Computer controlled 5" puffy should not damage friendly aircraft

[ToeTag]

Taking a wag here...

RESULT : I have never lost a single buff on a bombing mission to the cv ack since I have been playing this game.
OUTCOME : I still take buffs to bomb cv's.

RESULT : I have lost several "in the 50's" fighters to cv ack regardless of maneuvering or alt.
OUTCOME : I don't intentionally fly my fighters anywhere near a cv.

Why do I think it is set up this way?

To keep cv's from being vulched as well as to allow the cv's to still have some vulnerability.
If this were altered cv's would be dead fish in the water and obsolete.

[Vapor]

I fly CV cap all the time. Yeah, I get pinged and popped some but ack did not discriminate and should not for aircraft type.  I don't mind low and medium alt auto ack, but the higher alt auto ack should be more radar controlled and only shot by a player...it is ridiculous sometimes taking clouds and terrain into consideration. 

[caldera]

The issue isn't so much getting nailed by friendly puffy, but the fact that enemy bombers you were shooting at skate right through the same ack that just killed you.

The solution would be to make the ack more dangerous to planes flying a predictable path.  This could be done with several seconds of delay from when the shot leaves the gun, to when it hits the target area.  Bombers flying straight and level will take damage more easily than maneuvering fighters.

edit: of course if implemented, a fighter in close proximity to enemy bombers could be hit (maybe almost as much as with the current system ) but less likely to be hit while in a dogfight at 3,001 feet.

[Nathan60]

I didn't know  chunks of metal hurtling through the Sky knew Friend from foe. Puffy ack should be deadly to everyone I  don't think  pilots of defensive fighters flew into their own ack very often. Now having the OTHER guy skurry though the flak in BUFF untouched is annoying.

[Butcher]

I didn't know  chunks of metal hurtling through the Sky knew Friend from foe.

I would agree with this if it can be proven the radar guided puffy could hit me-262s at 24,500 ft doing 500 mph chasing a set of lancs which are 2.5k front.

Maybe 999000 was the gunner, I doubt it - but first batch of puffy pinged, me - I tried to reverse to get the hell away from it and got set on fire on second puff.

1 in a million? maybe... I'd risk another 262 just to prove it can happen in one sortie.

[Nathan60]

I would agree with this if it can be proven the radar guided puffy could hit me-262s at 24,500 ft doing 500 mph chasing a set of lancs which are 2.5k front.

Maybe 999000 was the gunner, I doubt it - but first batch of puffy pinged, me - I tried to reverse to get the hell away from it and got set on fire on second puff.

1 in a million? maybe... I'd risk another 262 just to prove it can happen in one sortie.

Thing is I really don't think a RL pilot would fly his 262 into the Flak in the first place  but you did agree with me that the bombers being unscathed is pretty damn Midway.

[715]

It should be equally dangerous to everyone no matter who they are, what they're flying or how high/fast they're flying.

I presume what your saying is that, as a fighter pilot, I shouldn't try to defend the CV from attacking bombers because it is the acks job to defend it.  That's fine and realistic except for one thing: I gun on the CVs under attack many many times and I have NEVER, not even ONCE, seen the auto ack kill all three bombers before they drop their bombs.  NEVER.  In DECADES of playing.  In fact, 90% of the time they do NO VISIBLE DAMAGE WHATSOEVER to ANY of the three bombers in the formation.  So the outcome: high level bombers + CV = CV under water.

[ImADot]

I presume what your saying is that, as a fighter pilot, I shouldn't try to defend the CV from attacking bombers because it is the acks job to defend it.  That's fine and realistic except for one thing: I gun on the CVs under attack many many times and I have NEVER, not even ONCE, seen the auto ack kill all three bombers before they drop their bombs.  NEVER.  In DECADES of playing.  In fact, 90% of the time they do NO VISIBLE DAMAGE WHATSOEVER to ANY of the three bombers in the formation.  So the outcome: high level bombers + CV = CV under water.

First of all, calm down.   

Second of all, I said the puffy should not be turned off/down for friendlies just because friendlies get hit by it...equally dangerous to everyone.

The way I remember HT explaining it:
There is a "hit box" area around each player, that extends x units/percent/whatever around said player's plane.
Puffy is randomly distributed within this hit box.
Bomber formations are larger, so the hit box is larger - thus the ack bursts are more spread out.
Fighters are smaller, so the hit box is smaller - thus the ack bursts are more concentrated.

So I would guess this is why puffy ack seems more lethal to fighters. Perhaps a solution would be to have fewer ack bursts inside a fighter's hit box?

[whiteman]

actually having hi cover for the CV while the radar is up can really help eliminate some of those hi buffs so the ack is only trying to shoot 1 or 2 instead of 3. But that means you have to take the time to get up there and wait on the possibility of seeing squat.

[hitech]

Bomber formations are larger, so the hit box is larger - thus the ack bursts are more spread out.
Fighters are smaller, so the hit box is smaller - thus the ack bursts are more concentrated.

100% not true. Bomber vs fighter or size of plane has nothing to do with the size of the box.
The factors that make the box bigger or smaller are.
Gs
Distance
Speed.

HiTech

[titanic3]

Funny, I was in a CV battle a few weeks ago. Broke 3K trying to climb to a con, maybe 4-5 seconds later, poof, insta death.

I say screw it, I'll go somewhere else.

I found out a friendly port is flashing with 2 cons in the area. I take off and head over there. Two 190s that took off from a nearby base is porking the field. Kill one, the other is climbing while I fought the first one. I climb up to the second 190, start fighting, with friendly puffy ack all around. Maybe...30-40 seconds into the fight, poof, insta death. I PM the guy asking wth just happened....and you can figure out the rest.

[Nathan60]

100% not true. Bomber vs fighter or size of plane has nothing to do with the size of the box.
The factors that make the box bigger or smaller are.
Gs
Distance
Speed.

HiTech

Can you shed some light on the equation or atleast how all 3 correspond to the size of the box? would I be wrong in saying a Stuka with a 4k bomb with dive brakes out and  no throttle = cv doom tif auto ack is up?

[guncrasher]

Nope, I  never have heard this particular whine, I have heard whines about dieing from puffy ack many times. I have heard a lot of request that puffy ack should kill friendly's (to which I have responded it all ready does) but I have never heard a whine about following an enemy into your own ack, and that the ack is to deadly on the friendly but never hits the enemy and hence please change it to not hit friendlys.

HiTech

hey boss we have posted this getting killed by our own ack while chasing a con many a time.  I think most threads about ack always mention how funny it is to get killed by our own ack.



semp

[Nathan60]

think of it as darwinism Semp, although I dont know why a high speed turning fighter further away  would possibly have a smaller box then a slow,straigh flying bomber that is  closer. The g's from the turns at speed from a fighter make sit more of a threat then a slow close straight flying  bomber?

[ImADot]

100% not true.

My faulty memory; thanks for refresher.