Patch 06 - Public Beta - Build 1108r9 updated 21 January 2012 (2nd part)

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: michaelm

One thing I have found is that airborne search radar is not being checked before the planes are spotted, but is used in the actual plane-to-plane combat.
Logically, if planes have no radar and no detection from the ground, then actual interception should be less likely.
The reason I noticed this is that there is a slot to record the air radar device of the defenders, but in the few night combats in this save, there was no value stored there.

I have added a simple check for radar in the CAP or raid being detected in this build. It should lower the odds that CAP without some radar assistance will engage raid. NF or a/c with air radar should do better at intercepting raids than those without.

Feedback appreciated.

Totally agree with this approach but I predict with a confidence factor of 99% that when players experience even less effective night CAP there will be howls of protest. Stand firm against the inevitable howls of protest. If, and that is a very big if, there will subsequently be a need to tweek the effect of night bombing after the above change, the area to be investigated should be to make bombers without radar less effective in night bombing, rather than making day fighters without radar the equal of night fighters who do have radar installed.

Alfred

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

ORIGINAL: michaelm

One thing I have found is that airborne search radar is not being checked before the planes are spotted, but is used in the actual plane-to-plane combat.
Logically, if planes have no radar and no detection from the ground, then actual interception should be less likely.
The reason I noticed this is that there is a slot to record the air radar device of the defenders, but in the few night combats in this save, there was no value stored there.

I have added a simple check for radar in the CAP or raid being detected in this build. It should lower the odds that CAP without some radar assistance will engage raid. NF or a/c with air radar should do better at intercepting raids than those without.

Feedback appreciated.

Totally agree with this approach but I predict with a confidence factor of 99% that when players experience even less effective night CAP there will be howls of protest. Stand firm against the inevitable howls of protest. If, and that is a very big if, there will subsequently be a need to tweek the effect of night bombing after the above change, the area to be investigated should be to make bombers without radar less effective in night bombing, rather than making day fighters without radar the equal of night fighters who do have radar installed.

Alfred

But JG300 pilots didnt have RADAR[:D]

I've played a fortnight of Downfall and nothing much has changed, though its hard to tell if the interceptor scares away the bomber so the raid is less effective.

It would be good to see H2s/Gee/Oboe represented, makes Tiger Force an effective weapon.

[Chris21wen]

Another small request.

Is it possible to show the hex coordinates when you hover over a hex while setting a sub/ship patrol or when setting waypoint.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Chris H

Another small request.

Is it possible to show the hex coordinates when you hover over a hex while setting a sub/ship patrol or when setting waypoint.

Or if not, then a hot-key that will display each hex's coordinates?

[inqistor]

ORIGINAL: michaelm

The sunk list issue is fixed in next build. The underlying scroll box wasn't locked in place so it was still accessible.

The damaged plane one I am having trouble finding why this would be so.

Hmmm, that is very strange. I took closer look, and it seems, that in most cases, when attacker fly from land, there is report about damaged planes, but not always. In case of KB there is always NO damaged reported. But I also have seen this for unescorted strikes on Clark...

Maybe there is NO damaged planes somehow? Because I see quite lots of CAP planes afterwards (like over 50 at PH, after ONE day from strike).

[herwin]

You won't want to look at my AAR, since there's a recent moan about the ground combat engine, but I did try out the night bombing fix. Pre-fix, I hadn't been seeing Japanese air-to-air losses intercepting my night bombers, and this was no different. However 35 B-24s did knock over 11 Helens on the ground, and 32 TBFs killed a Jake. It's only my experienced AGs that are doing this, but they're getting efficient. You need to increase the mean dispersion of bombs at night, probably by a factor of ten or more, before you overlay the bomb hit points on the target array.

[Bliztk]

Hi michael, I have seen a decrease in the nigth fighter losses in the latest patch, but only have run two turns, so the sample is still low.

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: Bliztk

Hi michael, I have seen a decrease in the nigth fighter losses in the latest patch, but only have run two turns, so the sample is still low.

However, there's a very nice increase in the number of aircraft killed on the ground.

[michaelm75au]

Increase in ground hits seems strange as bombing hasn't been touched yet.

[Bliztk]

I think that in 5-7 turns we will have a good sample before-after patch

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: michaelm

Increase in ground hits seems strange as bombing hasn't been touched yet.

The patch keeps my opponent's Tonies from taking on my B-24s. It cuts his losses, but leaves my B-24s undisturbed in their bombing.

