Update Info II

[JamesM]

Good work HS

[harley]

If you're an avvid forum reader you'll realise Ron is giving you a hint on the name we chose for the game in his screenshots. It's nothing obvious, but it's funny to me...

Other than that - great posts, Ron. I think you've nailed the essence of our work well...

There is one thing Ron didn't mention about the FB's new behaviour - not sure if that's oversight or intention so I won't say it, but it is pretty big...

[AFIntel]

Sir, this may have been covered in a prior posting, but I haven't seen it (with WitP and Harpoon, who has the time to peruse forums? [:D]). Are we able to plan Duck or Spoof missions? (Diversionary raids with no set target; missions designed to divert Luftwaffe sorites, or get them to launch and burn fuel). I remember this was a possibility in SSI's USAAF (wow, that brings back memories!) and could be used to great effect.

I must say of all the improvements, I love the Recce improvement the most. Keep up the hard (oops, HARD) work.

Nope, sorry. Escort has no "X" in it! [:)]

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge
the P-40 F, down low is a pretty good plane, over 15-18 K, it is a pig, over 21 K, it is dead meat on the table for any passing 109

But that information is not on the unit's screen.

If I were playing the game, I would set the height to 30,000 feet and then lose every game I play and never know why.

[Fred98]

Maximum load = 1,500  of what? 

[harley]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

Maximum load = 1,500 of what?

Pounds - counts gunpaks, drop tanks and bombs.

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge
the P-40 F, down low is a pretty good plane, over 15-18 K, it is a pig, over 21 K, it is dead meat on the table for any passing 109

But that information is not on the unit's screen.

If I were playing the game, I would set the height to 30,000 feet and then lose every game I play and never know why.

Good point. Will this sort of information be in the online manual HS?

[Hard Sarge]

There is one thing Ron didn't mention about the FB's new behaviour - not sure if that's oversight or intention so I won't say it, but it is pretty big...

if we thinking along the same lines, Intentional, I not even told the rest of the team about that one

I was saving that one for a surprise

[Hard Sarge]

Thanks all, will try and get more info in shortly, I was running out of gas yesterday
 
hassle will be, that this kind of info on what is a good plane at what alt, will need to be sort of told in the Manual
 
as the way it works and what not, is not really set up to be shown, also, pretty much, if you know the planes, then you may have a feel for how they should fly (again a hassle is if you do not know a P-40 from a P-51, so there will be some info on Low, Med and High planes)
 
now like if you are HARD core, you know that a P-40 F had a Allison Engine, while the P-40 L had a Packer Merlin, the L is still going to be hurt up higher, then the F, but will be a better plane for a little while
 
again a hassle here, is do you know what kind of Engine was in a Kittyhawk III vs a Kittyhawk IV, so we will need and will try to have the info in the Manual somewhere
 
at least with the Spits, we used the names that the GB did, so if you see a Spit LFVC, you will know it is a Low Fighter (engine and wings set to proform better at lower levels) while the Spit FIX is a Med level fighter, and then the Spit HFIX is set to fly best at high levels
 
which, again, we will need to have info around to let everyone know, of course, you could come to the fourm and ask, and we hope to have info and tips around, but that will not help people who don't or can't come
 
Roger, 1500 would be the weight limit the plane can carry, really only needed for planes that carry stuff, and in most cases is for info need, more then game need, if a A-26 can carry 8000, we want to make sure we only "load" up to 8000 pounds of bombs on it (to be honest, I think that is almost a inside info thing, but that is not how the program reads and reports the data string)

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: AFIntel

Sir, this may have been covered in a prior posting, but I haven't seen it (with WitP and Harpoon, who has the time to peruse forums? [:D]). Are we able to plan Duck or Spoof missions? (Diversionary raids with no set target; missions designed to divert Luftwaffe sorites, or get them to launch and burn fuel). I remember this was a possibility in SSI's USAAF (wow, that brings back memories!) and could be used to great effect.

I must say of all the improvements, I love the Recce improvement the most. Keep up the hard (oops, HARD) work.

