ATAG's 1st Bomber Night this Weekend

[5./JG27.Farber]

Some constructive observations.

Number 1:

I was unable to accurately pin point and relay my position to others due to the grid squares being set at 1km(?). I personally find 10km (10000) best for grid squares.

Number 2:

The blue bases journey to target is very far. I like the realistic aspect of it very much and the fact the part of the map you are using is very new to allot of us online players. However with the CTD problem I wonder how many of us will make it to target and back with out the fatal CTD. Obviously this is a part of the game right now and not ATAG's deliberation. Its a bit of a catch 22 because you move it all closer and we are back to a more standard dogfight but if it remains CTD is highly likey... I really have no solution to this but thought it was worth mentioning.

[5./JG27.Farber]

About 10 of us got to target and then around 7 of us CTD...

Thanks for hosting. Its a good concept, hope to see later editions with red attacking and later planesets... Good stuff!

[DUI]

A great experience!

Sadly, I did not really encounter much resistence: My Ju87 only was one time in 4 divebomb approaches attacked (and shot down).
So please inform more people of this nice event!

[Blakduk]

ATAG guys- thanks for the fun today. I had a blast flying red, trying to find contacts as they straggled in at low level and hit their targets.
Comments- the planesets seem okay, they are fairly well matched except the 110's are very hard to catch.
Navigation is a b*tch- there are too few landmarks to use inland to find your way around, especially after you've been in a furball. I suggest you move the targets nearer to the coast (north or south) to aid line-of-sight navigation for those of us who cannot use the nonsensical compass in Spits and Hurri's.
The lack of assistance from ground controllers is a killer- the LW boys can rampage across the landscape with nothing to give them away, especially if they stay low. Historically the LW could hit and run targets near the coast without too much interference, but once overland observer corp would track them.
Nearly all the engagements i got into were at mid alt, because i could spot the target and engage. Meanwhile all the sneaky ones were easily getting past me down low, i didnt realise they'd come and gone until the message came up saying 'target destroyed'.

I realise it's a limitation of the game and i'm not sure how you'd fix it. I assume you put the airfields further back to allow red players to get alt before engaging, but it wasnt really turning out that way.

A very positive thing however was there was much less strafing of red bases by blue vulchers.

Thanks guys.

[IvanK]

I had a great time. This is a fantastic concept. Trying to achieve an objective adds a lot of interest and realism. to As to Navigation from an attackers point of view its great. You need to plan and fly accurately to get to the target.

Thanks for putting this together... best fun I have had in CLOD so far.

[Bounder!]

Just wanted to says thanks to ATAG for the event today, it was my first major foray into CoD multiplayer and although I didn't shoot anything down I had a blast. I did get into a small skirmish, saw someone creeping up behind me just in time to take enough evasive action to survive - although not without a few extra ventilation holes in my wing! I enjoyed meeting up with other players and learning to navigate (or get horribly lost for a while as was more often the case!) I had been meaning to get online for a while now and this event finally got me to take the plunge, so cheers, hope there are more of these to come!

[salmo]

Bliss,
Sadly, my experience wasn't what I had hoped for. Here's some comments. Please take then in the positive vein that they are given, the bomber-night concept is a good one.

1. Start time
Advertised start time was Sat 23.00PM (Australian Eastern Summer Time). I came across you post here advertising the match had started at about 7.30pm AEST. I jumped online in a Spit1 to find my base was crawling with 109's straffing everything in sight. All I could do was takeoff & get in a low (<500m) dogfight. Inevitably I lost every time. Also, the red pilots on TS reported all targets had been at least partly destroyed.

I have no problem with "vulching" over bases, after all war... is... war. The issue I have is about the match start-time. By starting before the advertised time you placed red pilots at a disadvatage becuase blue was already at the red bases & had already destroyed targets before most reds came online.

I became so frustrated with my online experience, that I abandoned the match & sat down & wrote a "match script" that counts down to start time & destroys planes that takeoff before match start

May I suggest that matches start exactly on the advertised time in future. Somethingh akin the the United Squadron league matches.

2. Match duration
Having the match extend ove the entire weekend seems a little confusing to me. What happens when all targets are destroyed in the first 6 hours of play? What happens if someone gets online at an ungodly hour & is virtually the only pilot online? Maybe the match could be played over say 3 hours, but replayed at convenient times throughout the weekend.

3. Team organisation
I got onto the ATAG TS server & found several ATAG members flying blue & a slightly smaller number of licorice-allsorts flying red. When I enetred the red channel pilots were asking where the enemy was; where the targets were; what they had to do etc. Quite frankly, it was a major disappointment to me to find players unprepared for the match when you had taken the time to post recon photo's & a match scenario etc.

May I suggest that players "register" for these events. The registration should include a declaration that they understand any rules & have read maps, instructions etc. The registration need not be absolutely binding, but at least you might get an indication of numbers & better prepared pilots.

4. Battle map
The numbers on-line were relatively low (6-16 pilots). By having 3 widely seperated targets, you effectively split these number further, so that there were very few planes over any one target.

May I suggest one primary target, and say 2 secondary targets no more than 10km from the primary target. this would tend to concentrate game play better.

Cheers
Sal

[Skoshi Tiger]

Originally Posted by 5./JG27.Farber

Its a good concept, hope to see later editions with red attacking and later planesets... Good stuff!

Great idea, except.......very few of us can actually fly a Blenhiem. Just getting the B off the ground is the first hurdle then nursing her to the coast with out cooking the engine is a sign of success.

Most of us would need extensive training.

[5./JG27.Farber]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

Great idea, except.......very few of us can actually fly a Blenhiem. Just getting the B off the ground is the first hurdle then nursing her to the coast with out cooking the engine is a sign of success.

Most of us would need extensive training.

keeps you out of trouble

[ATAG_Dutch]

Originally Posted by Skoshi Tiger

Great idea, except.......very few of us can actually fly a Blenhiem. Just getting the B off the ground is the first hurdle then nursing her to the coast with out cooking the engine is a sign of success.
Most of us would need extensive training.

Bring it on, I say!

Get the red guys learning instead of moaning.

Anyone who wants to fly the Blenheim just needs to team up with Watchman, Puppet, Knuckles, Krupi, Magpie... or even me.

A bomber night for the reds.

Oh yeeees.

@ Salmo - Sorry mate, but you mustn't have stayed on long enough, or were on the wrong server. Protecting the targets was the order of the day for red team, and plenty people did really good. As soon as either 4 hours or objective completion was reached, the mission started again giving everyone an opportunity to start over. I didn't see any untoward 'vulching', but the one I did see, I shot down...eventually.