First, night bombing should be 5-7 times less effective than day bombing for equivalent target arrays, simply because that was the increase in the CEP.

Second, night fighter versus bomber engagements should single planes against single planes--no formations. Neither side should be particularly effective, but the engagement should have an effect on night bombing similar to the disruption to anti-ship bombing produced by local control AA--see Methods of Operations Research. The gun didn't hit anything, but neither did the bomber.

If you allow the SEFs to engage the bombers, but with neither side doing much damage to their opponents and with the bombers messing up their bomb runs, you will come closer to how things worked. In the same vein, the purpose of close fighter escort was not to kill the CAP but to keep the CAP from disturbing the bombers in their bomb runs. The purpose of flak suppression was not to damage the AA, but to keep it from disturbing the bomb runs.

[jcjordan]

Michael, not sure if it's been asked or not or outside of scope you're working on but can you look into NF & sweeps at night? It seems as though NF if you set them to night duty & give it a sweep mission to an enemy base, it won't sweep. You can give it a attack airfield or port mission at night & it will work but night sweeps don't seem to as I've never seen any increase in # of missions of pilots in units set that way. It may be EXTREMELY bad die rolls but I've left units for a month & no missions ever took place that I could see.

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: jcjordan

Michael, not sure if it's been asked or not or outside of scope you're working on but can you look into NF & sweeps at night? It seems as though NF if you set them to night duty & give it a sweep mission to an enemy base, it won't sweep. You can give it a attack airfield or port mission at night & it will work but night sweeps don't seem to as I've never seen any increase in # of missions of pilots in units set that way. It may be EXTREMELY bad die rolls but I've left units for a month & no missions ever took place that I could see.

It will sweep--at 100 feet. It's a question of pilot experience level.

[DmitryZ]

Hi, Michael!
The new version of beta has restored sinchronisation at our game completely. Thank you once more! But I can't to find a dll-file for 1108d. The game goes properly with the old one, but WITP-tracker does not. Could you upload the new version of dll or, may be, I've missed something and it is somethere?

[jcjordan]

ORIGINAL: herwin

ORIGINAL: jcjordan

Michael, not sure if it's been asked or not or outside of scope you're working on but can you look into NF & sweeps at night? It seems as though NF if you set them to night duty & give it a sweep mission to an enemy base, it won't sweep. You can give it a attack airfield or port mission at night & it will work but night sweeps don't seem to as I've never seen any increase in # of missions of pilots in units set that way. It may be EXTREMELY bad die rolls but I've left units for a month & no missions ever took place that I could see.

It will sweep--at 100 feet. It's a question of pilot experience level.

Now do you set the units altitude to 100 or what? I've had mine set at many altitudes mostly 5-10k & when mission is set to sweep it won't go but if I give it a mission to attack port or air base regardless of alt setting it will attack/sweep at 100 as you say but it won't go otherwise from what I've seen. Pilot xp is in the 60-70 range with skills about the same.

[zuluhour]

Just another thanks Michaelm. Enjoying the updates.

[Zeta16]

Just download the new beta patch, it seems Japan can no longer turn off repair yards.

[n01487477]

ORIGINAL: Zeta16

Just download the new beta patch, it seems Japan can no longer turn off repair yards.

And what should that matter - it costs "nothing" anyway.Why would you turn them off for?

[Zeta16]

ORIGINAL: n01487477

ORIGINAL: Zeta16

Just download the new beta patch, it seems Japan can no longer turn off repair yards.

And what should that matter - it costs "nothing" anyway.Why would you turn them off for?

Always thought repair yards used HI

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: jcjordan

ORIGINAL: herwin

ORIGINAL: jcjordan

Michael, not sure if it's been asked or not or outside of scope you're working on but can you look into NF & sweeps at night? It seems as though NF if you set them to night duty & give it a sweep mission to an enemy base, it won't sweep. You can give it a attack airfield or port mission at night & it will work but night sweeps don't seem to as I've never seen any increase in # of missions of pilots in units set that way. It may be EXTREMELY bad die rolls but I've left units for a month & no missions ever took place that I could see.

It will sweep--at 100 feet. It's a question of pilot experience level.

Now do you set the units altitude to 100 or what? I've had mine set at many altitudes mostly 5-10k & when mission is set to sweep it won't go but if I give it a mission to attack port or air base regardless of alt setting it will attack/sweep at 100 as you say but it won't go otherwise from what I've seen. Pilot xp is in the 60-70 range with skills about the same.

I had the altitude set to 10K feet.