NIGHT LIGHTS? BOMBERS?

[Todt_Von_Oben]

I saw an FC video that looked like it was at dusk / night time and there was a kind of "glow" to the flying wires, lights in the cities, and smudge pots lining the runways at aerodromes.  Is that Flugpark?  Which map?

 

Also, I don't see any bombers at Flugpark yet.  Does that require building a new map?  Any idea when Flugpark might add bombers?

[=IRFC=Gascan]

FlugPark has bombers as well as sunset and sunrise since last Tuesday when the patch with the bombers went live. Bombers are unlocked by completing the photo recon missions, which also unlocks further bombing targets. Sizzlor has added targets that are specifically suited for level bombing from altitude: the Army Camp Center (located just behind front line) and the Industrial Complex (unlocked by recon). Currently, completing a photo recon mission unlocks 1 ground start bomber and 1 air start bomber at 1km altitude.

Sizzlor also added spot lights near cities and towns that are active near sunset and sunrise. There are also fires that mark the airfields to make navigation and landing easier. Along the front lines you can still see the tracers from machine guns firing through the night. They will also occasionally fire flares (Very Lights?) to illuminate the battlefield and spot trench raids and parties of infantry repairing barbed wire.

So far it looks amazing at night, although its difficult (but still possible) to spot and engage any enemies once the sun sets. Usually you have to get below them so they stand out against the light sky. In order to accomplish the mission, one side must score 11 points. When the mission starts, there are two photo recons (1 point each), two balloons (1 point each), four random front line targets like trenches, tanks, barges, or observation posts (1 point each), and a large Army Camp Center (1 point). Completing a photo recon unlocks two smaller bombing targets like fuel dumps, ammo depots, factories, and shipyards (1 point each) and a large Industrial Complex (1 point). This means that if all front line targets are destroyed, 1 recon is completed, and all the unlocked targets are destroyed, that team has 11 points and wins the map. Previous versions required both recons to be completed, so this makes it a bit more bombing-focused. I've gotten a number of flights of bombers together, and each time has been a blast. Very rarely have we successfully hit the target, but they have always resulted in some interesting fights, especially with human gunners involved. I wish the photo recon unlocked two air start and two ground start bombers, though. This makes it easier to organize a formation flight (we had to wait for the ground start bomber to climb up to join the air start bomber on Sunday). It also reduces the chances a random player takes the bomber our group worked so hard to unlock (especially on a busy day like Sunday with lots of opposition).

I'm curious see if the current ground fire is enough to discourage players from taking the bombers on low altitude flights across the front, since they really are meant to be used at altitude. I also need to look at what the minimum fuel load is to complete a full mission (including some extra in case the tank gets hit) and what the best bomb load is. I suspect the HP will work fine with either the 8x 230lb bombs or the 16x 112lb bombs since the 112 is capable of destroying almost any factory in a single hit. That 1650lb bomb is truly impressive, but it slows the machine down so much and it already is pretty slow to begin with. The DH-4 can easily join a formation of HP's and the 112lb HURLs are an effective contribution to the bombs delivered on target. I've even found that a close formation can release on the leader's signal and still provide a good grouping on the target (see the screenshot below). So far I have always taken the 7x 100kg bombs for the Gotha, but the 7x 50kg bombs should be able to destroy any factory building in a single hit and may make it faster to climb to altitude (I won't cross at less than 1km, with 2km being preferred). I have found that the Breguet's 40kg bombs sometimes require two hits to destroy a factory building, sometimes only one hit. The French 20kg bombs require between 2 and 3 hits to destroy a factory building. Tents and fuel tanks all seem to require s single 20kg bomb or larger. I'll keep playing around and find out more about bomb load, fuel load, time to climb, and effect on target.

[Todt_Von_Oben]

Fantastic!  Great news.  Thank you!

 

Kudos to Sizzlor for all his hard work.  Muchly appreciated.

