idea to make gameplay more historically acurrate, and encourage ppl to fly red

[ATAG_Trumps]

great job guys, it looks and flys fantastic!
i did notice there seem to be a lot less radio calls giving info on radar contacts.
also i had an idea which may possibly make a difference to how the maps are flown, and encourage more of the RAF flyers to get some altitude. maybe reduce the amount of RAF bomber raids and increase the amount of Luftwaffe
raids. the theory being that historically there were a lot more luftwaffe raids put up during the battle than RAF raids. hopefully if the raids are put up at say between 4-5000m the german flyers will spend more time escorting the bombers due to not having RAF bombers to shoot down, the RAF guys will hopefully rise to the bait. from what i am seeing is that Hawkinge is where the Luft fighters congregate, this i think is due to the fact that it is so difficult to find a fight, most of the 109's seem to come over at about 3-4000m altitude and only drop down to ground level because there are rarely any spits or hurris at altittude, that is when you get the vulch fests, usually out of frustration, and or being in the right place at the right time. basically the German bomber formattions would become a mobile combat magnet at a decent altittude to replace the present Hawkinge combat magnet :)
just my little opinion on how we can change the mode of play to better represent the battle. also, if the sever is quiet then it may encourage more people to fly RAF due to the large amounts of bombers to intercept!

Cheers
Craig

[ATAG_EvangelusE]

+1

Good ideas and worth trying.

[ATAG_Bliss]

I like it. We have many irons in the fire atm, but look for some changes soon :coolio:

[Catseye]

Good idea Trumps.

In order to meet incoming Luftwaffe aircraft, I fly out of Manston to climb towards Hawkinge. Hopefully, I get there around 10-12,000 ft. then circle between Lympne and Hawkinge until around 17,000 ft. There can still be a fair wait for incoming bombers. The human fighters though appear lower and I'm often torn whether to go down and engage or wait for the bombers to arrive. If I'm flying solo I tend to wait high and if I have other flyers on comms with me I will drop down to engage the fighters with support.

All of this takes some time and I'm not in a hurry to get into a furball like the quick missions - however, if longer than a half hour to see the enemy I cruise on over to France for a quick rhubarb and if no luck come back land and leave the server.

All in all it's fun to fly CEM, no map icons and manage some tactics.

Nice job ATAG guys. You're tempting me to join-up. :salute:

Cheers.

[ATAG_Trumps]

Cross post from 1C forums, and further to my previous drivel ;)

the thing that makes it really difficult is that unlike the real BoB in which a raid consisting of bomber groups and their attached escorts were picked up by RDF over france as they formed up into a complete unit, in Cod we have sporadic bomber groups coming over the channel and the fighters spawning constantly with no need for them to hang around gaining altitude to form an escort. there ends up just being a constant stream of 1's and 2's luftwaffe fighters heading over.
If maybe there was a bomber raid that formed up and circled at say 4-5k above Calais, and French point every say 10 minutes before heading over it might serve as a marker, or rally point for the LW fighters. i know for my part that i quite enjoy escorting bombers but due to rarely being able to locate my bombers before they head across the channel it becomes a rather hit and miss affair, and i can understand why people don't bother with it.
it would really be something to see the game develop into something more than just another furball server, but unfortunately the only way i can see it becoming all it could be is if the mission design makes it too easy for the LW fighters to play their historical part by dangling the carrot somewhere that we can easily form up on, that way the RAF can take off and come to us, instead of us having to go looking for them down in the weeds.
Sorry if i sound like i am full of big ideas but nothing to back them up Bliss and co, but at the present time i am afraid that ideas is all i can offer, real life has got me by the balls at the moment !

Cheers
Craig

[Ohms]

I think this is a great idea.Often find i have to escort Wellies to find any fighter action which seems to be a complete role reversal from the real battle.On a side note its a long weekend up here in the great white north and i have had to work all of it,it's killing me to see the high numbers of users playing while i'm stuck at work.That being said it is a tribute to the ATAG Guys that so many are enjoying this server.:salute:


Neil

[Bokonon]

I like the idea of more Luffwafe raids a lot, especially as I almost exclusively fly red(for now anyway). I've not been up an awful lot recently due to RL and time spent modding my rig, but I would love to see mass LW raids the next time I get the chance for a proper session.

