Flak levels for DF maps

[=CfC=Bounder]

We are in the process of refining all our DF maps and the level of flak, particularly high level flak and AAA is under discussion.

To try and please everyone is not going to be possible, but it would help to get "ALL" to give their preferences and views.

The level of ship flak and AA is fairly easy to change in both 4.09 vanilla and UP 2.01. The ability (rookie/average/veteran) and ROF (Rate of Fire) is selectable and I do try and apply common sense to these settings i.e if the ships are away from the normal DF flying area, I will set them to "average" and between 30 and 50 ROF (re-loading time increased from RL setting of 1.0) to provide a sensible target for an attacking anti-shipping aircraft. Ships close to DF area (e.g. the flak ships on our desert map) are set to "rookie" and 50 ROF.

The bone of contention is Home Bases. All our airfields that are used for spawning and RRR in MDS missions have between 2-3 low level (up to 2000m) AAA. This is composed of 20 and 25mm for Red and Blue. This is a good basis for providing deffence to low flying  (accuracy between 1-2000m is very marginal) attacking punters.

High level Flak such as 85 and 88mm does frustrate DF missions. The whole purpose of DF is after all to engage with another human pilot and not continually be shot down by flak.

The problem is there is no way to control land based flak and AA in a similar way to ships. By experience, you will notice that Flak will be far more accurate if you maintain height and direction. Just by changing height a few hundred feet makes a considerable difference (hence the horizontal and vertical “S” manoeuvre we fly when attacking ships equipped with AA).

The other side to this is the presence of a high level attacking aircraft hovering in the area around an HB. This is what the online servers such as WOP try to discourage.

Our problem at CfC is the small number of flyers we have on large maps such as the Channel map and therefore the time it takes to get into a DF. Inevitably therefore, chaps will fly to the enemy HB to look for fun! In adding AI bombers to these maps, I hope this will alleviate the problem and achieve two things:-
-   Provide the catalyst to both sides by drawing in fighters to both protect and destroy bomber formations.
-   Move the DF away from spawning HB’s
If the second of these objectives is achieved, then I would vote for one high level flak unit to be positioned at each spawning HB.

Now for all you inputs Gentleman? Please submit your vote in the poll post above

Bounder