healer units for aircraft

[hoza]

In randowes admirable atomic e-file worldcampaign there are healer units for ground troops. I asked him for a healer unit for aircrafts and his answer was that only Luis might know if this possible!?

[LuisGuzman]

In randowes admirable atomic e-file worldcampaign there are healer units for ground troops. I asked him for a healer unit for aircrafts and his answer was that only Luis might know if this possible!?

Sorry for delay Hoza ...
Effectively there is no possible to configure healer units for aircrafts. The code related to air units is already way complicated due to all the options around them, like carriers, containers, air missions, etc. as to introduce new changes.

So unless I win the lottery and could spend much more time coding new options, that is not feasible in a short time.

[hoza]

In randowes admirable atomic e-file worldcampaign there are healer units for ground troops. I asked him for a healer unit for aircrafts and his answer was that only Luis might know if this possible!?

Sorry for delay Hoza ...
Effectively there is no possible to configure healer units for aircrafts. The code related to air units is already way complicated due to all the options around them, like carriers, containers, air missions, etc. as to introduce new changes.

So unless I win the lottery and could spend much more time coding new options, that is not feasible in a short time.

Thanks for the reply and good luck in El Gordo

[randowe]

I guess the best option would be to heal aircraft in the hangars of carriers or airfield units. I think this was suggested at JP's but i don't remember for sure. Would be great if this option would be implemented one day in the future. But of course real life is more important. I guess we all could need some luck in the lottery

[none]

Indeed, one would expect that (hard) airfields do have some repair facility, but you can't make it a hex feature, not only would it require a lot of work, but there are the carriers too, which are units. One size doesn't fit all.

The easier solution (IMHO!) would be to simply create something similar to the actual system where transports and fortifications have the option to repair ("heal") adjacent land/sea units: Just add a second option (second checkbox) allowing to repair air units, so people can create ground repair units and air repair units.
That way scenario creators can place a "repair facility" adjacent to any airport which would be supposed to be able to repair planes (be it a building or a mobile unit).

Remains the problem of airplane carriers, which are neither transports nor fortifications? Not really.
Think of it, where would a carrier far, far away from home get that infinite supply of spare parts from? Well, obviously from an optional supply ship! Which can be a transport... Just place it alongside your carrier, and all planes inside that carrier get repaired.

So, the solution would be to just add a second version/layer of "healing" to transports & fortifications, this time affecting air units.

That would solve all scenario issues (I can think of) like situations precluding repairing (no resources, supply route cut, etc.), and, most of all, it would avoid making damage to planes totally irrelevant (just leave them a turn on any airfield and they're good as new again).
The problem being that, unlike ground repair trucks (I am a big fan of) which are rare, always too far, or have just moved or whatever, planes will always eventually land on an airport/carrier, which will then always automatically repair them. We can't have that, because it means that unless a plane unit is totally destroyed, it will be fully operational again in a turn or two, no more fighting with severely weakened units because you've got no prestige to fix them anymore... We need to be able to limit air repairs, to keep the player on his toes.

[Parabellum]

I find the idea acceptable and capable of development. In a campaign, such a unit should definitely not be purchasable, but should be given to the player by the designer. This prevents an unwanted excessive use of the unit. Alternatively, it could be made available as an aux unit only in individual scenarios.
This development has no effect on the balance of old campaigns with e-files that are no longer maintained.
All others, current ones should consider the impact when managing prestige in case they have budgeted money for necessary repairs during a scenario, which is then no longer needed. Likewise, the strength of the AI-led opponent could be raised to keep the game further balanced.

[none]

such a unit should definitely not be purchasable, but should be given to the player by the designer.

That is already taken of by the way OG currently works: The scenario maker has to manually set the amount that unit heals in Open Suite, so such an unit can't possibly be bought in-game (much like supply units). Or rather, technically it can be bought, but without the scenario maker's magic it would be inert...

All others, current ones should consider the impact when managing prestige in case they have budgeted money for necessary repairs during a scenario

Of course. My SOP is to give rather little prestige (mostly just enough to keep your planes halfway operational through the scenario), and thus force the player to use the (supplied) repair units (usually 2, later more, depending on into how many independent task forces the player is supposed to divide his army during the scenario).
This adds strategic complexity, because you can't just repair any unit anywhere, it has to move to the nearest repair unit, which means you need to have those follow your front lines (and protect them!). And in cases where the player absolutely must repair a far-away, isolated unit, he still can spend some of his prestige to do it the old way. IMHO it's the best of both worlds.