of keeping away bombers that can actually kill it.

[Lusche]

If it is keeping you from flying within 10 miles of the CV, for fear of being shot down, how can you possibly claim it isn't protecting the CV?

I'm not afraid flying a bomber through CV puffy ack. I occasionally hear a hit register, but rarely get any serious damage from hit. The number of bombers I had actually lost to auto puffy is very small. Even when doing an attack run on the CV itself, it's only the manned 5" gunners who get me.
With fighters it's a totally different thing. I avoid even skipping the outer edge of puffy ack range at high altitudes. Too many sudden deaths...

Puffy hardly impresses any bomber pilot bound to attack a CV.

[Beefcake]

In the last 5 years or so I think puffy ack has killed 1 of my bombers, just one. Of course I've suffered some minor damage before but puffy ack just tickles my bombers most of the time. Now the last time I flew a fighter near a CV I died in the first burst.