What about making an "IL2 Battle of Ruhr" DLC?

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

As relates to BoAtlantic it does.

[unreasonable]

I agree - I think some of the Atlantic air patrols set endurance records.  Of course the vast majority of the Allied patrols never sighted a U-boat at all. Jut the fact that they were there forced the U-boats to change their tactics.

 

Personally I think a night bombing campaign would be much more aesthetically enjoyable.  Shorter missions than over the Atlantic, plus searchlights, flak bursts, dummy targets, marker flares, cookies, incendiaries: maybe a firestorm!

[hames123]

This is an excellent idea. And one of the most important theatres of war, as well as one of the most unrecognised.

 

The only difficulty is avoiding the one-sidedness as the Axis have no equivalent to FAA aircraft operating from escort carriers, and no fighters that really fit the setting.

 

However if this could be creatively worked around then an Atlantic theatre could be awesome.

Finding convoys or hunting surface-running submarines from the air, potentially relying on a last known sighting at a given time and having to work out where to look, coupled with balancing fuel to make sure you can get back to your carrier or land base would make for a great flight challenge, aside from the actual combat.

Add in the challenges of flying through the Atlantic's notoriously rubbish weather and there's a lot to get into.

 

Combat would be vicious as well with unexpected interception, or ship-borne flak adding to the challenge of trying to hit a ship out of a convoy, or attack a destroyer, or chase down a submarine before it crash-dives and escapes.

And considering you're probably quite far out to sea, any damage sustained means instantly RTB-ing and having to nurse the aircraft home.

 

With enough thought put into the right mechanisms to make this work, and the proper effort put into the presentation, this could make for an extraordinarily intense, intelligent and affecting release.

 

Multiplayer would be a total shambles though.

Atlantic Fleet does it pretty well IMO. The German campaign there is a turkey shoot though, since the AI is pretty bad at sub hunting. The Royal Navy campaign is the fun one.

 

The RAF Bomber Offensive is a good idea though. Imagine being a Mosquito flying amongst the Lancasters, searching for a Ju 88 in the dark. Or hearing the first wing call bombs away and the first fires break out below, growing larger and larger as more wings release all over the target.

Edited January 12, 2018 by hames123

[DusJG/1Caeser]

I agree - I think some of the Atlantic air patrols set endurance records.  Of course the vast majority of the Allied patrols never sighted a U-boat at all. Jut the fact that they were there forced the U-boats to change their tactics.

 

Personally I think a night bombing campaign would be much more aesthetically enjoyable.  Shorter missions than over the Atlantic, plus searchlights, flak bursts, dummy targets, marker flares, cookies, incendiaries: maybe a firestorm!

Yes, I like your opinion! :-)

[[DBS]El_Marta]

The 1943 "Battle of the Ruhr" is illusional for the reasons pointed out above.  Nevertheless I would appreciate the implementation of the contemporary radio / radar technologies and bomber planes very much.

 

The 1945 "Interdiction of the Ruhr" campaign is about cutting off the traffic from the Ruhr into the rest of the Reich, and has plenty of 'daytime' sorties to be flown. I wonder about the map-sector which will be chosen for Bodenplatte. In case it does not already cover parts of the western Ruhr area like Duisburg, Duesseldorf and Cologne, one could still choose some area at the edge of the Ruhr and treat the inner parts like Moscow, if it is too much buildings to be displayed.

 

At least the build up areas are not as dense as Moscow. 

 

 

A26 Invaders March '45
 

Edited January 13, 2018 by [DBS]El_Marta

[Danziger]

More maps without more planes, or "Battle of Ruhr"?

All of it. We need more maps, more planes, more battles. I'm sure it will all make it's way in eventually. I'm hoping when mods on mode comes we can talk those guys from SAS1946 to come and point their talents at BoX. Cyberolas is a true map artist. Many great modders there.

[Royal_Flight]

Atlantic Fleet does it pretty well IMO. The German campaign there is a turkey shoot though, since the AI is pretty bad at sub hunting. The Royal Navy campaign is the fun one.

 

The RAF Bomber Offensive is a good idea though. Imagine being a Mosquito flying amongst the Lancasters, searching for a Ju 88 in the dark. Or hearing the first wing call bombs away and the first fires break out below, growing larger and larger as more wings release all over the target.

