Bomber Crew Review (Thewal)
Quite fun, love the concept. You can get into a position where you don't have the money to upgrade a new bomber enough to survive a mission, at which point you're better off just restarting.
Some things I would've liked to know:
1) The blue box on the left side of the pilot's station makes it so you can't accidentally send the pilot on another task, very useful, always click it.
2) Fires can break out inside the bomber, not just on the engines. Make sure you have at least one fire extinguisher or you're dead. Also the pilot will leave their station if a fire is near. This is very bad.
3) You cannot glide. If you run out of fuel, you will crash and everyone will die (probably).
4) Some things the game tells you aren't necessarily true. The Disney bombs (USAAF DLC) can be dropped from mid-high altitude while climbing or descending, not just at high altitude flying level.
5) Cold damage is temporary, unless it takes a character to 0 health. So if you have a crew member with full health that has taken 50% cold damage, descending to a warmer altitude will automatically refill their health to full.
6) If you use a special ammo skill just before a gunner hits 0 ammo, they will keep firing until the skill times out. If you use the skill AFTER they hit 0, they will reload before continuing to fire. I haven't timed it, but I believe the skill timer is still ticking while the reload is happening.
7) Untagged fighters seem to know they're untagged, and will sit right under or behind you and tear your bomber apart. Your gunners will not fire on them.
8) Defeating Aces is largely luck. You do not know when they'll show up, nor when they will leave (probably a timed thing). Sometimes they feel invincible, sometimes they'll get defeated on their first approach.
Some things I would like to see improved/changed:
1 WITH A CAPITAL O) Your gunners will not fire on untagged fighters no matter what. A skill or an upgrade to let gunners tag or at least fire on fighters within a certain close radius would alleviate a lot of frustration.
2) When a fighter is in front of the bomber, they automatically pitch up or down with the bomber when you change your target altitude. This is BS and can be downright game-breaking in the USAAF DLC if you don't have a cheek turret.
3) Relatedly, in-air collisions should have consequences. When I emergency dive with a fighter below me, something should happen instead of just bonking them down a few times and both of us emerge unscathed.
4) Better flight controls for moving targets. Trying to come at a ship from directly infront/behind can be very difficult and take several passes. The pilot will track a little, but it's not enough most of the time. Having your engineer use Lean can help, but more control would be nice.