Manually tagging TB´s with AA spread their aim

[Vincinzerei]

So there are currently a Bunch of Topics about Carrier and Folks who have Problems with them (Mainly Avoiding TB´s)
Its mostly a Problem at lower Tiers (3-5) because at Tier 6 (even some on Tier 5) Ships STart to have a fair Amount of AA Guns on theyr Side.

from the CAT i already got the Knowledge

Cruiser AA Ability make the Incoming Aircrafts go Panic and they have a Huge spread even when on manual Torping.. most CV´s Players than either go for another Target or Wait for the Ability to go into Cooldown.
Since CBT and now OBT i also recogniced if a Ship has a Scout in the Area or the Fighter Scout, and he is Next to the Air Units.. they also get into Panic Mode and the Spread is Huge (made some Tests with a Langley by myself.. man i just plain suck as a CV Player..)

But whats new to me is this:

In the Linked thread Ectar sayed:

If you have plans coming at you from port and starboard, you should have been turning to face one of those squadrons already and manually tagging one with your AA to spread their aim.

 

So, if i really understand this well, you just have to Concentrate your AA on a incomming Airunit and that one goes panic and spread theyr attack?
So.. basicly its a tuned down Version of the Cruiser Ablity who works on "all" airunits.. and this one just on the selected one? Since you only can select 1 Air Unit at a time.. this works "mostly" for one incoming and not for 2-3 TB´s

Correct or not?

 

[Aerroon]

No, if you click on the air unit you will deal 1.5x the dps of your anti air and you will focus that squadron down.

 

The only things that will panic a squadron are cruiser ability and attack by a plane (fighter, but scouts can do it too).

[Kirasa]

So there are currently a Bunch of Topics about Carrier and Folks who have Problems with them (Mainly Avoiding TB´s)

Its mostly a Problem at lower Tiers (3-5) because at Tier 6 (even some on Tier 5) Ships STart to have a fair Amount of AA Guns on theyr Side.

from the CAT i already got the Knowledge

 

Cruiser AA Ability make the Incoming Aircrafts go Panic and they have a Huge spread even when on manual Torping.. most CV´s Players than either go for another Target or Wait for the Ability to go into Cooldown.

Since CBT and now OBT i also recogniced if a Ship has a Scout in the Area or the Fighter Scout, and he is Next to the Air Units.. they also get into Panic Mode and the Spread is Huge (made some Tests with a Langley by myself.. man i just plain suck as a CV Player..)

But whats new to me is this:

In the Linked thread Ectar sayed:

 

So, if i really understand this well, you just have to Concentrate your AA on a incomming Airunit and that one goes panic and spread theyr attack?

So.. basicly its a tuned down Version of the Cruiser Ablity who works on "all" airunits.. and this one just on the selected one? Since you only can select 1 Air Unit at a time.. this works "mostly" for one incoming and not for 2-3 TB´s

Correct or not?

 

 

No. What he meant is face one TB squad so that they either have to reposition, which means they're longer under AA fire, or drop the torps from forward you, which means you can just pass between them.

Also, focusing the AA on a squad gives a 50% damage buff vs that squad on top of all your AA shooting at those planes and not spreading your dps on all attacking squads.

[Vincinzerei]

sure.. but if its this was he meant.. why did he wrote another?
its one thing to say 

"you will deal 1.5x the dps of your anti air and you will focus that squadron down"

and complete another to say

"manually tagging one with your AA to spread their aim."

 

see.. so basicly its either some mistake on his side.. or something we wasn´t aware off..

 

[Unintentional_submarine]

No, Ectar made an assumption that a cruiser would have it's fighter scout up. That little plane can panic one squadron of torpedo bombers at a time. So in a twosided attack, panic one and turn into the other.

[Vincinzerei]

Pardon me.. if i ask.. but how did you read this out of this Text?

Is there a way to tell your Fighter Aircraft to prioritize an incomming Squadron by tagging it?

 

If only via Fighter Aircraft: Surely there is no Way to use this tipp for a Destroyer. Or Some cruiser/BB without Fighter.. 

 

[Sharana]

No, if you click on the air unit you will deal 1.5x the dps of your anti air and you will focus that squadron down.

The only things that will panic a squadron are cruiser ability and attack by a plane (fighter, but scouts can do it too).

The scouts are bug atm, as only few of them can (they were fighters during the first PT).

 

see.. so basicly its either some mistake on his side.. or something we wasn´t aware off..

As he doesn't play CVs at all (CBT pre wipe) it's mistake on his, he probably wanted to say that you give them bad attack angle and they will reposotion (longer under AA, shooting them down).

 

Fighters pick their target alone, but they are really smart, so don't worry there.

[Unintentional_submarine]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. But if you tag an incoming squadron/plane and it is within range, the scout fighter will fly towards it and engage it. I'm not sure about it's automatic function, so I will not say anything about that. But since this is the only way to panic planes without using the Defensive Fire ability, it is the only logical conclusion. Later on battleships also gain access to scout fighters, but that is quite far off for me personally.

[Unintentional_submarine]

The scouts are bug atm, as only few of them can (they were fighters during the first PT).

 

 

Wait what?

So the scout fighters aren't supposed to panic or what? Can you explain this a bit? What is the bug? I have to admit that I have run into what looked like a spotter plane, but turned out to be a scout fighter (had the spotter icon rather than the scout fighter icon).

[Vincinzerei]

As much as i know, spotting Planes "should" not cause panic.. because they just spotters, not even carry weapons.
Only the Fighter should cause panic.. currently also the spotters do cause panic. Tested this by myself in some PVE matches..

