Gambit21

Some additional perspective relating specifically to the Hellcat - this is the article I referenced above. https://rldunn.com/grumman-hellcat/ Essentially corroborates what Claringbould puts forth in his recent work.

Please contact me via PM if you're a native Japanese speaker and willing to help record a handful of voice comms.

His Corsair vs Hellcat book is interesting and he gets into the 1943 1:1 kill ratio there. BTW his Solomons Air War series, and New Guinea books are top drawer, latest research etc.

Corsairs we’re in service in enough numbers to draw conclusions, as was the Hellcat (though fewer/land based units) There were enough confrontations in 1943 to ascertain where the aircraft stood in relation to each other once silly over-claiming is dismissed and actual loss records for both sides examined. The later war scewed kill ratios were a result of decimated (experienced) Japanese pilot ranks as the war progressed. A 1:1 kill ratio does, precisely illustrate the efficacy of the Zero against the other 2 types, there’s no debate to be had there unless one is hanging on to out-dated data, “winner gets to write the history” prophoganda and / or a bit of nationalism. Which…I get. I grew up watching Blacksheep Squadron with my Dad in the 70’s. and hearing/reading about how dominant the Corsair was. In combat, on equal terms, …It’s the later scewed ratio that does not reflect the efficacy of the Zero due to unskilled Japanese pilots later in the war. That’s just how it happened - I commented on this in the “paging Nick Grey” thread already. Again I’d encourage examining more recent work.

I am very well educated on the history of the war, the Zero, it’s design, the philosophy behind it, it’s weaknesses, and how it relates to other aircraft in the war and the philosophy behind those aircraft etc. The fact of the matter is that the Corsair and the Hellcat were contemporaries in the skies regardless of when the Zero first started flying (or hit the drawing table). When the Zero was designed is moot. All aircraft in the pacific were the product of mid to late 30's design. The fact and the latest information / research indicates that the actual kill ratio in the war in 1943 (when skilled pilots were still around) was 1:1. Dive speed numbers, lack of self-sealing tanks, somewhat inferior cannons notwithstanding. Where the rubber meets the road (in actual combat/kill ratio) it was the equal of both the Corsair and the Hellcat…it’s contemporaries in combat. Internet information on this subject is hugely out of date. I found one article with correct/ up to date info the other day but can't locate it now. I'd suggest looking at Claringbould's recent work...all of his books are excellent, very well researched, worth reading for anyone interested in aviation in the PTO.

Nope...Zero is equal to it's contemporaries. You can toss all the 'on paper' numbers, dive speeds etc into the debate that you want to, but the historical fact is that the Zero had a 1 to 1 kill ratio until experienced Japanese pilots were exhausted later in the war. Also what an online pilot "understands" and what he actually does in the moment are usually 2 different things.

Not a surprise in the least - I told you guys it was coming. Nothing else made sense and more than a foregone conclusion frankly. That said I’m happy to see the forum/announcement etc. My favorite war bird - bring it on.

To further expand on this. The superiority of the Hellcat and Corsair is largely myth. Victors get to write the history…all that. In reality the actual kill ratios / loss records between both the Corsair and Hellcat vs the Zero earlier in the war during 1943 where experienced Japanese pilots were still present in numbers ( vs later in the war when they were not) indicates parity between the two types and the Zero. Japanese pilots didn’t get leave, R&R, nor rotated home at the end of a tour. They flew until odds caught up with them or they were so battle-fatigued that they had to be shipped home. Late war results where essentially only barely-qualified pilots were flying on the Japanese side essentially indicate nothing more than pilot disparity. Not to mention cartoonish over-claiming of kills. These results might indicate a certain amount of real world Hellcat pilots getting pulled into fight that they should have passed on, just as we know happens online. Turning vs diving away for example. Given faithful representation of both aircraft in DCS - one should do very well in the Zeke.

Yep - and when flown by one of the remaining experienced / initial cadre of pilots the zero gave as good as it got there as well. Zero vs F6F-3 is actually a pretty even fight even on paper. The F6F-5 has more of numbers advantage, but above caveats still apply.

