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View Full Version : Anyone Trying to Balance the Air Patrols?


Silverfox18
07-07-05, 09:01 PM
I've been having the same problems with huge amounts of (PBY & Sunderland) aircraft in non air coverage zones in summer of '42! Where is this change in air coverage mod? Mahalo :damn:

William Munny
07-07-05, 11:13 PM
What year is you example from? Thats the most important bit of info when dealing with aircraft.

It's September, 1943 right now. I'm on my 31st patrol using 1.4b, a few graphics mods, the Real DC mod to tone down the uber DD's, and the recent mod to return aircraft patrol ranges to 1.3 settings.

scrapser

Historically, it should be very hard to transit across Biscay at that point of the war. There should be piles of attacks. Any time after May '43 should be a nightmare for a U-boat skipper operating out of the atlantic bases. Your patrol route and destination puts you smack bang in the middle of the killing fields.

Exactly. I'm reading Iron Coffins right now and it is amazing how many messages they received in just hours of one U-boat after another being sunk in the Bay of Biscay. Simply amazing.

KL Seestern
07-08-05, 11:21 AM
What you should not be seeing is huge mass-spawnings. You really shouldn't be being attacked by piles of aricraft all at once but this is a fault of the game that has been there since the start. Jace's mod fixes this. The Ops mod will also have this in it and I'm sure from what I have read Gizmoe's air patrol redux will have this too.

This is good to know. Until the Ops mod appears, what's Jace's mod and where can we get it?

CCIP
07-08-05, 09:01 PM
It's the AirPower mod. It's available with RUb or at your friendly neighbourhood u-boat.realsimulation.com

Actually, it only partially fixes the massed attacks - I think one of the big reasons for them is overlapping airbase coverages in the LND layer. Ops will probably have a more complete fix by reducing the overlap, but Egan probably knows more about this.

Lanzfeld
07-08-05, 11:23 PM
Someone in another thread talked about changing the altitude cap higher and his crew is spotting planes MUCH further out.

Just like REALITY!!!

KL Seestern
07-09-05, 03:37 AM
It's the AirPower mod. It's available with RUb or at your friendly neighbourhood u-boat.realsimulation.com.

Ah, OK, I'm using RUB 1.42 so I guess I already have it. Haven't had too much trouble with aircraft so far, but then again, it's only April 1940 for me so I haven't yet hit the possible problem times!

Egan
07-09-05, 05:39 AM
Actually, it only partially fixes the massed attacks - I think one of the big reasons for them is overlapping airbase coverages in the LND layer. Ops will probably have a more complete fix by reducing the overlap, but Egan probably knows more about this.


Yeah. While the altered squadron numbers do help the answer to the problem is that everything needs revised. The other major problem, as CCIP says, is that, in the stock game, the airbases frequenty seem to overlap which, if you get caught in it causes far too many aircraft to be spawned. At least, that is what I have found so far.

The numbers in the sqadron sections should control how many aircraft spawn at one time from each base. But if it over laps then more will be spawned, obviously. On top of that, they also seem to call for help which triggers even more aircraft and before you know it, it's like the Farnborough Airshow out there and no fun at all.

Actually, while working on the airbase LND layer for the Op-mod I have found over lapping bases to be sueful for certain situations, such as covering the UK, where you would get a higher proportion of aircraft if you were spotted for obvius reasons.

Having said that, it's proving to be a bit of a bugger to get it working right. I have had to alter aircraft ranges downward (I would call them 'operational' ranges now, lol) and even add in a new base to get it working right. it's going slowly but I'm getting there.


The absolutely most sensible way to do the air stuff would be to script in random groups and their patrol routes but in my tests it was very, very disapointing. To have a realistic number of encounters in an area like late way Biscay, for example, you would need literaly hundreds of aircraft in the air at any one time and even then, because of hardocoded stuff like spotting limits there is no garrantee whatsoever that they will attack or even see you.

So, where was I? Oh yeah. What I'm hoping to do with the Air side of the Ops-mod is, hand in hand with Jace's Airpower mod, create what is hopefully a more realstic amount of attacks by aircraft and a more realistic number of aircraft spawning at any one time. Even early war there should be a slightly increased risk of air attack in certain places such as the Orkney - Shetland gap. In the Channel, no matter what year, it should be a near suicidal act to travel on the surface by day. thats not to say you won't mange it but you are going to have to be very skilled in order to get through.

Late war will be unpleasant...



:P

Silverfox18
07-09-05, 07:44 AM
I found an air coverage mod and have it in working...so far so good but I also did a few things different on the same patrol I got nailed on last time. 1. I no longer radio in any reports from my boat until maybe I get way out into the Atlantic. 2. I took a longer route to my patrol area...expanded it out in a wider bigger semi circle. Remember, I'm in the summer of '42 with this particular career.

Also, heavens to Betsy...I got my AA station back after working through all the mods and finding out which one was the guilty culprit.
I do want to get the final Air coverage mod when it's done however.
Mahalo...for all the great hard work guys...