Drop Tanks (making them work)

[elcid]

Drop tanks seem well defined in AE - indeed all aircraft devices are carefully defined in most cases.
But the drop tanks do not function as issued.

This is because the "DT ordanance" box is not checked for any plane types. Checking the box
means the player may choose DT ranges, or normal ranges, in the air unit display.

Drop tanks still add one minute of endurance at cruising speed to the range of the plane.
This is done by the effect field in the drop tank device. Litre rated tanks are converted to
gallons for purposes of that field: e.g. a 330 Litre tank has an effect of 87.

This means the drop tank range is not arbitrary. It should be the maximum range without tanks
plus the distance added by the tank(s) - e.g. 87 times 160 knots / 60 = 232 n.m. in the case of
an A6M2. In order to get the operational ranges for a flight to Guadalcanal from Rabaul, I use
the value DT Extended Range = DT Maximum Range - 500. DT Normal Range (with the bombs
on board) is 90% of DT Maximum Range - 500. The plane fuel reserve and combat fuel does
not change much on a long range mission. The added fuel adds radius. But the bombs do
cause drag over a longer distance, so we make them have a proportional impact.

[JuanG]

Cid,

With all due respect have you actually tried looking at how things work in game before going off in your own direction?

Both this and your question about device assignments leads me to believe that you're just looking at things in the editor and coming to your own conclusions without actually trying things out ingame first; this is dangerous because it will a) lead to lots of wasted time and b) potentially mislead others reading the scenario forum.

The DT ordanance flag is not related to your ability to choose to use DTs or not, this is determined solely by the presence of DTs on the aircraft. This is easily verified with a little effort, just like the effect of slots 11-20 could have been.

Regards,
Juan

EDIT: Also, since the topic is about it, endurance values are calculated automatically by the game from using the range data and cruising speed for the aircraft. DT effect value has nothing to do with it, and the Endurance field in the aircraft screen of the editor doesn't seem to either, though I make it a point to set this equal to the games calculated edurance value in case its used somewhere.

The formula works out as Endurance = (Max Range / Cruise Speed) * 60 * 1.15

[witpqs]

Drop tanks certainly do work in the game. "But the drop tanks do not function as issued" is just plain baloney.