- Location
- Chicago
The rush for experimental technology I feel left a few things behind. It seemed to happen early in the game too, when the developers were unsure of how long the game would last or sell for, and lasted a bit even after a doujin community was made, since a fan work community for some franchises doesn't always lead to the original franchise and developers making money.
The fact that things like Tenzan and Ryusei were added so fast to this game early in its life with stats to symbolize a clear progression, along with other designs, does mean some historical designs like the B4Y1 Type 96 will likely never be added in, which is a little disappointing for me since I'd like a bit of historic trivia like that, along with them including more actually deployed designs. The could be made competitive with fictional Kai or Kai Ni upgrades.
Absolutely - I believe the devs have also said that they think putting Yamato and Musashi in the game so early was a mistake (and look at how long they're holding on to Shinano now). If I were in charge of remaking the game now I'd be looking focus the air game on the mid-tier planes - maybe something where you have a stockpile of each individual type, where the lower-grade stuff is much cheaper and easier to produce - so you use Zeros, Type 97s, and Type 99s for your daily scutwork, Suiseis and Tenzans for tougher maps in the course of ordinary business, and save the Reppuus and Ryuuseis for critical moments in events (and balance the game correspondingly.)
I doubt things like AD A1 Skyraiders will be added either anytime soon. Maybe eventually. Skyraiders were not even a blueprint for most of the war. With the first experimental test only about a month before the war ended.
The first prototypes also had massive amounts of flaws and teething issues until after the war a bad reputation as well, which would mean terrible stats.
Remember that the Skyraider not only is a late war design, it eventually dropped it's torpedo and dive bomber focus to focus on close air ground attack and missile support, which would not really compare to dedicated torpedo bombers in anti-ship from what I have heard. What would it even be as well? Classified as a torpedo bomber? Dive bomber? Missile carrier? Anti installation? AWACS role? It wouldn't fit unless it had some special category or the stat system had a big overhaul, or it could just be a dedicated dive bomber in this game to simplify and cut out any potential confusion.
I don't disagree that we're not likely to see one any time soon, especially considering that Sara arrived without even Hellcats or Avengers, much less the radar-equipped types I wanted to see with her and Enterprise (though I'll note that the community was saying the same thing about Allied ships in January - so anything could happen. 2016 ain't over yet ) That said, most of what you said about the Skyraider applies to the Ryuusei as well - multirole dive and torpedo bomber, teething troubles (which the in-game description notes re: the Ryuusei). I'd probably just expect to see it as a torpedo bomber, just like the Ryuusei - perhaps with some additional dive bombing stat.
The game already has designs that are prototype in it, some projects from actually earlier in the war dropped due to lack of funds and resources and devoted to more efficient designs, like the relatively high performance wooden plane designs designed to save resources of metal and fuel, and try to make the best out of limited crippled industry, infrastructure, resources and population. But I don't think any design is a so late design would be kept and fit for now, especially not one that lacks a single clear role.
Look at the Shinden Kai (not the Shiden Kai). 1945 design. Massive stats, given away for free near the starting year of the game before the idea of what the stat tree would be and other ideas had been shaken out as the developers were still more raw even after release, then essentially recalled and never given away again.
The only thing that really came close to the Shinden is fully trained max chevron the Type Zero Model 53 Iwamoto Squad, ace, skilled pilot, at max train level, and I heard that's only because the developers made a mistake coding the stats and raised the stats too high, and were too afraid to patch and revert it due to not wanting to anger or annoy their fans. At least that's what I heard from a translated magazine article interview scan, though that could be fabricated and faked.
Regardless, the developers need to be careful with these +15 stats and more they're throwing around. Make the gap too large, and the gap for new players to climb with all this power creep and stat creep might turn away some potential fans of the game. They've still got merchandise to sell too.
Right - I don't really expect to see any of the planes I mentioned in my previous post, partly for the simple reason that the devs aren't likely to want to overshadow the Japanese-ness of the game, partly because of power creep. I do expect to see Hellcats, Corsairs, Avengers, and Helldivers at some point in the future, and I expect them to be not quite as good as Reppuus, Suisei Mk 12As, and Ryuusei Kais. (I'm calling it right now - +8 AA stat for the Corsair.) My original point was just that the US planes we did get compare well enough to their contemporaries, which gives players no reason to use them when they're well-equipped with Japanese limited-service and prototype aircraft. I'm just saying that if we did see what were US limited-service and prototype aircraft, they'd be world-beaters in comparison.
That said, there is a point to be made about stats and reputation; I noted that the Dauntless's stats make sense given its relative performance compared to the Japanese dive bombers, but the game has a strong sense of stats based on "the legend" more than a rigorous statistical analysis, something like Aristotle's idea of telos; for example Maya, because she was converted into an "anti-aircraft" cruiser, has one of the highest AA stats and the most powerful AA cut-in in the game, despite historically having about half the AA firepower of a Cleveland - post-conversion. Meanwhile Iowa gets no special AA power besides her highest-in-game AA stat, and Yamato kai has an AA stat comparable to Maya despite having, again, twice the number of AA guns. So note that the Ju-87 also has high stats as a dive bomber, when its performance wasn't really that brilliant after its initial debut (they got hacked out of the skies over Britain) - but it has "the legend", it's the dive bomber. Which should imply that the Dauntless should be a heck of a lot better, seeing as it sank half the IJN. So that's the bias - rigorous stats for Americans, mythmaking for the Axis.