Unperk the Mosquito Mk. XVI

[Karnak]

Yes, very unlucky as far as the Mossie and puffy ack goes.


Try throttling back next time; CV ack always seems to hit the fighters, but leave heavy bombers completely unscathed. Maybe if you fly at heavy bomber speed, the puffy will think you're just a B-24 or Lancaster, instead of a Mossie XVI  .

Sadly, not true.  The heavy bombers are simply so much tougher that they shrug off the hits they take whereas fighters just go down.  The heavies do take more hits, they just don't matter.

I wonder how the game would be if the ratios were changed a bit.  Tighten that flak box up at heavy bomber speeds, 280-300ish and below, so that the heavies aren't just taking a few more hit but instead are taking a very large number more hits.

[Lusche]

Just for the record, this month I have made 30 attacks on the strats so far.. Most of these kept me over the target for 20-40 minutes with about 10-20minutes in actual ack fire. Almost all of them in B-29's.
I lost only one B-29 to AA fire, and one more was so heavily damaged that I had to abort the raid and fly home.

[kvuo75]

for the first time in probably 6+ months, i flew a sortie to the strats in b17's.. two passes thru strat city at 30,000. no damage to me or my drones.  I _think_ i heard one ping, but no damage to anything.

[Scherf]

Two hours and 51 minutes to nit HQ and back. Had to glide part of the way, even then was on fumes.

So far I've been intercepted four times, got away three, though two of those times it was a close run thing, last night Snuggie was about a single .50 cal from finishing me, then ran out of fuel. I managed to stagger back to base, from behind bish strats.

To Snuggie's credit, he didn't then up another aircraft looking for vengeance. (I went below dar bar height just in case though.  )

 

Love the Mossie.

[titanic3]

Hmm, I have more fun flying a .50 cal deathstar and actually slowing down for them to catch me.  Fun for me, fun for him. 

[Scherf]

Yeah, those long missions to the far-flung corners of the Evil Empires are very tiring.

Still, can't remember when I flew a bomber prior to these latest strat changes.

[caldera]

Two hours and 51 minutes to nit HQ and back. Had to glide part of the way, even then was on fumes.

So far I've been intercepted four times, got away three, though two of those times it was a close run thing, last night Snuggie was about a single .50 cal from finishing me, then ran out of fuel. I managed to stagger back to base, from behind bish strats.

To Snuggie's credit, he didn't then up another aircraft looking for vengeance. (I went below dar bar height just in case though.  )

 

Love the Mossie.

I did sit on the runway and alt-tabbed out for a while, just in case you had a pilot wound. 

If only there wasn't that Lanc formation at the strats.  Well Lanc.  It was Lancs, until he saw me and lost his drones doing a 180.
Still had 23 minutes of gas but only 2 by the time I caught you.  Those suckers are fast!

Between you're deft maneuvering and my bad aim, your escape was inevitable.  Well played.   

[Scherf]

Cheers mate.

 

[Rob52240]

That thing goes so fast it's hard to drop accurately at speed.

[Karnak]

That thing goes so fast it's hard to drop accurately at speed.

Not really.  You just need to give it a long straight run to settle its speed.  Either open the bay doors before settling the speed or only open them a moment before dropping the bomb(s).  Also, hold down the T key for 30+ seconds when calibrating.

All of the perk bombers have that problem where it takes a long time to settle on a speed and because they are all so fast they cover a lot of ground while doing so.

[Babalonian]

Well, got to strats unintercepted again, got killed outright by flak, again.

This time I was at 31k, 350 mph +, turning and climbing.

Hmm. Eight times up, six times to city,three times killed by flak.

Am I just unlucky?

Film please, In particular I'm curious to what speeds you slowed down to while executing your climbing turn.

I suspect it would proove something I'm very suspicous about, changing speed quickly (in this case, decelerating) in auto-puffy is unrealisticly hazardous/damaging/"a-very-stupid-and-deadly-thing-to-do" in AH.  If I understand the scripting, it is designed to be more deadly the slower you are flying your aircraft through it...  however, they should be missing by a mile for maybe 30-60 good long seconds after you go from traveling at 350 mph to less than 250 (at ~30k).

Anywho, I'm on your side with your arguement, I suspect your death is a good instance of where auto-puffy should be briefly less-lethal at the moment that you're rapidly changing altitude, speed and heading almost 30k above the guns shooting at you (which would need maybe ~30 seconds to adjust and then start shooting at a more-effective/lethal rate on the reaquired (and now much slower) target).  I think auto-puffy scripting is currently dependent on how many Gs your currently pulling in your aircraft to avoid or "evasive maneuver" the puffy - it's good enough in many instances but that doesn't make sence to targets executing low-G turns but who still should be getting missed by a mile as they're nowhere close to where the gunners 30k-below were expecting them to be when they shot the intercepting salvo.

[Scherf]

Film please, In particular I'm curious to what speeds you slowed down to while executing your climbing turn.

I've no means of hosting a film file, will email it to you if you want, PM etc.

These screenies should provide a start:





I'd started the turn 14 seconds earlier, climb was more a function of the Mossie suddenly being two tons lighter once the cookie was gone. I ended up going 200 feet up, lost 7 mph in the process but was back above 350 when hit.

Again, part of my  is that I've only damage-inflicting hits I've taken from the strat flaks was to the pilot. Never lost any control surfaces, never an engine issue. Just zap to pilot. Twice immediately fatal, once eventually fatal.

I guess all up with the number of times I've been over the city (think it's 14 now), 3 losses to flak still represents a considerable loss rate.

[Scherf]

Well, while we're on the subject, it's happened again.

I was hit hard not once but twice by flak over Bish city. First one gave me a pilot wound, second one killed me outright.

That makes four Mossies lost in 15 or 16 trips over the city. I also have taken a 16 over both Nit and Bish HQ, and on a siren tour of  four towns in Nitland, was not hit.

First two pics are the burst which PW'ed me, showing where the burst was and where I was hit, the second two pics are the subsequent burst which killed me.

First flak hit:





Second flak hit:





Initial PW especially p*sses me off, however I'll say no more for fear of engaging in wild, inaccurate and ultimately unproductive speculation.

[Babalonian]

In your single instance above it seems to of been bad luck/randoms, the instances I'm thinking of are when you slow to ~250 or less.  You do seem to of been doing a low G high-alt turn though, just with minimal climb since you seem to be maintaining a consistent speed.

I've observed flak to be on average less-lethal at the speed and altitude you're maintaining, but working against your favor is the fact that bad strikes can still happen, and mossie bombers are delicate, especially with such a large open glass canopy.... still, maybe they're too soft or another issue with puffy damage, but that's a different issue.


Personally, when I fly fast or soft bombers like the mossie to the strats or over a CV, I fly straight through the puffy after my drop, to maintain the highest speed and try to just fly through the puffy until it stops or significantly lightens, then I do my 180 turn or skirt around my target avoiding the puffy as I RTB.  I'll still take hits occasionally, but I would be curious if you could try it sometime and tell me if you think it makes any difference for you on a couple sorties.

Edit:  Yeah... you might just have the worst luck Scherf

[Scherf]

Here's the first time I lost a Mossie to flak, the very first trip I took over the city in one. Burst and hit sprite.

This one killed me outright. I'd taken a hit sprite to the lower fuselage a few seconds prior, however the end to this flight was BoomSnickOffSplashDed.