FatR
Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009 From: St.Petersburg, Russia Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: John 3rd FatR! Nice to see your Post. Thanks. Now that I've finally returned all the turns I owed, here are the thoughts: (1)A7M line as it stands is a trap in RA. Compare A7M2/3 to N1K4-A. The latter is actually slightly better now (wins in MVR), but comes out of an established line of mid-war fighters and with no research HRs can be obtained up to a year earlier. Shidens already have no alternatives in Scen 2 (J2M is pretty terrible without JWE changes, not sure why, it is doesn't seem that much inferior stat-wise, but gets shot down in droves by anything post-Warhawk whenever I try to use them). In early versions of RA I'd say they too must be the core of IJNAF through 1943 and most of 1944, if you want tolerable exchange rates. That might be due to the fact, that A7Ms still use the standard Francillon data on speed, while other late-war Japanese fighters, if I undestand correctly, are using TAIC data. Addin 20-25 of mphs to its in-game speed might be warranted (the same logic applies to A6M8 as well, but as it is available very early in RA, it can have an in-game role as is...). On the other hand, it should be noted that early availability of some IJN aircraft, like A6M8 and, to an extent, A7M was at least partially meant to compensate their (underwelming for their normal availaibility date, to say the least) statblocks. If those are not as much of an issue, due to being brought in line with the new set of data, their availability can be pushed back several months. The simplest and most consistent with the previous releases solution still is to leave A6M8, etc, as they are, and improve A7M2's stats. If you don't want to touch speed, for lack of real reference, then its MVR values (Reppu had slightly lower wing loading than Shiden IRL, but worse MVR in-game) and particularly durability can be corrected (A7M was by far the biggest and heaviest single-engine Japanese Navy fighter, but it still has the standard Japanese durability 30 in the game). How about, for example, and assuming no shifts in availability dates, giving A7Ms +3 MVR at top MVR altitude bands, +2 at higher bands, and Durability 32, with the same speed values? (2)As I noted before, J2M is back to the scenario, even though it shouldn't be there (3)S1A1 is a pile of it again, it seems. Note that with the engines they hoped to fit on production aircraft it was supposed to get to 422 mph even by Francillon standard numbers. Now, of course, they were not likely to succeed to actually make them work, but the same logic can be applied to every Japanese aircraft model that wasn't a modification of stuff already in mass production starting from the spring of 1945. It is highly unlikely that J7M, Ki-94 could have been mass-produced in case of Japan keeping up resistance for several more months, given the condition of Japanese aircraft industry IRL and its likely condition in any sane alternative. Jets were perhaps the only one new designs that had a chance of seeing a production run, as rocket engines/easy turbojets were rather simple compared to top-end endwar piston engines. (4)As, I believe, is noted by JWE upthread, I was incorred assigning Mitsubishi Ha-43 engine to D4Y5 in this mod. Should be Nakajima Ha-45. If you send the files for the next release version to me for half a day before posting them, I can apply those changes myself and return files to you. Don't worry, I'm free tomorrow and therefore not likely to disappear from the net without some sort of disaster striking my area... EDIT: ny59giants is going to send me the files anyway, so if you approve, I can go forth and apply the above-outlined changes, then return the aircraft file to you.
< Message edited by FatR -- 11/28/2013 8:58:54 PM >
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