What i wasn´t able to test was the above said " tagging one with your AA to spread their aim." because the enemy CV´s didnt answer this, or was to busy try to sink me.. (was in my omaha..) 

 

[Sharana]

Wait what?

So the scout fighters aren't supposed to panic or what? Can you explain this a bit? What is the bug? I have to admit that I have run into what looked like a spotter plane, but turned out to be a scout fighter (had the spotter icon rather than the scout fighter icon).

There are no "scout fighters". There are:

- fighters

- spotters which job is to increased the max firing distance and change the camera, not attack planes. Some of them do and that's bug.

 

Also you probably focus the most dangerous for you target and that's why it's attackg it, but you can't control the fighter. Even if you focus on enemy fighters your float fighter will go after only the most dangerous bombers and swtich targets, so you can't fool it (too smart as I said, I can fool him only in 1/10 attempts).

 

Also I'm focused probably every game and do that always in other ships. of course it doesn't increase the spread, otherwise there would be no need of cruisers AA fire and BBs would feel protected.

[Vincinzerei]

i wrote the question also into the "ask the developer board"  just want to go sure until we have a Training Room. Thanx for the answers so far

 

[Unintentional_submarine]

There are no "scout fighters". There are:

- fighters

- spotters which job is to increased the max firing distance and change the camera, not attack planes. Some of them do and that's bug.

 

Also you probably focus the most dangerous for you target and that's why it's attackg it, but you can't control the fighter. Even if you focus on enemy fighters your float fighter will go after only the most dangerous bombers and swtich targets, so you can't fool it (too smart as I said, I can fool him only in 1/10 attempts).

 

Also I'm focused probably every game and do that always in other ships. of course it doesn't increase the spread, otherwise there would be no need of cruisers AA fire and BBs would feel protected.

 

Well, obviously there are fighters and spotters, but scout fighters is making the distinction between fighter squadrons and cruiser/BB fighters easier and faster.

I think I have run into a spotter attacking my TBs. That was a pretty rude shock (since I had fighters nearby that could have killed it), and naturally the result was a pretty ugly miss. I just assumed it was a fighter with the wrong icon.

 

So they are not intended to cause panic... hmm that's interesting. In that case I might have to revise my plan of dropping the spotters. And it isn't controllable you say? Even more interesting... Seems things are a lot less clear.

But I wouldn't say the panic makes Defensive Fire useless, they can only target one squadron at a time, and for all attackers to be panicked you would need several ships that all have different squadrons as the most important target (or else they would just converge on one squadron).

[Sharana]

Spotters are not supposed to attack bombers yeas and it's rare, I was pretty shoked too. Also they don't make the Defensive Fire useless, if focusing the AA caused panic for all ship types it would be useless.

When there is group of ships the fighters attack different squadrons, so there is 1 fighter in range for each bomber, so I end up with all TBs panicked if I attack group of ships close to each other (overlaping figher ranges) and that's why I said they are way too smart, dropping target after they release the payload or abort the attack and switch to the next going to bomb the ship right away

[Unintentional_submarine]

Ahhh... that's pretty silly honestly. Should just be they attacked what is nearest, or based on regular AA priority, or what we focus. Easy to understand, and easy to figure out, and not OP in the slightest (but annoying like hell, and if you attack a higher tier ship those planes can kill like mad).

 

So they are after all intended to panic. Got it. And of course I agree that if focusing was enough to cause panic it would be a massive pain to even try to hit an evading ship, and it would make Defensive Fire worthless.

[Sharana]

So they are after all intended to panic. Got it. 

Sorry if it was unclear. Spotters (that increase the max firing range) are not supposed to attack planes and cause panic while float fighters are supposed to do exactly that. They also slow the planes down by 25% just like regular fighters, so the AA get more time to shoot + you need a bit longer lead with manual drop as the bombers fly 25% slower and you have to account that.

[Ectar_]

I am mistaken. Manually tagging a squadron just does increased damage.  the "scatter"/widespread comes from the Cruiser ability or the fighter option instead of a spotter plane for Battleships

[Crooq_Lionfang]

Well, you are reaching a similar effect by thinning out a squadron. Spreads are easier to evade if they have one or two torps less in them with the same width ;)

[Vincinzerei]

Thanx a Lot. Confusen done.. Question answered.. can be archived than ;)

[bathoz]

I was under the impression that (excluding fighter float-planes and the high alert AA ability) that damage is was 'panicked' squadrons – and that it wasn't binary. So, with the above two, the bomber squad is either panicked or not. But with damage their spread gradually increases. So focusing on one squadron means that gradual increase is faster (or, at least, one hopes, noticeable.) Though, of course, I bow to Sharana's knowledge – he'll know more about carrier planes than anyone who didn't specifically code it in the game.

 

The interesting piece of advice I got the other day was not to focus on a specific squadron if you've fired the cruiser AA ability, as if you just focus on one, only one is getting the panic effect. You want to spread that out.

[Sharana]

The interesting piece of advice I got the other day was not to focus on a specific squadron if you've fired the cruiser AA ability, as if you just focus on one, only one is getting the panic effect. You want to spread that out.

I wrote in the AA guide that all squadrons in range will get panicked, it doesn't matter if they are attacked or not. Not focusing them will deal 6x damage of the DP guns instead of 9x with focus (+ the other guns too x1.5).

[Schneewolf]

so idealy 3 squads attack  u focus 1 sec on 1 then next etc ... and they all still panick  how long ? does raise some questions