Aircraft Variants Modified
This mod focuses on creating variants for aircraft.
Added are the new categories of Airframe, Armor, and Defense. Missing is the category of Reliability. The design philosophy assumes prototype aircraft are necessarily unreliable and unrefined. Therefore, reliability for a new model starts at 65% instead of 80%. Instead of possessing the ability to artificially increase the reliability of aircraft as a separate category, you must now refine each model through upgrades in Engine and Airframe. Doing so not only increases the planes performance but also increases its reliability.
Engine upgrades have been separated between fighters and bombers since engine enhancements affect fighter performance much greater than do bomber engines for bombers. Single-seat fighter range now represents drop tanks and is limited to only 3 upgrades. Range enhancements on other aircraft types remain the same.
Aircraft stats between model year eras has been modified a bit, including slight increases to fighter defense. With the new categories, new stats, and changes in reliability, previous era models that have been upgraded have superior performance to the prototype model of the next generation. This means nations can continue to field the previous generation of aircraft and expect reasonable performance in the field. For instance, Germany can field an ME-109K type that can easily match or exceed the performance of a P-51A or B variant and may be able to stand toe-to-toe with the P-51D. This makes for some interesting manufacturing choices.
Also added is a final era of piston engine fighters. These represent the zenith of piston engine performance while adding some fun historical interest to the game. Since these new fighters have a start year of 1945, the previous generation of fighters now have a start year of 1943 (not explicitly shown on the tech tree, but you will notice the cost difference). This puts more separation between the last two eras and better represents when nations begin pursuing that generation of aircraft (e.g. P-51, Ta-152, etc.).
Added also are pics for jet era aircraft. These are borrowed from Lamp’s Equipment Icons. Most of the new generation of fighters are my own artwork, but I also borrowed Icons for Planes.
Localization is only in English.
Let me know what you think and if you spot any errors.
