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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter?

 
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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/29/2010 6:22:34 PM   
John 3rd


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House Rules to Prevent this:


9. Combat altitude with fighters only from:
--Dec 1941- May 1942 20,000
--June 1942-Dec 1942 25,000
--1943 28,000
--1944 31,000
--1945 Whatever

All other Aircraft below 20k (except Recon and 4EB)


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Post #: 31
RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/29/2010 6:57:21 PM   
Sardaukar


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One could also use rule that sweeps can only be made at best MVR band but not higher. For P-40E that'd be 15k, P-40K 20k etc. 

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/29/2010 7:39:15 PM   
herwin

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

One could also use rule that sweeps can only be made at best MVR band but not higher. For P-40E that'd be 15k, P-40K 20k etc. 


That's a way of handling it, but it's ahistorical. Per Shaw, a sweep consisted of a pair of elements--a low altitude element that concentrated on messing up fighter airstrips, ground forces, and other things down close to the earth, and a high altitude element covering the tails of the low altitude element.

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/29/2010 8:36:33 PM   
Alfred

 

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I agree with Herwin's approach outlined in post #28, with the slight tweaking that the difficulty in acquiring a visual lock on target acquisition should be based more on distance separation rather than on height per se. However as these would involve coding changes, they will remain a pipedream only.

Alfred

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/29/2010 8:42:33 PM   
crsutton


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There are a lot of solutions being bandied about but to my experience there is really little you can do to counter the effectiveness of the high sweep. Sometimes you get lucky and have a fair fight and sometimes you just get slaughtered (more often than not). The problem is severe for the Allied player through most of 1942 when you are not only dealing with the high altitide bonus but you have to also deal with better pilots flying mostly better aircraft with the abiliity to sweep in larger formations than you, and to top it off numerical superiorty in both planes and trained pilots. It proves to be a deadly cocktail for the Allies indeed.

My suggestion is that you have a frank discussion with your opponent to come up with a solution. My opponent was nice enough to agree to a 29,000 foot cap on all aircraft. (max P40 altitide)It is not the best solution in that we have a lot of fights at 29,000 feet but it has made the game a bit more balanced and fair. When discussing it with your opponent, take the opportunity to point out that after mid 1943 you will have better fighters that can fly higher than his, plus a lot more of them. If he refuses, then you will just have to eat dirt for the first year of the game, but will actually be in much better positon in the mid to late game because of it.


< Message edited by crsutton -- 7/29/2010 8:43:36 PM >


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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 12:47:21 AM   
CapAndGown


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quote:

ORIGINAL: LoBaron


quote:

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown


quote:

ORIGINAL: Halsey

Radar...
Stagger your CAP altitudes by bands.
Bands covered cause a roll to be made by the sweepng units, to see if they drop down to that altitude.

A unit set at high, medium, then low has a 33% chance of having the sweepers drop down in altitude.



Where did you pick up this info?


Math?

Its quite simple: the attacker hits an enemy plane located in a certain alt band. The chance of hitting one specific alt band is indirectly proportional to
the number of alt bands.

So: to hit an alt band out of 3 you have a 33% chance; out of 4: 25%, and so on.


I didn't meant about the probability of dropping down to a certain level. I meant the belief that the sweepers actually do drop down.

You have been advocating a split CAP for quite a while. I used split CAPs in UV because the combat model was different and it worked there when intercepting bombers. But in AE, I have not seen split CAP perform as you claim it does. Instead, what I see is the high altitude sweeper dives on EVERYONE. I have not seen the CAP diving on the high altitude sweeper when the CAP is split.

What I wanted to know is if there is if there is some confirmation somewhere that a sweeper that dives down to shoot at a CAP plane can then be dove on by the high element. It seems just as likely that the sweeper dives, executes its attack, and then that plane rolls to see if it executes another attack or has to go home, and if it executes another attack, from what altitude, its new altitude, or the one it flew in at.

