Thoughts on Roll Rates

[Woof]

One of the limitations of the WGS system is that it is difficult to reflect both roll rate and turn rate in the manoeuvre decks.

For example the FW190 had an excellent roll rate but couldn't out turn a Spit. The P38 on the other hand had an appalling roll rate but with combat flaps could out turn anything.

If the roll rate has to be factored into turn cards to reflect the ability to establish the turn rapidly, (e.g. limit the P38 to 30 or perhaps a single 45 card) then this artificially prevents sustained turns. However having instant access to 45 or 60 turns would provide an unrealistic advantage.

The sideslip manoeuvre appears to be linked to roll rate, but it's not entirely clear how and this still doesn't address the turning problem above. Steep manoeuvres also account for this to some extent, e.g. with the O deck a 60/60 roll reversal is not possible.

The unofficial stats committee house rules notes attempt to address this by requiring certain cards be played between turns for the P38.

I think a possible solution would be to introduce "roll rate" as a parameter. This could be a value 1-6 representing the number of angle changes possible in a single turn. I.e. for a roll rate of 1 to establish a 45 Deg turn from a straight a 30 Deg would need to be played in-between and to reverse direction to 45 the other way would require 45->30->straight->30->45. A roll rate of 6 would allow carefree roll reversals from 60 to 60.

For casual play this is probably a bit much, and for more realism this would probably need to be combined with some of the advanced climb/dive rules suggestions I've seen.

[Jager]

Roll rates are a big unknown for me. I've tried to search on-line, but can't get reliable data; often no data for a given plane.
I have a number of planes done for the Fighting Wings games that give the number of flight points per 30 degrees banked, so there is that,
but it is very dependent on speed, and how to translate that to the WGS engine is not something I've figured out. Turn rates are altitude dependent.
The P-38 is a problem for me; part of the problem was the different opinions of it's performance. It did poorly in the 8th AF, but very well in the Med and the Pacific.
I was/am hoping for a solution from Andreas with the series 7 release. That's dead, but the SW pacific will have the P-38. Then we can see.
Trying to put in roll rates in general play may be too much; even CY6 doesn't do that.
FWs is a very intense, realistic simulation game, not for everyone.
If you have a good source of roll rates, I'd love to look at them.
Karl