SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Enemy A/C south of Midway OR tale of 48 single engine planes 2000 miles from a base

tater · 12-02-07, 04:35 PM

One thing my air mod does is grossly reduce aircraft ranges, particularly on CVs.

In reality, there are 4 types of typical RL air ops that we need to think about:

1. Maritime Patrol. This is the biggie. H6Ks, H8Ks, and G4Ms (G3M Nells, too, if we had them) flying around looking for shipping. This should be SINGLE PLANES, never the 2 plane elements we see in game. Never.

2. ASW Patrol. Similar to 1, though in addition to radial patterns, you might see them with convoys, or flying along the convoys routes. These groups might actually be multiple planes, too.

3. CAP. This would be fighters (maybe some VBs for a TF) orbiting a CV/CVBG within visual range (at altitude) of the TF, or within visual range of the airbase (if land-based).

4. Airstrike Groups.

Discussion:
# 4 first. Why? Because the only time you'd EVER see large numbers of planes with bombs on them is a strike group heading to a target. Period. Some sort of CAP or ready planes on the ground or CV might attack a submarine, but NEVER more than a very few. Never. Any large group of bombers would be on their way someplace, and they wouldn't attack you (they have bigger fish to fry), or they are RTB, and have no bombs.

# 1 is pretty well represented by the airbases/airgroups/airstrike.cfg we have now, including long ranges, except the 1-2 plane thing, they should ALWAYS be alone. I added Maritime Patrol sairbases that have only the right kind of planes for this.

# 3 is easy to mod (I did) by making "BP-clones" of the CV planes, and setting the range to 40-60km. CV airgroups were made much smaller. A given CV might have 3 planes in the air at any time. I added a couple VBs to keep players honest.

Lurker used the dummybomb idea to get A6Ms to strafe. I might add those in next rev.

#2 is not added explicitly yet, but I have a few ideas I need to test.

I think that using the stock aircraft ranges except for units that were solely maritime patrol outfits is a mistake. The CV air groups should never be a full RL load of planes. There is zero chance that a CV would be able to prosecute a sub with more than a couple ready aircraft. Remember that to launch or recieve planes a CV TF needs to turn into the wind, too. CVs with no planes at all is more realistic than stock SH4, for example. 3-5 is OK for CAP as long as the ranges are dropped to no more than maybe 20-30 miles.

tater

12-02-07, 04:35 PM	#3
tater Navy Seal Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: New Mexico, USA Posts: 9,023 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 2	One thing my air mod does is grossly reduce aircraft ranges, particularly on CVs. In reality, there are 4 types of typical RL air ops that we need to think about: 1. Maritime Patrol. This is the biggie. H6Ks, H8Ks, and G4Ms (G3M Nells, too, if we had them) flying around looking for shipping. This should be SINGLE PLANES, never the 2 plane elements we see in game. Never. 2. ASW Patrol. Similar to 1, though in addition to radial patterns, you might see them with convoys, or flying along the convoys routes. These groups might actually be multiple planes, too. 3. CAP. This would be fighters (maybe some VBs for a TF) orbiting a CV/CVBG within visual range (at altitude) of the TF, or within visual range of the airbase (if land-based). 4. Airstrike Groups. Discussion: # 4 first. Why? Because the only time you'd EVER see large numbers of planes with bombs on them is a strike group heading to a target. Period. Some sort of CAP or ready planes on the ground or CV might attack a submarine, but NEVER more than a very few. Never. Any large group of bombers would be on their way someplace, and they wouldn't attack you (they have bigger fish to fry), or they are RTB, and have no bombs. # 1 is pretty well represented by the airbases/airgroups/airstrike.cfg we have now, including long ranges, except the 1-2 plane thing, they should ALWAYS be alone. I added Maritime Patrol sairbases that have only the right kind of planes for this. # 3 is easy to mod (I did) by making "BP-clones" of the CV planes, and setting the range to 40-60km. CV airgroups were made much smaller. A given CV might have 3 planes in the air at any time. I added a couple VBs to keep players honest. Lurker used the dummybomb idea to get A6Ms to strafe. I might add those in next rev. #2 is not added explicitly yet, but I have a few ideas I need to test. I think that using the stock aircraft ranges except for units that were solely maritime patrol outfits is a mistake. The CV air groups should never be a full RL load of planes. There is zero chance that a CV would be able to prosecute a sub with more than a couple ready aircraft. Remember that to launch or recieve planes a CV TF needs to turn into the wind, too. CVs with no planes at all is more realistic than stock SH4, for example. 3-5 is OK for CAP as long as the ranges are dropped to no more than maybe 20-30 miles. tater