Fighters don't attack planes passing trough.

[Mevsrei]

I can't find it anymore, but I have read in a devpost, that planes are only attacked at their destination.
How realistic is that?
So Germany can bomb the middle of the UdSSR, flying trough several territories that are heavily patroled by enemy fighters, and leave without a scratch only because the destination has no fighters patroling? (AA aside)

Please tell me that this is not the case and just the mechanic for AA.

Edit: Just in case people missed podcats post.

So there is not a hint. Podcat basicly said: Bombers teleport and get only intercepted in the target zone. There is no path tracking.

correct.

paradrops do require you to have air superiority in the zones on the way though (like it is for naval invasions (although this isnt in the WWW build))

 

[grandad1982]

Thats what podcat said. I am a bit disappointed by it to be honest. Though that interception would work on a zone by zone basis. Just seems to make more sense....

 

[Mevsrei]

This would render fighters useless for any other means than gaining an air superiority bonus over specific areas to support ground combat.

If I have 200 fighters I would place them along the enemies possible bomber pathes in groups of 50 instead of putting groups of 10 in every possible target zone.
While the enemy can allways attack with full force of his bombers, because he doesn't need to split his bombers into 10 or more groups...
If I need to defend every zone with fighters, they are just too ineffective to bother with.

Btw. how much land does one such zone cover?

 

[dav77-b]

This would render fighters useless for any other means than gaining an air superiority bonus over specific areas to support ground combat.

If I have 200 fighters I would place them along the enemies possible bomber pathes in groups of 50 instead of putting groups of 10 in every possible target zone.
While the enemy can allways attack with full force of his bombers, because he doesn't need to split his bombers into 10 or more groups...
If I need to defend every zone with fighters, they are just too ineffective to bother with.

Btw. how much land does one such zone cover?

Germany has 3 zones ( including denmark and prussia ). France has 2 zones.

 

[grandad1982]

It feels like it makes the english channel and north sea zones quite weak unless your planning a naval invasion. If I'm Germany why would I waste planes there unless I want to cross, since bombers will fly straight past my fighters that might be there.

Think about the battle of Britain. Interception of incoming bombers started out over sea zones as why would you want the bombers to have a chance at a land target?

I really hope this system is changed somehow or are we missing something @podcat ?

 

[Mevsrei]

Germany has 3 zones ( including denmark and prussia ). France has 2 zones.

Thx.
In this case it may not that bad for small and medium countries, but large ones may suffer from that mechanic.

Edit: And what grandad1982 said.
No interception over other zones makes a lot of strategical decisions void for that purpose.

 

[panzerzombie]

So seazones ( apart from carrierfleets ) cannot be guarded by any means I assume by this logic ( cannot base fighters there ) so I can attack e.g. the channel but not defend...

 

[seattle]

What about the historical air defence of Britain? Radar stations along the coast line and centrally organized interceptors to react swiftly to any incoming bomber force.
Now Germany can simply bomb the hell out of central and northern England uninterrupted??

 

[agentgb]

wow... that makes like no sense,

So radar is practically useless in what it was designed for? especially in the case of battle of britain?

 

[mdw1985]

If they don't do the interception mechanic, i hope they'll do it with a patch. It worked in HOI3 and should be implemented in HOI 4 also...

 

[Heruure]

Yup, really sad they decided to make it this way.

 

[panzerzombie]

What about the historical air defence of Britain? Radar stations along the coast line and centrally organized interceptors to react swiftly to any incoming bomber force.
Now Germany can simply bomb the hell out of central and northern England uninterrupted??

As I recall Radar and stuff ( apart from providing intel ) just gives a combat bonus of some sort.

 

[Mindfield]

I think, the system is not as bad as some think it is.

It is more abstract for sure, but it also makes players life easier.

Consider 2 fighter tokens as defender and 2 bomber tokens as attacker.

Interception mechanic:
You place 1 fighter token in first zone and the other in the second zone.
Attacker places 2 bomber tokens in first zone.
The 2 bomber tokens have to cross both zones: Attaked by 1 + 1 fighter tokens, sum 2 tokens.

Current in game mechanic:
You place 2 fighter token in first zone.
Attacker places 2 bomber tokens in first zone.
The 2 bomber tokens are only attacked in one zone by 2 fighter tokens.

