ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
I don't know the background of the game. But two thoughts:
1) Range does not equal effective fire-control for hitting moving ships at that range.
2) A bug is something that is broken. A design decision one does not like is not a bug.
So, just so I understand this. The design decision is that naval DP guns do NOT shoot at bombarding naval vessels, or any other guns in the hex for that matter, and so it is working as designed. Note, your item number 1 is moot, because they didnt fire. The complaint isnt that they didnt hit, it is that they didnt even fire. And the ships never fired at them either.
Just a little more background. My night Emily patrol planes spotted his TF before they left their base. My night Bettys attacked twice before he even bombarded as well, so the question of him "sneaking up" on the base is also moot. They were spotted well in advance.
So the only questions are, do Jap DP guns fire at bombarding ships? And you, and Don, and JWE say "no", they are not supposed to fire back at bombarding ships. And do bombarding ships have to shoot at defending coastal guns before anything else in the hex, and you, Don, and JWE also say "no" to that question as well.
Do I understand you correctly? The design of the game is that guns that were designed to shoot at ships and airplanes only fire at airplanes. Does this work the same for allied DP guns?
Oh, and since my Hong Kong CDU failed to fire at ships in the straights off Java, Im assuming that means IJA coastal guns also wouldnt fire at bombarding ships as well (since they didnt months ago).
If this isnt a bug, then it certainly is a design flaw, and Michael should correct this. 99% sure this isnt the way it worked in stock WitP, so it would have been a change made for AE.