Germany has 1 airbase, the allies have dozens.

[wkr4k4r]

Ive looked at it in the map editor and it seems this way. No wonder whenever you report a contact nobody ever shows up, there is nobody to show up. You can see this in the mission editor if you look at campaign_rnd. mis The us has airbases in the middle of the ocean far off of land. The one airbase germany has cant even reach the UK. I cant believe nobody has addressed this. Im looking into it and havent been able to find maps of airbases. It looks easy to fix. (Im using IUB 1.01)

-wkr4k4r

[Ducimus]

"Where are our fighters? Answer that one Her Georring! The british have plenty of them! Talking big is all hes good for, that fat slob!"

:D

[gdogghenrikson]

"Where are our fighters? Answer that one Her Georring! The british have plenty of them! Talking big is all hes good for, that fat slob!"

:D

Das Boot???

[Ducimus]

"Where are our fighters? Answer that one Her Georring! The british have plenty of them! Talking big is all hes good for, that fat slob!"

:D

Das Boot???

Yeah, but im sure i misquoted that :-j

[wkr4k4r]

Using the map editor I made two large german air bases in france. One north of lorient and another to the east of it. In my first mission (and only so far) I saw a small merchant in am95. I reported it and two fighters came, i also had reported some destroyers previously. I thought I was under attack seeing planes but instead they attacked the merchant slowing it down and setting it ablaze. I then sunk it. How realistic is this having air support. The game isnt realistic as it is without wolf packs. There needs to be something so you dont have to do all the work against heavily guarded convoys when using mods.... I was reading and germany definitely had a large airbase south of the english channel.

-wkr4k4r

[Gammel]

Germany indeed had airbases after the occupation of france,
but after the lost air campaign against the RAF, and the start of the easern front operations (also african campaign) they never had many planes in stock for naval air support around france and britain.
Remember the movie "the longest day" where only 2 planes where available to deal with the invasion force? (ok, it was a movie...)

[Sheppard]

Remember the movie "the longest day" where only 2 planes where available to deal with the invasion force? (ok, it was a movie...)

No, that's actually what happened. the Germans could only get two planes up that day.

[wkr4k4r]

Now I've played with it some more and I think that it's promising. It seems your reconasince information is a bit more complete with two large air bases in france. If not large air bases there should be at least one. Its a joke that there isnt any. In the docs the authors elude to the possibility of airstrikes and in reality the campaign mission is written so it will almost never happen. The game even supplies some german planes for no reason it seems. Italian ones too even though there is no airbase to spawn them. Most of the time when you radio they dont seem to show up anyways. The DDs have unlimited depth charges and spawn buddy DDs, the allied air bases seem to have unlimited suicide hurricanes to send to be shot down.....among other planes... IMHO there has to be at least one german air base in france of some size. I think that would make the game a lot more realistic and even if it doesnt it makes it more fun for the player when they actually get a bit of support from another unit.

-wkr4k4r

[Vader 1]

A case of tricking the game/sim/AI into giving a "better sense of emerson" would you say?

[Marhkimov]

Please, anything to trick SH3 into giving us friends... :yep: :yep: :yep:

[Ducimus]

Please, anything to trick SH3 into giving us friends... :yep: :yep: :yep:


Hell, you could toss in a large german airbase anywhere you want to in the LND layer really. Takes about 5 mins to do, if that, if im not mistaken.

I beleive contract reports have something to do with making friendly planes show up, but since your always out of their sphere of influence anyway, havent been able to test that.

[VonHelsching]

If planes could become "invisible" and "soundless" from a temporary "airbase" in the middle of the Atlantic, that feature could also be used to simulate a hit by a wolfpack. Not every time you make a contact report, though; In a random fashion.

[wkr4k4r]

