Damage Control

[stww2]

I've noticed that on many missions, after being attacked by fighters or flak, some of the fuel tanks will have less fuel in them than the others. I presume this is the result of fuel leaks. What is the best way to handle these types of situations?

[Highstriker]

I'd think in real life, you'd transfer as much as you could to the unpunctured tanks. If it's not all, just let it waste. Pump in more if it lasts long enough. Maybe stay at optimal cruising altitude for best fuel efficiency.

If they are all leaking just at different rates, I'd do what I described and pray.

[ikrananka]

Damage to fuel tanks from fighters and/or flak is indeed modelled in the game. As such it is necessary to monitor your fuel levels and is best done after you've past your bombing targets and are on the return leg of the journey. Once you are finally out of any fighter/flak zones check your fuel levels again and at regular intervals. Doing this at regular intervals will allow you to gauge how fast the leak is. The game does seem to model the fact that the more damage there is to a tank the faster fuel loss will be. It is then down to your judgement as how best to proceed and will depend on the condition of the engines and the distance to home. For instance, if you have already lost an engine and that engines tank is also leaking it's an easy call to transfer all of the remaining fuel into the other tanks. However, if you lost an engine and a different fuel tank is leaking then you are at risk of losing a second engine due to fuel loss. In that case you may decide that you must keep all three engines running and in that case you need to keep tranferring fuel from the undamaged tanks to the damaged one just to keep that engine running. But all the while you need to ensure that you still have enough fuel in the tanks you're draining to get you home. It clearly a balancing game and one that adds a really nice challenge and additional level of realism to the game.

If you're unsure of how to transfer fuel then check out my getting started video #3 "Basic Controls" starting at around 1:19:45.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV6qAKzfD-icnl7cMeIR_ldvH6twjQdtI

[Highstriker]

Hey ikrananka, is left side and right side tanks linked only to those side engines? L tank = L engines only? I haven't played a B-17 style game in forever, and often assumed that all the engines draw from any tank.

[ikrananka]

In the game, each tank is dedicated to one engine. So, Engine 1 is fed only by Tank 1, etc.

[stww2]

Thanks for the replies! That mostly reflects what I have noticed thus far in the game. I do have one other question about fuel consumption in this game: Will more fuel be consumed at lower altitudes and less fuel at higher altitudes, or does it remain constant?

[Highstriker]

You want to -stay- at a higher altitude, and I emphasize stay because you'll have to math it out whether you have the fuel to climb to an appropriate height or not. Climbing in the most efficient manner (and even more so in less efficient manner) can really drain your fuel resources.

I believe because of the lower air density, less fuel is needed to create the right fuel to air ratio for combustion. Essentially, you'd be wasting fuel/damaging the engine if you don't set the fuel mixture to lean. Plus the lower air density reduces drag.

So this is part of the fun, is being the captain and deciding if you are high enough, if you can risk a climb, or do a hail mary for home. Remember, the window for efficient climbs is really narrow, even thinking "Hey I'll just do a gentle 4,000 ft climb over 6 miles." It's reducing all the other efficiency aspects in kind. So it's more often better just to stay put.

This game goes -deep- on it's simulated aspects, so things like temperature, weather can probably play a part too. Just remember a rule of thumb is fuel mixture is in relation to how much air is available.

I don't know how this can relate to the B-17's superchargers, if you can overpower the engines sometimes, I do seem to remember in a training video on youtube, you do something like that for takeoff. But anyways, look that up, it's a black and white take off training video for the B17, it's really informative and seems to relate to this game exactly.

[ikrananka]

Couldnt agree more with High Striker Angelus that the original black and white B-17 training videos on YouTube are well worth the watch. That said, I'm not convinced that the depth of fuel consumption simulation in the game is actually as great as may be thought.

There's a good post here, https://www.gog.com/forum/b_17_flying_fortress_the_mighty_8th/fuel_consumption_versus_cruising_altitude, where Masterius2017 completed tests to try and gauge the optimal altitude in the game to minimise fuel consumption. He concluded that around 25,000 feet seemed to be the best under his test conditions. Trying for further optimisation by varying propeller pitch and manifold pressure had nwgligible effect. Great stuff.