Matrix Games Forums

http://www.a2asimulations.com/forum/vie ... 10&t=11602

Hope you enjoy.

Here is a post that Heinkill did at the A2A forum with some pic's and some background information:
 
In 1940 British AA defences were obsolete and ill-equipped to defend against the streams of Luftwaffe bombers and hit-run raiders crossing the Channel. Of all the European capitals, London was easiest to find and closest to the border. In Winston Churchill's colourful words, the British capital was "a tremendous fat cow . . . tied up to attract the beasts of prey.”
 
By July 1940 as the Battle unfolded there were in place around the United Kingdom 355 x 4.5-inch, 620 x 3.7-inch and 230 x 3-inch heavy guns operational along with 270 x 40-mm Bofors, 135 x low-level 3-inch, 140 x ex-navy 2-pounder and 40 x Hispano 20-mm cannon for the country's defence. BoBII has always modelled the main AA pieces.
 
German AA Gun emplacements in BOBII can now be enabled
 
In addition the British fielded some quirky stop-gap solutions to the problem of inadequate low-level defences against low flying aircraft - namely the bizarre Parachute and Cable (PAC) rockets which launched 480ft lengths of wire into the air suspended by parachutes to create an airborne minefield in front of attackers. Spectacularly unsuccessful, many players may not have noticed the PAC is actually modelled in BoBII. Stooge around over Hawkinge, and you will see the rockets firing!
 
PAC rocket batteries modelled in BOBII. In reality they were laid out in up to three lines of 9 rockets per line. While 9 kills were attributed to PAC batteries during the Battle, the only confirmed kill by PAC rockets was a Wellington aircraft destroyed during testing...
Various historical sources indicate AA gunners claimed between 350 and 380 kills during the Battle, and the Royal Artillery Association post-war analysis confirmed at least 300 kills. Yet AA lethality in BoBII has often irked players, as Luftwaffe aircraft appeared virtually impervious to AA fire, especially at low level.
No more!
In Patch 2.08 Hotfix 2, the AA has finally been given bite. The 3 inch flak now has a historically aligned burst radius of 11 feet, which can disable or destroy aircraft unlucky enough to fall within its range. And the firing rate of low level AA has been increased, so that for the first time, Luftwaffe players have to carefully plan their ingress and egress, and can no longer stooge around unmolested over heavily defended targets.
As an added bonus, the BDG has also done heavy testing of bullet drag, gravity and dispersion, which can clearly be seen in the more realistic difficulty of bomber and Zerstorer gunners hitting fast moving RAF fighters, while the firing and reloading rates of Bf110 and Stuka rear gunners have been tweaked to make them more responsive, while their skill and accuracy level reflects their in-game experience.
All in all it means a more challenging and immersive experience for players. If you try a campaign as a Do17 gondola gunner, put your headphones on, and put down plastic under your seat - I promise it will be a wild ride!
The beauty of this HOTFIX, as for much of the work the BDG is now implementing, is that the player has almost complete control over the new parameters through the BDG.txt file. If you find the new AA too lethal, you can tune it down. If you find the bomber gunners too innaccurate and want more of a challenge, change the dispersion values. You can even turn AA fire on and off over Luftwaffe airfields in France now.
 
A Bf110 wakes up the air defences at Manston in Hotfix 2. 'Get in, hit hard, and scarper' is now the only way to survive.
Get the HOTFIX here:
http://www.a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=11602

Stickman posted this Pic in the Beta forum. If the gun point down too far the crew actually shoots themself in the foot.

Hopefully , we can fix it (or maybe leave it?). Look at the gun crew running for there lives.

You gota love the Pic..............................



Perhaps I am the only one whom goes into roving cam to watch the ground guns.
Now, I am not a professional artilleryman, but here at Hawkinge you see some odd gun site emplacement.
A two gun section of 40mm Bofors, OK. Probably too close to each other, IMO.
What the bloody hell is that 3.7" heavy doing with them???



Now, the Bofors guns are not going to kill any friendlies as long as they do not point and train tubes at any,
but.. when they train over 180 degrees, and point low...



Wissant, and a LW FLAK Ableitung emplacement (minus one batterie due for Audembert AF.



Batterie A / section 1, near Audembert.
ben's new objects:


Batterie A / section 2, atop Ceasar's old Fort:


Ceasar's Fort, photo taken 1907-1920?


Hirtius, Keasar's must trusted legate (until he stabbed him in the back, later)
asked Julius, " Why do we need to invade Brittania?"
"Because we can! Also to put the fear of Rome in the hearts of all these savages!"
"Hirtius, chop down all these Druid trees. Bring any Druid priests to me.
We have a fort and ships to build!"

Some flak damage, thanks to stickman for the Pic.

I have implemented a Bdg.txt parameter so you can tune the size to your flak burst so you can tune how ofter you get killed by flak.



You will also have a Bdg.txt switch so you can turn off the AAA and Flak in case your PC can not handle the extra processing.

You will have a switch to increase the AAA and Flak (higher than the baseline default) if you have a gamer PC with the grunt.