[Spinfx]

Good idea Trumps.

I was thinking on how to encourage pilots to escort the AI bombers a bit more and
one way would be put up a message when bomber formations are attacked.

Something like:
"German Bomber Formation #1 Attacked - German Fighter Mission Fail" and something for the British bomber formations.

A bit of subtle shame might get them into flying escort for the AI bombers. :)

Although when I fly bombers, I don't have too many problems getting escort when I put the call out.

Spinfx.

[ATAG_Trumps]

cheers bud, i quite like escorting bombers myself, it was the priority role of the fighters. good idea on the updates for your own sides bombers during their mission, it would definately assist anyone who is a bit late in getting off the ground in picking up the location, route, and whether or not they are in difficulties.
Bliss gave us the tip that there were a couple of large formations for us to escort earlier today, and several of us picked up the formations to escort them. there was one largish stuka raid of about 30 a/c that we formed up with over Calais, the Raf obviously knew about it as well and there was quite a lot of action as the spits and hurris came racing in to have a crack at the stukas who were at about 4.5k alt. i personally found it more enjoyable to have a crack at the enemy fighters and maybe take them down, or maybe just get them to dive away and out of the fight, scoring a kill was irrelevant, doing as much as could be done to get the bombers through was the key, don't get drawn away from the bombers. it burned my ass when someone would get through the escorts and got a bomber.

i loved it and thanks for trying it out, it added a lot more to the flying than wracking up a huge score does in my opinion.

Cheers
Craig

[Whiskey]

+1

Great idea mate. I usually fly high, 4k - 6k hunting for 109's attacking our bombers, or enemy bomber formations. I have gotten into a few good scraps up high with fighters protecting and attacking bomber formations but far to few. I always have great fun no matter if I am fighting bombers, fighters, or just cruising enjoying scenery while chatting it up with the folks on TS.

Whiskey

[ATAG_Bliss]

I've changed a few of the bomber flights, corrected some airfields, and based on what MoGas was saying in coms, I'm going to add some instructional messages telling people where to meet the bombers etc. (Hopefully after this weekend)

What went from a fairly easy work week, all went to hell :Grin:

Typical!

:salute:

[ChiefRedCloud]

Thanks for your hard work M'8:coolio:

[ATAG_Trumps]

You guys rock, looking forward to trying it out next time I am back in town!

Cheers
Craig

[Spinfx]

Cheers Bliss... Its cool have an evolving mission getting better all the time.




Spinfx

[Hoogs]

What about increasing the airplane dot distances? It seems to me that 20km is too small a distance. The game play would benefit from larger spotting distance on account of the size of the map. Also, I'm sure people can spot AC from farther away than 20km in RL.

[ATAG_EvangelusE]

Sounds great guys! Most of my ATAG sorties are either escorting or intercepting Bombers. The fighter skirmishes at these altitudes are so much better IMO and there have been more lately.

[ATAG_Trumps]

Great to hear that the fight is starting to be taken upstairs, the protection and or destruction of the bomber waves makes a far more interesting and varied goal than continually ducking over to Hawkinge for the same old furballs. Really looking forward to getting back to town so I can have a crack myself! How's the CS prop working out on the 1a?

Craig

[5./JG27Rudelmann]

If I may, Red flights being upstairs might be historically accurate, but most reports I've read indicate that the He-111s, Ju-88s, and Do-17s came in a lower altitudes: 3-4k. In fact, the He-111s ceiling is slightly higher than 6k for the early models, and reaching 6.5k later in the war, and the Donier's is 5.5k. Some flights came in low, I think it depended on target (convoys, rails, smaller type targets tending to illicit a lower altitude attack from the LW).

Being that the Red planes do perform better at altitude, I should be up to the red bombers, and fighters to draw the LW up, not the LW bombers doing that bit of work. Just my 2cents.