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 12:50:17 AM   
CapAndGown


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quote:

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

House Rules to Prevent this:


9. Combat altitude with fighters only from:
--Dec 1941- May 1942 20,000
--June 1942-Dec 1942 25,000
--1943 28,000
--1944 31,000
--1945 Whatever

All other Aircraft below 20k (except Recon and 4EB)



OK, but what about the CAP? When you say "combat with fighters only," how can you guarantee that the CAP will be facing fighters only?

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 6:53:41 AM   
LoBaron


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quote:

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown


quote:

ORIGINAL: LoBaron


quote:

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown


quote:

ORIGINAL: Halsey

Radar...
Stagger your CAP altitudes by bands.
Bands covered cause a roll to be made by the sweepng units, to see if they drop down to that altitude.

A unit set at high, medium, then low has a 33% chance of having the sweepers drop down in altitude.



Where did you pick up this info?


Math?

Its quite simple: the attacker hits an enemy plane located in a certain alt band. The chance of hitting one specific alt band is indirectly proportional to
the number of alt bands.

So: to hit an alt band out of 3 you have a 33% chance; out of 4: 25%, and so on.


I didn't meant about the probability of dropping down to a certain level. I meant the belief that the sweepers actually do drop down.

You have been advocating a split CAP for quite a while. I used split CAPs in UV because the combat model was different and it worked there when intercepting bombers. But in AE, I have not seen split CAP perform as you claim it does. Instead, what I see is the high altitude sweeper dives on EVERYONE. I have not seen the CAP diving on the high altitude sweeper when the CAP is split.

What I wanted to know is if there is if there is some confirmation somewhere that a sweeper that dives down to shoot at a CAP plane can then be dove on by the high element. It seems just as likely that the sweeper dives, executes its attack, and then that plane rolls to see if it executes another attack or has to go home, and if it executes another attack, from what altitude, its new altitude, or the one it flew in at.



Sorry I misunderstood your question.

Since the results improve for the defender when implementing a split CAP tactics compared to selecting a single altitude band I am inclined to say split CAP works
and the sweeper does drop in altitude.
This is easy to reproduce. Just count the results, split CAP nearly ALWAYS comes out on top of single alt band selection. If the attacker remained at initial alt we would
not see a difference whatsoever.

IF the total chance after every other dice roll is really 33 or 25% for the respecting alt bands is very hard to conclude from the combat replay because you only see
the dive executed and not to which altitude, so assuming which alt band got actually hit is pure speculation.
The results after the first attack would naturally get influenced by other properties of an airframe. Climb rate is something I rate as very important.

Personally I doubt that is so easy. There are factors involved that are not random, like the probability when which plane gets spotted first (this could influence the
results of split CAP tactics to a great extent naturally), and all the others Sardaukar has already more or less confirmed with his testing.

The hit percentage per total alt band count is more like a basic clean mathematical formula for a much more complex system.
The other factors could influence the results in a way that the chance distribution is more like 45%, 30%, 25% from top alt band to bottom for example.
This still means it does have an effect.

Whats a very interesting question is at which altitude the combat actually takes place. I do not think that its either the attacker´s or the defender´s altitude in most cases,
thats just the "initial setup". After that it gets a mixture of numbers/speed/man/climb/exp/air skill/def skill....

A P40 formation thats outnumbered will have a very hard time to engage in their only way that enables it to gain initiative against an opponent like the Zero, which would be climb, dive, engage, extend,
climb and so on.
I suppose the reason is that to implement that tactic a single P40 needs a couple of successfull dice rolls so chances are very high that one or the other Zero reaches its "own" superiour position
first. If it really works like this or is represented only by abstracted calculations doesn´t matter too much.
This is why AC numbers are so important.


I like it quite a lot that we have to base our tactics on assumptions which could prove right or wrong. In a way it simulates the experiences made in the war,
and I am not sure if I´d appreciate it if you can sit down and just calculate everything down to the exact result by just adding the different dice rolls together.

