1916 Career problems

[Dr1falcon500]

The last bit of weirdness to crop up in Jasta 6 career was a balloon busting mission. The mission briefing said to watch out for large groups of fighters over the balloon. When our planes got to the target there were no Spads or Nieuports. The "fighters" were Fe2b's. Really using Fe2b's as fighters is a joke. I suppose some of the out time substitutes are acceptable. Is having bomber used as fighters okay? Also most of the WW1 mission are just reworks of WW2 missions. There are bomber intercept missions with fighters being guided by some sort of non existent radio. There are no line patrols. The only missions that could be seen as specifically WW1 are balloon busting and balloon protection. Balloon protection missions don't work properly, it doesn't matter how many attackers are destroyed, the mission always fails. Defenders are supposed to be guided by flares or rockets, yet I've never seen one. Flying Cicus needs to do better testing of career missions.

[Dupxo]

14 hours ago, Dr1falcon500 said:

Really using Fe2b's as fighters is a joke.

 

That is not true at all. Many 2 seaters aircrafts were used as standard fighters, heavy fighters, night fighters or interceptors - for example DFW C.V, Halberstadt CL.II and CL.IV and FE2b. They were multi-role planes. In this specific part the career mission maker works fine.

 

14 hours ago, Dr1falcon500 said:

Also most of the WW1 mission are just reworks of WW2 missions. There are bomber intercept missions with fighters being guided by some sort of non existent radio. There are no line patrols. The only missions that could be seen as specifically WW1 are balloon busting and balloon protection. Balloon protection missions don't work properly, it doesn't matter how many attackers are destroyed, the mission always fails. Defenders are supposed to be guided by flares or rockets, yet I've never seen one. Flying Cicus needs to do better testing of career missions.

 

I can agree with this part.

 

I would add that photo recon, radio recon and artillery spotting missions work fine and they are interesting for people who like playing 2-seaters.

 

[Dr1falcon500]

2 hours ago, Dupxo said:

 

That is not true at all. Many 2 seaters aircrafts were used as standard fighters, heavy fighters, night fighters or interceptors - for example DFW C.V, Halberstadt CL.II and CL.IV and FE2b. They were multi-role planes. In this specific part the career mission maker works fine.

 

 

I can agree with this part.

 

I would add that photo recon, radio recon and artillery spotting missions work fine and they are interesting for people who like playing 2-seaters.

Listing those planes and saying they were used as fighters is just some sort of blanket statement. None of them were standard fighters as you seem to imagine.

Only 2 seater planes carried any sort of radio equipment in World War One, so how are single seater fighters being sent messages? It could have been done with flares, but it isn't just some magic messaging. The alert patrols in RoF were far better. It would have been better if IL-2 had based career missions on Rise of Flight not WW2.

 

Edited February 16, 2024 by Dr1falcon500

[=IRFC=Gascan]

I have seen the FE2b kick some serious ass in MP when you have a competent gunner. Historically, a herd of FE2s could circle the wagons and cover each other very well. There are reports of them fending off large numbers of attackers while circling all the way back to the front lines.

[Zooropa_Fly]

Cptn. Darling.

Twitch.

[Majpalmer]

For me, the WWI career does not yet have a Great War feel. It was, after all, ported over from the WWII side. But I understand that they are working on that. I hope so. Back to Pat Wilson in the interim. 

[Dr1falcon500]

On 2/17/2024 at 8:00 AM, =IRFC=Gascan said:

I have seen the FE2b kick some serious ass in MP when you have a competent gunner. Historically, a herd of FE2s could circle the wagons and cover each other very well. There are reports of them fending off large numbers of attackers while circling all the way back to the front lines.

As this is about Careers single player, I fail to see the relevance of any reference to MP. My post was about the use of  a bomber Fe2b as fighter which it never was no matter what number of attackers it fended off.

[=IRFC=Gascan]

On a recent road trip, I was listening to a book that described the FE2 used to help fight off the Fokker scourge. A look at Wikipedia shows that the 1914 prototypes were developed to be fighters or machinegun carriers in the same manner as the Vickers FB5 Gunbus. The first squadron to be equipped entirely with the F.E.2 was 20 Squadron, deploying to France on 23 January 1916. At this stage it served as a fighter-reconnaissance aircraft. Eventually about ⅔ of the F.E.2s were built as fighters (816) and ⅓ as bombers (395). The F.E.2b and F.E.2d variants remained in day operations well into 1917, while the "b" continued as a standard night bomber until August 1918. The article describes the "Lufberry" or circle tactic that was used against single-seat scouts. Much like the Bristol F2B, this machine was designed and used as a two-seat fighter, with additional capability in reconnaissance and bombing roles.

 

If the AI is unable to effectively utilize the FE2 as a fighter, that is unfortunate for the career mode. It's kinda like using a ME-110 as a bomber and not allowing it to dogfight. Even if it has some weaknesses in a dogfight, it is still a capable and dangerous machine.

[ST_Catchov]

On 2/16/2024 at 12:29 PM, Dr1falcon500 said:

The last bit of weirdness to crop up in Jasta 6 career was a balloon busting mission.

 

The AI are useless at busting balloons.

 

I'm No. 6 in our flight, a raw recruit fresh to the sins of the continental ladies and ready to do my bit for the King. I and four other RFC chaps follow the flight leader to the balloon. Huns appear, so I attack them in an effort to allow the flight leader and his No. 2 to destroy the balloon unmolested. Not entirely noble as I've heard about the dangers of attacking balloons so figure I'll leave it to the experts. Anyway, I'm fighting for my bloody life see and what do the others do about the balloon? Just buzz about having a look at it and doing nothing, that's what. I break off from my encounter, having dispatched a few, and follow them thinking they must be formulating a plan of attack. But no, they just circle around. Whadda they want, me, the No. 6 to attack it? No bleedin' way. Besides I'm low on ammo and anxious to make my kill claims They continue to make alleged passes without firing that I can see. Tourists. Sight-seeing perhaps? 

 

The balloon remains intact and I return to the airfield, mission failed, scolded by the CO, while the others in my flight having returned safely are found busting up the mess and on the turps. I make my claims with the Adjutant and return to my digs to practice the accordion. Oh, what a lovely war.

 

[czech693]

Yep, the balloon missions are screwy now, both offensive or defensive.  Write it up with a video.

[Dr1falcon500]

AI in balloon busting missions mostly do not much at all. As if you don't get the balloon the AI won't, they're just along for the ride. It was like that in RoF too.

[ST_Catchov]

Funny thing is ... the enemy AI is very efficient at balloon busting. If they can do it, why not your AI mates?

 

But you'll still get mission accomplished if you knock a few out after they've destroyed the balloon you've been assigned to protect. 😁  

 

So yeah, there's a few issues ....