Liaison aircraft & gameplay

[migmadmarine]

I know it comes up now and again, bit I've found myself thinking about it more and more as of late with Special Hobby releasing a Piper Grasshopper. While liaison aircraft are not glamorous hot rods, especially with the re-introduction of the ROF style photo recon (as shown in a dev diary a while back) as well as presumably the visual recon and artillery spotting mechanics, these aircraft could be phenomenal fun to fly in a cat and mouse sort of way. Being small and fairly simple, and in some cases fairly common aircraft, they could be good subjects to be built by one or another of the 2nd party contractors. 

 

Along with those mission types, there would be space for some more that would be fairly different from anything we have had before. For example the general transport mission type made for the Ju-52 could be adapted for message and officer shuttling, having the player fly to the front line and be required to land within a certain radius of a specified unit, or possibly have to do this at two units in sequence to simulate the pickup and drop off of a message. 

 

In terms of aircraft, the Soviets are covered with the U2 we already have. The rest I would have in mind are: 

 

USA: Piper L4 grasshopper. This is of course the military version of the Piper J3 Cub, and one of several liaison used by the US during the war. Choosing the L4 of course would mean we could have the Bazooka Charlie mod as an option, and carry 6 bazooka tubes for a laugh. 

 

For Germany, I think the Feisler Fi 156 Storch would fit the them best, being a very light, off field capable observation aircraft. 

 

In a perfect world, also getting the Fw-189 would be great, but my understanding is this aircraft was more for recon at higher unit levels, and not so much for arty spotting and off field landings, making the Storch the more versatile option from a gameplay standpoint.

 

Now for the somewhat controversial one: For the UK I would like to see the Taylorcraft Auster AOP (gasp). These were introduced in 1942 and became the primary artillery observation and field liaison craft for the British, and would be common on the periods covered by BoN and BoBp. 

 

Fear not Lysander fans, I have nothing against with the Lysander being added as well, a operative insert/extraction mission would be great fun, but these weren't used much for arty spotting or scouting in the theaters currently covered in game, so the Auster makes for better parity with the other nations. 

 

While simple and often unarmed aircraft, these could be phenomenally fun little aircraft in career and multiplayer. Imagine hedge hopping to spot a troop concentration in front of friendly tanks, trying to stay just out of anti air range while calling artillery down on an enemy troop concentration, or trying to pick out a safe landing spot near friendlies while hoping those enemy fighters overlook you. In MP spotting for friends in faster fighter bombers could be a good time as well. 

[357th_KW]

You could potentially have some sort of way to pick up downed pilots and save them from capture etc.  These could be some fun aircraft, that would likely be pretty quick to model given their simple systems and construction.

[migmadmarine]

1 minute ago, 357th_KW said:

You could potentially have some sort of way to pick up downed pilots and save them from capture etc.  These could be some fun aircraft, that would likely be pretty quick to model given their simple systems and construction.

This could probably be scripted already, but we don't have a downed pilot asset in game that would be suitable. Would love to see this sort of SAR for flying boats in future as well.

[357th_KW]

I could see this making for a pretty interesting multiplayer experience.  Say the downed pilot sits on the map for a given time period before they are assumed to be captured, and you have to coordinate to rescue them in order to recover that “spawn” or whatever for your team.  And I love the idea of incorporating a couple sea planes as well!

 

 

[Avimimus]

I gather that the Fw-189 was actually used sometimes as an artillery spotter... so I'd suggest keeping that (alongside the L-4, Fi-156, and U-2VS). I think I'd be willing to trade the Auster for it.

 

From my perspective the big gameplay element to be added would be expanding upon the artillery spotting system we're getting for Flying Circus - with the additional ability to give orders to multiple types of AI artillery, with multiple types of fire missions (in addition to basic corrections). I know that British doctrine allowed observers to call upon a wide variety of artillery and design mixed fire-missions on the fly.

 

The neat thing is that these small aircraft have more firepower when commanding artillery than the most heavily armed aircraft of the war did!

 

I could definitely also see a bit of synergy with Tank Crew.

 

19 hours ago, 357th_KW said:

And I love the idea of incorporating a couple sea planes as well!

 

Doctrinally the Ar-196 was supposed to support ships through providing fire correction (in addition to its role in reconnaissance). I'm not sure if any of the Ar-196 units used by Germany, Bulgaria, or Romania were ever used in this fashion though. It'd be a pretty neat capability to add though - and it'd give this aircraft more of a purpose... (even though it does already outgun the other observation aircraft we've discussed).

[BlitzPig_EL]

We had the Stinson L5 as a mod aircraft in original IL2.  Flying it in an online campaign on the New Guinea-New Britain map always went something like this...

 

"OK, I have located the Japanese facility at... Damn, Zeros!  I'm dead".

 

"OK, back up in the Stinson, trying to find... Bloody hell!!! I just got shredded by a KI 61, too low to bail! (crashing noises).

 

"Looking for those... I give up, blasted by flak".   (Moves to P40/P38 and survives). 

 

Low, slow observation may work in a well scripted single player campaign, but in multiplayer you are low hanging fruit for stat padding, nothing more.

[migmadmarine]

I imagine so much of the time, unless you have very effective friendly cap. Could be more fun in co-op. I don't venture into pvp servers at all, don't imagine the U2 often appears on them.

[BlitzPig_EL]

I put the U2 on some of my early war maps.  The outcome is usually being utterly disassembled by flak, as you are too slow, and too low to evade the radar guided AI guns, no matter the caliber of the weapon.

[DD_Friar]

We are using it as a spotter plane in our planes and tanks campaign. It was worked great in helping other planes to come in and strike.

I guess it depends on the environment you are using it in.

[migmadmarine]

At least in qmb you can get surprisingly close to small and mind caliber AA before they engage, and be I think trying to spot AA threats and plan around them would be a lot of the fun of flying these. 

[SOLIDKREATE]

I'd love this to happen. Spitfire Mk.VIII's, F-6's, F-5's, ect. When I used to fly in RoF (I own all content) I always flew RECON. The sense of doing something I'm not supposed to be doing was highly enjoyable. It was almost like a good ole fashioned 'panty raid'.

[migmadmarine]

Seems likely the Mk.XIV bubble top will have photo functionality, and the Arado already has a camera option, so you'll get some of your wish at least it seems.