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 7:23:29 AM   
Sardaukar


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quote:

ORIGINAL: herwin


quote:

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

One could also use rule that sweeps can only be made at best MVR band but not higher. For P-40E that'd be 15k, P-40K 20k etc. 


That's a way of handling it, but it's ahistorical. Per Shaw, a sweep consisted of a pair of elements--a low altitude element that concentrated on messing up fighter airstrips, ground forces, and other things down close to the earth, and a high altitude element covering the tails of the low altitude element.


Yes, I know it's ahistorical, but unfortunately game mechanics are not that refined, I think.

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Post #: 39
RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 7:29:52 AM   
Sardaukar


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I think sweeps above certain altitude should induce high pilot and airframe fatigue, since it was very stressing for men and machines to fly very high-altitude. I think this is modeled somewhat in game already, but effect is quite small. 

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 9:26:07 AM   
PzB74


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We implemented a simple house rule; max CAP altitude 30k feet.
- No more tiddelido about this.

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 9:53:29 AM   
Sardaukar


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quote:

ORIGINAL: PzB

We implemented a simple house rule; max CAP altitude 30k feet.
- No more tiddelido about this.


That doesn't really address strato-sweep, unless you mean no flying above 30k? That might actually be realistic in earlier half of war.

Interesting quote from Roger Haberman, VMF-121 veteran from Guadalcanal flying Wildcat:

Fire in the Sky, p253:

"..we'd work like hell to climb to 23-24,000ft. At that altitude, if you make turn, you lose 1000ft,and it's very easy to stall out. In theory the F4F had higher service ceiling, but not in practice. You'd look right up and there sit the Japs at 30,000 looking right down your gazoo. A real fun time. You could not get that bird much higher than 24,000: not you, not Jesus, nobody. The bird would not go any higher."


So, maybe we are approaching the problem wrongly with MVR bands and like your limit, we should look for max. service ceiling. Cap (pun intended) the altitude to 70-80% of plane service ceiling etc.

< Message edited by Sardaukar -- 7/30/2010 10:13:04 AM >


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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 10:42:17 AM   
PzB74


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Yep, nothing goes higher than 30k. Not sure this was mentioned especially, but I would never set a bomber to a higher altitude than 30k.


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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 2:08:09 PM   
AW1Steve


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Things can go higher, but the question is how effective are they? B-17's in Europe regularly operated at 32K, but were not as accurate in their bombing. B-29's bombed from over 30k but couldn't hit anything. P-51's could work there , but the controls were sugglish and mushy. High level operations were brutal on aircraft from a maintainance point of view , putting an incredible strain on the aircraft and flyers themselves. Not to mention the likely hood of failure of heated suits and oxygen equipment. Anyone who's ever experince the "delights" of a pressure chamber can attest to how fast a flyer over 25k with an oxygen failure will be "drunk stupid" in a matter of seconds, and out cold in very few minutes (I've seen healthy men pass out in less than 90 seconds). The thought of maintaining a CAP at 30k for several hours would be very,very difficult. Early in the war, I'd say the only effective plane for the allies to do this for a limited time would be the P-38, and only with very experinced pilots. Perhaps a rule that squadrons doing this must have experince levels of 80+? Just a thought.

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/30/2010 8:26:54 PM   
crsutton


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

quote:

ORIGINAL: PzB

We implemented a simple house rule; max CAP altitude 30k feet.
- No more tiddelido about this.


That doesn't really address strato-sweep, unless you mean no flying above 30k? That might actually be realistic in earlier half of war.

Interesting quote from Roger Haberman, VMF-121 veteran from Guadalcanal flying Wildcat:

Fire in the Sky, p253:

"..we'd work like hell to climb to 23-24,000ft. At that altitude, if you make turn, you lose 1000ft,and it's very easy to stall out. In theory the F4F had higher service ceiling, but not in practice. You'd look right up and there sit the Japs at 30,000 looking right down your gazoo. A real fun time. You could not get that bird much higher than 24,000: not you, not Jesus, nobody. The bird would not go any higher."


