AGAINST faster weapons unlocks.
 

I will probably catch a lot of flack for this opinion, but I do have my reasons.

It mostly refers to Strike matches. After using the P-47 last night I came to a relization...

Once most weapons packages are unlocked for most of the planes, I fear that fighter/bombers will dominate and standard Bombers will become fairly useless.

With bombs, rockets, manouverability, and ability to defend itself, the fighter/bomber will be the way to go once weapons are easier to unlock.

So what would be the use of the HE-111, or Stuka, Blenheim, or A-20 ect.?

Anyone else thinking along similar lines?

Dont think it is really about the inlocks. It is just the P-47 wich is a bit too much in strike, same as the B-17.
The way strike is now, these 2 planes will completely dominate all the other bombers. A P-47 will destroy tickets 3x faster than a blenheim or HE-111. this destoys the balance of the game, and makes everythin apart from B-17 and P-47 'useless', if the enemy does have one of those.

I hope they will balance the strike mode, but Im not so sure if they will/ if it is possible.

A B-17, P47 combo will actually beat a team with a couple AR-234's. I know first hand.

Last night I flew the P-47 for the first time in strike. It was a little silly at how much destruction it can dole out. I just hung around the target area laying down iron until I took enough damage from fighters to be shot down. I'll admit I wasn't much of a fight for the Spits and 109s (nor Raw in an IL2 ;)) but that was probably more from my lack of air to air skill than the Jugs perfromance.

It is a game changer, particularly when the majority of the other teams fighters concentrate on the heavy bomber and you can just slip right through and bomb targets unmolested.

I'm all for faster unlocks since I think once everything is out there people will be more free to balance the room out and more free to fly what they want. The P-47 *is* a beast, but it's no dogfighter (at least not in my hands). Personally I think it's more fun to have balanced teams than to have one team far outgunning the other, so I'm fine with matching my plane to the other team. I think most in the game rooms we've had think like that. Makes for a lot more fun.
There is also the ability to limit the available years for the planes, but I think the P-47 is good for all years. You can cut out the B-17 by going with 1942 though IIRC, and the jets by cutting off at 1943.

Exactly, limit number of certain planes per team and force the others to fly fighters to take out the one or so bombers per team.

Also, number of bombers should be a ticket item, run out of bomber tickets and have the spawn time for a bomber go to one minute or something. Might keep the action centered around defending and attacking the bombers.

Also, do away with the plane unlocks because it encourages the hosted games to be nothing but minimum time limit matches where a player makes one bomb run, wins match and the game ends. It's great someone wants to get the unlock fast, but it sucks when everyone hosting is doing the same thing.

There are better ways to balance the game modes than unlocks where only people with no jobs/school have time to really unlock them all.

I think you miss understood my post :P.. thats IS what i was saying :p.
The P-47 and B-17 make all the other bombers chanceless

I am in favor of faster weapon unlocks. Seeing how this game can be a money pit, microsoft might try to charge for unlocks also! Let us get those free unlocks while we still can and free...:)

i dont think it will make a huge difference... I mean, a fight can carry what? a single 250 at max, wereas the bombes carry way more than that. Bigger bombs = quicker ticket destruction.

Play with limited fuel and ammo.... No more endless circling of the ground targets :cool:

The P-47 can carry 2x 1000 + 1x 500. That is more bombpower than any bomber (except for B17).
1 pass with a P-47 will take of 60 tickets with ease. You can be happy when you get close to getting of 30 tickets with a He-111 in 1 pass

=O ok I did not know this haha, um..... wow. I get you guys' point know.

The Arado carries three 500kg bombs. Its rougly 2.2 lbs to one kg, so the Arado still carries more than the P-47, at a little more than 3000 lbs of bombs.

The P-47 is definately a beast though. I know I enjoy flying it when I get tired of the Arado or B-17. Fun to go bomber hunting in that thing too.

Its all about prioritizing things though. The P-47 is far from invulnerable, so a fighter should be sent out to kill or distract it, just like a fighter or two should always be assigned to a B-17. They are priority targets, and they can't destroy tickets if they can't get to the targets or are too busy avoiding getting shot to line up for their bomb runs. The Arado would be one as well, but most of the time you won't get a good shot on it if the pilot is good. Best to just focus on the other priorities and hope your people out-bomb it.

Of course these tactics are dependant on playing with people you know, since randoms either don't have mics or refuse to listen. I have had terrible luck with random fighter pilots in strike. They either think their jobs are to dogfight everyone, or strafe targets with machineguns...instead of, you know, protecting the bombers or killing the enemy bombers. I try to make sure I have a few of my squad with me, so I don't have to deal with that kind of frustration. lol

Totally. It also sucks when you get in a strike match and see everyone choosing fighters. I mean, hey play the game the way you want and all, but if that's what you're lookin' for try dogfight or team dogfight. And awesome sig by the way.:grin:

Yeah, I prefer a balanced team, to be honest. When Im flying with my squad, we have a couple people in bombers or fighter-bombers, and a few others in fighters to provide cover and hunt bombers. The randoms pick whatever they want, since they usually don't have mics anyway. lol.

I pick a fighter every now and then, but I prefer bomber-hunting to dogfighting. I love seeing a bomber go down in flames, or just pop when I hit them with a rocket =D lol. They can't bomb if they're too busy dying :grin:

Thanks, just thought I'd put something down there to add something extra to my posts. Tried to find a decent pic of a hellhound, and thought this firey one looked cool. Kinda like a Balrog from the Lord of the Rings, or something. Its more a placeholder than anything, we still haven't decided on an official logo or patch.

OH! Little off-topic, but I just remembered. I heard something the other day from a random that made me laugh. This kid...he sounded like 12, saw I was flying the P-47 in a CTA. He said "Man, you know the P-47 sucks right? It totally sucks at capture the airfield" I just chuckled a little and told him he should tell that to my 1000 lb bombs, lol. I proceeded to bomb him without mercy whenever he tried to land. He just kept bum-rushing the airfield, never even tried to engage me first (I love it when people think they can just ignore me and try and land quickly. They explode so nicely when hit with a thousand-pounder or two =D lol). He quit after the 3rd or 4th time I got him.

When you get idiot hosts who set up 1 airfield with a 5 second respawn you have no choice but to do this. And hope that your team isn't comprised of other idiots that think it's a team battle match, and that at least one of them is also trying to land when you do.

Nothing wrong with bum-rushing the airfield, but you still need to plan it out. Going in to land alone, (this was a 2 airfield map and everyone else was fighting over the 2nd one) with a P-47 circling overhead, is suicide. If you're going to rush an airfield, you need to coordinate a little with a fighter or you're going to get bombed into the dirt every single time.

But yeah, fighter pilots are kind of hit or miss in the two objective based modes. They either know what their jobs are...or they think its just to dogfight. lol