Aircraft spawn distance normalization.

Player call-in plane airstrikes should all have the same time between red smoke and actual bombs/rockets hitting. Currently the timing depends on the location on the map, leading to the situations where players have very little time to respond if their units targeted happened to be on the edge of the map. It would also give more consistency to the ram+il2 combo so loathed in 1v1 where maps are small while being rather weak in 4v4.

So what do you suggest?

Making planes materialize out of hidden webway gate, or having them arrive to late that target could managet to get wounded, retreat, repaired/healed and get to the other part of the map before the plane in 1v1 arrives with 4v4 timing?

So what do you suggest?

I suggest that the time delay between smoke and hit should be constant. I think it would be good from design point of view to make the time delay different for each ability which would give balanceteam another tool in their toolbox for the future. But if balance team cant be bothered to do that I would happily take the same delay on all airstrike abilities compared to live version for the sake of consistency.

I am not 1v1 pro so someone should correct my numbers but going by my gut feeling:
PTAB strike: 6 sec delay
Ost cluster-bomb strike: 5 sec
Soviet Airborne Rocket strike: 5 sec
Soviet machine gun strafe: 2.5 sec
USF machine gun strafe: 3 sec
Ost smoke screen strike: 2.5 sec
OKW smoke screen strike: 3 sec
Tell me if I forgot anything

If all strikes would share one delay I would make it 5 sec.

As for how to as for how to achieve it, I would suggest to make it so aircraft spawn in accordance with targeted spawn point, not on the edge of the map. If that would make aircraft spawn in the middle of the map sometimes, so be it, its the price I would be willing to pay.

Eh, kind of

Airstrikes that have identical purpose and damage probably should

But smoke drops having same delay as AT bombin runs and those having the same delay as anti-inf strafes would make no sense

I just don't like taking massive casualties from quick response planes that drop carpet bombs at the same time as the flares. Can't retreat or react in any way, very cheap.

I don't think you can standardize this as the arrival of the plane is really map-dependant.

A few patches ago the wehrmacht frag bombs for adjusted a little so it doesnt instantly drop at the edge of the map, but thats about it.

So what do you suggest?

Making planes materialize out of hidden webway gate, or having them arrive to late that target could managet to get wounded, retreat, repaired/healed and get to the other part of the map before the plane in 1v1 arrives with 4v4 timing?

My suggestion would be to have planes spawn in the sky a set distance, dive at the target, do their attack, and fly off. Spawning them above the camera hides their spawn point, and the set distance means they'll be consistent wherever they're called in.



Stage II would be the spawn point in this scenario, while VI or V is when they do their attack. May need adjusting for individual abilities (strafes need more air time over the target).

Recon passes and strafes from Air Supremacy Operation may remain unchanged.

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Wouldn't this mess with AA-units pen & damage values?

Wouldn't this mess with AA-units pen & damage values?

Any kind of spawn change would require a complete rework on AA mechanics.

Wouldn't this mess with AA-units pen & damage values?

Wha? I can't see how? It's not changing the aircraft mechanics itself, just the spawn point and where it's height. As far as I know, the AA mechanics are extremely simple and distance/speed/height matter not to AA units.

My suggestion would be to have planes spawn in the sky a set distance, dive at the target, do their attack, and fly off. Spawning them above the camera hides their spawn point, and the set distance means they'll be consistent wherever they're called in.

I really wish they implemented CAS planes like this.

I really wish they implemented CAS planes like this.

Yeah, much easier to balance all single pass planes if they have to roam a bit around the map first in some sort of way.

Wha? I can't see how? It's not changing the aircraft mechanics itself, just the spawn point and where it's height. As far as I know, the AA mechanics are extremely simple and distance/speed/height matter not to AA units.

That's why I asked, if the planer spawns heigher the sitance between the AA-unit and the plane is bigger. I thought it might only trigger the 'far' values untill it actually dives and shoots.

Yeah, much easier to balance all single pass planes if they have to roam a bit around the map first in some sort of way.

Well, that too, but most of all it would have been much easier to balance them if they always had the same time to target regardless of how big a map is or where on the map the ability is called in.

World in Conflict had CAS planes spawn from orbit and it worked perfectly.


See 21:30m

My suggestion would be to have planes spawn in the sky a set distance, dive at the target, do their attack, and fly off. Spawning them above the camera hides their spawn point, and the set distance means they'll be consistent wherever they're called in.

It would be really cool but also take a lot of work to code and test. As mod team is quite limited with resources i think a simple change of spawn location works best. As far as I know all planes in the game fly at the same height and speed. We can hope for such a system in CoH3

Any kind of spawn change would require a complete rework on AA mechanics.

As we are not talking about loiters, only single strike aircraft passes i don't see how AA would need any kind of change.