So, maybe we are approaching the problem wrongly with MVR bands and like your limit, we should look for max. service ceiling. Cap (pun intended) the altitude to 70-80% of plane service ceiling etc.



Yes any good flight sim (IL2) will teach you the futility of flying any aircraft near it service ceiling. Controls are sluggish and the slightest slip in the elevators or rudder will cause you to drop 2,000-5,000 feet. Of course any experienced pilot here can confirm it as well.

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 7/31/2010 8:01:08 PM   
Cathartes

 

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quote:

We implemented a simple house rule; max CAP altitude 30k feet.
- No more tiddelido about this.


Agree that this is the best way to even out and make the high alt. sweep issue go away. I would even pitch 27k feet as max alt for all CAP/SWEEP.

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 8/1/2010 12:44:59 AM   
topeverest


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Yup, tough thing if it is allowed in the game you are playing, but you can deflect effectiveness with a little guile and common sense. There is a Yang to every Ying.

A few things that usually help mitigate the strateosphere sweeps.

More Radar units in target base.
Multiple fighter squadrons on CAP with varying altitudes - one very high.
Excellent commanders.
counterstrike / sweep at origination base of the sweep.
stratosphere countersweep missions in the same defending hex (with lower CAP squadrons if you think a strike is likely)
Not sending up fighters

All this said, you need to accept your opponent is going to win his or her share of air battles. Dont execute obviously questionable tactics, and dont keep the same tactics if they fail several times. And of course, early (allies) and late (Empire) in the game, choose your air battles carefully to maximize your asset effectiveness & utilization.

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RE: Stratosphere sweeps, how to counter? - 8/1/2010 9:00:59 AM   
Runnersan

 

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Heh, I must wait to rebuild my squadrons after losses, There is not enough Hurricanes in replacment pool... 

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A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/1/2010 2:43:49 PM   
PaxMondo


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I'm investigating hammering the band numbers more in my mod.  As several have noted above, a/c of this era were designed for a specific altitude band.  While they could "fly" higher, they could not fight higher.  Modern a/c have engineering to vary wing loads and control surfaces, etc that a/c of this era did not (could not) have.  So, I'm dropping the performance aspects of the a/c more sharply above their "design" point to see if this essentially creates a "nerf" zone.  Yeah, Tojo's and Hurc's will mill around at 30K, but nobody can hit anyone because everyone is just trying to stay in the air.  No concrete results yet ...

As to the OP; pilot exp and numbers seem to outweigh everything else, even altitude.  If he is sweeping with 30 exp 70 Tojo's at 30K, you need to have +40 exp 70 Hurc's at 20K to win.  You're going to lose a few to bounce, but only a few.  After that, numbers matter (with equivalent exp pilots).  If you have +50 Hurc's, he will get creamed (on average).  Your Hurc's have more firepower, they will hurt the Tojo's faster in melee.  Refer to LoBaron's guide stickied.  It works. 

So, you can't keep your fighters on constant CAP day after day.  You have to stand down, as IRL, for R&R.  Many players ignore this, and better players can really take advantage of it.  Watch PzB in his AAR.  He is changing up his CAP settings all the time.  When I get hurt in my game, it is always because I left my CAP on too many days, my number of a/c whittled down due to fatigue/maintnenace, and then I get swept: BAM and I lose 10 - 15 planes.  Ouch.

The Air Combat model is wonderfully close to RL in WWII.  My hat's off to Elf and others for their work.

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RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/1/2010 6:16:01 PM   
LoBaron


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quote:

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

I'm investigating hammering the band numbers more in my mod.  As several have noted above, a/c of this era were designed for a specific altitude band.  While they could "fly" higher, they could not fight higher.  Modern a/c have engineering to vary wing loads and control surfaces, etc that a/c of this era did not (could not) have.  So, I'm dropping the performance aspects of the a/c more sharply above their "design" point to see if this essentially creates a "nerf" zone.  Yeah, Tojo's and Hurc's will mill around at 30K, but nobody can hit anyone because everyone is just trying to stay in the air.  No concrete results yet ...

