Firing - some suggested changes

[Zoe Brain]

One thing niggles me about WGS. Aircraft with poor armament don't perform as they did historically, against fighters anyway.

The prme example is the Ki43 Hayabusa. No matter whether it has A/A or B/A armament, it stands little chance in the game against any of the allied fighters, which have at least BB/B armament.

The Bf109F often had a nonfunctional cannon, yet with just 2 MGs did very well too. The 109E and A6M often just fired their two MGs, as they only had a few seconds firing (60 rds) per cannon.

Against bombers, it was a different matter, even 8 mgs was barely adequate. But against fighters, often 2 mgs, while not as good as 4 HMGs, was still competitive.

Meanwhile, aircraft with heavy armament do far better against fighters than they did historically. Get in front of an enemy like a Beaufighter, and you're toast. Something will hit due to the sheer number of guns firing.

So, Borrowing from a mechanic in 3&3...

1. when firing frward fixed guns against anything but heavy bombers, pick an A chit, and look at it while handing it to the target.
2 If it's a 0, you're off target, and no need to do any more unless If firing from directly to rear of target, (line pole to pole goes through rear arc of target)
3. if it's not a 0, or directly from rear, conduct firing as usual. The A chit is additional damage.
This effectively doubles the firepower of A guns vs fighters, but almost halves the firepower of anything else, due to being off target half the time. When on target, it does a little more, but CCCCA isn't a lot more than CCCC, and CCCCA half the time is a lot less than CCCC all the time.

This only applies to fixed guns, thereby making pivot guns less effective (as they shoulkd be) in comparison.

Other optional effects....
If the target has inline engines, a smoke result also does an engine result due to loss of coolant.
If the target has no armour protection, a rudder result also does a crew result, as any hit to control panel will likely have hit the pilot too.
If the target has no self sealing tanks, double the number of turns of fire damage, as fuel continues leaking till the tank is empty.

[Jager]

Interesting thoughts.
Karl

[Naharaht]

Could it be partly due to the way we are handling our planes? Fighters seldom went head to head against other fighters. They preferred to ambush their opponents from behind. This is difficult to do in the game because players can see everything.