Nope, sorry. Escort has no "X" in it! [:)]

as of right now, no, if it carries bombs it should bomb something, which I am a master at the decoy, and at times it would be nice to plot a raid with out a target at the end, it is something we can look at later on, and see how it works out

right now, only Sweeps and Interuder missions really work the way you are saying, and the AI does not really go after them, untl it figures out what is going on

good idea, I had forgotten all about thoses

[fochinell]

now like if you are HARD core, you know that a P-40 F had a Allison Engine, while the P-40 L had a Packer Merlin, the L is still going to be hurt up higher, then the F, but will be a better plane for a little while

Err... the P-40F had a Packard Merlin 28 just like the P-40L. The difference was in weight and range. The F and L should be relatively better than the Allison V-1710-engined P-40M/N (Kittyhawk III/IV) over 20,000ft. But not massively, and they should both be outclassed by the 109G. The Allison-engined P-40's should have an edge over the Merlin-engined ones below 15,000ft by the same token.

is do you know what kind of Engine was in a Kittyhawk III vs a Kittyhawk IV, so we will need and will try to have the info in the Manual somewhere

The used the same engine, though HS! [8|]

at least with the Spits, we used the names that the GB did, so if you see a Spit LFVC, you will know it is a Low Fighter (engine and wings set to proform better at lower levels) while the Spit FIX is a Med level fighter, and then the Spit HFIX is set to fly best at high levels

The actual difference between the LF and F versions of the VIII and IX were pretty minor, though, and certainly less than the difference between the LF.VB and F.VC... An LF.VB should really suck above 20,000ft in the way that an LF.IX certainly didn't. The difference between an F.IX and an HF.IX were even smaller. But I think you deserve some credit for trying this out in the game.

Don't let it get you down, though - you've done a good job, even if you didn't whip Harley half as much as he needed to be....

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: fochinell

now like if you are HARD core, you know that a P-40 F had a Allison Engine, while the P-40 L had a Packer Merlin, the L is still going to be hurt up higher, then the F, but will be a better plane for a little while

Err... the P-40F had a Packard Merlin 28 just like the P-40L. The difference was in weight and range. The F and L should be relatively better than the Allison V-1710-engined P-40M/N (Kittyhawk III/IV) over 20,000ft. But not massively, and they should both be outclassed by the 109G. The Allison-engined P-40's should have an edge over the Merlin-engined ones below 15,000ft by the same token.

is do you know what kind of Engine was in a Kittyhawk III vs a Kittyhawk IV, so we will need and will try to have the info in the Manual somewhere

The used the same engine, though HS! [8|]

Shhhhhh, that was a trick question

at least with the Spits, we used the names that the GB did, so if you see a Spit LFVC, you will know it is a Low Fighter (engine and wings set to proform better at lower levels) while the Spit FIX is a Med level fighter, and then the Spit HFIX is set to fly best at high levels

The actual difference between the LF and F versions of the VIII and IX were pretty minor, though, and certainly less than the difference between the LF.VB and F.VC... An LF.VB should really suck above 20,000ft in the way that an LF.IX certainly didn't. The difference between an F.IX and an HF.IX were even smaller. But I think you deserve some credit for trying this out in the game.

Don't let it get you down, though - you've done a good job, even if you didn't whip Harley half as much as he needed to be....

[Hard Sarge]

Hey, it been awhile since I worked on the 40's
 
but I see what I did, it is the Kittyhawks with the Allison and the F/L with the Packer
 
the L has the weaker firepower, to try and make it lighter (it was included to model the lighter model, not the engine model)
 
 

[Hard Sarge]

okay basic info on the 40's

F and L, are good down low, the L is a little better

they start to degrade once they hit 20,000, then degrade fast

F 364 top speed, MRV of 31
L 368 top speed, MRV of 32, only has 4 50 cals

the Kittyhawk III is just a little weaker low, but degrades more and faster and starts at 17,000
the Kittyhawk IV, is as good as the L down low, but also degrades faster and lower, starting at 17,000

