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Air combat - what's wrong with it?


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On 4/10/2020 at 5:02 AM, Max_Caine said:

The rotating turret and energy shield are a good start but there's a lot more that I feel could be done.

 

 

Then i guess it would also be a good time to introduce body part systems for lager UFO instead of a integrated HP Bar, it would be annoying if the turrents or other cannons of a larger battleship won't stop firing until it goes down, and blasting certain parts such as engines or shield generators can introduce more challenges and tactics while encountering late game "bosses".

 

On 4/9/2020 at 4:15 PM, indaris said:

AWACs and tanker planes as well as recon planes 

 

On 4/18/2020 at 9:31 AM, indaris said:

An AWACS plane could be in the area and provide some additional data or bonuses to attacking the UFO. This AWACS would then need to be protected from UFO interceptors which would easily destroy it if unprotected.
 

There is a AWACS mod in X1 workshop. It is designed as a mobile radar station and is pretty useful while tailing random UFOs that your squadrons temporarily have nospare time to intercept. 

 

Speaking of which, if a battleship needs more attempts to take it down, it would also be a good time to introduce Arsenal Planes, say, a huge bomber (B52, B1b, TU160) that carries numerous aams. They can be slow and fragile, but the large amount of missiles makes them good at engaging armoured targets or targets with ciws.

 

It would be even cooler that the nature of fighting UFO can introduce some Cold War era concept that was never made into reality. Taking the Pye Wacket Lenticular Defense Missile developed for XB-70 for example, this "missle" was designed for a defensive role, that to intercept incoming missle at relative speeds of up to Mach 7 (!). It would be very interesting if such cold war flying saucers came true with XB-70 to fight the UFOs.

Edited by EurekaSeven
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Isn't the "large bomber" that needs protection the Foxtrot? They removed that specifically because they felt it was too specialised. I do believe the system we are heading towards is 5 or so general-purpose airplanes that only get better through upgrades.

Personally I think that is not the right decision as it makes the air combat more samey, but apparently the devs have other plans to expand on the upgrade system rather than adding new planes.

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In xen1 the foxtrot ended up being more useful than the condor as the game progressed, simply because it was tougher and was able to carry the big missiles. I don't know. The modular system is easier for the devs because it involves less work (why have an F15 and an A-10 when you can modify a single aircraft to do the roles of both)? Although this is a disadvantage in terms of aircraft variety, it has the advantage that time can be spent on improving other areas of the game instead, rather than drawing new graphics etc. 

Things always have their upsides as well as downsides.

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On ‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2020 at 9:46 PM, Comrade said:

Flying Low is most certainly NOT a death sentence. TrashMan got it exactly opposite, flying low AVOIDS radar.

 

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Yes for a ground radar and at extreme ranges. The earth curvature does not apply in aerial fights, as missiles generally have a short effective range (10-30nm)

No if you got an enemy aircraft searching for you. Also depends on the terrain. Flat terrain won't hide you from an air radar.

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On ‎4‎/‎19‎/‎2020 at 8:58 PM, Comrade said:

Isn't the "large bomber" that needs protection the Foxtrot? They removed that specifically because they felt it was too specialised. I do believe the system we are heading towards is 5 or so general-purpose airplanes that only get better through upgrades.

Personally I think that is not the right decision as it makes the air combat more samey, but apparently the devs have other plans to expand on the upgrade system rather than adding new planes.

Agreed. Linear progression of "the same thing, only better" is as soulless as it gets. Especially for weapons.

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  • 1 year later...

From the Downtown games series, for any jet era:

Flying high pros: Out of range of small (especially infrared as they fire instantly and without warning due to not requiring radar lock) missiles or flak, but big missiles can hit you at any range. Can gain speed by diving, for missile/lock evasion or close-range air-to-air.

Flying low pros: Less detectable (even without intervening mountains). More ground attack opportunities.

The tendency is to start low then climb, since "less detectable" is the only thing that's relevant in friendly territory and the game has automatic small arms fire at low altitude so most players would rather take a chance at big damage than guaranteed small damage.

Edited by Bobit
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