I've got and played Atlantic Fleet, it's a great game. But it's not a flight simulator though.

To be honest though, while I'd love to see it done here and I do think that it a lot of this could make for a great scenario (escort carriers, intercepts, anti-shipping), other elements of it like ASW and particularly maritime patrol would be better done with more detail than BoX does - along the lines of DCS, XPlane or Prepar3d's systems modelling.

 

Fuel management, radar use and spotting would be vital, otherwise it's just flying over grey seas under grey skies for ages.

 

I'm still not convinced by the Battle of the Ruhr suggestion though. It would be great to see Lancasters, Halifaxes and Stirlings with Mosquitoes weaving in and out of them hunting for Ju 88s and Bf 110s who are hunting for the bombers.

 

But this would be unlikely to be the case and I don't think that Bomber Command's war would be best represented by a handful of Mosquitoes airstarting over Germany while a few 110s circle at altitude trying to find them in an empty sky. Or, worse, having individual Lancasters racing in at treetop height knocking out flak with their turrets while other Stirlings dive-bomb the targets.

Or, streams of bombers and firestorms but such slow performance that no-one can play it.

 

BoX has grown into a solid tactical-level simulator and while it still has a while to go, it's come a vastly long way from where it started.

My hope is that, given another few years of success the platform will have matured into one where this sort of scenario is possible without compromising what can be included.

[DusJG/1Caeser]

All of it. We need more maps, more planes, more battles. I'm sure it will all make it's way in eventually. I'm hoping when mods on mode comes we can talk those guys from SAS1946 to come and point their talents at BoX. Cyberolas is a true map artist. Many great modders there.

Hey, that´s a good Idea!

I've got and played Atlantic Fleet, it's a great game. But it's not a flight simulator though.

To be honest though, while I'd love to see it done here and I do think that it a lot of this could make for a great scenario (escort carriers, intercepts, anti-shipping), other elements of it like ASW and particularly maritime patrol would be better done with more detail than BoX does - along the lines of DCS, XPlane or Prepar3d's systems modelling.

 

Fuel management, radar use and spotting would be vital, otherwise it's just flying over grey seas under grey skies for ages.

 

I'm still not convinced by the Battle of the Ruhr suggestion though. It would be great to see Lancasters, Halifaxes and Stirlings with Mosquitoes weaving in and out of them hunting for Ju 88s and Bf 110s who are hunting for the bombers.

 

But this would be unlikely to be the case and I don't think that Bomber Command's war would be best represented by a handful of Mosquitoes airstarting over Germany while a few 110s circle at altitude trying to find them in an empty sky. Or, worse, having individual Lancasters racing in at treetop height knocking out flak with their turrets while other Stirlings dive-bomb the targets.

Or, streams of bombers and firestorms but such slow performance that no-one can play it.

 

BoX has grown into a solid tactical-level simulator and while it still has a while to go, it's come a vastly long way from where it started.

My hope is that, given another few years of success the platform will have matured into one where this sort of scenario is possible without compromising what can be included.

We could make bombing missions like in BOS. Few Bombers, at day with and some Fighters.

I think in this case the actuall bomb missions in BOS are unrealistic too, because the germans had more then 4 Bombers to attack the enemy, too.

[Hoss]

For Eastern Front plane set I'd rather see Battle of the Oder........ BoO............   including the Yak-9's, Yak-3, Tu-2, Su-2......... and maybe the C version of the A-20....

 

Cheers

 

Hoss

[Rolling_Thunder]

Why does a DLC have to be centred around the MP crowd? If i want to spend a few hours flying over the atlantic/pacific searching for uboats/convoys/carrier fleets why sould that be scuppered by MP only players. Same with ruhr. Ai may be a bit "dumb" atm but the discipline of the average MP player makes it look positivly professional. I dont care about the pros and cons of airstarts in MP because Right now i couldnt care less about MP because MP sucks right now. There is zero variation to gameplay, jump in your fighter and head straight for the furball. No thanks.

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

The answer isn’t MP v SP but a matter of sales. This may be appealing to some but it would be a minority within a very small niche. There are better ways to utilize very limited design and “production” resources.

[Feathered_IV]

The devs are more geared towards small-scale frontline and tactical skirmishes.  A sim that deals convincingly with the Strategic Bombing war would be very far outside their present capabilities.