Ugh, airplanes are a huge PITA

[Poliorcetes]

Bought the new DLC and I like the upgraded game in general. Haven't actually done any amphibious movement yet.
But OMG the plane portion is awful.
The planes are eating up all my model design discovery, I literally have 10+ plane classes and still haven't discovered artillery or RPG troops (and I have advanced RPG tech).
Nor can I even use my plane tech. 0.5 g planet, 50% atmosphere means building a plane is just random variable input hell. I sort of figured out propellers, but Jet engines make no sense. I have a tac fighter smallest jet engine with massive speed and even a range of 500+ km with largest fuel tank and it can only go 2 hexes . . . wtf?
Range seems borked and wasting my time changing 1 variable at a time on a sequential list is NOT a fun way to play the game.
Of course once I randomly figure out a working design, my first airfleet required a level 2 air strip, and only has a range of 4. So I would have to spend massive resources for a level 2 strip (requiring a level 2 pop center) just so I could maybe get close enough to bomb something. . . .

And since the planes have taken over all of my research, I can't even field artillery or RPG troops.

Guess this goes back in storage until an update fixes this.

[Soar_Slitherine]

While early jets have a lower range compared to turboprops, it should still be possible to get jet aircraft (not rocket) with decent range on a 0.5g/50% air density planet. The largest fuel tank is usually too large and slows the plane down too much - in order to maximize range, engines, wings and fuel tanks all usually need to be of a balanced size, but there is no straightforward generally applicable rule for the exact sizes, they have to be figured out through trial and error.

Designing an aircraft model unlocks the next size of aircraft model for discovery. If you don't want to discover bigger aircraft types, then don't keep designing bigger ones - large fixed-wing aircraft are rarely useful anyway.

The interface for designing aircraft being egregiously terrible is something there's a general agreement in the community on. If you don't want to bother with it, there's an option to disable air forces in the planet generation settings.

[Don_Kiyote]

Its all gonna work out for the best, little shizza. You'll see.

The interface for designing aircraft being egregiously terrible is something there's a general agreement in the community on.

...but not unanimous.

[mattpilot]

Maybe i misunderstood the 'problem', but if you are trying to discover other things like artillery or other undiscovered types, then stop wasting points on designing new planes. Dont' design anything - let those points all roll into the discovery pool.

Designing new planes will only make sense after you've researched the associated efficiency techs for aviation and a little bit after the type you are trying to improve has gained battle experience.

[Soar_Slitherine]

The latest beta patches have a new interface under MNG -> Blue for designing model blueprints, which can then be used when picking the next model to design for the Model Design Council. It's ten times quicker for designing effective air units compared to the interface in the model design decision.