23.01.2009, 08:21
I've got no problems with "sniper" bomber gunners as long as:
1) The gun is in a turret, preferably with a reflector sight.
2) The bomber is straight and level.
3) The attacker is coming in with minimal deflection (i.e., 12 or 6 o'clock level).
Anything else should degrade accuracy, especially at range. In particular, a hand-held gun angled out into the bomber's slipstream should have its inherent accuracy go down, and accurate gunnery should be virtually impossible while the bomber is pulling any sort of Gs. There is no way that the tail gunner on a dive bomber can shoot as the plane is coming out of a dive, or that a gunner who isn't seated and strapped into his seat (e.g., waist gunners, or the tail gunner on the Betty) can shoot if the bomber isn't basically flying straight and level.
The issue of bomber gunners opening up at long range is a different topic. It's common for inexperienced gunners to open fire way too soon (perhaps that could be worked into the AI for Rookie pilots as well), and even experienced gunners might "spray and pray" at targets 700+ meters away. Unfortunately, coming up with routines for shoot/don't shoot based on a bomber's strategic position would be tricky. A bomber crew might be more conservative with ammunition on the inbound leg of a long mission, than on the outbound leg of a short mission.
1) The gun is in a turret, preferably with a reflector sight.
2) The bomber is straight and level.
3) The attacker is coming in with minimal deflection (i.e., 12 or 6 o'clock level).
Anything else should degrade accuracy, especially at range. In particular, a hand-held gun angled out into the bomber's slipstream should have its inherent accuracy go down, and accurate gunnery should be virtually impossible while the bomber is pulling any sort of Gs. There is no way that the tail gunner on a dive bomber can shoot as the plane is coming out of a dive, or that a gunner who isn't seated and strapped into his seat (e.g., waist gunners, or the tail gunner on the Betty) can shoot if the bomber isn't basically flying straight and level.
The issue of bomber gunners opening up at long range is a different topic. It's common for inexperienced gunners to open fire way too soon (perhaps that could be worked into the AI for Rookie pilots as well), and even experienced gunners might "spray and pray" at targets 700+ meters away. Unfortunately, coming up with routines for shoot/don't shoot based on a bomber's strategic position would be tricky. A bomber crew might be more conservative with ammunition on the inbound leg of a long mission, than on the outbound leg of a short mission.