B17 Repair Bug?

[SteveV]

I saw this addressed somewhere here earlier, but never saw an "official" response.

B17's are not repairing properly. Level 9 airfield, hundreds of thousands of supply, oodles of support, and yet they repair at a glacial rate. Wellington's at the same base--and all other aircraft based in same location--repair "normally", or what I perceive to be the normal rate.

The B17's sit there for weeks and don't repair.

Something wrong here....

SteveV

[tanksone]

I've had that problem with BG's [:@] . If you spilt them up it seems to work better. Haven't had that problem with Sq.

[kaleun]

This has been debated before.
B17s were apparently thought to be too effective, and also almost invulnerable to fighters if used at high altitude. It was felt that the repair rates had to be slowed down to:
a)simulate the difficulties of repair and mainteneace of such a large and copmplex ship in the pacific theater, and
b)try to bring the actual performance of B17 groups closer to the historic levels.

I am using b17s out of Darwin and have had no real problems with them.

[SteveV]

Kaleun, if this is correct that is a silly way to fix the "issue". Just reduce its manuever rating or armor or something that actually addresses the issue. Don't have dozens of aircraft sit around a base with the mechanics sitting on their thumbs. That is a poor way to "fix" this perceived problem, IMO.

Does splitting into squadrons work to skirt this issue?

SteveV

[Dereck]

ORIGINAL: SteveV

Kaleun, if this is correct that is a silly way to fix the "issue". Just reduce its manuever rating or armor or something that actually addresses the issue. Don't have dozens of aircraft sit around a base with the mechanics sitting on their thumbs. That is a poor way to "fix" this perceived problem, IMO.

Does splitting into squadrons work to skirt this issue?

SteveV

It seems to at least for my game. Squadrons repair planes faster than groups.

[dtravel]

ORIGINAL: kaleun

This has been debated before.
B17s were apparently thought to be too effective, and also almost invulnerable to fighters if used at high altitude. It was felt that the repair rates had to be slowed down to:
a)simulate the difficulties of repair and mainteneace of such a large and copmplex ship in the pacific theater, and
b)try to bring the actual performance of B17 groups closer to the historic levels.

I am using b17s out of Darwin and have had no real problems with them.

So why aren't LB-30, B-24 and (I assume) B-29 units suffering the same "fix"?

[Zeta16]

I have never had a big problem with the heavies. In real life they were not fixed real quick, so I think that is why they do this in the game.

[SteveV]

My LB-30 Liberators at the exact same base repair MUCH faster than their B17 cousins.

There is either a bug a work here or a very odd game balancing mechanism that is intentional. I will see if these are units I can divide to see if that expedites getting them back in the air. However, with over 400 aircraft support there are turns where the ONLY damaged aircraft in the entire base are a bunch of B17's that I have stood down and are not even flying for a week straight.

Is there someone who can respond to this "officially"?

SteveV

[dtravel]

Three quatloos says there never is an official response.

[Twotribes]

My B-17's in India at well supplied and more than adequately airsupport provided bases dont repair any faster split into sub groups. I have to usually stop attacking and stand down for a week or more to get back to half or better strength to start the process all over. Makes it nearly impossible to shut down the Japanese bases in range even if you provide the assets and aircraft to do the job.

[dtravel]

ORIGINAL: Twotribes

My B-17's in India at well supplied and more than adequately airsupport provided bases dont repair any faster split into sub groups. I have to usually stop attacking and stand down for a week or more to get back to half or better strength to start the process all over. Makes it nearly impossible to shut down the Japanese bases in range even if you provide the assets and aircraft to do the job.

(Emphasis added) That's the problem right there. With any aircraft besides the B-17 they will be back to nearly full strength in only two or three days.

[pry]

This ain't official it's a fact...[;)]

Climate and the huge distances caused a huge amount of wear and tear on aircraft that kept a large percentage grounded for repairs. Historically dispite the very best efforts of the ground crews the allies were hard pressed to even keep 50% of their heavy bombers operational most of the time in the Pacific.

In the game aircraft repair way to fast but it is something I have learned to live with...
enough from me, back to looking at leader saves...

[dtravel]

I'm arguing the uneven implementation of that, with only B-17s taking so long to repair. If all aircraft were repairing at the same rate, or even all heavy bombers, it wouldn't peeve me off like this.

*Sigh* I'm getting cranky again. It's all Ron's fault, he's become contagious. [:'(]

[pasternakski]

In particular, make the lengthy repair time applicable to Bettys.

[Twotribes]

My other problem is they wont take replacements either, I have a huge pool of B-17's and they trickle into these units. I will end up with a group at half strength and after a week of stand down it has added maybe one aircraft.

[moses]

I have no problem with B17's. They seem to repair fine.

I have had an occasional problem with groups of aircraft which have 0 ready and many damaged. This usually occurs after some transfer. They go several days without repairing at all. I found that if I divide the unit up the problem clears up by next turn. Then I regroup the unit and it repairs normally.