Patrol Planes, some questions

[rogerbacon]

Does the number of planes ina patrol plane group affect their spotting? I notice the spotting ranges for these planes is like 7 km which seems to make them pretty worthless for covering a large patch of ocean. In most WW2 games a group of planes assigned to search would each take an arc and fly their own search. In SR it seems the whole group is flying in formation together along a single arc. Are search planes worthless?

[way2co0l]

I wouldn't say they're worthless. Low end aircraft with low spotting ratings won't be able to see much during their patrols, but later designs have much higher spotting ranges and thus become much more effective. Keep in mind the relatively low tech at the time. Reconnaissance was nearly entirely visual and visual range covering a hex worth of land by a single squadron isn't all that bad. If you want consistent coverage over certain patches of ocean then you'll likely need to build more planes, at least until the tech advances to the point that patrol aircraft spotting ranges becomes higher.

Patrolling ocean hexes is only really important though when your opponents navies pose a threat and with the team working to improve that aspect of the game, patrol craft are likely to become much more important.