You will have a Bdg.txt switch for getting AAA and Flak over France again if your PC has the grunt.

Thanks to Borton for the Pic during Testing.



Thanks to Stickman for the Pic's and hard work on the AAA guns (some are work in prograss).

Look at the lovely little forts for the guns and gun crews to hide while blasting the bad guys out of the sky.

Outfitted Hawkinge with some gun revetments. Poor gunners looked a bit exposed.







I mentioned before that I saw a place at Hawkinge where gun smoke and flashes appeared, but nothing there.
Initially I thought it was a 3.7" gun. After much observance, I know that they are the odd
Anti-Air Parachute & Chain weapons!. Yes, they work if you fly into one.

There is one just south of the Blenheims, and one near the raised forest (black arrow)
There may be 1 or 2 north of the field. I have not scouted that out, yet.


These things only fire when enemy aircraft are over the field.
They fire in 4 round salvos, eacg launcher firing 1 second after the previous.
1....2....3....4.... then reload.
One hit my auto-pilot Aircraft while I was looking at the flashes appear when they launch.


Another flak hit over Dover (thanks to Stickman's testing and Pic).

Stickman says: "I may now, have to re-think my tactics of making low level attacks with ME100's against airfields."




Here is what PAC things look like when their parachutes deploy, firing at me:



I do not know if a cable hangs below the objects. I see them firing in salvos of 5.
After launch, before the chutes come out, they look like flying white balls.
I mentioned some where before, that they do not shoot straight up, but launch at a target.
I have been destroyed twice by the things in all my BoB play, only around Hawkinge.
If you hear the same sound at Hawkinge, as with the balloon cable hit sound, you've met one.

A big Texas thanks to Heinkill for this outstanding testing and reporting in the Beta Forum. I thought you guys may be interested:

Tested 2.09-16 for flak impact on LW medium bombers using IA Intercept Scattered Attackers>Biggin Hill>He111. 5 runs for each flak size.

Flak size 20 metres: Losses (out of 15) 9/7/9/10!/7
Flak size 15 metres: Losses 7/8/6/6/7
Flak size 13 metres: Losses 5/3/2/1/2
Flak size 11 metres: Losses 0/0/0/1/0
Flak size 10 metres: Losses 0/0/0/0/0

You can just see in this shot of one of the 20 metre flak runs, three bombers hit, one in foreground going down, two others have just lost wingtips. I think 11 metres (the default) is actually the sweet spot! It was quite surprising what a difference just two extra metres had.



When you examine the formation from side and front you will see that there is now quite a clear 'flak box' around the bombers, where previously the flak was typically low and late.

Side


Front


You can clearly see the difference from the old 2.08-hotfix 2 (old flak) here:


My ten cents worth on the 40mm low altitude stuff: Challenging but survivable using the right tactics (fly to live), which gives the gameplay that new edge people are always looking for.

And the 'wakeup' setting is just right now - here is where the AA wakes up for the IA low level attack mission - about five seconds before bomb release, meaning that all important first pass is pretty survivable.



Let's face it, how many times should you go back for a second or third pass or stooge around on top of the airfield?! In reality you would come in low, pop up, dive in for the bombing run, then scoot - extend away until you were out of sight of any AA. Only then would you possibly return.

The way I do this with the new flak setting is as follows (flying as staffel leader)

- Ingress and bombing run
- Egress and extend at least two to five minutes from target.
- Call staffel to regroup on the leader
- Reform
- Reorient to target, ingress again (AA should have gone back to sleep by now)
- Padlock new ground target and order attack
- Egress and order regroup
- Go home before RAF arrives

Guarantee you have a better than 1/3 chance of survival... 8)

I'm just about ready to sing ALLELULAH Buddye. This has been on my wish list for years!

Historic Raid on Kenley, the Germans can no longer raid the RAF without the British giving them some payback.

Great job Buddye and thanks to all the BDG folks.
 
[&o][&o][&o]
 
Great pics too btw.
 
 

Link down in the A2A forum...

I took the link down as it is old now.

Here is the latest 2.09 code update for BOBII that you might want to grab and check out:

It is #5 in the list of 2.09 updates (as of 11-25-2008).

http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=12476

The BDG_2.09-38 includes everything all the code (features, fixes, options). You just need to install it last into your BOBII install.

If you already have # 1-4 installed you just need to install #5 and you are up to date and ready to go (should only take minutes).

Hope you enjoy.

my runs in Rar 37, the AA is way too strong (nice add on to make it player controlable)

not to knock the Englanders and there gunners, but from some reports from the pilots on spotting duty, when Epro210 attacked Manston, all the gunners ran away, on both attacks, the RAF wasn't too impressed with the Army gunners stationed on there bases (of course, the newness of being under attack helps, once they knew what to expect, they got better)

Hi Sarge,
 
Glad you like the AAA. Yes, it is a bit strong but it fun to fly combat with all the AAA and flak going off. I did the think some players might want to cut it back, however, so I coded a choice switches.
 
Be sure and load up the new EXE as well for a test drive (BDG_2.09-38).
 
http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/bob_dev/BDG_2.09-38.rar