Both mechanics use the same amount of tokens.

It feels a bit strange, taking away a bit of "realism", but I think we will get used to it and enjoy the benefits more.

 

[agentgb]

I think, the system is not as bad as some think it is.

It is more abstract for sure, but it also makes players life easier.

Consider 2 fighter tokens as defender and 2 bomber tokens as attacker.

Interception mechanic:
You place 1 fighter token in first zone and the other in the second zone.
Attacker places 2 bomber tokens in first zone.
The 2 bomber tokens have to cross both zones: Attaked by 1 + 1 fighter tokens, sum 2 tokens.

Current in game mechanic:
You place 2 fighter token in first zone.
Attacker places 2 bomber tokens in first zone.
The 2 bomber tokens are only attacked in one zone by 2 fighter tokens.

Both mechanics use the same amount of tokens.

It feels a bit strange, taking away a bit of "realism", but I think we will get used to it and enjoy the benefits more.

Isn't the idea to intercept them before they can get over whatever target they are trying to bomb thou? kinda sounds like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted? I guess it would explain in the last WWW how daniel managed to get all those paratroopers into ireland. Taking away a bit of realism is a under statement, one does not simply wait for a Tupolev Tu-95 bear to be over britain before being turned back.

 

[Oddb@ll]

Isn't the idea to intercept them before they can get over whatever target they are trying to bomb thou? kinda sounds like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted? I guess it would explain in the last WWW how daniel managed to get all those paratroopers into ireland.

Very much this. Intercepting aircraft means engaging them BEFORE they reach their goals?

 

[panzerzombie]

If they don't do the interception mechanic, i hope they'll do it with a patch. It worked in HOI3 and should be implemented in HOI 4 also...

The planes - unlike in HOI3 - don´t really travel from province to province, they ...sort of .... teleport to the target zone,thats the reason no interception is possible, they never really enter the intervening zones so I could not imagine how they would do such a thing.

 

[Zoob]

So seazones ( apart from carrierfleets ) cannot be guarded by any means I assume by this logic ( cannot base fighters there ) so I can attack e.g. the channel but not defend...

Seazones have air regions too I think, so you can post fighters over the channel to defend your fleets, but they won't interecept bombers heading across the channel to bomb over land.

 

[Praetori]

Isn't the idea to intercept them before they can get over whatever target they are trying to bomb thou? kinda sounds like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted? I guess it would explain in the last WWW how daniel managed to get all those paratroopers into ireland. Taking away a bit of realism is a under statement, one does not simply wait for a Tupolev Tu-95 bear to be over britain before being turned back.

The DD on Air says that combat is resolved before the mission happens.

Actual missions (and let's assume a Strategic Bombing mission for this example), barring bad weather or enemy air dominance, are flown twice a day - a daytime and nighttime flight - and will either follow priorities set by the player or be split up logically if the player has set no priorities. When a mission flies, it has a chance of being detected by the enemy based on weather, Day/Night, RADAR coverage, enemy Air Superiority, etc. If it is detected, the enemy's defending planes may intercept it. Enemy planes will prioritize attacking bombers, but the mission's escorts have a chance to catch intercepting aircraft. After the air battle is concluded, the mission continues with available aircraft. The damage done will be affected by not just the number of planes sent, but also a Disruption Penalty, calculated based on the proportion of bombers sent that were engaged or destroyed while on the way to their target.

The planes - unlike in HOI3 - don´t really travel from province to province, they ...sort of .... teleport to the target zone,thats the reason no interception is possible, they never really enter the intervening zones so I could not imagine how they would do such a thing.

The Devblog states otherwise.

For example, here is an early debug screenshot showing a stream of German fighters and bombers attacking Britain:

 

[kalauer]

Very much this. Intercepting aircraft means engaging them BEFORE they reach their goals?

You do not necessarily have to assume that the bombers reached their target when they reached the air zone.

But yes, one would assume that e.g. having air superiority over the enemy's air fields prevents them from bombing your homeland, which with this system seems not to be the case.

It really seems odd. Therefore I would like some source? Maybe it is all a misunderstanding.

 

[kalauer]

The Devblog states otherwise.

I read this one again just now, too. But I guess it may be outdated? And also, this may just be the graphical representation.

I did not find any hints on this "teleportation" thing there though.