I also think that contact reports are sometimes tied to planes. With the two large airbases in france while heading back to Lorient I received information about a convoy. It was running at 7knots towards liverpool. I simultaniously got a report a of a 'corvette' which started within the convoy's moving 'block' on the map that was moving 'slow' (7 knots). The corvette seemed to sit there for days; many days after the convoy contact was gone. I believe the plane(s) may have hit it and brought it down to a very slow speed (perhaps 0 or close) as the contact didnt seem to want to disapear. I dont think I've ever gotten a contact that says 'corvette' before this modification that doesn't want to go away. (Or even a contact that says corvette at all) I have the crews at both airbases set to competent. Not the higher level elite or veteran.... If people seek realism they can use the timing ability of land objects; the size and competency of the base can easily change at any set time. AKA as the war progresses the bases could get smaller and the competency of the airbase could decrease as veterans are killed.... This shouldn't be a big problem as the weapons of the u-boat increase eventually to a point that you can take on a convoy by yourself. (In reality I think the nixie which Isnt modeled (maybe for a reason) would stop this)
It seems like the spawned planes want to hit ships that shoot at them (warships), which is very beneficial for a mod. The only problem with making this mod is compabibility. The airstrike.cfg file can easily be modified to change the airstrike probabilities. However, modifying the campaign LND .mis file wont be compatible with other mods. It needs to be included in their distribution of the .mis files. (I know nothing about the .mis format).
I think this looks very promising and so far is the only way I've seen to have real friends on the ocean. (Not some harbor traffic mod that causes more lag than action/protection (if you dont have a lot of ram), no offense to the makers of the mod, I think that its really nice) The wolfpack mods, etc that ive seen dont have any ability to spawn in the campaign that I know of, which basically makes them useless for the campaign. I will look into modifying modules to make spawning of AI subs at convoy attack time possible. However, until then, or until Ubisoft releases a version with control in its script files this is the only way I can see to get outside support in the campaign.

I dont think that making the planes invisible is important. Just pretend that the airplanes are attacking. The british have a bunch of airbases in BS places (In the middle of the ocean, on water, not islands). So feel like its just equal gameplay. They also have convettes, DDs and DEs with unlimited depth charges, which is absurd, there are only so many depth charges you can fit on a corvette.....

An Italian base should also be added to use the Italian planes that come with the game. Of course it should disapear with the invasion of Italy... Just as the bases in france should disapear with the invasion of france...

-wkr4k4r

[malcymalc]

"The ROBERT now [May 1943] joined fast troop convoys to Gibraltar and return as A/A escort. The Bay of Biscay was a relatively dangerous route as the enemy were using long range aircraft as assistance to their U-boats.
By this time the Germans had established very sophisticated radio transmissions both in Spain and France to assist in the location of convoys and to enable the U-boats to home in on them. In addition, the long range Heinkel 177 bomber was able to carry two rocket-assisted flying bombs, which could be targeted by the controlling aircraft from a safe range.
In November 1943, a large Med-UK troop convoy was shadowed by hostile aircraft 250 miles WSW of Cape Vincent, Portugal. A series of U-Boat engagements over a period of four days ensued. Three submarines were destroyed and several damaged during the course of this action with no casualties to the convoy. Among the escorts the Canadian ships CALGARY and SNOWBERRY were credited with sinkings.
Discouraged with the lack of success of their U-Boats, the Germans then adopted new tactics by making strong assaults with large forces of bomber aircraft operating from bases in France. Four-engined FW200s carried out conventional bombing but the surprise threat was from HE-177s equipped with rocket-assisted, radio-controlled, flying bombs. The ROBERT arrived at the height of the action and fired everything she had for the next two and a half-hours.
Despite the ferocity of the attack, the A/A fire saved her from at least one flying bomb and held the casualties of the convoy to one ship with no personnel loss.
This was the first major air attack against Atlantic convoys in over a year and introduced new methods of anti-ship warfare. At a later date, the ATHABASKA was not so lucky under similar circumstances when a flying bomb passed through her before detonating on the other side."
This was taken from a piece about HMCS Prince Robert and demonstrates that the Allies certainly took air attack seriously (and gives an idea of on sector that should have a good chance of air attack at this time). I do not think early Uboat operations had too much air support as there were few aircraft tasked to support the Kriegsmarine (which did not have it's own Fleet Air Arm), and later there weren't the aircraft to do it. So mostly 42/43 in the Atlantic?
Obviously in the Med you could go crazy with the Malta convoys...

[Rubini]

wkr4k4r,

Rubini here. Another fast and stealthy connection. I'm in vacation, miles away from my home... :arrgh!:

I like the idea of active german airbase on france/italy and even on north atlantic. We only need a historical approach with dates, aircraft availability, weapons and so on. And it's easy and quickly to implement and even downgrade the airbases along the years. So, can you or others here help me with the historical infos? Then we can add these to the HT mod stand alone and RUB version. :hmm:

If needed (it's better here in this thread) contact me in PM or email, but I only will return after january 26.

Cheers,

Rubini.

[LukeFF]

Fw 200s should start appearing from Bordeaux-Merignac in June 1940 and exit from there in November of 1943, moving to Cognac that month and operating there until July 1944. From July-September 1944 they should move to Trondheim, and after that time they essentially should cease to exist.

As for their effectiveness, they should start to gradually lose their combat power around the beginning of 1943.