There are apparently some complaints about the new system for 1.2.2-1.2.3.
In that, if I attacked with 6 fighters and 6 bombers, i had 1 of each die 100% chance. (1 fighter and 1 bomber dead, no other possibilities)
I think most people liked that, but they didn't like that if I attacked with 1 fighter and 1 bomber, you could have 2 die, because they are rolling for each TYPE of aircraft.
This is also bad for maps like NWO that have 4 different aircraft available to some of the sides.

The reason we made the switch was because the way from 1.1.00-1.2.1.0 was to have you choose your casualties / only least expensive died. This of course, was really really wrong. If i attacked with 6 fighters and 6 bombers, then 2 fighters would die. This is just plain wrong.

The super old old way, and the way some people would like to return to, is: randomly select casualties. So, for example, I attack with 6 fighters and 6 bombers, i could lose 2 fighters, OR lose 2 bombers, OR lose 1 fighter and 1 bomber. The computer would line all the planes up, then randomly choose X to die.


THE POSSIBLE NEW WAY FOR 1.2.4.0
If i attack with 6 fighters and 6 bombers, there should be no way in hell that 2 fighters die. This would support the 1.2.3 method, of rolling based on type of aircraft.
But, if I attack with 2 early fighters, 2 modern fighters, and 2 bombers, ONLY 1 should die, and there should be no way in hell that 3 aircraft (or zero) should die. This would support the old old method.
How to reconcile? The new way of course:
Remove any groups that can have a multiple of 6 in them. Of that group removed, 5 live and 1 dies. Now use the old old method, of randomly determining deaths based on the aircraft left.

For example, i attack with 6 fighters and 6 bombers. Remove 6 fighters, 5 live, 1 dies. Remove 6 bombers, 5 live, 1 dies. Result: 1 fighter and 1 bomber die. No other possibilities allowed for.

Example2: I attack with 5 fighters and 7 bombers. Remove 6 bombers, 5 live, 1 dies. Now line up the rest of the aircraft, 5 fighters and 1 bomber. Randomly choose a single casualty on the remaining aircraft. 5/6 chance you lose a fighter, 1/6 chance you lose a bomber. Result: 1 bomber dies for sure, plus you will lose 1 other aircraft. That other aircraft will either be a fighter (5/6 chance) or bomber (1/6 chance).

Example3: Playing NWO: I attack with 4 early fighters, 2 modern fighters, and 9 bombers. First, 6 bombers would be removed, 5 live, 1 dies. Now you have 4 early, 2 modern, and 3 bombers, left. Now you determine that because there are 9 total, that means 1 guaranteed hit, plus a 3/6 chance to get 1 more hit. After you determine the number of hits (1 or 2 in this case), you now randomly choose the aircraft to die. Lets say you roll a 3, that means there will be 2 hits. Now the engine randomly chooses 2 aircraft to die.
Result, 1 bomber dies for sure, plus you have 1 more death for sure, plus a 3/6 chance for a 3rd death. The second and third (if there is a third) deaths, will be randomly chosen from the remaining aircraft, after the 6 bombers are removed from the equation.
(you could potentially lose 2 early fighters, but this is solved with the system below in example 4).

Example 4: NWO: I attack with 11 Early fighters, 5 modern fighters, 11 bombers, and 5 lancasters. First, you remove 6 early fighters, 5 live, 1 dies, and remove 6 bombers, 5 live, 1 dies. Remaining: 5 of each type of aircraft, 20 total air. This means that you will have 3 more deaths, plus a 2/6 chance for an additional death. In total there will be either 5 or 6 deaths, depending on whether the AA hits at 2 or not.
If the AA hits at 2, then you have 4 more deaths. The remaining aircraft are lined up, and the computer randomly chooses 4 aircraft to die.
If the AA does not hit at 2, then you have 3 more deaths. The remaining aircraft are lined up, and the computer randomly chooses 3 aircraft to die.
This is where the model is not perfect, but is still much better than all the previous models. The reason is, that you could potentially lose 3 or 4 of a single aircraft type, from the remaining aircraft.
This could be corrected by removing types after each hit, but that could get confusing. If you removed types after each hit, then it would look like this: Pretend the AA missed, that means you have 3 more deaths to take. The computer lines up the 20 remaining aircraft. The computer randomly chooses the first death to be a modern fighter. You have 1 modern fighter die, and 4 live. Ok, so now remove the modern fighter group. You have only 15 aircraft left, the modern fighters have been removed. The computer now chooses the next death, it is a bomber. Remove the bomber group, take 1 as casualty, 4 live. Now you have 10 aircraft left, and only 1 more hit to determine. The computer lines up the remaining aircraft, selects 1 of them to die (then removes that group of that type of aircraft). Result: if you have less than 6 of an aircraft type, you never have any chance of losing more than 1 of it.


There you go... I hope that made sense.
What do you think?

Sounds like a great system. Thanks for the reply and I look forward to playing with the new aa guns. I'm happy you were able to work out a system that was better than my suggestion because my suggestion was not efficient in guaranteeing hits on groups of 6 plane types. Thanks again for the speedy response : )

Sounds great Veq, nice work. Thanks for bringing this up Aegis.

I think your proposal sounds fine. I also liked the way it worked in Revised, where a random selection of air units was made, but this is probably a tad more fair.

Right now the changes don't seem to be an improvement. It might be due to bugs, but I've seen 3 instances where 6 or more planes got away without a single hit, with 2 or more dice being rolled (representing fighters and bombers, or fighters and bomber from different locations).

The overriding principle should be the 1/6, then roll for the remainder.

Edit: 30 mins after I write this, 5 figs (from 2 locations) attacked one spot and 2 were shot down.