Air Variant Idea/Mod

[adski42]

As far as I can remember, the variables on the variant screen for aircraft only allows for increases in range, attack, reliability and speed(?) I think (I had a quick look for the screen shot, but couldn't find it quickly).

What'd be really interesting would be to add the different kinds of attack to the variant list, particularly sea attack and land attack (whatever the CAS attack is called).

This would mean that rather than spending research points on a CAS or Naval bomber, a heavy fighter variant could be beefed up to do this job. It wouldn't be as good as an out and out specialist, but it would allow flexibility that existed historically and would allow minor nations to be more competitive as they wouldn't have to research all tech trees and produce multiple different air frames with the associated production efficiency hits they'd have to take.

For example, the Hurricane was used as a tank buster in the desert war, Spitfires were sometimes used as dive bombers (performing poorly) and Beaufighters were used in air superiority, anti-shipping and CAS roles. Of course, upping one stat should affect others, reducing speed/agility and reliability perhaps.

Also, it looks like the missions available to each aircraft type are quite limited so this would have to be opened up as well. What do you think?

 

[fuzzymanbowb]

Why not the ability to intercept Alien aircraft cause that event pops up sometimes with UFOs. Could be for fun and you get a picture of an alien in a jail cell or something XD

 

[thexmassteam]

Why not, but there is a limiting factor : XP. It will cost a lot of XP to get multiple dedicated variant of the same aircraft. That also mean that you cannot be ready for different missions before the war. You need to get the XP, make the variant, build it and then be ready all missions.

 

[adski42]

I take your point, but you wouldn't need huge amounts of XP - however much you want to spend, really. The benefit is that you save on production costs as the variants will keep some of the efficiencies from production of the base model. It would also allow a saving on research points - ideal for minors with limited research slots.

 

[thexmassteam]

In WWW 4 at 55:50 we saw the cost of variant. It was 25 XP per point and Germany get 140xp for 9 months of discontinuous fight. It's a very limited XP pool to get an efficient variant (at least 4 points for each variant 2 for buff one stat and 2 to negate the drawback ). If XP is related to number of active planes and number of fight, as a minor you'll get less so it will take a lot of time. So you'll probably need to increase the xp gain or decrease the upgrade cost if you want use this for minor's air forces.

 

[Axe99]

It's a good idea (most likely for mods, as it might go over the complexity threshold the devs are shooting at for the base game, although we can cross our fingers ) - and there's plenty of ways to manage it. I think most modders will be playing around with the variant system a fair bit, tinkering with what factors are in there and how they relate to each other.

 

[safe-keeper]

Maybe a dropdown list would be a better implementation. It would have options such as "Naval bombing" or maybe even things like reconnaissance, and picking one of the specialisations would cost a sum of XP, and would designate the aircraft as a new variant, which you could name whatever you wanted.

Each set of specialisations would have a set of stats, giving the plane appropriate bonuses and penalties.


PS: if/when the BI team make BlackICE 2, I expect the variants window to have a dozen or so things you can spend XP on, from fuel tank size to the fabric used in the pilot's seat .

 

[Wraith11B]

"Today on Pimp my Flight, we show up that silly Luftwaffe with the bomb-nasty! Our P-51 comes with 100% chrome work exterior, leather heated seats, wicked sound system and we upgunned it with a pair of M61 Vulcan rotary cannons! Take that, team Schwalbe!"

 

[adski42]

In WWW 4 at 55:50 we saw the cost of variant. It was 25 XP per point and Germany get 140xp for 9 months of discontinuous fight. It's a very limited XP pool to get an efficient variant (at least 4 points for each variant 2 for buff one stat and 2 to negate the drawback ). If XP is related to number of active planes and number of fight, as a minor you'll get less so it will take a lot of time. So you'll probably need to increase the xp gain or decrease the upgrade cost if you want use this for minor's air forces.

Fair point, but you wouldn't necessarily have to negate the drawbacks - they didn't always historically. This is about doing more with less and giving options. For example, adding a 40mm canon under each wing of a Hurricane would have made it a terrible fighter, but it boosted its performance in a ground attack role. Ideally a brand new CAS would have been developed, but if a player was focusing research elsewhere and had some points kicking around then why not boost an existing model's stats and keep the production efficiency? More decisions that need to be made and more flexibility are good things IMHO.

 

[thexmassteam]

Fair point, but you wouldn't necessarily have to negate the drawbacks - they didn't always historically. This is about doing more with less and giving options. For example, adding a 40mm canon under each wing of a Hurricane would have made it a terrible fighter, but it boosted its performance in a ground attack role. Ideally a brand new CAS would have been developed, but if a player was focusing research elsewhere and had some points kicking around then why not boost an existing model's stats and keep the production efficiency? More decisions that need to be made and more flexibility are good things IMHO.

You're right, negate the drawbacks is not required as you'll use the variant on totally different missions