 

The lights and fires look great; can't wait to land on an aerodrome under those conditions.  But, how do I get there?  Is there a special night mission map, or do you sign on on a map that starts in the afternoon and fly until it gets dark?

 

I.E., How do I find the darkness?  ?  

 

Also, I think it would help if, when we're signing on to Flugpark, in the description it would state not only what time of day the mission started, but also what the mission time is when we're signing on.  

 

That would help us know how much time is remaining in the mission (sometimes I unknowingly sign on only minutes before it ends) and also might help us find the night-fighting.  If there's any way that can be done, I would like to see it happen.

 

Prosit!

Edited March 24, 2022 by Todt_Von_Oben

[J99_Sizzlorr]

You can see the mission start time and the duration in the mission description. The server time can be gathered by looking into the chat. 

 

[JGr2/J5_Klugermann]

Army camp center would be a nice target for my stuka.

[Todt_Von_Oben]

On 3/24/2022 at 3:38 AM, J99_Sizzlorr said:

You can see the mission start time and the duration in the mission description. The server time can be gathered by looking into the chat. 

 

 

Okay, I see that; thanks.

 

I'm still wondering how I'll find those night sorties, though.  Do I just sign in and trust to luck that I find one where the map time will progress into darkness?  Come back again hoping to find one?  Is there a certain Greenwich time where Flugpark runs a night map?  Or is there anything in the name of the map in play that will show it has night flying before we sign in and check?  Just want to be clear on how it works and right now I'm a still a little in the dark.  

 

Also, I checked for bombers and it said recon flights must be made before the bombers become available.  There was nobody doing recon flights so I couldn't get a bomber.

 

What would be your thoughts about making (or modifying) a map where we could sign into a bomber as easily as we do any other plane? 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Todt_Von_Oben

[J99_Sizzlorr]

On Flugpark there is always a morning, noon and afternoon misson. Only the afternoon mission will progress into darkness. You can look for the starting time in the mission description. Afternoon missions usually start around 16:30, 17:00 or 17:30. If no one is doing recon feel free to do it yourself. I discussed why I will not make bombers available from the start of the mission endlessly already. Think about it that way, bombers wouldn't be send out on a mission without intel where and what to attack.

[Todt_Von_Oben]

1 hour ago, J99_Sizzlorr said:

On Flugpark there is always a morning, noon and afternoon misson. Only the afternoon mission will progress into darkness. You can look for the starting time in the mission description. Afternoon missions usually start around 16:30, 17:00 or 17:30. If no one is doing recon feel free to do it yourself. I discussed why I will not make bombers available from the start of the mission endlessly already. Think about it that way, bombers wouldn't be send out on a mission without intel where and what to attack.

 

Okay, thanks.  

[JGr2/J5_Baeumer]

12 hours ago, Todt_Von_Oben said:

Is there a certain Greenwich time where Flugpark runs a night map?  Or is there anything in the name of the map in play that will show it has night flying before we sign in and check? 

 

Todt,  more to point, no, there is no way for you to know exactly what time of the actual, real life time of day/night a particular mission will start.  The times Sizzlor quotes are the IN GAME mission start times. That really doesn't answer the question I see you asking.  Before we had the weather randomizer, we had  six missions to maintain and they were labeled as morning, noon, afternoon, as mentioned above.  Those would appear on the mission list of the parser and you could extrapolate the normal start time of a specific time of day mission by some simple adding mission hours to the current local time to figure out a specific IN GAME mission start time in real time (assuming no mission objective win which would shorten the mission time).  The trade off to the mission generator is that we don't have all those missions to maintain, but lose the tracking of what mission is running now by looking at the mission name type on the parser mission log tab.

 

That means you need to go in to the game and see what mission is running OR get on Flugpark Discord and ask someone playing what mission is running and what the in game time is and end time and extrapolate from there.  It sounds more complicated than it is.

Edited March 30, 2022 by J5_Baeumer