As to the OP; pilot exp and numbers seem to outweigh everything else, even altitude.  If he is sweeping with 30 exp 70 Tojo's at 30K, you need to have +40 exp 70 Hurc's at 20K to win.  You're going to lose a few to bounce, but only a few.  After that, numbers matter (with equivalent exp pilots).  If you have +50 Hurc's, he will get creamed (on average).  Your Hurc's have more firepower, they will hurt the Tojo's faster in melee.  Refer to LoBaron's guide stickied.  It works. 

So, you can't keep your fighters on constant CAP day after day.  You have to stand down, as IRL, for R&R.  Many players ignore this, and better players can really take advantage of it.  Watch PzB in his AAR.  He is changing up his CAP settings all the time.  When I get hurt in my game, it is always because I left my CAP on too many days, my number of a/c whittled down due to fatigue/maintnenace, and then I get swept: BAM and I lose 10 - 15 planes.  Ouch.

The Air Combat model is wonderfully close to RL in WWII.  My hat's off to Elf and others for their work.



Very good modding idea PaxMondo!

I mentioned some time ago that it would be wonderful if you could set negative values for alt band bonus. Would give you a whole new option to influence AC performance.

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RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/1/2010 7:10:27 PM   
PaxMondo


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I could also add that forward bases had a lot of trouble supplying O2 (particularly early war) ... Henderson records are clear that frequently fighters scrambled with a 10K limit due to no O2 onboard.  AVG in China records are all about limits .. some pilots could handle 15K or so, because no O2 supplies available.  Almost all of the AVG fighting was 12K and lower ...

I suspect IJN/IJA were even more hampered in this regard in their forward bases.

So, an interesting feature for AE17  would be to have altitude limits based upon the base size.  You need size 3 to operate above 12K.  Or something like that ....

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RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/2/2010 4:33:55 PM   
Kwik E Mart


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quote:

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

I could also add that forward bases had a lot of trouble supplying O2 (particularly early war) ... Henderson records are clear that frequently fighters scrambled with a 10K limit due to no O2 onboard.  AVG in China records are all about limits .. some pilots could handle 15K or so, because no O2 supplies available.  Almost all of the AVG fighting was 12K and lower ...

I suspect IJN/IJA were even more hampered in this regard in their forward bases.

So, an interesting feature for AE17  would be to have altitude limits based upon the base size.  You need size 3 to operate above 12K.  Or something like that ....


so a mega hit on morale and/or fatique when going strato might be in order...not sure how it's currently modelled...

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RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/2/2010 4:48:23 PM   
topeverest


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That's an excellent comment...Quick E Mart. Kinda solves the problem all by iteself if coded into the game in some fashion.

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Post #: 53
RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/2/2010 6:39:46 PM   
PaxMondo


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Fatigue would be completely appropriate.

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RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/4/2010 3:48:11 PM   
Miller


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How many dofights took place higher than 20000ft in WW2? I doubt it would be more than a few percent, and even then they would have been almost exclusively in the European theatre. Most Jap fighters performance fell away sharply above 15000ft.

As has been mentioned several times, the simple solution is a limit on max altitude for fighters (I would go for 25000ft).

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RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/4/2010 3:58:45 PM   
LoBaron


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I like the fatigue idea a lot.

It would have to be airframe specific though to set it into a historical frame. Simply setting high fatigue values for, say, +20k altitudes
would have an ahistorical impact on every pilot in a plane that was long-range/high alt capable as the B29 or the P51 for example.

Also what would have to be considered would be the impact on other missions like CAP and recon.

< Message edited by LoBaron -- 8/4/2010 4:00:24 PM >


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RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/4/2010 9:36:39 PM   
Kwik E Mart


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quote:

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

I like the fatigue idea a lot.