When it comes out I'll meet you somewhere, you take a Hellcat or a Corsair and we'll see how it goes. You'll only win if you stay absolutely disciplined, don't get over-confident, and don't make any mistakes. My experience is that most online peeps are over-confident, not that disciplined, and they do make mistakes. That's why I did so well in the Zero in years past. The Zero was always dangerous in the hands of a good pilot, right up to the end of the war.

Upon further reflection and testing, likely will go north from Guam to Saipan...flight distances are long enough for the average player I think. We're still going northeast instead of northwest, but it's better than southwest.

Would you appreciate a Black Sheep campaign using Marianas as a South to North, Solomon's stand-in? We start north, work south. If we go south to north as in real life, then the islands get smaller and less dramatic which is a no-go. If we go north to south, then Guam can be "Choiseul" etc. A base in the middle can be "Reketa Bay" Otherwise we're dealing the final battles over Pagan which I just cant' do...or fly out of Rota, north to Siapan as "Bougainville" just weighing options here. North to south would take some suspension of disbelief obviously, but in my view a minor thing over all. However I want to know how you guys feel.

There's been restored Zero's available for reference and/or to visit for a long time...this isn't a new thing. There's a few Oscars flying around as well. You can count on a Zero being on the way.

Well we've seen forward thinking on the part of the Devs WRT to adopting community mods already, so if these mods are up to standard then perhaps we'll see more of this with PTO. Immersion is a "the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts" equation, and every little asset helps. We need naval units, but also other AI aircraft types aside from the Zero. I don't want to design missions with only a single type of aircraft to shoot at. I have plans to use the Marianas map as a Solomons' stand-in for mid-war Corsair ops...think "Black Sheep"....but I need more assets to make this a plausible endeavor. Which means I need things like Japanese float planes of different types (or at least 1) troop transports, etc. Watching closely...there's a lot of potential here. I've started a skeleton mission but I'm hesitant to invest too much time until I know what's going to be available. Good times in any case...looking forward to watching this develop.

Twist axis works fine...as always.

Yeah they don't have time to babysit a Discord Server.

My guess is that it will be released in a more polished (not to mean final) state then the south was…which is a good thing IMO.

Looks great doesn’t it? Makes me wish I knew the Hog. What really has blown me away since release (and not enough credit has been given IMO) is the quality of the micro / scenes all over the map. The buildings, the compounds, the wrecked vehicles etc. Very well done .

Hope so.

It's the best PTO map...it's the "if you could only have one PTO map" map. However since ED is doing a Hellcat, then Marianas of course makes perfect sense. I'm just more of an early war PTO guy so Solomons is my thing. While I'm all for mid war, Marine Corsairs out of Vella La Vella etc, (this alone would be amazing) to really make full use of the map we'd need aircraft for early war, Watchtower onward, Battle for Guadalcanal/Cactus..Wildcats, A6M2's, A6M2-N, Mavis, P-400's, Dauntless' early, P-40's, AI Betty's etc etc. So just from an asset point of view I'm not hopeful that's anywhere near plausible at this juncture. Even mid-war/Vella La Vella, we need things to shoot at aside from an AI Zero. Float planes etc etc. One can hope.

I live hear NAS Whidbey, and would love to see this. It would never happen though. We'd need the Cascades as they fly low lever VR's through there etc. More plausible would be an Alaska/Bearing Straights map. That would also give us Red Flag Alaska. That I can actually see happening at some point.

That's going to depend on system, settings, mission. I have a pretty strong system, 64gb RAM, though not anywhere near cutting edge at this point, plenty strong enough to play a complex mission build on Syria with high settings, while I get game-stopper stutters at Kandahar.

I had to drop my settings to medium. High settings that Syria runs flawlessly on (I'm talking full, complex mission builds) are a non-starter with Afghanistan for me currently. I'm sure optimizations will come and this will change. I'm very happy with how it's shaping up...it's beautiful. Just needs to perform better now.

Based on Wag's comments WRT the Whiskey info becoming available, that's the smart money.

I'm a big fan of the Zero...that's what I really want to see ED sink their teeth into. That said I'll happily take the Hellcat with carrier ops and assets shown for now, I'm not going to complain about that. WRT to the Zeke I console myself with this simple fact...when it does come, it's going to be really, really nice! Looking good.