Lane you are correct, I just finished my 26th patrol, late August 1943 in my VIIC and was routinely attacked at night by aircraft. Beery must be one lucky Captain to never have been attacked at night.. Also upon return to St Nazaire, I had 9 bombers dropping bombs and depth charges near me. I was appx. 6000 mtrs from the docks, and I had to run at periscope depth all the way to the light houses. I would have thought the AAA at the docks would be shooting but the AAA crews must have been in the tavern drinking beer with Beery.

IC Version: 20050717
U-639
VIIC
Patrol 1
Grid AE89

Convoy Reports: N/A (I have max range enabled)
Single Merchants Reports: N/A (ditto)
Days at sea: 6

Moved through BF 41 on the way to patrol grid. Encountered two British merchants strangely stationary. Approached on the surface. Immediately attacked by two PBY long range planes. Engaged on the surface. For 30 seconds of action we paid dearly. Took heavy casulties and fought flooding for two hours. Seven crew dead. Batteries and scopes destroyed. Engaged British merchant ships on the surface, expending seven torpedos for four hits and three misses weaving in and out of their surface firing range. Two kills.

Notes:

Discovered two stationary merchants in BF 41. Most amusing. Or not. Sigh. Definitely don't want to be on the surface with RuB in '43! Hull integrity was actually 50% as it turns out, but without a scope engaging in '43 would be suicide anyway. Plus loss of radio is quite painful. Earned 322 renown for my trouble.

Maybe so, but one thing is for sure, I've had two 1943 careers and I've never been touched by anything that came out of an aircraft.

Let me ask people this: out of all the careers you've had, how many of your U-boats were sunk by depth charges and how many by aircraft. If the DC sinkings outnumber the aircraft sinkings, then either aircraft aren't deadly enough or DCs are too deadly. Now I see threads where people are complaining that DCs aren't deadly enough, so I'm kinda confused.

Speaking of night attacks, would have been nice to see the Leigh Light modelled. Has it been confirmed that we can't add a searchlight from a destroyer or land unit to a bomber?

thats something to try when people become better at hex editing models

So far with RUB1.42 it is 100% I will be sunk by aircraft. no chance of return. I must be unlucky
I see pairs of PBYs yet the PBY pilots I met that flew in the war patrolled alone. If these were single planes I might have achance. That does not mean PBYs could not have been paired, it just means it was not the norm. They could cover more space alone.
One guy I met was a cameraman and he took the movie (a famous still was widely publishde as well) of the PBY making a direct hit on a U-Boat. It was so good a shot it looked stagged but was not. That was 25 years ago so guess he is gone now?)
Wulfmann

I heard that often a lone aircraft would radio in other planes, then wait and attack in force, paricularly when U-boats were sailing across Biscay in packs.

That might be true.
But, if that were the case I would pick up a radar signal and submerge while he waits. I am attacked by more than one PBY within one minute of detecting a radar signal. I could see if I submerged and did not change course and came back up to peri depth that a multitude might then attack.
Not right away!
This needs a bit more tweaking, IMO.
Unless we inform how does any modder know?
Wulfmann

Is it possible to restrict PBYs, Wellingtons etc. to one plane per aircraft patrol?

I'm also wondering if the aircraft have a nice mix of AI efficiency levels? If we mixed up the levels a bit - reduce the numbers of elite pilots a bit, that might be a nice way to make aircraft less deadly overall while retaining a potential deadliness.

The system I have used for the ops mod is that there are only two airbases in the entire war that are Veteran: One that covers Britain and one that covers Biscay. All other bases after may '43 are no higher than Competent. None are Elite.

The big problem is that Skill and spawn rates are tied together and cannot be separated if you are using airbases. You could always script in Aircraft but, i have to say, i found trying to get this to work properly to be a real pita due to the way the AI spots.

Generally, in the Ops-Mod, I have yet to be attacked by any more than 1 aircraft at any time. I included a slightly altered version of the Airpower mod but I don't recall changing any of the sqaudron numbers from what Jace had put out.

I have to say I have been very happy with aircraft in the Ops-mod. So far, that is.....



I think the big problem is not with the aircraft spawning rates or even how dangerous they are. It is a problem with how soon your crew spot them, pure and simple. Far too often they are only spotting them at short range which, is fine occasionally, but should not be happening all the time.

I did a fresh install on my second PC and ran a stock 1,4 before any mods. That is so lame I could not believe it!
I added some RUB but not the main cfg changes and my super heavily modded RND.mis file. Since I was more concerned I made a mistake with that RND I wanted nothing to detract from checking that. I have done a dozen careers and over 50 patrols without the slightest problem. It is not my RND. I am sure, as you said, it is a mod that, by itself is fine, but conflicts when mixed with another. But, which other? I will continue to add a couple more mods every few days.
I did run 1943 w/o your air file. I have been attacked by single PBYs and have had more damage by aircraft in these two patrols than by depth charging. I have had to dive 6-8 times a patrol from AC but if I dive by hitting flank speed to 50 meters right away I can get under fast enough. The slightest delay assures damage some serious and un-repairable. I just don’t see making multiple groups as correct for initial surprise attacks but that is MO.
Hopefully I will find what was causing a conflict before as I add things. But, my RND file is working great. Mainly it is about double what RUB and Unreal has for single traffic with almost all 3 at the beginning for escorts with even a few 4 but 1944 has the elite cut in half. There is better equipment and more ships that make it much tougher than early. Having useless escorts early is just boring and a turkey shoot, IMO.
I use to stay at peri and evade while I reloaded and trashed the convoy as escorst floowed me around. That would be certain death now and I amm lucky to loose all 5 fish and get away. Sounds more real to me as I must also make a proper entrance or I won't even get a shot off.
Wulfmann

I can't wait to see the end result of the Ops mod. :up:

I'm not sure what you mean by 'main cfg changes', but if it means that you didn't use any of RUb's config files that may be the problem. I think (not sure though) Airpower needs you to use its Airstrike.cfg and other cfg files, otherwise you will get more aircraft.

Of course I may be off base here. It really depends what RUb files you didn't use.

A lot of the Aircraft side of things are in cfg files. So, yeah, I think this could partly be the problem.

Actually, I am spanning three separate installs in this and can see that might be a bit confusing. Originally this topic dealt with a full RUB1.42 and the aircraft attacks in 1943.
Since I mentioned some CTD and Berry mentioned other mods conflicting I did the fresh stock install to be sure I had no hardware problems. Then, to be sure my RND file, extremely altered, was not a cause. To do that meant I had to not add cfg files just graphics, sounds etc that could not give a false reason that would allow me to asses the new RND file properly. So, the last refers to the stock air attacks and was just for comparison.
Hope that clarifies what I am doing, testing a few things at a time, not all at once. If there are any RUB cfg files that are dependant on others please say so and I will be sure to add them as a group.
Right now, I have no problems at all, nada, Null!!! It runs perfect
Wulfmann