It would have to be airframe specific though to set it into a historical frame. Simply setting high fatigue values for, say, +20k altitudes
would have an ahistorical impact on every pilot in a plane that was long-range/high alt capable as the B29 or the P51 for example.

Also what would have to be considered would be the impact on other missions like CAP and recon.


of course, just to play devil's advocate, the fatigue hit could be mitigated somewhat (temporarily at least) by overloading sweeping squadrons with extra pilots. not sure how hard it would be to implement, but an across the board (the entire squadron, whether flying or not) hit to morale might be effective. "The $%^*ing brass want us to fly in the stratosphere AGAIN?!?!!? Eff this crap..." Especially effective since it seems only a stand down of the squadron effectively recovers morale...

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Post #: 57
RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/4/2010 9:53:15 PM   
LoBaron


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From: Vienna, Austria
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Kwik E Mart


quote:

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

I like the fatigue idea a lot.

It would have to be airframe specific though to set it into a historical frame. Simply setting high fatigue values for, say, +20k altitudes
would have an ahistorical impact on every pilot in a plane that was long-range/high alt capable as the B29 or the P51 for example.

Also what would have to be considered would be the impact on other missions like CAP and recon.


of course, just to play devil's advocate, the fatigue hit could be mitigated somewhat (temporarily at least) by overloading sweeping squadrons with extra pilots. not sure how hard it would be to implement, but an across the board (the entire squadron, whether flying or not) hit to morale might be effective. "The $%^*ing brass want us to fly in the stratosphere AGAIN?!?!!? Eff this crap..." Especially effective since it seems only a stand down of the squadron effectively recovers morale...



Good point but I don´t think it would negate the effect.

If I don´t get the way the game handles A2A totally wrong, the fatigue which is built up on the incoming leg (added up per hex flown) is already
calculated into the actual combat over target. So the impact would already be noticable before the pilot actually has a chance to recover.

To give an example (the number for fatigue increas is pure guesswork for the example):

A pilot with 0 fat flies a sweep mission at 15k to a target 4 hexes away increasing his fatigue 4*3=12
So arrives on the combat scen with a fat 12 and is back at base with fat 24 (plus the additional fat added through combat).

A pilot with 0 fat flies a sweep mission at 30k to a target 4 hexes away increasing his fatigue 4*6=24
So arrives on the combat scen with a fat 24 and is back at base with fat 48 (plus the additional fat added through combat).

So the only effect by stacking pilots would be to enable the sweeper to keep up more missions before he has to stand down but
not the disadvantage of increased fatigue over target per mission when increasing altitude.

The result would be
- worse combat performance over target
- higher op losses for the squad

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Post #: 58
RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/4/2010 10:21:43 PM   
KenchiSulla


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I like the idea of added strain and fatigue effects on planes and pilots on high altitude sweeps and CAP. The game should punish the player for using equipment and men at an altitude they theoretically can reach but which is hard to operate at. That might just do the trick if severe enough.


What about introducing a chance of flights "missing" each other while they meet in hex, increasing with altitude difference between flights. Is it possible to implement?


< Message edited by Cannonfodder -- 8/4/2010 10:22:28 PM >


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(in reply to LoBaron)
Post #: 59
RE: A/C Performance - High Alt - 8/5/2010 7:09:06 AM   
LoBaron


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From: Vienna, Austria
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The chance of flights missing each other based on altitude differential, flight sizes (and weather?) is already implemented.
It is not a very high chance and I think The Elf mentioned some time ago that he does not like to change that, because
this could lead to flights hitting empty air on a regular basis with a negative impact on playability and I tend to agree.
Also things like radar/early detection could negate this feature, rendering it useless.

I am not even sure if altitude doesn´t already influences fatigue, I think Sardaukar mentioned this possibility in his testing, though it is
not impacting flights on a really noticable basis.

Agree its the up to now most interesting solution. I wonder if its a change that can even be implemented into the current model
without leading to weird results.

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