ORIGINAL: Adnan Meshuggi
Another point for Aircraft-Research
someone mentioned that it is "unhistorical" to research only the "good" planes...
hm, but on the other hand, same is true in any game about a war...
as the allied, you know the key locations... do you act exactly like the historical counterparts ? Or the use of planes...? Minewar, etc....
Also, don´t forget that the japanese developted most planes much earlier as they used em, the ki44 is a good example...
I agree, that the allies should also got more chances to produce different planes. Esp. the spits are way to inferior and my personel view about the spit xvi compared to the corsair is, err, different. In 100 fights of equal pilots 90 spits should survive... but that is a personell view i can change in an ai-game quite easy [:'(]
My dream is that you do not know the performance of the planes you develop, they can vary and you only say "develop a new fighter" use 100 planes worth of equippment (to show the consumption) and voila, sometimes you get a p38g, sometimes not... (later they will come, at correct time table, but to improve the planes, you need to wait until they come into service or develop blindly...)
so no cheating, no bashing about unhistorical sifi-games... the player has to make decisions and sometimes they are worth the "money" and sometimes not... every game a different result (but sure, for the eto the germans can´t develop a battle ready me262 earlier as late43... but maybe cause they develop so much, they can start with 150% of the production ? But for that, they hadn´t produced 2 years long each month 100 me109 less, for example...
so, this is my idea of the solution of the problem we have with hindsight...
even better, if you do not research, you can produce only a few planes (if you wait for the p38, do not develop here and get only 5 planes a month you are p!ssed off !. take just the raw idea
I have been toying with a different research design, but it opens up a whole can of worms that I doubt GG and Co would want to open. It would cross the line from historical simulation to what some would term fantasy. The intent would be to mimic the way that planes were developed and result in historically plausible results, but not exactly reproduce them. In my system, any aircraft developed after scenario start would be fictional and somewhat random. The A7M2 might turn out to be a dud - or it could turn out better than it was.
Essentially, I would add Research and Development Centers. The ability to expand the number of centers would be restricted (more so for Japan than for the US). Each research center would have affinity's for different types of technology. Development centers would develop new aircraft and ship systems. As a player, I would issue requirements to the design centers telling them what I wanted and by when I wanted it. Based upon the quality of the design center, the health of the economy in general, the length of time involved and the technology demonstrated by the enemy, an aircraft would be available on or about the date requested. It more than likely would not meet the requirements (depending upon how ambitious they were), but might be better in some categories.
Using this methodology, the design group that designed the H8K Emily might reasonably be asked to develop a speedy, long range, 4 engine bomber for Japan. As for how long it took and how durable it was... On the other hand, asking the Zero's development team to develop a bomber would be a mistake - designs originating out of this group would be likely to be highly manuverable and long range, but somewhat lacking in speed and firepower. Once an acceptable design was developed, it would be moved to a factory capable of producing it, and production would be retooled (taking longer than it currently does). It would then be moved to a squadron where the squadron would develop experience in that type.
