ORIGINAL: el cid again
The man's point was that 1) there's too much CAP to begin with in many cases and 2) it's entirely too effective, all of it engaging each incoming wave. To assert that CAP eventually gets "tired" by the fourth or fifth or sixth strike hardly argues that the air-combat system makes sense. It patently does not make sense for most (if not all) situations. CAP ought to "parceled out" to bandits, and all fighters on both sides need to be severely limited as to how many combats they're able to engage in, this to broadly simulate the limited quantity of ammo they were loaded with (an incredibly inept omission on Gary's part,
First, let me remind everybody that I am almost finished with a data mod that will address air combat lethality in a big way. Second, let me say that someone we know got a Matrix programmer to admit the module has problems. So I am not saying that there are no problems here.
However, the allegation that CAP is entirely too effective is actually false.
CAP is not able to do what Japanese CAP could really do - engage in OTHER hexes. [See the record of Genda's Blade for one - and there was a similar JAAF outfit. They used recon planes to find enemy strikes far from their targets and engage them with fighters en route. They used electronic warning systems to find the strike packages. NONE of this is EVER possible in WITP - so you NEVER have to worry about what real commanders had to face.] CAP is also anything but 100% effective. I have had 1 or 3 or some other small number engage - when I assigned vastly greater numbers. And the post I responded to specifically said CAP never gets tired - but it does.
As for ammunition - please give Gary a break. He did it RIGHT. WE (players) ASKED for a "fix" of the "too weak" fighter problem - in UV days - and they took the ammo limits out. It is still there and can be put back in - and should be. But it is NOT a design flaw.
Sid, the bottom line is that CAP as presented in this system does not work correctly. If it were ever to work correctly in the bloody sense this system has it then it would be American CAP that would be so effective, starting in 1943, and reaching a fairly serious level by the summer of 1944 I'd say. At no time were the Japanese as far along on that issue as were the Americans for various reasons, some having to do with technology, others with doctrine--and that itself was tied back to technology all too often.
As for how Matrix reacted to the shortsighted whines from the days of
UV, that's on Matrix, as it was
their decision to make. And it is very much a design issue. What else
could you call it? A problem with astrology?
We have, just for example, F4F-4 Wildcats in the game with what, historically about 15-18 seconds of .50 Cal bursts (about 18 seconds figuring 240 rounds per gun, but Lundstrom states there were provisions to only load up with just 200 rounds for only four of the inboard .50s, with nothing at all for the outboard .50s, to save on weight) available and then they were out of the fight. But in the game they fight half the day long!
Come on. Just because the fighters weren't "performing as people wanted" with
UV was no good excuse to willy-nilly scrap ammo loadouts. Isn't Matrix the first one to argue that one has to be careful about changes and the eventual effects these changes might cause to the overall system? Well, this is the perfect example of that. Meanwhile, the company refuses to look at the load rates of ports and the efficiency of engineers at air bases, or even to adjust the OP-loss rates, because futzing around with something that "delicate" might break everything else in sight. Right. [8D]
