searchplanes

[rattovolante]

I dug this in an old thread:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

AE does not have the same limit on search range that WITP did. In AE, it's based on the cruise speed of the search plane and how far it can go in a reasonable amount of time for the search phase before it would have to turn around.

So... is endurance even taken into account? As far as I understand all searchplanes have to return to base at the end of every morning phase, even if they still had plenty of endurance to keep patrolling until well into afternoon.

In other words, does this mean that before introduction of radar the Mabel (cruise 219, endurance 375 = 5 hr 26 min) is a better searchplane than the Emily (cruise 184, endurance 1455 = 20 hr 11 min)? [&:]

edit: typo fixed

[vlcz]

If we could suppose that each mabel that comes back refuels and does a new search, it could be indeed better than the Emily -of course ehen in range-, as if covers more area if each full day.

But, by reading the rules "Setting the max range to a lower range than the full extended range will improve the chance to detect, as this can translate to more flights by the same plane.", I suspect that as the Emily has more range "to spare" , if you limit them to the same range will give better returns

[rattovolante]

Uhm, I made an interesting discovery, which probably disproves my post above
I also guess it was already known, since it's quite obvious when you look at the emily data (range is very low)

Let's suppose every daytime air phase lasts 6 hours

H8K1 Emily:
cruise 184 mph
endurance 20 hr 11 min
normal range (as defined in the editor) = 1860 nm
distance covered in 6 hours = 184*6 miles = 24 hexes
normal combat range = 24 hexes

So the range shown for Emilies is already capped to what it can reach in 6 hours

B5M1 Mabel:
cruise 219 mph
endurance 5 hr 26 min
distance covered in 5 hr 26 min = 219*5.43 miles = 1034 nm (25,85 hexes)
max range = 1035 nm (26 hexes)

the "normal combat range" for the Mabel is much lower, and it seems to be simply half the "normal range" specified in the editor, which I guess is the historical max range while carrying a torpedo (so endurance represents max plane performance, i.e., no combat load?).

so I guess the planes' in-game normal combat range is either half the normal range defined by the editor, or the distance it can cover in 6 hours, whichever is less.

Interesting the choice of 6 hours for the normal combat range instead of 3 or 4 hours, does this mean that if a Emily patrols to its max range (i.e., stays out on patrol for 6 hours) during the morning phase it won't  be back at the base in time to take off again during the afternoon phase?