Slitherine

How come that a Do335 (or the Ta152) has a lower AA than a Fw190d9?

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_190, the d9 variant had
# Guns: ** 2 × 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns with 475 rpg

* 2 × 20 mm MG 151 cannons with 250 rpg in the wing root


meanwhile the do335
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_335
Armament

* 1 × 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 103 cannon (as forward engine-mounted Motorkanone)
* 2 × 20 mm MG 151 cannons

Comparing the 2, it turns out that the Pfeil's weapons were more powerful, so, it should reflect on the AA values.



Also, the He162s' AA is a bit too low.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_162

Armament

* Guns: 2 × 20 mm MG 151 cannons with 120 rpg (He 162 A-2) OR 2 × 30 mm MK 108 cannons with 50 rpg (He 162 A-0, A-1)


It isnt much less than the d9, yet, its AA 10, unlike the d9's 25 AA.



Also, I am going through the Fighters' stats, i will perform tests later, stay tuned

Try to compare them with something different than Fw190 D-9 because that one was put on steroids to follow upgrade path after Fw190A (A-4).

Anyway I will use this thread to ask a question.

How useful do you find late German fighters, what are your upgrade paths?

This part is open for revision.

I hastily assembled a scenario for testing purposes:

http://www.mediafire.com/?c493tz7ytk8y8h0


To be played without FoW

so now

he162 < ta152 < fw190

it is not right i think.

In the last version of the beta i used the Fw190a and later i upgraded them to the M262, i tested other Fighters but the difference between upgrade cost and increased usefullnes was too low, i think the Do335 and Ta must be tweaked ... at minimum a higher ini to reflect the very good dogfight abilitiy and at maybe an equal AA to the Fw190a or a nearly equal.

The Do-335 was good against bombers, not so much in dog fighting and they really didn't have an impact in the war.

I am surprised this unit is in the war.

Bottomline, the FWs are way too strong, while the first generation jet planes are underpowered (me163, he162)

Me163 wasn't a jet.
Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seriously though, I agree that a lot of aircraft, especially late war aircraft, need to be re-balanced.
For example best Russian fighter (LA-7) is pretty lousy, relatively speaking, and the second best is a Hurricane I.

Well, it was rocket-powered, so the propeller sound is improper, that is for sure

Quoted from another thread, this analyse very well describes problem about fighter statistics.

skarczew wrote:Main problem is that it is hard to show all qualities / roles of fighters in simply stats.

Example:
- some of planes were very good at low altitudes, while other ones were good at high; Tempest, La-7, FW-190A vs Mustang, FW-190D9, Thunderbolt;
- some of the planes were very agile - should the Air Defense be increased? What about planes that were very agile, but not too sturdy (like Japanese Zero)?
What about planes that were generally very durable, but not too agile (Thunderbolt)?
- some of planes weren't the fastest or best armed, but their power was in the phenomenal climbing ability (Me-109 in early part of war, Spit in 44-45) - how to balance them :] ?

I see two approaches which make sense to upgrade a unit.

Either new unit is going to supersede old one either new unit is going to supplement old one.

To supersede unit has to have better performance in crucial areas.
To supplement unit has to have advantage where old one has disadvantage and disadvantage where old one has advantage.

When we speak about fighters they are air killers so at first place air attack and on second place initiative is all important to them. So it is hard supplement scheme is going to work well here.

So to make better upgrade path their crucial statistic needs to reflect supersede scheme.
The other element important to upgrade path is availability date. This is a big problem for late war German fighters because many of them appear simultaneously and for certain Bf109 incarnations because there is no point in their appearance if something better is already available. Availability date should not be looked as month when unit becomes available but at which scenario does it appear.