Unfair plane mechanics during bad weather

[kissofpain]

Hello.

I have noticed the following mehanics during bad weather:

Planes that are stationed on a supply hex airfield can be upgraded or disbanded. However planes that sit on a normal aiport are stucked.

Now, from a realistic point of view, one can say it sounds fair. But especially in a competitive game, it is not.

Case in point, current tournament map battle of the bulge. Germany air (for those who bought any, like me) starts on a supply hex and when bad weather started, I changed all my fighters to bombers and upgraded them to max. When the weather turned clear, I obliterated some enemy tanks because of this move.

On the other hand, allied air, sitting on an close to front airfield were just stucked there. And frankly I find this totally unfair.

I see 2 solutions:

1. Keep it real but fair to both players: no operations can be done to planes during bad weather, even if on supply hex.
2. Make it fair and playable: strategic operations can be done to planes on all airfields during bad weather. This means plane transfer, upgrade and disband.

Thank you.

[Folklore]

Fairness is not the point of this map.

[kissofpain]

Fairness is not the point of this map.

It's not about this map, but mp games in general. In bad weather, the player that has to move it's planes close to frontline is at great disadvantage.

Oh, one more thing I have find out the hard way. In bad weather, planes don't retreat from an airfield that gets captured. And nobody explains this mechanics anywhere...

[Wolfenguard]

for the retreat of planes
its normal that Planes will get destroyed, when you capture the airfield, they only retreat when they can move in this turn. Its like weather is in bad shape, rainy or snowing they dont start from the airfield and stay at the ground and cant start when the enemy came to capture the airfield. its the same, when the next airfield is full at good weather or the next airfield is to far away or cant take this type of plane (Strat Bombers)

this mechanic is used a lot of time in the Singleplayer mode, especially when you capture the last enemy airfield

i think the only Problem with the mechanic is, when you are the first player of the turn, where the enemy can attack everywhere where he wants and you can´t do anything again the planes, because trough you cant move your planes or attack with AA when the weather changes. The only possible is, when you cover all Units with Fighters or AA.
This happens in the later missions from the AO 41 and 42, when the enemy can attacks your units and you can only defence your units with the fighter or AA Cover, (i dont use trough this mechanic planes in the last missions and take as general traits AA Profi and cover up my units wiht AA Guns from the free core slots)

[Folklore]

Fairness is not the point of this map.

It's not about this map, but mp games in general. In bad weather, the player that has to move it's planes close to frontline is at great disadvantage.

There is no need to change anything in the game itself. If you want a fair map, you can place airfield+supply hex for both sides. If you want a more nuanced map, you can possibly make players contend for a single good airfield.

[kissofpain]

There is no need to change anything in the game itself. If you want a fair map, you can place airfield+supply hex for both sides. If you want a more nuanced map, you can possibly make players contend for a single good airfield.

So wait, instead of devs changing an unfair gameplay mechanics you want a modder to make a custom map that is balanced? Really?

I think bad weather should be bad weather for everyone and planes on ALL airfields should be prevented from being upgraded.

@Wolfenguard speaking of this, turning AA into AT is also an advantage for first player. Because it can do so in bad weather and enemy planes will not attack. However if player 2 does so (in 1v1), its AA will not be able to defend from air in next clear turn.

[George_Parr]

I don't see any reason why bad weather should influence upgrades. Planes don't need to fly for that. Sometimes planes were flown in, sometimes they were transported by rail and re-assembled at the airfields, sometimes changes were more ground modifications than a whole new plane. If one side is lucky enough to have a supply hex on an airfield while the other doesn't, so what? It's not like making drastic changes to your airfleet is some sort of great move. In most circumstances it would be a giant waste of resources, if available core-slots even allow it in the first place.

Your scenario doesn't really cause any issues either. If you don't want to use something that you consider to be an exploit, then don't. The game is set up in a way that everyone can try and play the game the way he wants to. There is a reason why you can give yourself as many traits as you like in a campaign, or choose between no re-dos of a move and as many per turn as you like. This isn't really a case of a flaw in the game-design, which might indeed need a fix, or even something that throws the whole balance of the scenario out of whack. Instead it is a unique situation which could perhaps be exploited if one so desired. It's not like switching over most of your fighters to bombers will do much good when enemy fighters will attack you afterwards.