Why is bomb sight required in planes that did not have them?

[AB1CamelJock]

Both me and a fellow squad member found that you can't drop bombs in a Brisfit unless you are using the bomb sight.  Except they never had bomb sights.

We should be able to ground bomb in them.  Any ideas?  Also WW1 bombs seem to have little effect on the  targets,  which seem to be mostly WW2 design.

Rather frustrating for WW1 bombers!

[=IRFC=Gascan]

Huh? I drop bombs just fine without the bombsight in the Brisfit. It actually has a bomb sight, you can see it between your legs in the cockpit, as well as a bomb sight screen that lets you bomb from altitude (although it's pretty limited). The SE5a, Sopwith Camel, and Sopwith Snipe are all planes that have bombs but no bombsight, but they drop just fine. I've even done bombing raids where we drop on the leader's cue, relying on the flight lead and without looking at my own bombsight.

The light bombs (12.5kg, 20lb cooper etc) are able to destroy things like machine gun nests, AA guns, trucks, tanks, bunkers, and even small buildings, but require direct hits (there is very little splash damage). Multiple hits can destroy some bridges and larger buildings, but not always. Medium bombs (50kg, 112lb HURL) are capable of taking out larger buildings like factories, and the splash damage can disable a tank or truck with a very near miss (gotta be very close). Large bombs like the 230lb HERF, 250lb, and 100kg bombs are more likely to take out a building with a single bomb, but I find the 112lb/50kg usually gets the trick done just fine. Remember, splash damage drops off very quickly, so near misses do almost nothing to buildings. Also, these bombs are generally smaller than most WW2 bombs.

Are you setting the time delay correctly? German bombs can any time delay, including contact, but Entente bombs don't work with contact. 5 second delay is best: you can drop it at the lowest altitude and it still arms. If you get too low, the bomb won't arm and won't detonate.

[JG4_Moltke1871]

Nothing wrong with WW1 bombing so far, @=IRFC=Gascan explained well. Everything fine except the bomb blast, it was reduced in an unholy patch long time ago for WW2 planes to require more accurate hits. Not a good decision because the blast of bigger bombs seems not destructive enough anymore, many things even in craters survive. It’s one game so it affects Flying Circus too.

However, still can have a lot of fun with WW1 bombing ?

[LukeFF]

The Bristol F2B absolutely did have a bombsight - it was referred to as the Negative Lens.

[Zooropa_Fly]

5 sec delay 

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

1 hour ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

5 sec delay 

By setting contact  in the bomb fuse delay  will result in more damage. But you need more altitude.

[Zooropa_Fly]

3 hours ago, 1PL-Husar-1Esk said:

By setting contact  in the bomb fuse delay  will result in more damage. But you need more altitude.

 

Indeed.. for the first time not long ago I went 'contact' in the 110, going after ships.

I blew myself up.

 

Nothing funnier back in RoF days.. well when someone else did it.

[czech693]

The reason the German bombs work better at low level is because their fuse arming delay is set to 1 second.  The Allied bombs are set to -1, which is default, whatever that is for that bomb.  You can go into data/Luascripts/worldobjects/ballistics/bombs and change FuseArmDelay=-1 to 1 on the Allied bombs (both WW1 land WW2).  Then you don't have to use the 5 second detonation delay, which should be contact for most bombing missions (unless you're bunker busting).  I think HitDefaultDelay=2 is the default detonation delay and could be changed to 1 to give a instantaneous contact detonation, but it's easier to just don't use Default in the bomb settings.  Use Contact.  Somehow arming delay appears to be integrated into the 5 second detonation delay so that you can drop the bombs lower and still get detonation.  I think a bomb has an inital vertical velocity of about 200ft/sec, so a 1 second arming delay had better be above 200 feet or the bomb does not arm.

Edited December 3, 2023 by czech693

[Avimimus]

16 hours ago, JG4_Moltke1871 said:

Nothing wrong with WW1 bombing so far, @=IRFC=Gascan explained well. Everything fine except the bomb blast, it was reduced in an unholy patch long time ago for WW2 planes to require more accurate hits. Not a good decision because the blast of bigger bombs seems not destructive enough anymore, many things even in craters survive. It’s one game so it affects Flying Circus too.

However, still can have a lot of fun with WW1 bombing ?

 

Well, the fusing for some of the bombs is also incorrect. Hmm... it just occurs to me that I never passed on my research to the devs. I should do that.

 

I'll look up my research, but I think the Coopers should arm in about 1/2 seconds after less than 25 metres of flight time.

[JG4_Moltke1871]

11 hours ago, Avimimus said:

 

Well, the fusing for some of the bombs is also incorrect. Hmm... it just occurs to me that I never passed on my research to the devs. I should do that.

 

I'll look up my research, but I think the Coopers should arm in about 1/2 seconds after less than 25 metres of flight time.

oops, the detonators…. I've gotten so used to the five second delay for red planes that I don't notice it anymore ?