Hi everyone, The following is copied from Illo's "Rebuild times" thread: ---cut------------- Don't think about rebuild time - think about down time. In Air Warrior, if you hit all targets on an airfield, it would go down for half an hour fixed time. The individual targets would come back up after the normal time, with the acks firing at enemy aircraft and everything, but the field still wouldn't allow flight operations until half an hour had passed. That meant that in the same instant when the field was closed, the battle changed. To take the field, it was necessary to drop paratroopers on the field just like in Warbirds - but both sides could do so, and each time one side had 2 more C-47 loads of paratroopers down on the field than the opposition, the field changed hands. That made battles for fields very challenging - you'd have to maintain constant air superiority over the field to protect your own transport, but you'd also have to patrol the neighbouring enemy fields as he was certain to try and sneak in transports from there. In Air Warrior, when the field was down, the battle only began, and if it was captured, that only meant half the victory. Fighting for these fields was much more intense and thrilling than what we currently have on Freehost where after captures, all the attackers just come in and land within 120 s of the success. "Stay up and guard the field!", I'm tempted to shout! In my opinion, we should change Freehost to use this Air Warrior style capturing. It would make the game much more challenging, with better opportunities for teamwork, and it would also make bombers much more effective as they wouldn't have to worry about fields being pinged before their attack and the incenssant re-ups of fields they have bombed properly. It also stops the vulching for a while as the fighting is above a field noone can take-off from, and both sides meet at roughly equal altitude in the combat zone. Regards, Henning (HoHun)
Hi Mixer, I'm answering your questions here: >Can you give the description of bombing tactics attacking the fields. >How many targets the field are? The maps on which I played had almost exclusively "medium" fields. The targets that had to be destroyed were (from memory): 1 big hangar 4 small hangars 10 fuel tanks 2 ammo bunkers 1 tower 2 acks All targets required 2 bombs (all bombs in Air Warrior were 500 lbs >How many targets need to be killed to close field? The total load required to close a field were about 40 bombs. >How many load/passes need to close field? A B-17 carried 12 bombs, a Ju 88 had 6. (The latter was increased to 8 in the last Air Warrior version). The Mosquito had 4, the B-25 and the A-26 had 8 each. The targets were arranged "pass-friendly" along one side of the field so that you could hit a good number of targets per pass. >How many targets can average pilot kill by 1 pass? As a target needs 2 bombs, 2 passes are required to kill any target, but there was the same pinpoint precision as in Warbirds. >Can the paras be killed by acks? Yes. >What is the rebuild time for acks/another targets? It varied a bit with server settings and also depending on a special target on each field, the generator. If it was destroyed, rebuild times were longer. I'm not sure it worked as advertised, though The range was 10 - 20 min. >What is the strength of C-47 transport in AW? Poor. >How many pilots are flying in one arena at the same time? It varied widely depending on the server - on AOL AW, I've often flown with as few as 16 players online, distributed on 3 countries. On the US server, an Arena could have 100 players with very similar settings. >Are the fields the primary targets for bombers? Yes. Air Warrior is very similar to Warbirds as you know it. (Actually, Air Warrior was the game Warbirds copied >Please give some comments to the example below: >Golds closed the field f1 and bring ju52 which drops all paras. So the field became gold. And then golds have to patrol 30min over closed field to prevent Li2 drop. That's correct. Depending on the strength and numbers, you could also leave the field with little protection, or range out and strike the neighbouring fields (or patrol in their vicinity to kill enemy aircraft) - attack can be a good defense too >Can I recapture gold field by red Li2 after capturing if I have take off from captured field? I'm not sure what you mean. Noone can take off from a captured field before it re-opens after 1800 s. Recapturing is generally possible without the necessity for a re-open though. >Can I help by red paras to decrease rebuild time for still red closed but not captured field? There was an option to fly in supplies by landing a C-47 with "fuel", "ammo" or "spare parts" cargo on (or near) a field. If the field is closed, this will not shorten re-build time, so it was seldom done. (I'm not even sure I got the cargo types right from memory >>In my opinion, we should change Freehost to use this Air Warrior style capturing. It would make the game much more challenging, with better opportunities for teamwork, and it would also make bombers much more effective as they wouldn't have to worry about fields being pinged before their attack and the incenssant re-ups of fields they have bombed properly. >But I can?t understand how gold bombers can help in killing red transport over captured field They can't However, they can fly to a field and bomb it back to the stone age without having to fear that it will re-open after a few seconds because it was pinged by a fighter bomber before so that an endless battle ensues. If bombers close a field in Air Warrior, it stays closed. That makes bombers a much more powerful weapon and greatly helps the ego of the bomber pilot Regards, Henning (HoHun)
maybe this was said (sry, in a hurry): wouldnt that system of 2 c-47 loads required to capture a field increase the demand for transport pilots too much? the fun doesnt seem to change enough. also, wouldnt it make the difference of loads of c-47 and ju-52 a problem? also, what would happen if you have all structures down for 2000s? the field has operations resumed after 1800s anyway?
Hi Nicae, >wouldnt that system of 2 c-47 loads required to capture a field increase the demand for transport pilots too much? No. The reason was that flying transports was a lot safer since it couldn't happen that the field re-upped suddenly, launching a swarm of fighters bent on killing all incoming transports. C-47 pilot was a difficult job, but the chance of success was considerably higher than in Warbirds. >also, wouldnt it make the difference of loads of c-47 and ju-52 a problem? In re-capturing battles, it might cause a slight imbalance. But that's a minor problem that sure can be solved with some creativity >also, what would happen if you have all structures down for 2000s? the field has operations resumed after 1800s anyway? LOL! Good point, I haven't thought of that But the solution is easy: A field comes up 1800 s after it's down if at least one target is up. If none is up, the field is down (as it's today if all targets are down). Regards, Henning (HoHun)
>No. The reason was that flying transports was a lot safer since it couldn't happen that the field re-upped suddenly, launching a swarm of fighters bent on killing all incoming transports. C-47 pilot was a difficult job, but the chance of success was considerably higher than in Warbirds. but we would need X+2 transports (X = amount other team will take) currently we have troubles getting one
Hennnnnnnnnnninggggggg!! How long did we all suffer with the original Ju88 in AW? It carried FOUR bombs. Not six! How dare you minimize such a tragic restriction in our history. And the B25 carried 6. The A-26 carried 8. You're correct about the other two. A nice point you made about the AW transport system, however. C-47s could indeed be loaded with fuel, ammo, or supplies instead of paratroops. This would never actually re-open a base, but it would replenish the ammo/fuel/maintenance levels of a base to 100%, depending on the cargo. (These levels, when damaged, limited your fuel, ammo, and armor.) When the field DID re-open, regardless of which structures were up, the manually re-supplied targets would be in full action. In some of the melee arenas, there were computerized C-47 drones which would fly, as required, from the main field in the rear area to damaged fields at the front. I remember the "drone-hunts" well; the computer plane graphics were bugged -- gear was always down and the props were always stopped! Either way, they were not present in the massive AVA Arena. And for the record, that was, by virtue of complete 'strategic vs. tactical' flexibility, and simply unparalled playability, the best map I have EVER seen in a simulator. Ah...dreams... Regards, Jochen
Hi Jochen, >How long did we all suffer with the original Ju88 in AW? It carried FOUR bombs. Not six! Oops Thanks for this correction (and the others as well Regards, Henning (HoHun)
