A bunch of questions on aircraft

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

re: torps - do they even work in SH5? So far I've never seen torpedo bomber drop a torpedo.

With IRAI installed, they should. Nonethelesse, like in reality (or even ore), they are not perfect, and for using them each aicraft must be set carefully an tested. IIRC, the nastiest bug with them was they goings backwards once dropped. I don't remember what is the trick that fixes that, but in SH5 and SHIV there should be multiple threads and posts on this topic


@ propbeanie,

thank you for your long answer mate. Please find my replies below

Originally Posted by propbeanie

The game doesn't seem to send all of its "response" planes out at one time, unless you are a submarine that's been detected [...]

In one of your first replies on this thread, you had written that the detection of a submarine "qualifies" for the spawning of up to seven "response aircraft" at any given moment. I suppose this is the max size of an "ASW response group", though its aircraft won't arrive all contemporarily, but in small groups of 1 or 2 aircraft every few minutes. From your last reply I also get that, after a longer interval, the game will spawn other "responde groups", even though probably we won't be anymore there for telling it.

Is my interpretation of your reports correct?

If yes, does the game spawn only one of such a "response groups" at any given time, or more that one group can be spawned if multiple airbases are within player's range?

Does the number of aircraft assigned to each base (beyond the maximum number of seven aircraft composing each ASW group) affect this scheme and, if yes, how?

Within each group, do faster aircraft arrive first, or the order of arrival is totally random?

Originally Posted by propbeanie

You of course, can "clone" the AirBases also, and have them "specialize" in what you want [...]

With the working method I have in mind, we wouldn't have "generic" airbases. Each airbase modelled in game would correspond to a real RAF station, and its air groups will elvolve reflecting its WWII usage by various RAF squadrons. Only squadrons relevant to the game will be considered:

- defensive fighter squadrons located near the coasts of the British Empire, equipped with "bomb-less", "short-ranged" aircraft so that they will only act as coastal defenses against harbor raids, attacking any close-enough enemy with their guns/cannons;

- maritime surveillance/reconnaissance squadrons whose aircraft should be equipped with flares and sea marker bombs rather than explosive bombs.

- ASW squadrons, whose aircraft will be initially equipped with ordinary bombs, gradually replaced by depth bombs and (where they apply) torpedoes and rockets as the war progresses and more specialized weapons become available.

- Anti-shipping squadrons, whose aircraft will be equipped with bombs, torpedoes and rockets.

- Convoy-defense squadrons, whose airccraft will be equipped with a variety of different armaments, depending on base location and on the most likely menace that they would have faced.

Possible gaps between one "operative" air group and the next one, will be filled with "filler air groups". See post #44 in this thread on what I mean for "filler group". Should one of the operative air groups cause any problem (as per your example), I will reduce the number of its aircraft to ridiculous amount, or I will replace it with a filler group.

Originally Posted by propbeanie

You wouldn't necessarily have to make the AirGroups "historically numbered"[...]

Well it all depends on how the game will use those aircraft, but I see your point anyway.

Whatever is the most appropriate number of aircraft per squadron, I want to keep this number as constant as possible. If at some point, in reality, an airbase hosted two squadrons equipped with the same aircraft, in game I want that base to have roughly twice the number of aircraft it would have had if only one squadron was using it. Likewise, if historically a squadron had one or more detachments, in game it should contribute to each of its bases a lesser number of aircraft than it would if all its aircraft where "assigned" to one base.