This is undeniably progress in the right direction. I do have a bunch of constructive criticism, though - I still think the system is lacking:
1. Being able to attack planes in zones other than the one they're targeting (EG: If the Germans are bombing London, I should be able to kill those bombers over the Channel)
2. Some form of representation of pilot numbers, skill, and the training required for them - this would also go hand-in-hand with some kind of pilot recovery mechanic where it's better to be defending your own territory as it means your pilots can be recovered more easily
3. Better handling of aircraft range. Having mission efficiency be determined by the ability of the plane to reach the furthest points of an arbitrarily-sized air zone is one of the very worst parts of the current system
4. Better handling of large bomber wings on CAS missions. You're allowed to have three bombers for each point of combat width being used, which generally means if you exceed about 240 planes in your CAS wings, most of them can't participate in most combats. However, these excess planes don't go off and join other combats, they're just wasted. The game should automatically allocate the excess planes to other combats, so I can just whack down 1000 CAS in a zone and watch it obliterate everything
5. Bombers should be able to target ground forces without requiring a land combat to "latch onto". It's silly that I can put 10,000 bombers into an air-zone teeming with enemy ground forces and they can't find a single thing to bomb. It should absolutely be more effective for them to support ground forces, but they should be able to do some damage on their own.
6. Better control of strategic bombing. I should be able to bomb just the enemy airfields if I want to, I shouldn't have to also level their infrastructure, forts and ports too
7. Better representation of what missions planes could actually carry out. For example, strategic bombers were used to attack ships - to varying levels of effect (B-17s utterly missing the Japanese carriers at Midway, Lancasters devastating the Tirpitz, for example) - throughout WW2. To say that they can only do strategic bombing is needlessly restrictive. The divide between tactical, naval and close support bombers seems very weird as well - while there were planes designed to specialise in one of these roles, there were plenty of planes that could be switched between these loadouts with less than an hour of work. Perhaps a better divide would be fighters - heavy fighters - bombers - heavy bombers?
8. Jets need to integrate into wings of non-jet planes better. It's silly that I can have a 1933 biplane and a 1944 fighter together in a wing, but a 1945 jet is supposedly completely alien and has to be segregated off into its own wing.
9. RADAR should be implemented directly into naval warfare, especially regarding naval AAA, but it should really be a general co-ordination boost for navies. It was a huge deal.
1. Being able to attack planes in zones other than the one they're targeting (EG: If the Germans are bombing London, I should be able to kill those bombers over the Channel)
2. Some form of representation of pilot numbers, skill, and the training required for them - this would also go hand-in-hand with some kind of pilot recovery mechanic where it's better to be defending your own territory as it means your pilots can be recovered more easily
3. Better handling of aircraft range. Having mission efficiency be determined by the ability of the plane to reach the furthest points of an arbitrarily-sized air zone is one of the very worst parts of the current system
4. Better handling of large bomber wings on CAS missions. You're allowed to have three bombers for each point of combat width being used, which generally means if you exceed about 240 planes in your CAS wings, most of them can't participate in most combats. However, these excess planes don't go off and join other combats, they're just wasted. The game should automatically allocate the excess planes to other combats, so I can just whack down 1000 CAS in a zone and watch it obliterate everything
5. Bombers should be able to target ground forces without requiring a land combat to "latch onto". It's silly that I can put 10,000 bombers into an air-zone teeming with enemy ground forces and they can't find a single thing to bomb. It should absolutely be more effective for them to support ground forces, but they should be able to do some damage on their own.
6. Better control of strategic bombing. I should be able to bomb just the enemy airfields if I want to, I shouldn't have to also level their infrastructure, forts and ports too
7. Better representation of what missions planes could actually carry out. For example, strategic bombers were used to attack ships - to varying levels of effect (B-17s utterly missing the Japanese carriers at Midway, Lancasters devastating the Tirpitz, for example) - throughout WW2. To say that they can only do strategic bombing is needlessly restrictive. The divide between tactical, naval and close support bombers seems very weird as well - while there were planes designed to specialise in one of these roles, there were plenty of planes that could be switched between these loadouts with less than an hour of work. Perhaps a better divide would be fighters - heavy fighters - bombers - heavy bombers?
8. Jets need to integrate into wings of non-jet planes better. It's silly that I can have a 1933 biplane and a 1944 fighter together in a wing, but a 1945 jet is supposedly completely alien and has to be segregated off into its own wing.
9. RADAR should be implemented directly into naval warfare, especially regarding naval AAA, but it should really be a general co-ordination boost for navies. It was a huge deal.
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