III top speed of 362, MRV of 31
IV top speed of 350, MRV of 31

funny, all that work at making the plane lighter or with better engines and still didn't do much

(a lot of the L's ended up putting the 2 guns back in and did add back some of the Armor, but that is not modeled)

the Spit LF.V's are good low, and start to degrade at 20,000
while the Spit LF.IX is good low, but does not begin to degrade until 25,000

plus the base MVR is much better for the IX then the V, so to be honest, a IX at 28,000 is still going to be better then a V at 15,000

(which I think you will agree with)

[Rob Brennan UK]

Would it be possible to add an optimal alt setting for the a/c types in the plane info screen ? I'm no grog on WW2 a/c and i too would send many a plane on the wrong alt and not know why they died horribly. I suspect most players would be in the same boat.

That said however the game looks awesome and i will definately be buying this puppy [;)]. thanks for the hard work Sarge !

[Fred98]

The aircraft information screen ought ought be designed to provide information.
 
If the optimal altitude is 21,000 ft and the game developer writes 30,000 ft on the information screen, then the players are not getting information.
 
The game dies.
 
-
 
 

[Hard Sarge]

Well. let me try this again, my last post was lost
 
I think you guys may be reading too much into this idea
 
in the old game, the P-40 gets into a fight with a 109, from 0 to 30,000 it is pretty much dead meat, it does not stand a chance, most times even if it gets the drop on a 109 that is out of gas, it was going to get shot down if it made a attack
 
in this game, the P-40 at low level, stands a chance to fight back, to attack and live, at 20,000 or higher, it is going to get toar up
 
the plus's or minus's are not great, or huge numbers, the changes are not going to make a Pig into a Uber monster, or a good plane into a dropdead dog
 
at high/er alt all planes degrade, even the so called High Alt planes, about 40,000 they degrade (more like mid 30's for most)
 
if you look at my snap of losses, you will see that I have lost 20 P-47's in two days of missions, that is a lot for me (even more so, since they are not log legged planes, so they still simi close to the coast) but they are "better" then the 109 G6 or the 190 A5/A6, but I have lost 20 of them to these planes, which they have shot down 37 planes between the 4 FG's, not bad, but nothing to bragg about yet, besides, they got a number of 110's in those kills
 
so over all, the most importent numbers needed by the player, is the base MRV number
 
plus the idea of a ideal Alt, is just not in the game
 
if I fly my 47s at 32000 ft, and the GE 109s fly by at 23000 ft, the 47s turn and attack, they are no longer going to be at 32000 ft, nor are the 109s, if you stop the game during a fight, you may seen 47's all the way down to 2 or 3000 ft, up to 35000 ft
 
they do climb and dive, try to reform, hunt targets and all of that good stuff
 
 
 
 

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge
if I fly my 47s at 32000 ft, and the GE 109s fly by at 23000 ft,…….

In the game, does the player have the option of setting the altitude to fly the mission as we do in Uncommon Valour?

[Mannock]

I think the game is really looking great and I thank you for the great update. I hope the release is getting closer fast.

And I want to concur in the hopes that there will be a good manual with this game that give hints and tip on how to conduct a good strategy as both allied and axis.

Keep up the good work!

[fochinell]

Shhhhhh, that was a trick question

OK, but you're still not whipping Harley enough.

okay basic info on the 40's

Sounds good. I'd have given the Allison-engined ones an edge over the Packards below 15,000 ft, but the model looks pretty much correct as I see it.

funny, all that work at making the plane lighter or with better engines and still didn't do much

Yeah, the L and the N were both lightened to improve performance, but it didn't seem to produce any really significant result. I'm not entirely sure why, unless the weight crept up again with in-theatre mods.

the Spit LF.V's are good low, and start to degrade at 20,000
while the Spit LF.IX is good low, but does not begin to degrade until 25,000

For once I'd actually be harder on the Spits than you, and start limiting the LF.V at 15,000, but again this seems reasonable enough to me.

(which I think you will agree with)

Yup. Good work. I shall have to find something else to start whingeing about now.