The U2VS may be a poor relation in Sturmovik, it is nonetheless a great plane to use in certain types of scenarios.
One thing that I can't get it to do however is act like a fighter, even when it carries no bombs. A flight of U2VS's, even when attacked outright, never seems to deviate from their waypoints, not even to take evasive action. And I've never yet had them attack any other plane except in defense and even then they simply fly on as if nothing perturbs them. Note that they are rugged and tough little machines to shoot down, but a little maneuvering around on their part would be more fun.
So my question is - is this inherent to the U2VS? Or should I do something less than obvious when setting up a flight of U2VS?
Lisunov had 3 rear guns, not 1, mate. :wink:
most night harrasment U2's had their rear gun removed along with its gunner to save weight. their only defence was the dark, their reletively quiet engine and their maneuverability, for which they were noted.
I cannot remember the source, but I remember this being said on a site somewhere.
I would imagine on the horizontal plane they would be extremely maneuverable.
The night witches as the Germans called them were females that flew the U2. They would turn off there engines and glide over the target before releasing their bomb loads on the sleeping Wehrmacht.
The Germans had real trouble intercepting them at night cause they flew too slow and low for any night fighters.
Thanks for all the replies. I guess that the distilled answer is 'no', the U2VS can't act like a fighter aircraft because it wasn't designed or powered to be one.
Well so be it.
Another thing that struck me was the mention of night flying, and turning motors off to glide and bomb. Sounds very challenging to say the least. Gotta try that out.
But I was wondering if the game engine takes into account the reduced visual visibility when flying in darkness? Do computer controlled aircraft or anti-aircraft guns for that matter) have a reduced visual range to recognize enemy planes? Or do they act as if it were still daylight?
I've not really been able to tell much difference between night and daylight flying. I do know that I can see far less in any case. Just wondering if the computer isn't cheating a bit on this, or if it is a known oversight/deficiency in the game.
Thanks ... and the AAA thing brings another thing to mind which I've wondered about.
Namely, when flying through friendly AAA fire, I never ever get hit. Only enemy AAA scores hits on my plane.
So while I'm grateful for the wonderful accuracy of my own sides AAA fire, it does seem to be very unrealistic. Mistaken identities were nothing uncommon and besides, when pursuing an enemy through AAA fire, surely one is bound to get hit as collateral damage, or at least have a high percentage of getting hit by friendly fire.
Is this another shortcoming/oversight in Sturmovik, or something that can be fined tuned in some way?
I know the questions keep coming and even though I've had the game for some 9 months now, the manual is not really much help when looking for answers to questions like these.
Those night witches never attacked large defended targets becuase of their light bomb load and inacuracy. They usually flew solo and would glide over the front lines dropping bombs on the nearest campfire, then restart and sputter home. It was harrasment more than an effective campaighn but it cost the Germans much needed sleep when they would come most nights.
